Unboxing a Mac mini: Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Install My Own SSD with Mac Mini(malism)

Recently it was time to upgrade to a new shiny M based silicon Mac (the old Intel one was on its last legs). As it was going to be used as the main system and for day to day use, the Mac M4 mini Pro seemed ideal.

The new Mac Minis come in a simple white box (it’s a shame that the strips have to be torn to open it).

Mac mini Pro box

Once the lid is removed the power chord sits on a thick card with a hole in, lifting this reveals the Mac Mini and that’s it. Apple minimalism to the maximum.

Power chord removed and cardboard with hole

Removing the Mac Mini reveals an aluminium case with nothing on the top and air vents and the power button on the base.

Top and base of Mac mini Pro

The back has a power socket, Ethernet socket, full sized HDMI socket and 3 USB-C/Thunderbolt sockets.

Rear of Mac mini Pro

The front has 2 USB-C/Thunderbolt sockets, a power indicator and a headphone jack socket (maybe the more professional audio types still use wired headphones).

Front of Mac mini Pro

Since this is a Mac Mini Pro it’s all Thunderbolt 5 and the Ethernet is 10G. There’s also 14 CPU cores, 20 GPU cores and 16 Neural engine cores, 64GB RAM and 512GB of SSD.

512GB of SSD may seem a bit low, but there’s a reason for that and that’s a 3rd party 4TB SSD upgrade.

M4-SSD box

Again the SSD upgrade from M4-SSD.COM is a simple box, the side indicates what model of Mac Mini (Mac Mini or Pro or various Mac Studios).

M4-SSD showing model

Opening the box the SSD is lying in what looks like conductive foam.

Internal SSD on conductive foam

Lift this layer off and there’s a card separator with a hole (similar to the Mac Mini packaging) and then instructions on how to install the SSD.

conductive foam removed

Below that is a bag containing a screw driver and bits to open the case.

SSD install instruction manual

There’s a metal strip that can be inserted into the Mac Mini case and a “spluger” to insert once the base has separated and can then be slid around to pop open the clips.

Screwdriver and tools in bag

There’s screw driver has all 3 heads that are needed to open the various screws in the Mac Mini Pro (slightly different from the Mac Mini version).

Screwdriver, metal separator and spludger

It’s nice that everything is included that’s required to open the Mac Mini unscrew everything and put it all back together and the instructions are very clear.

All the heads needed for screws

The Mac Mini Pro has enough CPU/GPU/NPU grunt to do the things you want when needed, is beautifully small and is more cost effective than going to its big brother the Mac Studio.

Memory is key (especially in the modern age of running LLMs locally) so the largest memory configuration is 64GB, that's built into the main M4 silicon, so no option there but to pay Apple's prices, however the internal SSD disk is removable and now there's a lot of 3rd party vendors who offer Apple substitutes (Apple buy standard NAND memory and then put them on their own proprietary SSD modules - why they just don't support standard PCIe NVMe SSDs making life easier for everyone?).

Apple charge £1200 for a 4TB SSD, while going to M4-SSD gets you an upgrade for a M4 Mac mini or M4 Mac mini Pro for a lot cheaper. The 4TB for the M4 Pro is $699.00, which is just over £530.00 (at the time of writing). There's shipping to add, but it's not a lot.

Opening a Mac can be daunting, especially for the uninitiated, but M4-SSD include the right tools to open it (a metal pry and a plastic picker and a screwdriver with the correct T heads for all Apple's screws). The metal pry is placed into the (thin) gap between the base and case, then the plastic picker is inserted and moved to where the clips are and just prise the base up with a bit of pressure, go around the case and repeat for all 4, allegedly a spudger works better (from someone like iFixit), starting from the opposite side of the power button is safest as you don't want to damage or disconnect the cable. The base is attached by a small cable, which connects the power button, be careful and rest the base on the side of the main unit, then remove the 8 screws around the edge of the next layer and again carefully lay against the side of the unit as this has the WiFi/etc antennas and don't damage or disconnect the cable. Then remove the screws around the fan and lay this against the side. This now exposes the internal SSD, unscrew it (it's screwed in tightly). Wiggle the SSD out and replace with the 3rd party SSD. Ensure it's fitted securely and then screw the screw back in.

