We made the Mac mini ACTUALLY mini!

The M1 Mac mini isn’t very mini. In this video, we fix that.

0:00 The M1 Mac mini Could Be Smaller
1:27 Cracking It Open
4:05 How Can We Shrink It?
5:22 The Elephant in the Room; The PSU
9:00 Making A New, Smaller Case
13:03 Final Assembly

The M1 Mac mini launched to warm reception as the previously compromise-ridden form factor found a home with the more efficient Apple Silicon chip; however, it quickly became apparent that the Mac mini was a lot bigger than it really *needed* to be. We’ve been working for the last six months to change that, and it’s finally done. Mac nano? Mac mini mini? Tiny Mac? Call it whatever you want, but it’s awesome.

[macaddress]

This turned out great! You made the Mac Mini Apple should have released over a year ago.

[ArtemisKitty]

I came up with a no-glue trick for the gnurled inserts: print them with holes large enough to fit the inserts into, then after the wash and dry, but before the cure, put screws in the inserts to prevent any getting in there, brush a little resin on the sides and put a tiny amount in the hole (q-tips work best for this, I find), then press them in and cure them in place. Oh, and if you have a handy blank board to make sure they stay straight, just use extensions to lift it up away from the resin, while still keeping them in their proper holes.
Edit: I personally have an Elegoo Mars 2 Pro, so I came up with this for my Arduino and raspberry pi housing projects, but I think it's reasonable to expect it to behave the same in this case. Just a bigger print area, after all.
Edit 2: Make sure to keep a tissue handy for any extra that squeezes out when you press the inserts in, unless you don't care about a permanent "wet" looking bump where it cures.

[KaisuiSTFC]

Dude this is like a raspberry pi on steroids! i really want one not gonna lie even if im more of a laptop guy... but that's truly mini, love all the effort you put to bring us quality content!

[devnol]

That magsafe cable is intended for laptops for a reason. It falls off far more easier than the round one the iMac uses and if you accidentally knock it off when the mac mini is running... Well, you can imagine the results.

[VarunVasudeva]

The amount of work put into this project is insane, the mod looks amazing. Kind of hope the refresh looks exactly like that but in aluminum

[The-Rest-of-Us]

Really nice! Actually makes you realise we miss Jony Ive after all, he wouldn't have put up with this - especially not when Steve was also still around. They would have rebranded it as the "Paper Mac" and made it all into one slim sheet of metal or whatever fancy idea have you. Oh well.

[MattTalkTech]

Great video!! I want one of your Mac Mini "Mini's" It does look SO Cool!!!

[matt]

This is hands down, one of the best tech videos I’ve seen on YouTube in quite some time. Great job Quinn!!!

[jasonspegel]

Dude I’ve been a subscriber of this channel since before you left for Peru, I even remember techno buffalo reading the letter you would send him to read, and it’s incredible the level of quality you’ve been able to maintain

The best YouTube channel going and it’s not even close

[zollotech]

Fantastic build and thorough as always.

[alexisa]

Wow, this is one of the coolest DIY kind I've ever seen, love it!

[impatrickt]

That intro made me poo my pants it was edited so crazy. Instant pants poo. Now I need new pants.

[Fection]

Glad this is out! Good thing you dropped this video before the eventual refresh event! Keep up the great videos Snazzy :D

[fredfunn]

This is so cool. Great job. I've always thought the M1 Mac Mini could be shrunken down to the size of the Apple TV if Apple had taken even 10 minutes to think about a redesign. The 3D printed casing is so cool. I have an idea to make it even cooler. What if you can mix in some glow-in-the-dark powder to make the casing glow when the lights are off?

[ImaMac-PC]

*_"The Snazzy Mac Nano...that fits in your pocket! "_* Love it! Thanks for sharing such a cool project. This project really shows off the Lab in Snazzy Labs!

[Bboezio]

Hello,
Isn't there another way for the power supply, like keeping the whole magsafe cable and just connecting its usb-c end to another power adapter?
Or maybe we can replace the magsafe 2 with a magsafe 3, and since it works with m1 processors.... Wouldn't that work?
If not, how do you do the wire assembly?
Thank you in advance,

[phillipgoat]

Nice project dude. can't recommend the m1 enough, even as a ryzen user, this machine delivered. As a daily driver I am not going back. The future looks brilliant, and I can imagine my kids will be enjoying the 1nm (or less than) architecture.

[MariusTechz]

This reminds me the old good days of iPod mini, when we thought Apple couldn't made it smaller, and they did it with the nano! So, the name for me could be Mac nano!

[marsgizmo]

Amazing project Quinn! 👏😎
And great video!

[philrussell]

Wonderful build, I want one! The only issue I have is your decision to use a MagSafe connector for power. Too easy to knock it loose when you're messing with the other cable connections. Because it doesn't have a battery, that hard-crashes the computer. MagSafe is purpose-designed for laptops where the issue is someone yanking the cord, and the presence of a battery keeps it from crashing if that happens. If you insist on MagSafe, you should add a little retaining clip that keeps it attached.