RAM Soldered Into New Mac Mini To Block Memory Upgrades

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Why would a company do something like this to prevent end users from upgrading the memory in....whoops, this is Apple we are talking about...never mind. :D

For anyone looking for a cheap way to get their hands on a Mac, it's a great starting point -- prices start at just $499. But you'd better make sure you select a model with enough RAM when you place your order -- Apple has taken steps that mean it is impossible for buyers to install more memory.
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I'm sure some of it is to prevent users from upgrading, but I think the main reason why they do this is to reduce costs. Soldering the DRAM directly to the board removes the DIMM slots and associated components from the bill of materials. Granted, it probably saves them $1 or so, but when you're building millions of these (or is it much less for the mini) it adds up.
 
Like Compaq back in the day. Fucking bullshit.

But it is a mac, so I don't really care. I do feel bad for the few remaining mac power/pro users. Apple has been ramming a hot poker up their asses. for years.
 
I would say this is a douche bag move by Apple, but I never plan on buying a Mac so I don't care one way or another. However this does bring back memories of Apple old where you'd buy a computer without any sort of upgrade path.
 
No power user is going to get a mac mini, they're intended for light multimedia etc. use. If you want an upgrade path, get a macbook pro or mac pro instead.
 
Is the form factor a concern? I can understand eliminating the upgrade path, but is that just a side effect of shrinking the footprint of the computer to a point where the RAM slots wouldn't fit in with the aesthetics?
 
Meh. Won't scare away the idiots, and probably means they can reuse the exact same motherboard as they do on the Air. Not surprising given the piddly sales the Mini has compared to everything else.

By the time you need to upgrade the memory, the hardware is unsupported anyway. It's the Apple Way (TM) :D
 
paffinity said:
I'm sure some of it is to prevent users from upgrading, but I think the main reason why they do this is to reduce costs.
Click to expand...

Any money saved would be lost on the few systems that end up needing a bad memory chip replaced.

This is mainly about forcing users to pay the high Apple memory prices. Apple wants an extra $200 to upgrade from 8 to 16GB. The number one best seller in computer memory on Amazon is the Crucial 16GB Mac memory upgrade kit for $136


schizrade said:
Like Compaq back in the day.
Click to expand...

I was in an early Compaq certification class back in 83, and someone asked why they soldered in the memory on the 1st 2 banks, and the answer was that the chips where more reliable than the sockets. Basically bad contacts on sockets chips where more of an issue than bad memory chips.
They also added that they had only 2 mother boards returned so far due to bad sockets memory.

Since I had personally replaced 2 system boards for bad memory in the past few months, I told them they need to recheck their numbers, as I wouldn't believe that I was the only person in the country to ever run into a bad memory chip on one of their systems.
 
You can still upgrade, just desolder the chips and solder bigger ones. :D:D
 
Is this really a shock? They've been doing it on the Macbook Air for awhile now, as well as the Retina models...
 
I used to like Apple hardware back in the 80's 90's
This is stupid hardware manufacturing at it's best.
Why would anyone purchase a Macintosh with this upgrade window closed?
 
Same for the 21.5" iMac. (though the 27" iMac gets upgradeable RAM for some reason, at least until the 2014 model is released.

On the latest iMacs you can't even replace a hard drive (or ssd) without removing the glass screen, thoroughly voiding your warranty, and gluing it back on again.

The GF needs a new computer, and I was considering getting her one, as she is an Apple fan. Looked on the main page, and upgrading from a 1TB HD to a 256GB SSD cost $200, as did upgrading from 8 to 16GB of RAM.

I was planning on circumventing this by buying the base model, and upgrading myself,, but I am glad I did the research first, or I would have been tempted to burn down my local Apple store.

These aren't cell phones. When you buy a computer, there is an expectation that the hardware is upgradeable. Shame on Apple.


