It was previously reported that the new-generation Mac mini used soldered SSDs, thereby limiting aftermarket storage upgrades. Looks like it wasn’t the only disappointing factor of the latest Mac mini. A new report reveals the base Mac mini gets a single SSD chip. The 256GB model, therefore, gets slower storage compared to other configurations.
256GB Mac mini gets a single SSD chip
New benchmark results from Japanese technology site AAPL Ch show a clear difference between storage speeds of the base and top-end variants of the Mac mini. The 256GB versions of the M6 and M5 Pro Mac mini use one SSD chip, while models with more storage use two. The dual SSD chips allow the device to process data in parallel, thereby increasing the overall performance. As a result, the 256GB model is around half as fast as configurations with two SSD chips.
Using limited hardware on the base model is not something new with Apple. The M4 Mac mini, for reference, used a similar approach wherein the base model had slower speeds compared to the top ones. However, the good news is that the M6 is much faster than the M4. The 256GB M6 recorded write speeds of 3,000.2 MB/s, compared with 2,014.5 MB/s on the M4. That’s nearly a 50% increase. Read speeds also improved, although by a smaller margin. The M6 reached 3,216.8 MB/s, up 15.9% from the M4’s 2,792.5 MB/s.
The base M6 Mac mini is still powerful and faster than the base M4 Mac mini
The performance gains due to the new M6 chip are pretty much evident. The latest machine can read and write data at a faster rate. However, despite the jump, the base M6 Mac mini remains slower than the other variants. More importantly, the new Mac mini no longer has a slotted SSD. That means buyers cannot replace or upgrade the storage later, as was possible with earlier designs.
Potential buyers are therefore advised to carefully review their future needs and buy the storage variant accordingly. Larger storage not only gives you more freedom but also gives you faster read and write speeds.
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