If You Absolutely Have To Buy An M1 Mac, Buy The Mac Mini - IFixit

Ed. note: This post by an iFixit contributor does not necessarily represent the views of iFixit. Put another way, Charlie dares to suggest that, despite their woeful repairability and lack of upgrade options, some people might still want to buy M1 Macs, while still trying to do the least harm.

Macs seem to get less repairable every year, and the new M1 Macs don’t change that one bit. The newest Mac mini follows that trend, with no way to upgrade either RAM or storage. And yet it’s still the most upgradeable of the new generation of Macs.

Hear me out. The M1 Mac mini is a 2018 box with 2020 innards, a tiny system-on-a-chip (SOC) that bundles processors, RAM, and SSD into one near-impossible-to-fix unit. It’s the least repairable, least upgradeable desktop computer Apple makes, but it’s the best M1-powered device for your wallet and the planet, all things considered.

Because it lacks a screen, keyboard, or other built-in extras, the mini can sit at the heart of a semi-modular system. It’s far from ideal, but if you play it right, the mini is the cheapest, maybe even the greenest, M1 machine in Apple’s lineup. It’s how I’m making the transition from my tried and trusted 2010 iMac into the brave new M1 world. Read on if you’re considering a similar move, whether you’re hopelessly locked into, or just enamored with, Apple’s ecosystem.

The best of a bad bunch

If you want ultimate upgradability in a Mac, such as it exists, you should get a 2020 27-inch iMac (easy user-replaceable RAM, difficult-but-possible SSD replacements), the Mac Pro (removable case, plentiful expansion slots), or the 2018 Mac Mini. Those are all Intel-powered machines though, and the Mac Pro costs $6K minimum, before tax. There’s almost certainly a new iMac design coming in 2021, but I wouldn’t bet on it having any kind of user-replaceable parts.

So, if we want an affordable, “upgradeable” Mac, we’re left with the Mac mini.

Modular mini

The best part of the M1 Mac mini is that it’s a naked, robotic core. It contains the bare minimum needed to be a viable computer, and you add the rest. This means that you can keep using the same keyboard, mouse or trackpad, monitor, speakers, and all the rest, and swap out the main unit when the time comes. No, this is not as good as being able to add RAM, or swap in a bigger, better SSD when the old one goes bad or feels small. But right now, if you want a Mac, you want it powered by the world-beating M1 chip, and you want both controlled costs and occasional upgrades, you have to suck it up .

Now is also a good time to re-examine what kind of computers you need to do your work, and where you’re going to do it. With less travel and more working from home, a desktop and iPad combo—perhaps with a Magic or Smart keyboard added in—may make more sense than keeping a second full laptop system charged and updated. I’ve been happily using a Mac and iPad for years; my last portable Mac was a 2010 MacBook Air, which I got rid of soon after buying.

Device Page

iMac Intel 27″ EMC 2390

Model A1312 / Mid 2010 / 3.2 GHz Core i3 or 2.8 & 3.6 GHz Core i5 or 2.93 GHz Core i7, ID iMac11,3