As I see it they benefit from it in many ways:

  1. Cost savings of a handful of bucks per unit sold.
  2. Up-selling more at time of sale with the argument: "You can't upgrade it later, so better overprovision now!"
  3. Forcing users to buy Apples overpriced upgrades at sale time, instead of cheaper (and in many cases more capable) after market parts.
  4. Planned obsolescense. If someone sticks with the base model, they'll have to toss it later when it doesn't have enough RAM and buy a new one.

Most companies couldn't get away with this shit, but since Apple has a blindly loyal following of sheeple, they can do it, and people - amazingly - keep buying their shit.

win-win-win-win for Apple, at the expense of their users. Absolutely enraging. :mad:
 
B00nie said:
No power user is going to get a mac mini, they're intended for light multimedia etc. use. If you want an upgrade path, get a macbook pro or mac pro instead.
Click to expand...

Mac pro starts at $3000
Mac book pro starts at $1099
Mac Mini starts at $499

Quite a steep price difference.

We had to get a Mac for some IOS development & client testing.
Mac mini with 16GB was good enough. I would have choked on spending $3k
 
This sucks - people buying the Mini won't realize this. Heck, Apple has even made the batteries in their laptops non-user serviceable. I'd rather have a slightly larger device that can be, you know, repaired or upgraded.
I bet the majority of users never upgrade their memory, so maybe Apple can justify it. Who knows.
 
Stoly said:
You can still upgrade, just desolder the chips and solder bigger ones. :D:D
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Possibly. But even if you do this (and it is not easy to hand solder PCB's), who knows if the firmware will even recognize more than the preconfigured RAM amount.
 
nutzo said:
Mac pro starts at $3000
Mac book pro starts at $1099
Mac Mini starts at $499

Quite a steep price difference.

We had to get a Mac for some IOS development & client testing.
Mac mini with 16GB was good enough. I would have choked on spending $3k
Click to expand...

Agreed.


I've never spent that much on a computer, and I've consistently had a more powerful rig than any Mac in existence (at least until the latest Mac Pro which posts some pretty impressive specs for the money.
 
ymer said:
Who cares, only hipsters buy macs anyway.
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Ever had a girlfriend?

I've never met a woman who didn't prefer a Mac to a PC, and rolled their eyes at me whenever I complained about all the limitations of Macs.

I'm planning on surprising my GF with a computer for Xmas, and while it really pains me to give such an awful company my money, I want her to have something she likes, so I'll probably suck up the pride and buy a image-over-substance Mac... :(
 
MrCaffeineX said:
Is the form factor a concern? I can understand eliminating the upgrade path, but is that just a side effect of shrinking the footprint of the computer to a point where the RAM slots wouldn't fit in with the aesthetics?
Click to expand...

No, it's likely cost savings. Not just removing the cost of materials of the uDIMM as paffinity mentioned, but also (likely) removing the cost of a separate motherboard design.

The old Mini probably reused the Macbook Pro 13" motherboard (small enough, with upgradable memory slots), but that's soon to be discontinued in favor of the Retna model. The last 13" model kept most of the old system's specs, including Ivy Bridge processor, in order to offer one last upgradable platform to the Retna holdouts.

The fact that they did not upgrade that holdover to Haswell tells just how doomed it is. So, upgrading the Mac Mini to Haswell for little to no redesign cost would require reusing the Air or 13" Retna motherboard, neither of which has upgradable ram.

So, the Mini is just as upgradable as the rest of their product line :D
 
Zarathustra[H];1041177713 said:
These aren't cell phones.
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They are just applying the same disposable model they use for iPhone & iPads.
Besides not being able to upgrade, it also means that repairs are limited or expensive.


Zarathustra[H];1041177713 said:
Planned obsolescense. If someone sticks with the base model, they'll have to toss it later when it doesn't have enough RAM and buy a new one.
Click to expand...

Most users don't think that far ahead, they buy for what they currently need. Beside, I doubt most Apple users even consider upgrading their systems, and now it won't matter since it's not possible.
A memory or hard drive replacement can extend the useful life of a pc or laptop by another 2-3 years. Apple would rather you toss the old system and buy a new one instead.
Not very green/environmentally friendly of them.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041177728 said:
Ever had a girlfriend?