Opening the Mac mini Pro

Then the whole process is reversed, fit the fan, the heat spreader/antenna system and then pop the case back on. Make sure all the screws are placed somewhere safe after they've been removed as they are very small and easily lost.

Closing the Mac mini Pro

The whole process took about 30 minutes, it would have been quicker but not having done this before there were a few niggles including doing the video stuff. Also ensure the camera will not just stop videoing after a certain time, the Sony RX100 m6 limits to 5 minutes.

The next stage requires another Mac as the new SSD in the Mac mini Pro has no operating system or anything else on it. The process requires putting the system into DFU mode, this requires powering the Mac mini down, then holding the power button on (while connected, preferably by a high speed USB C cable) to the other M series Mac. The power LED will go orange and then release the power button and the other Mac will recognise it and then go into DFU mode, downloads the latest macOS and transfer it to the Mac in DFU mode (that's why having a high speed USB cable helps). The USB cable must be connected to the USB C port at the back with the Thunderbolt icon (on the M4 Mac mini Pro it's the middle USB C port).

DFU in progress

This takes quit a while as it has to download a full copy of macOS and transfer between Macs, but it's not something that requires watching, either it will error out (and the process needs repeating or it could be that the SSD isn't fitted/seated properly and the whole opening the Mac needs redoing) or it will just work. Luckily all went smoothly so all that was required was unplugging the M4 Mac mini Pro and rebooting (with monitor and keyboard/mouse connected) and it will be in macOS setup mode and boom there's a 4TB SSD Macintosh HD.

The SSD is fast too (it uses the same NAND memory that Apple uses) and people have shown it operates as the same speed (some reports say improves vs Apple). No issues so far. Bigger SSDs tend to operate faster as they can spread the read and more importantly writes across all the memory so reducing SSD wear.

The M4 Mac mini Pro is fast, it runs programs really well, including large beasts like Fusion from Autodesk for 3D design.

The Mac mini will probably last quite a while, the Mac Studio was tempting with the greater RAM capacity, but it's a lot more expensive. If you want to run large LLMs the the Mac Studio is probably a better choice with 128GB+ RAM which will be able to run the larger models - the Mac Mini Pro can run Meta’s Llama but not the full sized one.

Real geeks will run multiple machines and link them through Thunderbolt 5 (using RDMA) as now macOS supports shared execution so a model can be split between them. Though probably real power users are still probably going to link multiple Mac Studios rather than Mac Mini’s. There's even software to support this now (EXO) which makes setup a breeze (well considerably easier with a nice UI to drive it all).

Going back to a simple one machine setup, the Mac Mini Pro is a great choice (especially as future releases of macOS are no longer going to support Intel Macs). Thunderbolt 5 is fast and adding a good USB Hub means that you’ll get great performance from peripherals that operate at high speed. Adding external USB disks also makes sense (especially fast SSDs). 

Unfortunately there seem to be shortages now (or long ship times) due to the popularity of using things like Openclaw (a local agent using ‘AI’ to monitor and control the Mac that can automate personal tasks. Memory prices have also drastically increased since this was started. NOTE due to RAM pricing increases the Mac Mini Pro now is only available with a max of 48GB of RAM.

Though this was for the M4 Mac Mini Pro (retail £1299), Apple have released M5 based systems, so there’s likely to be an M5 Mac Mini soon. It also included the Apple Magic Keyboard with TouchID (initially thought this was a waste of time, but it makes accessing passwords and paying for stuff so much quicker and easier).

The M4-SSD upgrade was $699 / £530.

