The Mac mini now boasts an extremely quick M2 or M2 Professional processor, and rivals even Apple’s most professional computer systems regardless of costing considerably much less. Nevertheless, as nice as it’s, there’s a downside with the Mac mini—the upgrades are dear and after you purchase one, it’s inconceivable to improve its inside parts. Nevertheless, we’re right here to assist.
Most of the following tips work with the Apple Studio, too.
Apple doesn’t allow you to improve the Mac mini with cheap third-party parts comparable to RAM or inside storage, and it costs its custom-build choices on the very excessive finish of affordability. Like the remainder of the Apple silicon Macs, the Mac mini, Apple has fastened the RAM to the processor and the SSDs to the logic board, to allow them to’t be swapped out after you purchase one.
Right here we take a look at your greatest M1, M2 and M2 Professional Mac mini improve choices, including: storage, reminiscence, display, audio system and microphone.
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Upgrading the M2 Mac mini: Including reminiscence
Apple built-in the RAM proper into the M2 chip package deal within the Mac mini (2023) and Mac mini (M1, 2020) and so it will possibly’t be upgraded. You will need to as an alternative configure the quantity of reminiscence you need in your Mac mini if you buy it. Sadly, there’s merely no approach of including extra RAM to the Mac mini after you purchase it. Relying on the mannequin you purchase, there are three choices: 16GB, 24GB, and 32G, which value as much as $400. When you want greater than 8GB of normal reminiscence, you’ll must pay for it on the time of buy.
Upgrading the M2 Mac mini: Including storage
Just like the RAM, Apple has soldered the SSD (stable state drive) storage onto the Mac mini’s logic board, that means that you may’t take away it and plug in a brand new one. As with the RAM, it’s essential to as an alternative configure the quantity of flash storage you need in your Mac mini if you buy it. Nevertheless, there are a number of methods that you may improve your Mac mini with additional storage—at a fraction of the price you’d must pay Apple at construct time.
SSD or HDD?
Stable-state drives don’t have any shifting components. Knowledge is saved on interconnected flash reminiscence microchips, which permits for knowledge to be pulled from many alternative locations without delay and considerably will increase reminiscence learn speeds. Arduous disk drives (HDD) depend on spinning metallic disks to learn and write knowledge.
SSDs pace up boot occasions, enhance the responsiveness of your applications, and usually make your pc really feel sooner. Nevertheless, you’ll pay extra money for a similar storage capability on SSDs as HDDs. SSDs value extra per gigabyte than mechanical HDDs and aren’t typically accessible in ultra-high capacities. At the same time as costs of SSDs proceed to drop, HDDs will at all times be cheaper.
A superb technique is to make use of an HDD for backup, secondary storage or archiving, and an SSD for the information you’re employed on each day. We suggest a backup drive a minimum of twice as giant as the entire capability of your Mac—for instance, in case you have 1TB of storage in your Mac, a 2TB backup drive will mean you can make a full backup whereas retaining different information or archived backups on the identical drive.
For each HDD and SSD, there are numerous trusted storage manufacturers, together with Samsung, Seagate, Essential, and Kingston.
Including exterior storage
The only approach so as to add storage to a Mac mini is similar as every other Mac: Join an exterior arduous drive or SSD utilizing one of many Thunderbolt ports on the again of the pc. Even the slowest SSDs are sooner than mechanical arduous disk drives (HDD), however look out for pace variations—entry-level SSDs present speeds of round 500MB/s, whereas extra superior fashions can step as much as 1,000MB/s and even 2,000MB/s.
Exterior HDDs are a fantastic answer for backups and archives as pace is much less of a difficulty, and the costs are less expensive than SSDs. No HDD, until mixed in RAID with others, can outstrip the 5Gbps (roughly 500MBps real-world after overhead) throughput of USB-C. The place Thunderbolt positively helps is with RAID arduous drive setups, or extra probably an exterior SSD.
