turbulentfurball's Mac Mini project

[turbulentfurball]

At present, I have the original base model Intel Mac Mini:

1.5Ghz Core Solo
512MB RAM
60GB HDD


Over the next three months or so, I'm going to upgrade all of these components to make it a bit snappier™, and an all round excellent media centre. I've just won an auction on eBay for a 1.66Ghz Core Duo for a tidy sum of £11.50. I know it's not a massive increase in speed, but it should make playing HD video that little bit better. This is the scariest part of the project, so I'm doing it first. That way, if I break it irreparably I won't have wasted my time and money on the RAM and HD.

After I've done this, I'm going to buy three 1GB sticks of RAM (the third is for my MacBook, resulting in both the Mini and the MB having 2GB each). This shouldn't be too difficult I'd imagine.

Finally, I'm going to buy the largest Hard Drive I can afford. Hypothetically, if I go for a 250GB model, I'll BootCamp 50GB with the remainder for Leopard. I want to explore all methods of legally acquiring HD content, and that will unfortunately include going down the Windows route. I haven't looked into it much yet, though.

Further down the line, I might buy an Xbox360 HD DVD drive and play with that in Windows should HD DVD finally die; in which case I'd imagine I might be able to pick up both the drive and some movies on the cheap. However, I'd have to investigate if that would actually work. I don't know what the software is capable of; I doubt the MacMini is HDCP capable, but I'll look into it before buying anything. (If anyone could enlighten me on this, I'd be grateful)

This (http://www.o0o.it/mini/) seems to be a good resource to help me along the way. That said, I'm still shit scared about doing the brain transplant.

Any advice or encouragement would be gratefully received! There's no real point to this thread, but I just wanted to share my little project.

And finally, I know I could just give up now; buy an AppleTV for HD rentals when they arrive on these shores and sell the Mini, but that's no fun is it?! :lol:

[beardedmacuser]

Interesting, let us know how it goes. What socket type does the mini CPU use? The photos in the link you provided don't look like a standard socket 775 CPU.

Oh, if you really want to improve your hard drive performance and capacity have you considered using an external 3.5 inch drive hooked-up directly to the internal SATA connector?

http://katastrophos.net/andre/blog/2006/11/02/the-mac-mini-external-sata-hack/

I reckon that'd give you as significant a performance boost as anything else. If I owned an Intel mini, it's what I'd do straight away.

But good luck, be patient, and don't be afraid to pause and think about what you're doing if you're uncertain!

[turbulentfurball]

The Intel Mini, MacBook, MacBook Pro and iMac all use Socket M (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socket_M).

I hadn't considered going with an external SATA drive, but I'll certainly look into it. I'm more interested in increased capacity than performance, tbh. I'll do whatever works out the cheapest.

[Yonzie]

I wouldn't say changing the CPU of an Mini is very much harder than changing out the harddrive... You need to take a bit more apart, but it isn't much and it'll be fine as long as you don't muscle it.

[turbulentfurball]

It's making sure that I attach the heatsink properly without frying the CPU that I'm most worried about. I've swapped out most parts of a PC before with no problem, but I've never touched a CPU.

[Kyros]

You really don't have much to worry about. It should be easy to remove and replace the CPU itself, and as for the heatsink, just make sure you put as little thermal paste as possible while still having a solid layer. Thermal paste, it turns out, is not that good of a thermal conductor, however it is a lot better than air. Thermal paste will help conduct heat since the metal will not connect perfectly, since it's not perfectly flat. If you use too much, it won't be effective though. I hope that makes sense to you.

edit: Also, the computer will almost certainly crash and shut down before actually ruining the CPU.

[beardedmacuser]

I hadn't considered going with an external SATA drive, but I'll certainly look into it. I'm more interested in increased capacity than performance, tbh. I'll do whatever works out the cheapest.

Yeah, you'll get a heck of a lot more storage for your cash if you go down the external route. 2.5 inch drives are great for laptops, but they're such a compromise in a desktop*. Come-on Apple, if you can squeeze a 3.5 inch drive into Time Capsule why not a new Mac mini?



* says someone who until recently ran two 2.5 inch hard drives (RAID 0) in my full-size ATX Windows box (they were beautifully quiet drives lying around spare)!

[Yonzie]

It's making sure that I attach the heatsink properly without frying the CPU that I'm most worried about. I've swapped out most parts of a PC before with no problem, but I've never touched a CPU.AFAIK, the CPU in the Mini does not have a heat spreader, making it less prone to sticking to the heatsink, so you shouldn't have any trouble during disassembly (modern CPUs (before Intels current Socket 775) with big heatspreaders have a tendency to stick extremely well to the heatsink, and come out of the socket when trying to get the heatsink off).
Regarding thermal compound, Apple has already applied a liberal amount, and it should be enough to work fine without adding any. If you choose to clean it off and apply new stuff, you really shouldn't worry about the thickness. The heatsink will squish the excess out. No need to be wasteful of course, a super-thin layer is enough, but no need to worry either. Too much is (a lot!) better than too little.

[turbulentfurball]

I'm going to need new thermal grease without a doubt. It's solid.

I've broken one of the spring loaded clips that holds in the heatsink. I found this from google:

After the fifth or sixth time removing our Intel Mini's heatsink for our Monster Mini project, we damaged one of the spring-loaded plastic posts that secure the heatsink, breaking off the catch on the end that fits through the motherboard and launching both post and spring into the air. (We put the failure down to parts fatigue, although you could reasonably call it abuse to remove and replace the heatsink that many times.)

