Don't Buy Apple's Overpriced Storage: Upgrade Your M4 Mac Mini Today! — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00Hello. Today we are going to take the
2. 0:01Mac Mini M4 256 gigabyte drive SSD and
3. 0:07turn it into a two terbte Mac Mini SSD.
4. 0:11And what that does, it saves you half
5. 0:13the cost of buying an upgraded one with
6. 0:15a two TBTE drive by installing it
7. 0:17yourself. Let's get to it. Now, first
8. 0:20off, I want to tell you about my
9. 0:21experience buying the Mac Mini. I used
10. 0:23to work for Apple years ago and I
11. 0:24haven't used a Mac in years. cuz I went
12. 0:27to PCs for such a long time, but now
13. 0:29that I'm making and editing videos, I
14. 0:31thought it wise to get back into the Mac
15. 0:33Mini. Because of the great price and
16. 0:35actually product that Apple is actually
17. 0:38offering this time, this is a Mac Mini
18. 0:40with 16 GB of RAM as their entry level,
19. 0:44which is the first time they've ever
20. 0:45added 16 GB of RAM to their entry level.
21. 0:48And the 256 GB hard drive is the one
22. 0:51downside. Now, this thing is $5.99 new
23. 0:55and I got myself an educator discount.
24. 0:58So, I got a $100 off. So, I got it for
25. 1:00$4.99. If you have a military discount,
26. 1:02you can do the same thing. This is the
27. 1:04best price and best performing Mac Mini
28. 1:08or Mac Perry with the M4 that is out
29. 1:11there when I purchased this thing about
30. 1:136 months ago. So, now for right around
31. 1:16$300, I am going to replace the SSD in
32. 1:19here with a 2 terbte one. Now, you can
33. 1:22get these just about anywhere by
34. 1:24searching for them on the internet. I'll
35. 1:26go ahead and provide the links where I
36. 1:27purchased mine from, but there are two
37. 1:29things that you really need to know
38. 1:30right from the get-go. Number one is
39. 1:32this is for a Mac Mini M4 only, not the
40. 1:35M4 Pro. And this is not made by Apple.
41. 1:38It is made by a third party specifically
42. 1:41for the Apple Mac Mini M4. So, you got
43. 1:44to keep that in mind. If you have the
44. 1:46Mac Mini M4 Pro, then you might want to
45. 1:49make sure you look around for a Pro
46. 1:51version. Now, I'm going to go ahead and
47. 1:52give you a stepbystep how to install it
48. 1:55inside the Mac Mini. Now, something you
49. 1:57got to understand is in order to do
50. 1:59that, you have to have a second Mac. The
51. 2:01second Mac Mac will run a DFU mode when
52. 2:05connected to the Mac Mini with the new
53. 2:08SSD because new SSD is going to be bare
54. 2:11bones. It needs to download all the
55. 2:13software from Apple to restore that chip
56. 2:17or actually just set up that chip. And
57. 2:19it works pretty much seamless and
58. 2:21automatic. One of the important things
59. 2:22you need to know is when you hook it up,
60. 2:24you got to hook it up to the center
61. 2:26Thunderbolt 4 port on the back of the
62. 2:29Mac Mini. The center one, you can see
63. 2:31it's got a little lightning bolt above
64. 2:32it to help remind you that's the port
65. 2:35you need to do the DFU mode. Now, to use
66. 2:38DFU mode, you have to have a
67. 2:40siliconebased
68. 2:42Mac. In other words, something with a M1
69. 2:44chip or higher. I believe you can have
70. 2:47something with a T9, if it's a Intel
71. 2:50base chip, but I can't be sure on that.
72. 2:53Go ahead and Google and look it up, but
73. 2:55you can find out which ones will allow
74. 2:57you with the DFPU mode. Now, stick with
75. 2:59me through this video because I will
76. 3:00show you that process as well. And stay
77. 3:02tuned to the very end. I'll show the
78. 3:04exciting speed difference between the
79. 3:06256 gigabyte SSD and the 2 terbte. It's
80. 3:10pretty impressive. Now, one thing you do
81. 3:12need to understand while you're doing
82. 3:13this, anytime you open up the back of an
83. 3:15Apple product, you are going to void the
84. 3:18warranty. I'm 6 months into owning this
85. 3:20thing. The warranty is only good for a
86. 3:21year. So, I thought I would just go for
87. 3:23it. So, make sure you understand that
88. 3:25before you do this. Hey, I want to take
89. 3:27a quick second and tell you how much I
90. 3:28appreciate you for tuning in to this
91. 3:29channel as I replace the Mac Mini M4 SSD
92. 3:33with a two terbte drive. I hope you get
93. 3:35something out of this video. If you do,
94. 3:37show me your appreciation by smashing
95. 3:38that like button out cuz it really does
96. 3:40help out the channel and helps me
97. 3:41provide more videos like this for you.
