Marco Arment

And this is one of those LP, low pressure compression attached memory modules for like a laptop or whatever. So this isn't even apples to apples. Apple is just taking two RAM chips and putting in two different ones. It's just, it's insane. So 6.5 times more expensive. The SSD upgrade to 512, you go from 256 to 512, that's a $200 upgrade.

And this is one of those LP, low pressure compression attached memory modules for like a laptop or whatever. So this isn't even apples to apples. Apple is just taking two RAM chips and putting in two different ones. It's just, it's insane. So 6.5 times more expensive. The SSD upgrade to 512, you go from 256 to 512, that's a $200 upgrade.

And that's adding 256 gigs at 78 cents per gigabyte, which sounds cheap, but the actual retail cost per gigabyte of this type of storage is 12 cents per gigabyte. And again, an extremely fair comparison. A Samsung 990 Pro, one terabyte PCIe 4.0 SSD. The price per gigabyte is 12 cents per gigabyte, which is once again, amazingly, exactly 6.5 times more expensive for the Apple upgrade

And that's adding 256 gigs at 78 cents per gigabyte, which sounds cheap, but the actual retail cost per gigabyte of this type of storage is 12 cents per gigabyte. And again, an extremely fair comparison. A Samsung 990 Pro, one terabyte PCIe 4.0 SSD. The price per gigabyte is 12 cents per gigabyte, which is once again, amazingly, exactly 6.5 times more expensive for the Apple upgrade

than a separately packaged retail product that has its own printed circuit board, a whole bunch of other support chips, a heat sink, a box, everything associated with it. And when you do an SSD upgrade on a Mac mini or any of the other Macs, you can see people do them on YouTube. They will desolder the two NAND chips that are soldered onto the logic board.

than a separately packaged retail product that has its own printed circuit board, a whole bunch of other support chips, a heat sink, a box, everything associated with it. And when you do an SSD upgrade on a Mac mini or any of the other Macs, you can see people do them on YouTube. They will desolder the two NAND chips that are soldered onto the logic board.

It's just two NAND chips and they will buy two bare NAND chips and solder them in place. There's a whole bunch of other stuff you have to do to get the OS to recognize it or whatever.

It's just two NAND chips and they will buy two bare NAND chips and solder them in place. There's a whole bunch of other stuff you have to do to get the OS to recognize it or whatever.

But what I'm saying is the components that you are getting for this additional $200 are so much more minimal than the components in this standalone retail product printed circuit board that yes, also has NAND chips on it, but a bunch of other stuff from Samsung name brand 990 Pro. It's ridiculous. 6.5 times more expensive. So again, that's $400 for the RAM. $200 for the SSD.

But what I'm saying is the components that you are getting for this additional $200 are so much more minimal than the components in this standalone retail product printed circuit board that yes, also has NAND chips on it, but a bunch of other stuff from Samsung name brand 990 Pro. It's ridiculous. 6.5 times more expensive. So again, that's $400 for the RAM. $200 for the SSD.

Total upgrade price, $600. So you got your base Mac Mini. You want to bump it up from 16 to 32 and from 256 to 512? Or do you want an entire separate Mac Mini? Like, if you could somehow harvest...

Total upgrade price, $600. So you got your base Mac Mini. You want to bump it up from 16 to 32 and from 256 to 512? Or do you want an entire separate Mac Mini? Like, if you could somehow harvest...

The two 50-sync gig N chips that come with the second Mac Mini and somehow harvest the SSD, so the stuff that comes with the other Mac Mini, and then throw away the rest of it, it would still probably be the same price. It's ridiculous. Anyway, yeah, so the Mac Mini with 32 gigs of RAM and 512 SSD is $1,200 or double the price of the base model.

The two 50-sync gig N chips that come with the second Mac Mini and somehow harvest the SSD, so the stuff that comes with the other Mac Mini, and then throw away the rest of it, it would still probably be the same price. It's ridiculous. Anyway, yeah, so the Mac Mini with 32 gigs of RAM and 512 SSD is $1,200 or double the price of the base model.

That's what we mean when we say Apple's upgraded prices are ridiculous. It's not like they're just a little bit more expensive. When I say like six times more expensive, I'm not exaggerating. That's literally what they are in the most generous possible comparison. If we actually compared like what is the retail price of just those NAND chips, I couldn't find that.

That's what we mean when we say Apple's upgraded prices are ridiculous. It's not like they're just a little bit more expensive. When I say like six times more expensive, I'm not exaggerating. That's literally what they are in the most generous possible comparison. If we actually compared like what is the retail price of just those NAND chips, I couldn't find that.

So I had to go for a Samsung 990 Pro to get the price per gigabyte, but... be assured that the actual retail difference in price is probably more like seven or eight when you get down to apples to apples. And then obviously the wholesale price that applies for this is, you know, one 18th of that, but whatever.

So I had to go for a Samsung 990 Pro to get the price per gigabyte, but... be assured that the actual retail difference in price is probably more like seven or eight when you get down to apples to apples. And then obviously the wholesale price that applies for this is, you know, one 18th of that, but whatever.

And the storage, at least you can buy external and tack it on and deal with that, which is annoying, but at least you can do it. But the Ram, there's not really any option. If you, it's, you know, it's, The RAM is soldered on, and it's also a part of the SoC package.

And the storage, at least you can buy external and tack it on and deal with that, which is annoying, but at least you can do it. But the Ram, there's not really any option. If you, it's, you know, it's, The RAM is soldered on, and it's also a part of the SoC package.