After two years, Apple finally announced their revamped Mac Mini 2014 besides the brand new iPad and iMac models at an event held in California. This device was announced on 16th October and immediately followed by its release through the Online Apple Store.
However, it seems that much of this excitement could falter in the near future as people get a closer look at what Apple has done with the hardware of this new small-sized PC.
iFixit, a repair and teardown specialist, published full details regarding the internal hardware and features of this new product, last Monday. According to their findings, Apple has soldered two components to the logic board of the PC in order to ensure that users are not able to replace them on their own.
iFixit took their time and opened up the 1.4 GHz Core i5 and 4GB variant of the new Mac Mini 2014. They discovered that Apple had soldered the 1600 MHz LPDDR3 RAM, made by Samsung, into its slot. This has been done in a completely different manner from that of the older model.
Furthermore, they have soldered the dual-core Intel i5 4260U processor as well. We normally do not see the replacement of components on a greater scale, but there are many who prefer certain replacement patterns with their products. Plenty of people wish to upgrade their machines once they have aged considerably.
There are also others who wish to change and add possible upgradable replacements on Day One itself. It is done in order to save a considerable amount of money on the higher-specification models. People further tend to replace the faulty parts themselves if the product goes out of warranty.
Apple, soldering the CPU in its slot, will not prove to be much of a problem as most users do not wish to replace their processors. However, the RAM being soldered is surely a no-no for all the potential users who will one day wish to upgrade their Mac Mini 2014 on their own.
The iFixit team further added that the new Mac Mini 2014 will also be harder to repair compared to its older model. The team awarded it a repair-ability score of 6 out of ten, which is lower than the 8 received by the previous model. However, on a happier note, the new Mac Mini can be disassembled in a far easier manner with the correct tools when compared to its predecessor.
The device comes in three different dual-core Intel Core i5 variants running at 1.3, 2.6 and 2.8 GHz processor speeds. When it comes to the memory, the lower priced model features a 4GB RAM while it’s two higher-priced variants feature 8GB memory modules, which are both upgradable to 16GB. In the storage aspect, the 1.4 GHz model comes with a 500 GB hard drive followed by a 1 TB hard drive in the 2.6 GHz unit and a 1 TB Fusion Drive with the 2.8 GHz variant.
Stay tuned for more updates and information on the latest tech releases!