This year’s Mini is a great example of “less is more.” Apple has done away with the optical drive and replaced it with some good old-fashioned emptiness. We found that hole (as well as the empty extra SATA connection on the logic board) to be perfect for adding a secondary hard drive — essentially bypassing the $400 premium over the “server” model. The only snag in this master plan is being able to find another hard drive cable to hook it up to the logic board, something we’ll work on sourcing.
Kudos to the Mini for receiving an excellent 8 out of 10 repairability score. There’s no proprietary screws or glue, and you can easily replace the existing RAM and hard drive (or almost any other component) if needed.
Teardown highlights:
- Apple removed the optical drive from this Mini, but would love to sell you one for an additional $79. Sweet!
- Some of the screws inside the machine were quite interesting. We found T6 screws that were screwed into the top of T8 screws. A screw within a screw…
- The big question with this Mac Mini: “Can I install a second hard drive myself?” The extra empty space seems to imply so. There is definitely plenty of room for a second hard drive underneath the first. The only deterrent is the availability of a second SATA hard drive-to-logic board cable.
- The new Mini has the same fan as the old Mini, and even the older Mini. Sticking with the brushless, high blade density blower, this single fan is quiet and effective — just the way we like it.
- The Broadcom BCM20702 Single-Chip Bluetooth 4.0 Processor with Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) support is identical to the chip found in the 13″ MacBook Air we took apart earlier in the day.
- Big players on the logic board include:
- Intel BD82HM65 Platform Controller Hub
- Intel V116A068 2.3 GHz Dual-Core i5
- Intel L116IA35 Thunderbolt port controller IC, similar to that found on the Early 2011 21.5″ iMac
- Broadcom BCM57765 gigabit ethernet and memory card controller
- Texas Instruments XIO2211 FireWire Controller
- irrus Logic 4206B Audio Controller
- SMSC 1428-7 System Management Bus temperature sensor
crwdns2947414:01crwdne2947414:0
Hi… . I have a query, I want to change my internal hard drive from my Mac Mini (mid) 2011, and my query is whether to remove the fan screws and other parts, which from what I was informed is the Torx T6 screwdriver. And my question is: to remove it I need a Torx T6 screwdriver with a hollow point or the Torx T6 with a flat tip will work for me. From what I have read, that the hollow point Torx are called Precision Torx or are identified with an "H" after the number in this case: "T6H". The same query is to remove the cover where the WiFi is, should I use a Torx T8 hollow point or does the flat point work for me? From now on I thank you get me out of this doubt, before doing something wrong. Thank you very much and greetings. Image (Augusto)
Augusto - crwdns2934203:0crwdne2934203:0