I've never met a woman who didn't prefer a Mac to a PC, and rolled their eyes at me whenever I complained about all the limitations of Macs.

I'm planning on surprising my GF with a computer for Xmas, and while it really pains me to give such an awful company my money, I want her to have something she likes, so I'll probably suck up the pride and buy a image-over-substance Mac... :(
Click to expand...

ENABLER!
 
Zarathustra[H];1041177728 said:
Ever had a girlfriend?

I've never met a woman who didn't prefer a Mac to a PC, and rolled their eyes at me whenever I complained about all the limitations of Macs.
Click to expand...

My wife had a Mac when we got married. I built her a PC to replace it.

Luckily for me, it was a really old/slow Mac, so she was amazed at how much faster the PC was :)
 
The older older models had sockets, but were a pain to open. There is little reason for Apple to not have included a removable panel to allow memory upgrades, other the the high premium it gets in product differentiation, the same as it does with tablets.
 
I was under the impression that if a Mac became obsolete, you just threw it away and bought another one. :D
 
nutzo said:
Mac pro starts at $3000
Mac book pro starts at $1099
Mac Mini starts at $499

Quite a steep price difference.

We had to get a Mac for some IOS development & client testing.
Mac mini with 16GB was good enough. I would have choked on spending $3k
Click to expand...

Macs are not for poor people, deal with it. Do you go to Mercedes Benz store to complain about their upgrade paths or spare part prices? I don't.
 
nutzo said:
My wife had a Mac when we got married. I built her a PC to replace it.

Luckily for me, it was a really old/slow Mac, so she was amazed at how much faster the PC was :)
Click to expand...

LOL I read "I built a PC to replace her"... :D:D
 
Zarathustra[H];1041177728 said:
Ever had a girlfriend?

I've never met a woman who didn't prefer a Mac to a PC, and rolled their eyes at me whenever I complained about all the limitations of Macs.
Click to expand...

Heh, my GF hates Mac...

I helped her build a PC a few years back.
 
nutzo said:
Mac pro starts at $3000
Mac book pro starts at $1099
Mac Mini starts at $499

Quite a steep price difference.

We had to get a Mac for some IOS development & client testing.
Mac mini with 16GB was good enough. I would have choked on spending $3k
Click to expand...

Holy shit, people are actually paying $3000+ for a computer nowadays? I thought that shit stopped at the end of the 90s.
 
Zarathustra[H];1041177728 said:
Ever had a girlfriend?

I've never met a woman who didn't prefer a Mac to a PC, and rolled their eyes at me whenever I complained about all the limitations of Macs.

I'm planning on surprising my GF with a computer for Xmas, and while it really pains me to give such an awful company my money, I want her to have something she likes, so I'll probably suck up the pride and buy a image-over-substance Mac... :(
Click to expand...

I gave my wife a Mac and 2 weeks later she said screw this and we bought an Alienware M14x R2 for her instead.
 
paffinity said:
I'm sure some of it is to prevent users from upgrading, but I think the main reason why they do this is to reduce costs. Soldering the DRAM directly to the board removes the DIMM slots and associated components from the bill of materials. Granted, it probably saves them $1 or so, but when you're building millions of these (or is it much less for the mini) it adds up.
Click to expand...

LOL you are joking right? It is so they can sell you ram from 2 years ago for twice as much as it cost 2 years ago.
 
B00nie said:
No power user is going to get a mac mini, they're intended for light multimedia etc. use. If you want an upgrade path, get a macbook pro or mac pro instead.
Click to expand...

You mean that garbage can shaped thing? Yea I am sure that has an easy/cheap upgrade path
 
Zarathustra[H];1041177728 said:
I've never met a woman who didn't prefer a Mac to a PC, and rolled their eyes at me whenever I complained about all the limitations of Macs.
Click to expand...

You're doing it wrong. The Genius Bar is not the right bar to visit for girlfriends.

Anyhow, not every woman prefers a Mac. I've even heard strange rumors that there are some who *gasp* prefer a PC with Linux. :eek:
 
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