One other approach so as to add cheap moveable storage is through an SD or microSD card—as soon as the go-to storage format for digital camera customers but in addition a fantastic format for reasonable and moveable backup and archive storage. Sadly, the Mac mini doesn’t have a card reader slot, so that you’ll want so as to add one, comparable to this UGreen USB-C SD Card Reader for $13.
However there are admittedly ugly strategies. You’ll have wires hanging out of the again of your Mac mini and a desk cluttered with drives.
Including Inside storage
The best choice is to get extra inside storage in your Mac mini, however Apple’s custom-built pricing means upgrading a 512GB mannequin to 1TB will value you an additional $200, and 2TB will value $600, whereas M2 Professional choices value much more: 4TB is $1,200 and 8TB will set you again a whopping $2,400. Moreover, having the storage soldered to the logic board makes it sooner, so in case you can afford it, it’s one of the simplest ways to go.
Nevertheless, in case you can’t swing the costs for extra storage or simply determine later that you just want extra, there are {hardware} options that connect with the mini with out messing up the footprint of the small pc. Two of our favorites are the Satechi Stand & Hub for Mac mini with SSD Enclosure ($100) and the OWC ministack STX ($280), which characteristic bays for each an SSD drive and a 2.5- or 3.5-inch SATA arduous drive.
We’ve written extra on these Mac mini storage equipment later on this characteristic.
Both of those Mac mini hub options upgradeable and cheap inside storage plus a spread of additional ports. They each assist the slim M.2 SSD and NVMe kind elements that resemble a stick of chewing gum. On the time of writing, we may discover SSD drives from revered manufacturers for $50/£50 (1TB) and $150/£120 (2TB). 4TB could be discovered for between $250 and $500—round a 3rd of what you’d pay Apple to spice up the inner Mac mini storage.
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You may add inside storage as much as the utmost appropriate SSD you’ll find contained in the Satechi Stand & Hub for Mac mini with SSD Enclosure and OWC ministack STX. Set up is easy, with the whole lot bar the SSD board itself included (screwdriver and screws). It’s a bit fiddly however nothing to be nervous about—if you need to use a screwdriver, you may set up the SSD board your self.
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Notice that the unique model of the Satechi Stand & Hub’s enclosure didn’t assist NVMe (Non-Risky Reminiscence Categorical) SSDs, whereas the OWC ministack does. Satechi has now up to date the stand/hub to assist NVMe in addition to M.2 SSD.
NVMe M.2 SSDs are designed to be sooner by utilizing a extra direct path to a pc’s processor over PCIe.5. That stated, the NVMe slot on the OWC has just one lane of PCIe allotted to it, so the efficiency is proscribed to 770MB/s in real-world use.
Whereas the Satechi stand/hub has caught up with the OWC by supporting NVMe, one remaining benefit of the OWC miniStack STX is the second drive bay, which helps a 2.5- or 3.5-inch mechanical arduous disk drive (HDD). These old-school arduous drives supply far-greater storage capacities at a a lot decrease value than SSDs. 2TB HDDs can value round $50. A 12TB HDD may cost a little below $200.
Foundry
Foundry
Upgrading the M2 Mac mini: Including front-facing ports and additional growth
Whereas the Mac mini has loads of ports across the again, Apple didn’t bless the Mac mini with any ports on the entrance just like the Mac Studio. Which means you’ll want to achieve over to attach a peripheral machine—which might be tough in case you’ve slipped the very hideable pc out of sight.
However there are alternatives for including them. For instance, the Satechi Stand & Hub provides a number of front-facing ports. At 10Gbps, they aren’t as quick because the mini’s back-racked 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 ports, however they’re useful for micro thumb drives that you just would possibly wish to plug in. You additionally get SD and microSD card readers, that are tremendous helpful for including cheap moveable storage. You should purchase a Samsung reminiscence card with 256GB of storage for below $30/£30 and half a terabyte for round $50.
The OWC ministack STX, however, mimics the Mac mini with no ports on its entrance. However its again has extra highly effective connectors than the Satechi hub. It boasts 4 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 ports (one upstream to the pc) and three 5Gbps USB-A ports, however lacks card reader slots.
