Hardware

Is Mac mini RAM made from unicorn fur and strands of Steve Jobs’ DNA?

Mac mini RAM
RAM rip-off: Apple's memory prices are ludicrous

It seems unlikely, but given the way that Apple is pricing RAM upgrades in its newly revamped Mac mini, it’s the only logical explanation.

The base spec of the new Mac mini comes with a meagre 8GB of RAM – what I’d regard as the bare minimum for a new computer in 2018, let alone one costing £800. Even the slightly punchier £1,100 spec only ships with 8GB. 

However, Apple made a huge song and dance about the Mac mini supporting up to 64GB of RAM at Tuesday’s launch, which indeed it does – but you’ll pay a stinging, entirely unjustifiable premium to get it pre-loaded on your Mac mini.

Mac Mini upgrade

As you can see from the screenshot above, boosting the memory all the way to 64GB adds an outrageous £1,260 to the price – more than doubling the cost of either of the default specs. 

To give you a comparison, Corsair will see you two of the 16GB 2,666MHz DDR4 SODIMM’s used inside the Mac mini for £250. Tim Cook wants you to pay £540.

Apple is, frankly, fleecing people who pay to have it installed at the factory.

Apple advocates will argue that you can upgrade the RAM inside the Mac mini yourself, but it doesn’t seem the job will be as straightforward as popping memory in the vacant slots. 

When ZDNet asked Apple if users could upgrade their own memory, they were told the “Mac mini is configurable up to 64GB and uses industry-standard DDR4 SO-DIMMs. While we don’t consider the memory directly end-user accessible, service providers can access the internals of the Mac mini to upgrade the memory.”

Apple has no need to spank customers who want to upgrade their system’s memory. It is the fattest of cash cows. This memory price gouging needs to stop.

Now read this: How do I silence the Mac startup blang?

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About the author

Barry Collins

Barry has scribbled about tech for almost 20 years for The Sunday Times, PC Pro, WebUser, Which? and many others. He was once Deputy Editor of Mail Online and remains in therapy to this day. Email Barry at barry@bigtechquestion.com.

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