iFixit

The heat sink is next to go.

Apple has really keyed in on their boomerang-style heat sink abilities—and for that, we applaud them. We know boomerangs can be tough to master.

Similar, again! We have not tried installing old 2011 Mini parts in the 2012 Mini, but we are certainly not ruling out the possibility!

A series of screws and tightly wrapped antenna cables secure the rear I/O panel shield to the logic board.

A few twists of our precision aluminum driver with a T6 Torx bit and some cable de-routing is all it takes to remove the shield.

Some mini players on the top of the not-so-mini logic board:

• Cirrus Logic 4206B Audio Controller
• SMSC USB2512B USB Hub Controller
• Broadcom BCM57765 gigabit ethernet and memory card controller
• Intel L232TB45 Thunderbolt Port Controller
• LSI L-FW643E-2
• AELTA 8904C-F

The rear side of the logic board:

• Intel E224B809 platform controller hub
• Intel V227C254 2.5 GHz dual-core i5
• SMSC 1428-7 system management bus temperature sensor
• Parade PS8401A HDMI/DVI level shifter
• AELTA 8904C-F
• LM4FS1AH

Tucked away neatly near the rear of the Mini is the hard drive.

Our model came with a 500 GB Hitatchi hard drive.

The Mini is one of the Macs launched with the Fusion Drive.

• Apple's Fusion Drive is not to be confused with the Impulse Fusion Drive of Star Trek.

Next up, we displace the power of the Mini.

It is beginning to feel repetitive to say how repetitive Apple is in the design of the Mini; nonetheless, the power supply appears identical to last year's model.

• In this case, we have to say that repetition is a good thing, as the Mini continues to be one of the most repairable devices that Apple produces.

Just like last year, the power supply provides 85 watts to the Mac Mini—that's the same kind of electric juice as the AC adapter for a 15" or 17" MacBook Pro.

We were especially curious to see if this new Mac Mini is still compatible with our dual hard drive upgrade kit, so we got to testing it!

Following along with our own guide for the 2011 model was a snap, and everything fit perfectly.

After a quick reassembly, we booted this guy up for the first time—with 50% extra storage. Success!

Mac Mini Mid 2012 Repairability: 8 out of 10 (10 is easiest to repair).

• No proprietary screws are found within the device.
• You can easily upgrade your RAM and hard drive, as well as add a secondary drive.
• There's no glue anywhere inside that needs to be removed while disassembling the Mini.
• The CPU is soldered to the logic board and not user-upgradeable.
• While not difficult to do, you still have to remove almost all the internals in order to replace the power supply.