This upgraded a 5K 27” i7 iMac and the performance difference is amazing. The only issue with the upgrade is that a new monitor is also required and Apple’s Studio Display is costly. There are good offerings from other vendors. As an aside, initially a BENQ 32" monitor was acquired and connected via HDMI. This worked well, though there would be occasional vertical red or blue lines appearing on screen and the monitor would occasionally (randomly) lose sync, the screen go black and a few seconds later turn on again. Replacing HDMI with a USB C / Mini DisplayPort made all those problems disappear and the HDMI port is now used for a second older HD monitor.

reMarkably, reMarkable have done it again (with the Paper Pro Move)

reMarkable have been making tablets for a while (see the last post for history and details of the reMarkable Paper Pro) and though the Paper Pro is a great device for note taking it's quite large and heavy (just under A4 size weighing 525g i.e. just under 1/2 Kg). It's not unmanageable and it's not bad if used to lugging a laptop around, but it's not really what you'd call portable so you can carry it around at all times.

Well now reMarkable have come out with a solution to your portable notebook needs, the reMarkable Paper Pro Move. It's small enough to put in a (large'ish) pocket and definitely small enough to carry in a messenger bag or a large purse.

The Move is 195.6 x 107.8 mm
, has a Canvas display supporting 20,000 colours, it's slightly thicker than the Paper Pro (6.5 compared to 5.1 mm) and it weighs 230 g. The 7.3" display has 1696 x 954 resolution (264 PPI).

note: why are displays always quoted in inches when the dimensions and everything else are metric?

The battery is 2,334 mAh supporting up to 2 weeks use and it charges to 90% in around 45 minutes. There's 64GB of storage which equates to around 800+ notebooks. The pen-to-ink distance 920 µm and there's a 12mS of writing latency. The system charges by USB (USB C to USB C cable included) and can also be used for data transfer (USB 2.0). WiFi is 2.4/5GHz.

When ordering the basic Marker is included and there's the option to get the Marker Pro which has the eraser. There's also a choice of Folio covers.

Again it comes with 100 day try after buy and includes 100 days of the Connect service.

reMarkable Paper Pro Move and folio cover

The packing is all paper/card, it looks nice and it's almost a shame to tear open the strip on the right hand side.

Side strips removed

 Once the side strips are removed the inner (cardboard) packaging can be slipped out.

Open Folio cover and reMarkable packaging

The packaging on the reMarkable needs to be torn open too.

open packaging showing reMarkable

The Move is protected with something like tracing paper which is removed.

Marker Pro, USB cable and spare tips

Under the Move is the Marker Pro, the USB C to USB C cable and spare tips. There must be different versions of the package if the Marker is selected.

reMarkable removed and asleep

The Move removed from packaging and not powered up.

reMarkable attached to Folio case and Marker Pro

The Move attaches (quite securely) to the Folio cover with magnets and the Marker Pro also attaches magnetically. When closed, the front side is also held down with magnets as is the flap holding the Marker when closed. No more losing the Marker in your bag.

reMarkable starting after pressing power

Press the power button and the system will wake-up. This is a soft button so the unit will still slowly discharge if not used.

Booting up

As the system is running Linux underneath, it really is booting up.

Instructions to start (with blue scribble)

The post initial boot screen (before the system has been setup). The screen shows a blue scribble.

Red scribble on screen

The scribble changes to red. Set-up involves setting a PIN, WiFi and the Connect service (a desktop/mobile is required to sign-in/sign-up to Connect etc.).

After set-up when the Move is powered on it will ask for a password (if set), then show the Home Screen/notebooks/folders etc.

This really is the notepad that that everyone will be using, though it's not the cheapest on the market, the reMarkable devices have always been known for the paper like feel and this one is no exception. The software is always being updated and there are now some great templates and folders make organising things so much better rather than just having notebooks (the name for a document) scattered on the Home Screen. It's slightly heavy, but much more convenient than a laptop and it really does go everywhere and isn't out of place.

An A4 screen is more usable for various sketches, but for portable note taking the Move's size is perfectly adequate.

The basic device costs £399. The Marker is included and Marker Pro is an additional £40.

The folios are

• Premium Leather (brown or black) £119
• Mosaic Weave (basalt, burgundy or cobalt) £89
• Polymer Weave £59

The Connect service is £2.99 per month or £29.90 annually which gives access to 

• Templates from reMarkable Methods
• Send to Slack
• Unlimited cloud 
storage
• Create and edit
 in the reMarkable apps
• reMarkable 
Protection Plan (3 years device protection)

reMarkable apps are available for macOS, Windows, iOS and Android. The system also supports Dropbox and Google drive integration (there's also a developer mode allowing ssh into the system - it runs Linux under the hood and it is possible to develop apps that run on-device).

