New 2014 Mac Mini Has Has Soldered RAM That Can't Be Upgraded
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Posted October 18, 2014 at 7:19am by iClarified
The New 2014 Mac Mini has soldered RAM (Memory) that is no user replaceable. Since the RAM is soldered, customer can't upgrade the memory later on after they purchase the device. This news means that customers are limited to a max 16GB of RAM on the new Mac Mini.
Confirmed: RAM in the new Mac mini is not user accessible. Hard drive can be replaced/upgraded, though not keeping warranty.
The site does report that it is possible to upgrade the hard drive on the new Mac Mini, however doing so will void your warranty.
On the other hand, the new Retina iMac comes with user-replaced RAM, so customers can upgrade the RAM on their device at a later date. The MacBook Air, MacBook Pro Retina, and entry-level iMac also have soldered RAM, meaning customers can't upgrade RAM at a later date.
Apple first announced the Mac Mini Thursday with a lower $499 price.
Sudenly my Mac Mini 2012 just went up in price! I installed a 1TB Hard drive. Next step is switching to a 1 SSD HD, install a 2TB second HD, and upgrade to 16 gigs of RAM.
The truth is that it's a whole new Apple company, before it used to be giving the consumer the best device possible and then making money out of it, today's Apple is make money first and then try to give us consumers the best devices! Also as much as I hate to admit it the competition is catching up but on the other hand it could be a good thing pushing Apple to invent and drop their prices so there is good and bad in everything it's just the way you look at it.
and by the way the i7 mini is still selling so go grab one now before you won't be able to find them any more or people will buy them all and ask double on eBay.
First we got a soldered processor which we cannot upgrade then now we get yet another soldered core part of a pc/mac which is the ram.... What the fck is going on with this companies forcing users to fcking upgrade and always buy a whole set each fcking year or two....
It's not about if it's enough or not but rather about given the choice to the consumer to upgrade later his or her ram . I would rather buy the basic model with 4 Gb ram and upgrade it for cheaper than paying 300dollors to apple for the 16GB ram.
Thanks apple.... Stop trying to control everything!
New iPads with barely any upgrades??? These "new" ipad air 2 and mini 3 should have been the standard a year and a half ago! Useless!!!
I guess new ipad air isnt the only product Apple is losing attention with. Macrumors are filled with dissapointments of these 'soldered' RAMs. And here we are, iclarified's Apple fanboys #1 rule "must not complain about Apple". Im glad i got my 2012 version mini
Damn just cancelled my order was really hoping for 32gb, people saying they don't need 16gb are nuts ... Web developers like myself run VM's all day.. 16gb quad core is the minimum required. Looks like I'll be keeping my old 201, significantly faster than the top end model now. Crazy a 3 year old machine is stil faster. Only other option is paying 5 grand for an imac... Cmon apple this is a joke!
The problem is not if the mac mini can hold and use 32gb of ram in 2 dimm configuration but if a manufacture will start to produce such a ram. My 2012 Mac mini CPU The i7 can hold 32gb of memory the max speed of the memory is 1600mhz the max voltage is 1.35volts. There is a bandwidth cap so in reality the operating speed of 32gb is lower than 1600mhz. The problem is not with software IE operating system or hardware but rather the lack of manufactures for the increase capabilities of the CPU.
Look at the specs of one of the possible cpu's in the new 2014 mac mini
http://ark.intel.com/products/72056/Intel-Core-i5-3230M-Processor-3M-Cache-up-to-3_20-GHz-BGA
Once again it has the ability to have 32gb of ram access memory with only 2 channels or 2 slots.
However Ram manufacture's do not currently produce 16gb LPDDR3 ram modules at 204 pins which is required for these computers they only manufacture them at 240pins for desktop computers.
I can "survive" with 16gb, dual core while running 4 vm's is too sluggish. Apple is literally trying to put the same components in every device to cut costs... The Mac mini, iMac, MacBook Air, and 13 inch macbook all share same at various configs. THERE IS NO EXCUSE A 2011 Mac mini is SIGNIFICANTLY FASTER. ITS JUST SAD
what a let down. also only has dual-core processors. how about the ipad mini 3? only upgrade is the finger print sensor and everything else is the same as the ipad mini 2. these refreshes are a joke!
I have a MacBook Pro with retina display with 16GB RAM. Just barely enough. Runs very graphics intent use apps like photoshop. Frankly my last MacBook Pro with 8GB RAM is crawling due to insufficient RAM.
No one knows if you actually lose your warranty of you upgrade the hard drive. That's speculation.
I've been very patient and waited for the new Mac Mini, specifically because I knew there would finally be support for more than two monitors (this includes using the thunderbolt port for a monitor, with an LG or Apple Thunderbolt Display)
However, if you read a lot of the comments, it's seeming as though many are not happy with this new offering.
The ram prices don't bother me that much, and I think many are ignoring the monitor and graphics refresh (they're putting too much focus on the lower end model), which should be a marked improvement over the previous gen model, and is probably equal to the 4 core previous gen model.
What I'm more concerned with, as I'm looking at this as a music production workstation for a massive surround sound project, is if the PCiE storage options will be user upgradeable, as that's essentially the only thing that makes it cost prohibitive over the previous gen 4 core i7 non server model.
what a insane greed! Surely iSheeps do not mind rip off on RAM price. Not only Cupertino sells at highest possible price, but memory prices always drop in time. Besides CPU can support sth like 1TB of RAM.
I would recommend 16gb to anyone who purchases a Mac that has soldered ram. It's a must and will have you set for years to come. Plus the performance is unreal with 16gb
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