So the size is almost the same, but they're not identical. After posting the recent video about the removable NVMe for the M1 Mac, we received a lot of comments like, "Any plans for the M4 Mac Mini SSD? What about Mac Mini M4? Any solution?" And all other

similar questions asking for the M4 Mac Mini. And what they're really asking is whether we're going to design our own version of SSD storage for the M4 Mac Mini. Well, challenge accepted! [Music] So, in order for us to design it from ground up, we need to study the stock

NVMe module for the M4 Mac Mini. This is the top side of it, and this is the bottom side. So, the total capacity of your M4 Mac is determined by combining these two NVMe here, whether you're getting 250 GB, 500 GB, 1 TB, or even 2

terabytes. Now, these two NVMe are mainly powered by three critical power rails, and that is PP0 V9 or 0.9 volt, then PP1 V2 or 1.2 volt, and finally PP2 V5 or 2.5 volt. So, the top two here are

produced by this single proprietary buck converter called the Ocarina chip. This is all being done by taking the PP3 V8 or 3.8 volt from the gold pins, then directly channeled to the input of the Ocarina chip. Then the single input

voltage is being stepped down to the output simultaneously, producing the 0.9 volt and the 1.2 volt. So, everything's going well so far. Then, PP2 V5 or 2.5 volt is being produced by another buck converter I see over here by taking the

12vt PP bus from the gold pins, then step it down to a single 2.5 volt to the N. So right now, everything looks pretty good, right? But not until you know that this single IC is the infamous TPS 6180, the one that was

responsible for the de CD 3217 IC for the right USB-C port on your newer 14-inch and 16-inch M series MacBook Pros. You can watch how we describe the problem in this video, and it was also the same IC that

blew up thousands of dead N-channel MOSFETs on the 2018, 2019 MacBook Pros by sending the 12vt PP bus directly to the MOSFETs. You can watch how to fix it in this 30 minutes guide video here, and weirdly enough, Apple seems to really love this IC

despite its failure since 2018. But for all of you watching this video right now, I would say do not freak out just yet, because right now the TPS 6180 only powers two N-channel MOSFETs for this M4 Mac Mini, while the blown up cases from the previous

history were all happening when the TPS 6180 is powering four N-channel MOSFETs configuration. Because technically powering four N-channel MOSFETs require more amps and power draw, so maybe that's why it failed on this T2 Mac. Two N-channel MOSFETs configuration should require half of that power, so maybe it will be

fine. I'm not trying to defend Apple here, so let's see how it goes for another year whether it's still fails or not. But if we have the chance to redesign this whole N-channel MOSFET module, we will never use ICs with bad histories and that has led us

to create this mockup NVMe module in this mockup design we use another IC for supplying the 2.5 volt and most probably we will use LT 88642 IC that has never failed so far then the Ocarina chip is still the same for providing 0.9 and 1.2

volt now you might be asking why the design is completely different is it going to perform the same well that's the whole idea that you have to make it look completely different from the original ones to avoid legal issues if you know you know and if you route the

copper traces or differential pairs properly according to the design constraints you can still get the same performance and thus the NVMe position really doesn't matter much now to be completely honest with you the development of this third party NVMe module is still in the mockup stage meaning that it is

not fully functioning yet and you can call it fake if you want but we really need to start somewhere right so try to imagine that we live in a world where you have a 250 GB base M4 Mac Mini model then you can easily undo the screw and

remove the base SSD then you can buy a third party NVMe module somewhere off the market and you can choose whether you want 500 GB or 1 TB or even 2 TB SSD size and all that you have to do is to pick your choice and plug it into the

socket and now you have a 2 TB SSD installed we've also crafted a small handle over here so it's going to be easier to hold and most importantly no micro soldering required at this point I think we all know that if you possess

micro soldering skills, you can easily remove the stock 250 GB NVMe on one side followed by the other side, then clear all the pads and solder balls. Then you can simply solder a new 1 terabyte or 2 terabyte NVMe to both sides of this

module, then you put it back to the Mac Mini, then restore it using the secondary Mac. Then, as we are waiting for the M4 Mac Mini being restored, you can see this M1 guy here also has a 2 terabyte removable SSD. Pretty cool, right? And you

finally get it to work again. We've been testing this 2 TB configuration without any issues so far, so it's a good thing for the repair shop that can perform micro soldering, but for the end user, we need to wait until this redesigned module becomes a reality, and we need to

emphasize that this module is not from Apple. This is a third-party upgrade, just like how you plug the third-party NVMe to the old 2015 MacBook Pro. And to end this video, we personally want to say thank you Apple for making the storage

removable for the M4 Mac Mini, so maybe it's a good idea to do the same to your thick 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros, as you still have a bit of clearance inside there. So we don't have to design a

removable SSD adapter for your future MacBooks. And it's really good to see all based Macs finally come with at least 16 gigs of RAM, because 8 GB RAM is never enough even for everyday use, like we always preached 2 years ago in this

video so overall this M4 Mac Mini is really good with a great value for its price point. Make sure to check it out at the Apple Store and don't forget to subscribe to this channel, as you're all awesome! And see you again in December at

the iBuyPower channel. Reverse engineering at its best.

Reinventing M4 Mac Mini Storage - Part 1

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