There are also Microsoft Word and Powerpoint "Send to reMarkable" add-ons.

If you hadn't wanted an electronic notepad before, now's the time to get one that can be carried with you at all times. Almost perfect!!! Once you've used a reMarkable, you'll not want another notepad ... (maybe not even paper).

How can something so reMarkable get even more reMarkable (Paper Pro)

reMarkable have been around since 2013, launching the reMarkable 1 in 2017 and then the reMarkable 2 in 2020. Those were both monochrome e-ink tablets, those lucky enough to purchase a 1 got the connect service for life which syncs the reMarkable to the cloud and desktop and mobile applications (with a live view possible). The connect service is now only free during the 100 day trial (during which the reMarkable can be returned) and then £2.99 per month.

The reMarkable 2 is a great way to take and store notes, it can use templates and it's possible to annotate PDFs (and read ePub books). It really does feel like writing on paper (it's not exactly the same but much better than say an iPad even with a grippy screen protector). Being e-ink is also very pleasant on the eye and easy to read in most lighting conditions.

Both of the above are slightly smaller than A4. The reMarkable 2 is 246 x 188 mm and weights 404g with a 10.3" black, white and greyscale display (226 DPI). It weighs 404g and is 4.7mm thick.

The new reMarkable Paper Pro is slightly bigger at 274.1 x 196.6 mm with a 11.8" colour display (20,000 colours) and 229 PPI. It weighs 525g and is 5.1mm thick with an adjustable reading light (e-ink display work well in sunlight).

All reMarkables come with a marker that is suited to the display so it feels like a pen/pencil and it comes with spare tips (which can also be purchased separately). Though standard EMR digital pens can be used, not all the functions (such as erasers) will work and some of the tips may damage the display. Of course there's a premium marker available with an eraser on the rear (in UK £40 extra).

Though a case isn't necessary, having one that fits well and securely holds the reMarkable is important to some and the reMarkable polymer Book Folio is good enough for £79 (other cases are available such as a leather (brown or black £169), mosaic (basalt, burgundy, cobalt £129).

There's also a Folio keyboard which is an extra £219.

The Marker Plus, Book Folio and reMarkable Paper Pro

The packaging is all paper/cardboard so can be recycled.

Ripped packaging

Ripping the strip opens the packaging.

opened packaging

The reMarkable inside in it's off state.

USB-C and instructions

Under the device is the USB-C cable and instructions, again all in cardboard.

Book Folio

Again the Book Folio comes in cardboard packaging that you rip a strip off to open. This is the grey polymer weave folio.

reMarkable in Book Folio

The reMarkable Paper Pro sits on the case and is held by magnets and knows when the folio is closed. The screen is pre-powering the device.

Marker Plus (inc spare tips)

The Marker Plus has a textured finish and comes with several spare nibs (though a lot of use is required before they wear out).

Marker Pro on side of reMarkable

The Marker (and Pro) attach to the side of the reMarkable Paper Pro and are held magnetically.

reMarkable Paper Pro with Marker Pro and flap

The new Book Folio has a flap that can be pulled from the back (again held magnetically) which is good when the device is in a bag or similar as it can't come off. The original reMarkables didn't have this and the marker would fall (or be knocked) off when moving around and then the hunt for it would begin. This is a much better design for transport.

Bootup - colour screen

When the reMarkable starts up it displays a nice colour graphic. The scroll bar at the bottom shows the progress (it's Linux underneath).

Start Screen

Now get the marker out and press start. WiFi and other details need to be entered. Then any system updates will be applied. As a new user there's 100 days of the Connect service for free (after £2.99 per month or £29.90 per year), this allows sync'ing with other devices. There's a Windows/macOS/iOS and Android reMarkable app, the device will show a code and this is entered on the reMarkable website. There's also live sharing which will update another reMarkable (app or device) in real-time.

reMarkable 2 and reMarkable Paper Pro

The difference in size between the reMarkable 2 (on top) and reMarkable Paper Pro underneath. Also shows the lack of marker holder on the reMarkable 2.