98. 3:44Let's get back to the video. Now, first
99. 3:45off, let me show you what's in this
100. 3:46packet. Basically, you just open it up
101. 3:49and it comes with everything you need to
102. 3:50get this going, which is really nice. It
103. 3:53has a screwdriver tool and inside that
104. 3:55it has the different E sizes of drivers
105. 3:58that you can just attach to it to get
106. 4:00out the right size screws. And of course
107. 4:02it has the chip with it. And inside the
108. 4:04pack it comes these two prying tools
109. 4:06which is really nice. You have a guitar
110. 4:09pick type thing here right here to help
111. 4:11pry the back open. And this now they're
112. 4:13both pretty flimsy and it's really can
113. 4:16be difficult to get the back end of this
114. 4:18off because it snaps in really snug. You
115. 4:20can see it's really precision smooth to
116. 4:24the edge. So, you've got to be able to
117. 4:26get something in there to wedge. As you
118. 4:28can see here, this does wedge in there
119. 4:30just barely. And you have to be cautious
120. 4:33around the button. So, let's get to it.
121. 4:35I have an additional tool that I used
122. 4:37when I used to change the screens on
123. 4:40smartphones and stuff right here. It's
124. 4:43got a nice little pry piece that I use
125. 4:45to help get under there and give me some
126. 4:47prying pressure. But let's stop talking
127. 4:49and let's get to it. Check this out.
128. 4:51Now, as you see here, I got the Mac Mini
129. 4:52laid out here in front of me. And I
130. 4:54started with using this tool, and it
131. 4:56does get right in the sides and pry it
132. 4:59up. And I did pop most of it out. And
133. 5:02you'll see here there's there's these
134. 5:04little posts as I pick it up. But
135. 5:06basically, once you start popping them,
136. 5:08you just slide that around and you hear
137. 5:09all four posts pop out. Be careful
138. 5:12around the power button because there is
139. 5:13a wire there, which you're going to see
140. 5:14here in just a moment. And you want to
141. 5:16make sure not to snag that wire. And
142. 5:18when you turn it over or open up the
143. 5:21back end, I kind of set it on a power
144. 5:23brick that I have just to kind of leave
145. 5:25it nice and high so it doesn't cause any
146. 5:28stress on that cable cuz you don't want
147. 5:29to break any cables cuz throughout this
148. 5:31process cuz throughout this process, you
149. 5:33do not have to disconnect anything.
150. 5:35There will be no soldering or anything
151. 5:37like that. It's really straightforward
152. 5:39and simple. So next, you want to grab
153. 5:40the tool here to take out the screws.
154. 5:43Now, there's three heads in there.
155. 5:44There's a T3, a T5, and a T8. You want
156. 5:47to make sure you just size up the right
157. 5:49ones to the screws. And then you want to
158. 5:51go ahead and secure it into the
159. 5:52screwdriver head. Then once you do, you
160. 5:54go ahead and pull out the screws. First
161. 5:55thing you're going to do is you're going
162. 5:56to remove eight screws around the edge
163. 5:58here. And of course, I'm going to speed
164. 6:00through all this so that you don't have
165. 6:01to wait for it all cuz it takes me about
166. 6:0320 minutes to do the whole process. So
167. 6:05you take out each screw. There's eight
168. 6:07of them there. And you want to make sure
169. 6:08you grab the ones that are kind of
170. 6:10hidden behind that cover piece. just
171. 6:12kind of slide it a little bit to the
172. 6:14side so you can reach to them. And then
173. 6:16once you get those out, then it's time
174. 6:18to pull out the the back plate here
175. 6:21because it's just a plate that is
176. 6:23mounted over the top of the fan, which
177. 6:25will be the next piece we take out. Then
178. 6:28grabbing this plate, you can just kind
179. 6:29of grab it, twist it a little bit till
180. 6:31it feels loose, and just pull it out.
