In a Mac mini with M4, you can replace the SSD yourself, but not with any

The new Mac mini with the M4 chip has a regular SSD that you can replace yourself.

In many other Macs, including past Mac minis, the drive is soldered onto the board, making it physically impossible to remove.

The bad news is that the SSD in a Mac mini with M4 cannot be easily replaced. Firstly, Apple uses its own connector, not the common M2.

The second reason is more serious: SSDs do not have their own controller, it is built into the processor. This means that even if you find an SSD with the same connector and install it instead of the standard one, it will not work.

A similar system is used in Mac Studio, and has already there are third party SSDswhich can bypass Apple’s built-in protection. True, there are very few of them, and the first deliveries of third-party SSDs are expected only in December 2024.

So it will be some time before enthusiasts can bypass the M4’s security and integrate an SSD into the new Mac mini.

But even if you don’t take into account the possibility of upgrading an SSD, this is still good news, because a removable hard drive makes computer repair easier.(Reddit)