Opened book folios showing reMarkable displays

When the reMarkable 2 and reMarkable Paper Pro are opened, the Paper Pro has a significantly larger display.

While the reMarkable 2 is a great system and great for notes and sketches, the Paper Pro's colour display makes a huge difference. Being able to sketch in colour makes it more like sketching on paper and though the colours are never going to be as good as an iPad or such like the e-ink display is superb and the colour screen still maintains that paper like feel (yes you can get tips for the Apple Pencil and screen protectors that improve the feel - they are not as good as this).

With the Connect subscription (which is definitely worth it - though original reMarkable users still get their original subscription for free), as well as the sharing systems, there's also access to templates and workbooks - productivity, planning, community, strategy, note-taking and communication. There's also integrations with Slack and unlimited cloud storage. There's also a 3 year protection plan.

The reMarkable Paper Pro is £599 and includes the Marker.

The Marker+ adds £40.

The Books Folios are

• Premium Leather (Black or Brown) £169
• Mosaic Weave (Basalt, Burgundy or Cobalt) £129
• Polymer Weave (Grey) £79

The Type Folio (keyboard) £219

There's free shipping to UK.

There are also business Connect subscriptions which give different features like device management and single sign-on.

All in all recommended.

Connex the Pocket-Sized Connectivity tool That Actually Delivers (data and power)

The The Krafted Connex is about 9.5cm long, 2cm high and 3cm wide, looking more like a pen knife than a multi-connector product.

Cardboard Sleeve

It comes in a cardboard sleeve and inside a cardboard holder.

Cardboard container

The actual unit is made of metal and a silicon feeling material (actually ABS). The connectors swivel out and there's a USB-A input port on one side (and the end pulls off for a USB-C input, which is nice, but that's the bit that's going to get lost when you're in a coffee shop and it falls off the table or such like). On that side there's a lightning and a micro-USB connector. 

On the other side is another lightning and USB-C connector.

All the connectors are on a silicon flexible material so they can wiggle a bit and fit at non-straight angles.

For those that want to carry it around with them, there's a key ring hole extending out the top/side.

Top of Connex

One lightning connector is rated at 4A and the other at 2A (both can be used simultaneously), though not stated, presumably it's the lightning port on the same side of the USB-A/C connector with the high power rating.

Though multiple devices can be plugged in at once (good for charging), data between multiple devices is pretty much a no, PD charging is only supported for a single device being connected. Data transfer can also take place to the PD device simultaneously.

Bottom of Connex

It does remove the need for have a spaghetti selection of cables and it's reasonably small and compact that it can easily fit into a laptop or tablet bag. At under 90g (~87.5g) it's not too heavy.

It's meant to support 25W (but it's actually rated slightly lower 5V @ 4.5A i.e. 22.5W), and it will supply

• Input 5V 3A: 2 outputs receive 1.5A. 3 outputs receive 1A.
• Input 5V 4A: 2 outputs receive 2A. 3 outputs receive 1.3A. 4 outputs receive 1A.

If you can connect devices via USB you'll generally get better speeds than WiFi or even Ethernet.

So it can be a useful device to carry around, it retails at £29.99 from the usual on-line stores or directly from Krafted (in charcoal grey or in green)

AI Meets Ultrabook: Acer Swift Go 14 Wonders if You've Tried Turning It Off and On Again.

The Acer Swift Go 14 AI is a premium laptop by Acer using a Qualcomm Snapdragon X processor to power its bright, crystal clear LCD screen. Out of the box the laptop features a sturdy build that feels strong but light enough to carry with you and appears refined and modern in its simplicity. On initial use the touchpad and keys feel responsive and good to use but occasionally have a mushy feel around the edges of the touchpad. Additionally, the backlight is bright around the keys themselves but needs to remain on for longer. The hinge initially felt sturdy and had no wobble and after extended use remains as solid as when it was first unboxed. The laptop is fairly large compared to similar competitors, 12.7 x 9 x 0.72 inches in total, but still can fit into most backpacks and briefcases without issue. The grill present between the display and keypad is strangely sharp on the edges and could scrape skin if handled without being cautious but due to its positioning should not pose much of an issue.