181. 6:33It's not sealed in any way once you get
182. 6:35those screws out, but it does kind of
183. 6:37feel snug. So just grab the edges of it,
184. 6:39wiggle a little bit, and it pops right
185. 6:41on out. And now you can see the fan
186. 6:43right underneath. And once I loosened up
187. 6:45this plate, I went ahead and took the
188. 6:47outer piece and kind of snug it up
189. 6:50against there so I don't put any more
190. 6:51tension on that wire. And you can see
191. 6:53there's a ribbon here connecting the
192. 6:55fan. And you don't want to put any
193. 6:56tension on it. So I just kind of propped
194. 6:58up the power bank to it to hold it nice
195. 7:00and steady. And then there are four
196. 7:02screws that you got to take out. It's
197. 7:04not those. Those are the little tiny
198. 7:05ones. You want to take the ones out here
199. 7:07at the head of this thing. And there's
200. 7:09four of them. There's two wings on the
201. 7:12top side here as you can see and then
202. 7:14there two on the fan vented area. So
203. 7:18remove those four screws and then the
204. 7:20fan just pops right out. And you want to
205. 7:22make sure again there is a wire
206. 7:23connecting it. So you want to make sure
207. 7:25you move it gently and just kind of set
208. 7:27it aside like this. And now you can see
209. 7:29you have the SSD card revealed. Now, I
210. 7:32went ahead and turned the thing around
211. 7:34just to make it easier for me to reach
212. 7:37the SSD and maneuver it out because it's
213. 7:39in there pretty tight, and you got to
214. 7:41use your fingers to kind of wiggle it
215. 7:42out and move it. And you don't want to
216. 7:44do any damage to this or at all when you
217. 7:48do this process. Now, there's just one
218. 7:49screw holding in that SSD. You want to
219. 7:51make sure you get the right one and then
220. 7:53put it in your screwdriver and just
221. 7:55twist it on out of there. So once you
222. 7:57get the screw out, you got to reach in
223. 7:58there and with my little fat fingers, I
224. 8:00might cover up. But basically, I just
225. 8:02grabbed the end ends of the corners of
226. 8:04it and just kind of wiggled it until it
227. 8:06came loose. And it pops right out. And
228. 8:08it is in there pretty tight. So you got
229. 8:10to pull it straight up once you get it
230. 8:12removed from its slot. And then it's
231. 8:14pretty simple to just put the new one
232. 8:16right in. As you can see here, they are
233. 8:18the same size, same design. So you might
234. 8:21make sure So you want to make sure you
235. 8:23get that notch to where you put it right
236. 8:25in the same place. So remember how that
237. 8:27came out and it's pretty simple. You
238. 8:29just lay it in there and then wiggle it
239. 8:32in just like you wiggled it out. So once
240. 8:34you get it started in the slot, you can
241. 8:36see here it just fits in there
242. 8:37perfectly. Once you get it in, then you
243. 8:39go ahead and take the back of it and
244. 8:40just kind of wiggle it or shove it in
245. 8:42there until you hear it click in. and
246. 8:44it'll click in the space real nice and
247. 8:47reveal, of course, the screw slot to put
248. 8:49the screw back in. Then all you can do
249. 8:51is reverse everything. You're going to
250. 8:52put the screws back in. Then you want to
251. 8:54carefully set the fan back in place and
252. 8:57put those four screws back in on the
253. 8:59fan. And then when you line everything
254. 9:01up, you'll see you might even want to
255. 9:03mark these beforehand. I didn't do it. A
256. 9:05piece of chalk or something and mark
257. 9:07which corner goes where. But once you
258. 9:10figure it out, it's pretty simple. You
259. 9:12can see here the fan vent is right there
260. 9:15in that opening in that cover plate. So
261. 9:17you got to make sure you just line that
262. 9:19up with that fan vent right there. And
263. 9:21you can see the two screws that are
264. 9:22revealed that you took out. So now
265. 9:24that's in place. It just sits right in
266. 9:26there nice and snug. And then you want
267. 9:28to put in its eight screws back in
268. 9:31place. And then once that's done, then
269. 9:33the back piece is fairly simple. It just
270. 9:36flips right on over and snaps into
271. 9:38place. Now, they say that you might want
272. 9:40to wait and snap it in place after you
273. 9:43connect it and hook it up and make sure
274. 9:44everything's tested. That way, you don't
275. 9:46have to go through the popping that back
276. 9:47end off. I just went for it. I went
277. 9:50ahead and snapped it back into place. I
278. 9:51was pretty confident it was going to
279. 9:53work fine. So, I went ahead and did that
280. 9:54and then I did all the testing. Now,
281. 9:56let's jump to DFU mode on this thing.
282. 9:59And basically, all you do is you take
283. 10:02and hold the power button down on the
284. 10:04Mac Mini while you plug it in. So, when
285. 10:07you plug it in and give it power,
286. 10:08holding that power button down, you'll
287. 10:10see the front LED flash, yellow or
288. 10:13orange, whatever your eyes might see.