One other port-adding choice is to purchase your self a Thunderbolt 4 hub. Our favourite is the Caldigit Thunderbolt 4 Ingredient Hub, which options 4 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 ports (together with one side-mounted upstream to the pc), 4 10Gbps USB-A ports, and an influence provide. We’ve examined the greatest Thunderbolt hubs and docks in order for you much more ports than that. Granted, they received’t be as neat because the Satechi Stand or OWC ministack, however there are tons of choices on the market.
Upgrading the M2 Mac mini: Including sooner ethernet
One of many build-to-order choices provided by Apple is to improve the Mac mini’s ethernet from Gigabit to 10 Gigabit. As with the RAM and storage, when you’ve picked your Ethernet pace, there’s no strategy to improve the inner connector later. However you should buy adapters fairly cheaply. TrendNet has a 5Gb Ethernet adapter that connects to one of many mini’s Thunderbolt ports. OWC sells a 10G Ethernet Adapter, though it’s really dearer than the Apple built-in choice.
Notice although that simply having a 10GB Ethernet port in your Mac doesn’t routinely 10x all of your networking. There are few 10Gb routers accessible, and even fewer that don’t resemble a rack mount unit from an information heart. They usually aren’t low-cost both. In case your ISP is providing 2.5Gbps, 5Gbps or 10Gbps, be ready to exchange your current community gear to really use the upper speeds.
Upgrading the M2 Mac mini: Including higher audio system
The Mac mini does have a built-in speaker, however it’s actually adequate just for system bings and bongs—even Zoom calls sound tinny, and music sounds such as you’re listening to the most affordable moveable radio.
Apple would like you get out your bank card for certainly one of its HomePod audio system through AirPlay, however there are cheaper desktop audio system accessible that join through USB or Bluetooth.
We’re followers of the Artistic Pebble V3, which may join utilizing both USB-A or USB-C or Bluetooth.
Upgrading the M2 Mac mini: Including a webcam
It’s probably that you just’ll be wanting a webcam for video calls, both perched on high of your display or angled in your desk. There are a selection of really helpful webcams accessible for Mac. We now have rounded up the greatest Mac webcams for you.
Upgrading the M2 Mac mini: Including a microphone
The Mac mini doesn’t have its personal mic as Apple presumes that you just’ll most probably wish to use the one on the third-party webcam you employ.
If you need a devoted microphone, you may connect utilizing USB or through an audio interface for one of the best audio high quality. Take a look at our roundup of the greatest microphones for Mac.
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Upgrading the M2 Mac mini: The final word Mac mini setup
It might be excessive for a lot of, however my eventual Mac mini improve answer incorporates each the Satechi and OWC hubs. On the backside sits the OWC miniStack STX, with a 3.5-inch 4TB HDD and 1TB NVMe M.2 SSD, plus its 4 quick Thunderbolt 4 ports (one used to hook up with the Mac mini). Above that, and with its useful vary of front-facing ports, is the Satechi Stand & Hub for Mac mini with SSD Enclosure. Inside that, I’ve a 2TB M.2 SATA SSD—my setup began with the non-NVMe Satechi hub however I’ll improve to the NVMe model.
And sitting on high is my M2 Professional (12‑core CPU & 19-core GPU) with 32GB of RAM and an inside 1TB Apple SSD. Because the Mac mini ships with out a keyboard or mouse, I caught with Apple’s trusty Magic Keyboard and Magic Mouse.
The identical Mac mini with 8TB of storage would value $4,399 (£4,499 within the UK) to construct at Apple, however value me below $3,000 (£2,850), and I get an additional 9 usable ports—an additional TB4 port, as two on the Mac mini are used to attach the 2 hubs, and three USB-A, one USB-C, an audio port and SD and microSD card readers on the entrance.
