Back in May I ordered from Ali Express a 2TB DIY (Do it Yourself) upgrade kit for my 256GB M4 Mac Mini. When I bought the bottom of the range 256GB M4 Mac Mini, I knew it was going to be challenging to fit my Photography and Videography work into such a small space. But hey money was tight and the 512GB version was an extra QAR 700. Yes I’ll say that again, QAR 700 for an extra 256GB taking me up to 512GB.
Anyway I took the risk, and ordered my M4 Mac MIni with its challenging 256GB of internal storage. And of course a couple of months later, I regretted my decision as my internal SSD began to fill up. Silly me…. I should have ordered the 512GB version even though it would have stung a lot for me to part with my hard earned money for what I considered to be an absolutely rip-off price.
Then on YouTube I started seeing videos showing how you can easily buy and install yourself, a 2TB internal SSD. I was delighted! I watched as many videos as I could showing how easy it was to do this upgrade yourself. And then once I was convinced that this was something I could do, I ordered one from Ali Express for USD 240 (QAR 870) including delivery to Qatar.
That was back in mid May 2025. And then I did nothing! I was so afraid of fitting this myself, I kept putting off fitting it.
Then finally, a couple of days ago. More than two months after receiving the upgrade kit, I decided to stop procrastinating, and get the job done.
The tools to undertake the work come with the SSD. So I watched a couple of videos one more time, before plucking up the courage to preform surgery on my beloved M4 Mac Mini.
Time to complete: Around 3 hours including using Time Machine to backup my existing SSD, fitting the new drive, and reinstalling the Time Machine backup I had made at the beginning of the process.
It was nerve racking, and I hated every moment. But to my amazement, at the end of the process, I had a working 2TB M4 Mac Mini.
So the total price of my 2TB M4 Mac Mini was QAR 2,500 for the Mac Mini, plus QAR 870 for the upgrade kit = QAR 3,370. BARGAIN!!! Just QAR 200 more than buying the 512GB version.
But in conclusion, I would recommend avoiding doing an upgrade yourself, and just buy a minimum of 512GB when you purchase your Mac Mini. I had no choice other than upgrading once I realised 256GB is just too small for my work. I hated taking my Mac Mini apart, and would not wish the stress of getting it wrong on anyone. I got away with it!