289. 10:15Once it flashes orange, then you connect
290. 10:17it up to the USBC to your second Mac.
291. 10:21And remember, you want to use that
292. 10:22middle port on the Mac Mini. And you can
293. 10:24see here, DFU mode will open up
294. 10:27automatically and give you two choices.
295. 10:28You can restore or revive your Mac. You
296. 10:31want to make sure you restore the Mac.
297. 10:32Then, once you do, it says restore and
298. 10:34update. Go ahead and click that. And
299. 10:36once you do that, it'll automatically
300. 10:38start downloading. As you can see here,
301. 10:40it says I got 7 minutes remaining. It
302. 10:43downloads the software and then installs
303. 10:45it. So, it takes another 7 8 minutes to
304. 10:47install it. So, I think the process
305. 10:48might have taken me 15, maybe 20 minutes
306. 10:51for it to set up the new SSD in my Mac
307. 10:55Mini M4. Now, once it's all done, your
308. 10:58Mac will tell you it's finished, and you
309. 11:00can go ahead and reboot your Mac Mini.
310. 11:03And I would go ahead and connect it to
311. 11:05your monitor of choice. So when it boots
312. 11:08up, you can see what's going on. You
313. 11:09might want to make sure you've got a a
314. 11:11mouse and keyboard connected to it as
315. 11:13well. Now, once you start up your Mac
316. 11:15Mini for the first time with the new
317. 11:16SSD, it'll be just like starting up a
318. 11:19Mac Mini for the first time, you have to
319. 11:20go through the setup process. Now, what
320. 11:22I do is since I went ahead and backed up
321. 11:24my Mini beforehand with Time Machine,
322. 11:26and that's very important to do, you
323. 11:28want to make sure before you start the
324. 11:29process, you back up with Time Machine.
325. 11:31So, within the setup process, it asks me
326. 11:34or it'll ask you if you want to restore
327. 11:36using Time Machine. You just click yes
328. 11:38and make sure you connect the drive to
329. 11:40it that has Time Machine on it. And then
330. 11:43once you click restore with Time
331. 11:45Machine, you'll need your password to
332. 11:46log into Time Machine. And then it'll
333. 11:48restore your Mac Mini just like it was
334. 11:50before you started. And since it was
335. 11:52only a 256 GB hard drive, it does not
336. 11:55take long. At least it did take my mine
337. 11:57very long to restore. And once it
338. 11:59restored, you just rebooted and boom, I
339. 12:01was back to where I was before I
340. 12:03started, but now with two terabytes of
341. 12:06hard drive space. Now, let's go ahead
342. 12:08and do the fun part where we'll do the
343. 12:09speed test on the two different SSDs.
344. 12:11The 256 SSD, as you can see here, it
345. 12:14only did like 1,900, maybe 2,000
346. 12:18writing, and then you've got about 2,800
347. 12:21in reading speeds. Now, let's go ahead
348. 12:23and test the two TBTE. The two terabyte
349. 12:25is writing at around 32 3,3300 speed.
350. 12:29Now that's quite a bit faster, but the
351. 12:31read is around 2900 3,000 somewhere in
352. 12:34there. So just a minute amount increase,
353. 12:37but what's really important is the
354. 12:39writing portion. So not only do you have
355. 12:41a more space, a lot more space, you have
356. 12:44a faster speed read and write. And now
357. 12:47the internal SSD outperforms my external
358. 12:51SSD drives, which is truly how it should
359. 12:54be. So now it's time to hear from you.
360. 12:56What do you think? Did it look like an
361. 12:57easy process? Are you thinking about
362. 12:59doing it? If you are, let me know down
363. 13:01in the comments. And if you have any
364. 13:03questions about it, I'd be happy to
365. 13:04answer that. If you've experienced it
366. 13:05yourself and I've already replaced the
367. 13:07SSD, tell me what your outcome was and
368. 13:10what you've experienced. Now, during
369. 13:12this video, you heard me talk about
370. 13:13external drives. I did start with a 1
371. 13:16TBTE external drive and I tell you all
372. 13:18about it in this video here and compare
373. 13:20it to the internal SSD 256 GB. Now
374. 13:24shortly I'll be releasing another video
375. 13:26on an external Oracle two terbte drive
376. 13:30which also connects to the Thunderbolt
377. 13:324. You want to make sure you subscribe
378. 13:34so you don't miss that video. Until next
379. 13:36time, God bless.