Late 2018 Mac Mini Teardown & Ram Upgrade + Re-assembly

what's going on guys today I have the brand new late 2018 Mac Mini a long needed upgrade to the Mac Mini lineup and before we do anything else I just want to unbox this tear it down and see how we upgrade the RAM what this year's model it looks like we are supposed to be able to upgrade the RAM the solid state is not upgradable as well as any other components such as the CPU and graphics card so again the only thing we can upgrade on this model is the RAM and let's go ahead and take a look at that I have some tools here with me as well but in the description I will list the completely needed tools to disassemble this Mac Mini so this is my first time doing this so again these tools aren't confirmed but in the description I will leave a link to the tools necessary so this is what this year's Mac Mini looks like on the back we have to peel the sticker first on the back we have power button power cord Ethernet the USB C ports HDMI and two USB 3.0 s as well as a headphone and possibly a microphone in Jack right there cooling vents right there and then on the front we have the light here and I assume there should be an IR emitter that's probably hidden between behind the aluminum so let's go ahead and get started let's pop off the back panel this year's model looks great with the space gray now to take off the back I'm just going to grab a credit card here and we just pry it gently up there you go the bottom is popped off I believe this is still the same type of screws as the previous year's model so I'm just going to use this screwdriver that I have already this is a t6 Torx security screw now what is special about this screwdriver is it has a hole in the center so be careful when you purchase these these aren't standard torque screwdrivers now after the bottom case is loose we're gonna pull up gently there is an antenna cable connected to this so let's find where that is and it looks it's very short so again be very careful with this we're gonna set that aside there is a small little screw in here right here you're going to take that screwdriver again the t6 loosen that up this is this is what holds the antenna in place we're going to set this screw aside and then gently we're gonna pry up on this antenna connector and there you go the antenna connector has been disconnected we're gonna set this aside here now I am going to take apart the fan so there is a screw right here at the top again same screwdriver we're using here second screw right here has been removed and there are two coming in to the side right here so I'm just going to turn this Mac Mini around and go from the side here so our two screws I'll loosen them up but they have fallen into the logic board that's okay well remove those after we take out the fan we're gonna gently peel up on the fan you'll notice there is a connector on the fan as well right there it looks like this connector you just pull straight up on like so and it pops right out so we'll set the fan aside now again those fan screws I have one here one more right here now it looks like the logic board is secured into place with these rather large torch screws I believe these are a t10 so with my screwdriver kit it looks like a t10 we'll take these screws out however you do still have a little wiggle room so maybe that is a special screwdriver but I will confirm in the description but it does look like a t10 will definitely work alright guys so after we have removed the two logic board screws which again t10 we are going to remove this one connector up top right here and we simply just pull up on it so I'll just use a screwdriver pop it up and that will remove that one and then we are going to remove the logic board connect these sorry the power supply simply just pull up on that and that disconnects after those are loose we will push against the heatsink which will push the entire logic board out of the computer there you go now once that is removed we have access to the RAM which is located right here we will need to remove these Torx screws here to get access to that but let's quickly take a look at this logic board so this is the back of it this is holding the CPU heatsink in place which connects all the way over here and the fail the fan cools and pushes the air out through there have a speaker here looks like a CMOS battery here and I believe this would be the SSD so this is Pia pci SSD which is soldered on to the motherboard which means this is not going to be user upgradeable so let's take a look at the RAM so the RAM appears to be t5 screws again t5 Torx screws and there are four screws holding in this mesh shield so we are gonna pop off this mesh shield now oh and it looks like it slides out and this gives us access to the RAM there are two rubber pieces here I'm just gonna actually remove those pieces just so you guys have a better idea of how these RAM pieces are held into place you pop these metal tabs up and you can pull the RAM right out of the logic board to install new Ram simply line up the dims and push it down into place and that will lock the RAM in there so standard four gigs and four gigs which makes up eight gigs on the base model Mac menu there you go that locks into place and I'm not entirely sure if you need to remove this wrong piece but it seems like it was helpful just to let you guys know how this works so these rubber pieces slide top down as you can see right into the metal brackets and we'll put the shield let's just reinstall everything put this shield back into place so after we have the mesh guard on we are gonna slide the logic board back into the housing and remember we're going to reconnect these two cables so that is back in there we will reconnect the power supply pushing straight down reconnect this one connector here pushing straight down again let's go ahead and secure those logic board screws after that is secured into place we can reconnect our fan again we're going to connect the connector first and that connector just goes straight down once that connector is in place we're going to put our fan in place and secure the four screws and what I like to do when I'm risa curing these is not completely screw down the screws but I will completely screw them down once I get all four of them situated that way we know that all the screws will align now we will reconnect the antenna cable this is slightly a challenge all right the connector is in now all we have to do is fasten the screw okay remember guys we don't want to move around this too much because the antenna cable is short now it will matter which way you put the screws back on because the back housing will only accept these larger screws in these places alright guys so that is gonna wrap it up for a teardown on the late 2018 Mac Mini all we have to do is place this cap back on there and we are good to go so if you guys found the video helpful please leave me a thumbs up guys please subscribe to my channel you guys are what keeps me motivated to put these videos out there without that I would not have even taken apart this Mac Mini so again please hit that like button subscribe to my channel for more tech videos as well as tear downs and I will see you guys in the next one thanks for watching

Channel: Brandon Geekabit

Views: 172,304

Keywords: new, apple, mac, mini, late, 2018, upgrade, hard drive, ssd, ram, memory, how to, teardown, take apart, remove, install, screwdriver, torx, repair, assemble, disassemble, unboxing, review, imac, iphone, ipad, pro, desktop, windows, dell, acer, gaming, macbook, air, os x, ios

Id: 2UrSLnnMyeg

Length: 11min 13sec (673 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 07 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/ZZZ_123]

Great video and hats off to the guy for taking the time and energy to share it but.....

ORGANIZE AND SECURE YOUR SCREWS!

Keep them organized and sorted by removal order so you know where and when they go back in.

If you have one, use a white towel to work on. That way the screw won't roll off and into the floor Void of hell. Plus you'll not scratch the top of the Mini.