For anyone here who's into Macs like I've slowly become, I wanted to share a little project that's been on my mind for some time....

Observe

http://www.123macmini.com/forums/vie...=140926#140926

Cliffs,

Took an Intel version of Macmini 1.5Ghz Core Solo and upgraded it to Intel 2.16 Core 2 Duo T7400 Merom processor.

-Also Upgraded the RAM from 512 measly MB to Kingston Hyper X 2GB DDR2 RAM and also upgraded the HD from a 60GB Seagate 5400 RPM to 250GB West. Dig. 7200RPM HD.

One word.....FAST!!!!

Time to load parallels so I can run Vista and XP along with Leopard 10.5.5...

Any questions...please feel free to ask

 

That's awesome! I wanna do it! lol

Is the 2.16 C2D the fastest processor the current Minis are compatible with?

 

thats GREAT. im buying one today

 

Go for it! I've already found a few good dealson Ebay right now ...

Total cost for me was about 675ish for the system and all upgrades including RAM and Hard Drive. I still came out way ahead vs. buying a brand new Core 2 Duo Mac Mini from Apple with less stats for $799.99



Nope. you can go up to the T7600 Merom processor which is the 2.33Ghz Core 2 Duo....They're alot more expensive and I would only recommend it if you've gotta have the latest fastest processor in this platform.

For me it didn't make sense to get it since its only like what 150MHz more for another $200.00.

Check this out...

Newegg and just about everyone else sells the T7600 for $645.99. The T7400 I bought still retails for $429.99. Either processor is awesome and will fit your Mac needs (assuming they're like mine) extremely well. If you guys end up doing the upgrade the way I did mine though, you'll come out way ahead and save big $$ doing so

Sidenote...there's a guy in Chicago are selling his G4 Macmini for 150.00 right now...here's thelink for that

 

Dammit!!! The edit rule got me ^ ^. What I was trying to say was, I just found out about that ad. If I had the extra cash I'd grab the mini for the hell of it. Even the G4 unit with 1 GB of OCZ Platinum PC3200 Performance Ram ( 2-3-2-5 timings) is very fast and runs leopard or tiger with ease.

The Ram would set you back about 40.00 on Amazon while a 250 GB 5400RPM Western Digital IDE Notebook Hard Drive would be about 90.00 from Microcenter or Newegg....

Total cost....

150+ 90+ 40 = 280! Grab the flat aluminum keyboard for another 50.00 and hook up your mouse and monitor and you my friend have one nice Mac system for way under 500! Not bad IMO

Let me know when you guys do this. There are some tips/utilities I can share to keep your system in optimum shape

 

Holy crap that is sweet. Are you worried about the extra heat generated by the faster processor?

That sounds like a great little 'puter! Please share more details!

Also, is there any way to upgrade the graphics on it or does it use an onboard graphics chipset?

 

Unfortunately its got the Intel graphics chipset. Not much we can do there (yet)....

However, when I use my HDTV tuner, and run more apps simultaneously, the CPU temp hovers between 55C-56C while the ambient temp stays put around 49 degrees C....These Core 2 Duos run cooler than the older processors so no problems there.

When Idle and have no apps running, the CPU sits at 50-52C while the ambient temp stays at 49C.

Funny thing is the fan likes to run @ 1500 RPM sometimes speeding up to 1600-1700 range then back down again to 1500. Its so quiet I have to look at iStat to see what's going on.

The best part, is the system is still cool to the touch the bottom part of the case(where the processor is) gets a little warm but not hot if that makes sense. I love it and regret not doing this a while back. I haven't used my PC in the past 2 weeks...well maybe once while I was upgrading the processor to look up stuff but that's about it

 

Dang, that sounds very impressive man! Rep points to you.

What's the largest size screen you can run with this machine? I'm not too familar with this particular apple model. Also, are you running Leopard on it?

 

Thanks! I'm running Leopard 10.5.5 and the mini's slicing and dicing whatever I toss at it. I've got this Samsung 22" monitor right here with 1680x1050 res. As for the max res the mini is capable of, I'm not sure.