The display features up to 2.5k resolution and up to 120hz refresh rate that gives accurate colour clarity and is perfect for video calls or web browsing. Blue light reduction settings are intensive and work perfectly and can be easily adjusted and set to timers to ease stress on the eyes in darker environments. The display has a matte black bezel that is thin enough to appear premium and sleek but still provides good contrast against any background you position the laptop against. 

The available ports are 2 USB-A ports on either side of the laptop, 2 USB-C which are strangely positioned on the same side and finally a headphone port for wired connections. Due to the positioning of the USB-C ports which the provided charger connects to you are somewhat limited in the angles you are able to have the laptop in whilst charging, it would have been better to have one USB-C on either side of the laptop.

The speakers are clear and loud, providing accurate enough sound for day to day use and Bluetooth connection is available as standard. The built-in camera is good enough for video calls but for professional recordings it can lack depth and the lens angle is slightly too wide.  The microphone performs moderately well, about as expected for a laptop microphone, but will be outperformed by almost all mid-range standalone USB microphones that you can purchase. The AI features mentioned later in this review can help mitigate some of these problems but are still limited by the provided hardware. The camera also functions as a biometric security feature which worked okay but felt unneeded and sometimes failed to work in lower light areas. The physical shutter provided for the camera is a nice privacy feature and something that more laptops should include.

Charging is fast and it retains charge for extended periods of use but during charging the laptop is prone to heating and can have a static feeling around the edges of the laptop. However, even after several weeks of consistent use the battery remained solid and impressive, rarely needing charging throughout the day and reaching full charge within a few hours from 20%.

The laptop comes with 1TB of storage which is more than enough for most day to day use but users working on complex projects or multiple extended tasks at once may find that they quickly run out of storage, which is non-expandable. The laptop does prompt you to use cloud features to upload your files and digitally expand your storage which is a common feature nowadays and works well on the Swift Go 14 AI as expected. The Wi-Fi 7 connectivity provided should make uploading and downloading files quick and efficient. 

The performance of the laptop is exceptional for day to day use, web browsing, watching videos and coding were easy and no performance issues came up. However, it does struggle to perform well for most graphically intensive tasks such as gaming or rendering with an unremarkable fps and often stuttering during these tasks. The Qualcomm X processor features integrated graphics therefore the laptop does not have a dedicated GPU, limiting its use for rendering and gaming. Despite this, videos were able to be watched at high resolutions with no noticeable performance drop and minimal heating issues. The Swift Go 14 AI is available with either 16GB or 32GB of RAM but even with 32GB you are limited in what you are able to do, with only 16GB the laptop will probably struggle far more than its competitors.

The CPU performs well on Geekbench 6 while only using a single core but its performance drops off for multitasking, complex tasks and, as expected, any image processing. This fails to reach the higher end of ARM based laptops but still is more than adequate for day to day usage. However, when put through these more complicated tasks the laptop produces a lot of noise and heat which can become annoying after extended use.

The AI features can be nice but often feel unnecessary for tasks other than coding suggestions and clean-up which were somewhat useful. The clean-up for video calls was also nice but as the camera is not suitable for professional recordings anyway also felt slightly unnecessary. One good use case is the noise filtering whilst traveling, it is able to completely eliminate background noise on trains or traffic, which is a nice feature but very specific. AI image generation and manipulation fell into the same category, while it was nice to have it is rare to find a use case for it, perhaps in a few years the software will catch up with the hardware and enable more interesting features.

When first using the laptop, immediate popups for Acer's control centre, McAfee and Adobe software appeared and were also advertised in the bloated taskbar, a common feature in Windows 11 computers that, while easily fixed by removing the unnecessary tabs and readouts, is annoying and makes the user experience feel cheap. During the use of the laptop, constant prompts to subscribe to McAfee for virus protection and other services came up, reducing the overall premium feeling. 

Overall this is a pretty reasonable Windows on ARM system and will work well for applications that have been ported over, but may struggle with gaming and other graphics intensive apps.

Pricing varies between about £645 and £899 (depending on the version) online.