As I used to be changing my trusty outdated 27-inch iMac (classic 2015 and beginning to present its age) I wanted a decent-sized monitor for my new Mac mini. I selected the 27-inch Alogic Readability show, which is 4K fairly than a 5K Retina however encompasses a terrific adjustable stand that makes the outdated iMac look positively static.
1. OWC miniStack STX
Execs
- NVMe M.2 SSD bay
- 3.5-inch HDD bay
- 4x Thunderbolt 4 ports
Cons
- No entrance ports
- No card reader
- Black solely coloration selection
Value When Reviewed:
From $279.99
Suitable with: Mac Mini M2 & M2 Professional 2023; M1 2020; Mac mini 2018; Mac Studio 2022
Measurement: 7.8 x 7.8 x 1.5 inches
Ports:
- 4x Thunderbolt 4 ports (40Gbps, 15W)
- Inside SSD enclosure
- Inside HDD bay
This double drive bay Mac mini accent is an honest Thunderbolt 4 hub in its personal proper—therefore its increased price ticket in comparison with the USB-C Satechi hub.
Its 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports mean you can create three unbiased daisy chains with as much as 5 whole Thunderbolt gadgets with a USB machine on the top of every chain (eight gadgets whole).
However the actual advantage of the miniStack STX is its bays that may be pre-configured or self-installed with one 2.5-inch or 3.5-inch arduous disk drive and one speedy NVMe SSD.
Purchase a cheap (however reliable HHD for a Time Machine backup or secondary storage, and a sooner SSD for operational file storage. The miniStack STX affords one of the best of each worlds by way of storage flexibility.
2. Satechi Stand Hub for Mac mini with SSD Enclosure
Execs
- SSD bay
- Entrance-facing ports
- Helps SATA SSD and sooner NVMe
- Card readers
- Silver coloration matches mini
Value When Reviewed:
$99.99
Suitable with: Mac Mini M2 & M2 Professional 2023; Mac mini M1 2020; Mac Studio 2022
Measurement: 7.8 x 7.8 x 0.9 inches
Ports:
- 1x USB-C (10Gbps)
- 3x USB-A (10Gbps)
- SD card reader (UHS-I, 104MBps)
- microSD card reader (UHS-I, 104MBps)
- 3.5mm audio jack
- Inside SSD enclosure
This cheap USB-C hub provides much-needed ports to the entrance of your Mac mini setup. These ports embrace SD and microSD card readers, that are missing from the mini itself.
You should purchase a barely cheaper model with out the SSD enclosure however we advise spending the additional $20 even when, proper now, you don’t assume you want any additional storage. In case your Mac mini has a 512GB inside SSD, then a 1TB or higher SSD inside the hub affords glorious and speedy Time Machine backup or simply additional area to your information. Bear in mind you may’t return and enhance the capability of the Mac mini’s built-in SSD.
The newest model allows you to select between an SATA SSD or extra trendy NVMe SSD. Both approach, it’s a lot sooner than a mechanical arduous disk drive.
The shortage of Thunderbolt isn’t an issue if the 2 (M2) or 4 (M2 Professional) Thunderbolt 4 ports on the again of the mini are all you require. Notice that one of many mini’s Thunderbolt ports will likely be used to attach the hub.
3. Caldigit Thunderbolt 4 Ingredient Hub
Execs
- 4 Thunderbolt 4 / USB4 ports
- 4 10Gbps USB-A ports
- 150W whole energy
- Compact
Cons
- Sits away from Mac mini
- No additional storage capability
Value When Reviewed:
$199.95
Suitable with: Any USB-C/Thunderbolt pc
Measurement: 4.5 x 2.8 x 0.7 inches
Ports:
- 4x Thunderbolt 4 ports (40Gbps, 15W)
- 4x USB-A (10Gbps, 7.5W)
This super-compact Thunderbolt 4 hub differs from the OWC and Satechi hubs by being a unique dimension and kind to the Mac mini, and so it’ll sit exterior of its footprint in your desk
It affords you seven quick ports—plus the upstream Thunderbolt 4 port that connects to your Mac mini—that will even ably cost related gadgets.