I did happen to find some photos of people hooking these up to their HDTVs @ home which is what I'm going to do when I get a bigger TV

http://www.123macmini.com/gallery/th...ls.php?album=2

Sidenote....why do I have the feeling I just sold like 10 of these in the past hour haha...Apple owes me some $$$

 

WTF.....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...m=370095666474

How in the hell did I miss this? 10??? That would have been a steal for a T7600 chip no one bid on. Damn

 

dude, you could have bought the chip for $10, modded the mini, and sold it for profit to someone that wanted one.

 

I wish I could afford to do this. Actually how much do you think all of this cost you to do?

 

I know...I had it on my Ebay watch list and literally fell out the chair when I saw what it closed for ...WITH NO BIDS!!!!!!! 10.00 was the starting price. I'm like WTF, just 2 weeks ago, I was in an intense bidding war for the same processor but fell back once the price crept over 300.00

That auction sold for 330.00 for the SAME chip!! grr

We gotta keep looking. Deals like this pop up from time to time. Maybe the seller didn't advertise right...


Altogether I paid 675.00

385.00 for the 1.5Ghz Core Solo Mac Mini on ebay
150.00 shipped for the T7400 processor also on ebay
90 for the West. Digital 250GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive neggegg
50 for 2GB Kingston Hyper X DDR2 RAM also from newegg
0 for Leopard 10.5.5 since I had it already
_______
=675.00 Sir!!! well 685.00 if you count the cool silver USB 4 port hub I picked up @ Microcenter.....

 

Just look at how much this Mini with the T7600 is fetching for on Ebay...

http://cgi.ebay.com/Apple-Mac-Mini-2...d=p3286.c0.m14

Hmm I may have a lil business on my hands heh heh...

Its a 1 day auction and already has 11 bids. These things sell fast

 

Damn, that sounds like a pretty damn good price for how much power it has in such a small space.

Do you think the board can support 4GB of RAM?

 

Depends... My board was the first of the Intel ones. So it maxes out at 2GB DDR2 RAM while the boards that came with the core 2 duo models can handle up to 4GB DDR2 RAM. Since I knew about the is going in, I made sure I was getting the best of everything.

The core 2 duos can be had around 60 bucks more on Ebay. I saw one sell about 430 this week if I remember correctly.

The only caviat is that Leopard recognizes 3GB at the moment. Come on Apple!! Release that firmware update so folks can use that extra gig

 

Why does Leopard only recognize 3GB? Is that a motherboard issue? My MBP recognizes all 4GB on my machine except when I'm booted into XP via Boot Camp, then it only recognizes 3GB.

 

^ ^

Answers are here

http://www.123macmini.com/forums/vie...42e4eb1f78dd7a

They say the limitations are of the board itself...others say its the software addressing the 4 GB of RAM...yet I've heard stories of Leopard being able to handle 32GBs of RAM easily. To be honest I'm not sure yet because I haven't tried it myself.

One day I'll be the test mule today...I'm ok with 2GB of Hyper X RAM!

 

Here's another link

scroll down about 1/2 way

http://www.123macmini.com/forums/vie...42e4eb1f78dd7a

 

Hmm, maybe I will do this and then sell my G4 mini.
Did the core solo come with a DVD burner? That's one feature I need to continue to have.

 

Some of them did. Mine didn't but I have an external burner so I'm fine for now. I'll add a new drive when they finally come out with blue ray super drives for macbooks/ mac minis etc

The good thing doopstr is that you can find super drives on ebay for under 100.

http://shop.ebay.com/?_from=R40&_trk...All-Categories

Some guy on 123macmini.com said he found one for 30.00. If If I come across a deal like that, I'll snatch up a super drive myself just for the heck of it

 

I guess I'll just have to keep my eye out for deals on eBay.

 

Thunder, I see a few on there right now

Also check out the core duos as well. They make a good source to upgrade from as well.