REPLACING MAC MINI GRAPHICS CARD UPGRADE
REPLACING MAC MINI GRAPHICS CARD PRO

Not only was this new guide 35 steps long, but just getting inside the Mac mini involved removing three TR6 Torx security screws. Or so I thought.ДЄs soon as I got to step four of iFixitвЂ™s guide, I realized the new Mac mini is different than its predecessor. Just a few parts needed removing and this new set would cover all the bases. From my experience with the pre-2014 Mac minis, this would be a relatively painless process. So I bought a 480GB SSD, an external hard drive docking station, and a torx screwdriver set off Amazon. Life is too short for slow computers, as The VergeвЂ™s Nilay Patel put it back in April.

REPLACING MAC MINI GRAPHICS CARD UPGRADE

As someone whoвЂ™s been enjoying the speediness of flash storage on a workplace MacBook Air, I felt the upgrade on my home machine was long overdue. I knew the RAM was soldered to the logic board on this particular model, leaving a SSD replacement as the only true option. It would stall, stop, and choke up on even the easiest of tasks.

REPLACING MAC MINI GRAPHICS CARD PRO

A Mac mini would let me keep my workflow, files, and apps intact from my dying MacBook Pro without having to spend upwards of $1,000.ДЄbout a year after purchase, the mini just wasnвЂ™t cutting it. I wanted a desktop computer, mostly because I could save some cash and felt I didnвЂ™t need a laptop if I would be using a work machine for 90 percent of my daily tasks. I should preface this by saying I bought the Mac mini fully knowing it was not a very powerful machine.

Macs are notoriously hard to upgrade, and that's by design

It was yet another much-needed reminder that Apple goes out of its way to make tinkering a herculean task. It involved painstakingly dismantling the entire machine piece by piece, using janky tools in place of the specialized ones I didnвЂ™t have. And simply to reach one of maybe only two parts an average computer owner may ever want to upgrade on their own. But I was not at all prepared for the massive undertaking the late 2014-era Mac mini requires of users. This I know well from simple cases like RAM upgrades. Now, Macs are notoriously hard to upgrade, and thatвЂ™s by design. Yet because the product is made by Apple, a seemingly simple procedure turns out to be a day-long adventure into the deepest, darkest parts of the DIY computer repair community. So I decided to replace its spinning hard disk drive with a solid state one. You see, it was slow and hampered by its components, and in desperate need of a speed boost.

Last weekend, I performed an invasive and meticulous operation on one of my more valuable gadgets: a late 2014 Mac mini.

Replacing mac mini graphics card