In case your Mac mini or Mac Studio has sufficient storage to your wants however not sufficient ports (step ahead the extra restricted non-Professional M2 Mac mini), this glorious hub blesses you with a number of top-rated ports.
Learn the complete Caldigit Thunderbolt 4 Ingredient Hub assessment
4. Alogic Readability 27in UHD 4K Monitor
Execs
- 27-inch 4K 60Hz display
- Glorious adjustable stand
- Further ports
Cons
- Not 5K just like the outdated 27-inch iMac’s display
Value When Reviewed:
$799.99
Ports:
- 1x USB-C (upstream)
- 1x USB-B (upstream)
- 2x USB-A ports (5Gbps)
- DisplayPort 1.4
- 2x HDMI 2.0
- 3.5mm audio jack
If you need your Mac mini to duplicate the display glory of the discontinued 27-inch iMac, this same-sized exterior show is a superb choice. With its excellent adjustable stand, it’s extra versatile than the outdated static iMac display.
It even has its personal built-in hub providing a spread of ports to enrich the Mac mini’s personal.
The Readability’s two USB-A ports can be utilized to connect peripherals comparable to a keyboard, mouse or webcam to the pc. For the pc to see any connected gadgets, it should be related to the pc by both the USB-C or USB-B upstream port.
There at the moment are extra superior variations of the Readability, with a Readability Professional that provides a retractable webcam and a touchscreen model—each. accessible in both 27- or widescreen 32-inch sizes.
Learn our full
Alogic Readability 27in UHD 4K Monitor assessment
5. Kensington W1050 webcam
Execs
- Reasonably priced
- 1080p decision
- Good Mac app
Value When Reviewed:
$49.99
Kensington’s W1050 is among the most inexpensive 1080p (1920-x-1080) webcams we’ve seen to date. It offers a shiny sharp picture that’s clear, and offers a 95-degree viewing angle, with fixed-focus to make sure that the complete picture stays in focus always.
The adjustable stand can relaxation in your desk or connect to your pc display, and permits you to tilt and rotate the digital camera to get the precise viewing angle. Twin microphones characteristic noise-cancelling to scale back background noise, and there’s a privateness shutter on the entrance of the digital camera too.
The W1050 makes use of a USB-A interface, which possibly isn’t a foul factor because it doesn’t burn up one of many Mac mini’s valuable Thunderbolt ports.
Kensington’s Konnect app offers extra controls for adjusting brightness, distinction and different settings, however its most helpful characteristic is the power to create and save profiles with settings which can be appropriate for various places or lighting circumstances.
6. Artistic Pebble V3 audio system
Execs
- A lot-improved audio on Mini’s speaker
- Compact
- Bluetooth, USB-A or USB-C
Cons
- Deep bass lovers could be upset
Value When Reviewed:
$39.99
The Mac mini’s built-in speaker is a feeble affair, which is okay for system alerts however woeful if you wish to fireplace up Apple Music or stream video.
These dinky (123-x-120-x-118mm) stereo audio system persist with the mini’s mini-ness, and can be found in both white or black. They join through both USB-C or USB-A, with the added choice of wi-fi Bluetooth if you wish to pair along with your iPhone.
Sound high quality is outstanding for the scale and value. The bass might be stronger however it’s a fantastic enchancment on the mini’s speaker.
FAQ
Are you able to improve the M2 Mac mini arduous drive?
Apple solders the solid-state drive (SSD) straight onto the logic board of the Mac mini if you select the capability on the level of buy. Whereas it isn’t attainable to later improve the drive, you may add additional SSDs or hard-disk drives (HDD) through equipment, which we have now reviewed right here.
Are you able to improve the M2 Mac mini reminiscence?
Apple builds the RAM straight as a part of the M2 processor of the Mac mini if you select the quantity of reminiscence on the level of buy. It’s not attainable to later improve the RAM, so it’s essential to select essentially the most you might be prone to want when shopping for the pc.
$1,199
$1273
$1299
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