[999900000999]

I don't think these even boot once the SSDs die.

Apple knows how to make money, I can buy a quality 4TB Nvme for 300$( you can definitely go lower if you want to risk it ). The upgrade to 4TB on the M4 Pro Mini is 1200$(it's not supported on the base model) , on top of 1400$ for the actual computer.

It I had to guess, most of Apple's margin is on users riding the pricing ladder up into the stratosphere.

I had an experience a few years ago at an Apple store, where this clerk refuse to sell me the cheapest m1 MacBook Air. There's probably some direction from up top which is trying convince people they need the more expensive Macs.

[hggigg]

I doubt the internal SSD is going to die before the power supply gets cooked.

If it does, you can get the SSD chips replaced. That is well proven now. Granted it needs a specialist with rework kit but they are starting to become more common now that it's an issue.

[kstrauser]

> I don't think these even boot once the SSDs die.

All Macs that I know of let you configure the boot drive. I had an older Mac Mini with a spinning HDD. I added an external SSD, set that up as the boot drive, and never touched the slow drive again. I'd be extremely surprised if you couldn't do the same with this.

[orangecat]

M-series Macs require a functioning internal drive in order to boot off external storage: https://tidbits.com/2021/05/27/an-m1-mac-cant-boot-from-an-e...

[kstrauser]

Well, I guess I'm extremely surprised, then. I don't care for that one bit.

[999900000999]

I can't find an official source, but from what I've heard the newer Macs need to boot from the internal SSD. https://www.reddit.com/r/mac/s/CZOHuFQcy4

[kersplody]

Correct, the stage 2 bootloader and system firmware must be on the SSD. The OS can then boot from an external volume.

https://support.apple.com/guide/security/boot-process-secac7...