Running with only three posts anchoring the heatsink is not an option: A very brief test showed that CPU core temperatures immediately jumped to 90 degrees Celsius. That heatsink is vital and needs even pressure on all four corners to stay in perfect contact with the exposed surface of the CPU.

Thanks to some advice from a long-time friend, we found that a one-inch 4-40 nylon screw (with nylon hex nut and washers) makes an excellent replacement, so much so that we've now replaced all of the posts with nylon screws.

I guess this should be okay. Any other ideas? It's going to have to wait a few days before I put it back together.

[turbulentfurball]

Bump.
Any ideas? My Mac Mini is sitting in pieces on my desk. Stupid bloody plastic heatsink post things!

[turtle]

I'd follow their lead and use the nylon screws. It really sounds like a better way anyway.

[turbulentfurball]

I just need to find somewhere that actually sells them. I got laughed at in a PC store when I told him it was for a Mac. Ass hat.

[PB PM]

Try a hardware store.

[turbulentfurball]

One final thought... what does '4-40' actually mean? So I'll know what I'm talking about. heh.

[Schnauzer]

I'm going to need new thermal grease without a doubt. It's solid.


Dude are you serious? Of course you would need new thermal grease, it dries with in like 5-15 minutes after putting on. If you are replacing a CPU you should know that at the very least. Wow. Good luck with finding the screws, they seem like they should work. Also what thermal paste are you going to use? I would recommend OCZ (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3522883&CatId=503) I used it when building a quad core, works good.

It's making sure that I attach the heatsink properly without frying the CPU that I'm most worried about.

If you don't set it right the first time don't worry, the computer will shut itself off before it fries. It might take you a few tries to get the right amount of paste in there for your first time. For some pics check out this site here. (http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=21134) You can use an alcohol pad to wipe off the old dried paste.

[LudwigVan]

One final thought... what does '4-40' actually mean? So I'll know what I'm talking about. heh.

Probably size and thread count. (Speculation based on this site (http://www.smallparts.com/products/descriptions/mn-h.cfm).)

[turtle]

I'm pretty sure that's exactly what they were referring too.

[beardedmacuser]

Hi turbulentfurball, how's your Mac mini upgrading going?

[Schnauzer]

Hi turbulentfurball, how's your Mac mini upgrading going?

I also have been waiting for an update... Hows the project going?

[turbulentfurball]

Oh, it's not. I've not been able to get hold of the god-damned screws. It's sitting in pieces. :(

[Eugene]

The 4 is the diameter, and the 40 is the thread density. The problem with nuts and bolts is they don't provide any leeway in terms of tension and since there's no heatspreader on the CPU it's not at all hard to chip the die itself. I've done it before...

[colivigan]

Oh, it's not. I've not been able to get hold of the god-damned screws. It's sitting in pieces. :(
I'm sure you could get them online. Googling "nylon screws" turns up a bunch of possibilities, like this one (http://www.fastener-express.com/index.asp?PageAction=VIEWCATS&Category=252).

[turbulentfurball]

It does, but finding a UK supplier was trickier. I found this (http://www.altecweb.com/home.asp?cat=SubcategoryNylon+Slotted+Cheese+Head) , which should do the trick.

[colivigan]

Slotted Cheese Head FTW!

You Brits have such a way with words. :)

[turbulentfurball]

Oh hay guys.

Guess what I'm posting from?

[Kickaha]

Anything but the mini? :D

[pscates2.0]

Hey, and it only took 15 months. Rock on! :p

[turbulentfurball]

Earlier today, I was wandering around a hardware store, and I saw some small cable ties and I started thinking... So I bought some, came home and gave it a try:

http://www.turbulentfurball.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mini3.png

They are narrow enough to get through where the screws were, yet the ends are thick enough to not go all the way through. I then flipped the motherboard over, and attached another cable tie as tightly as I could, snipped the extra lengths off, and put it all back together.

http://www.turbulentfurball.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mini1.png
http://www.turbulentfurball.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/mini2.png

The case bulges a little at the bottom as the cable tie ends aren't as small screws were, but it's all good so far. I've just watched an hour long TV show in HD on BBC iPlayer, and that's pretty taxing. No issues whatsoever.

I just need to get me a wireless keyboard/trackpad thing (I'm sure such a thing must exist) so I can view web video content on my sofa to my heart's content!


(And pscates: Yeah, it sat in pieces in a cupboard for 15 months. :o )

[pscates2.0]

Looks like everything took, and is showing up properly and working.

[Dorian Gray]

Looks like everything took, and is showing up properly and working.
Looks to me like his 1 GB stick of RAM is borked. Just 512 MB showing up. ;)

But good job with the cable ties!

[turbulentfurball]

Looks to me like his 1 GB stick of RAM is borked. Just 512 MB showing up. ;)

But good job with the cable ties!

I never got round to buying the 1GB sticks. Not sure I'll bother now… for all I'm going to use it for, 512MB seems to be okay.

[turbulentfurball]

*bump*

I'm considering upgrading the CPU again so my little mini can have some Lion goodness. A core 2 duo should be fine apparently, so all I need to do is find a CPU.

[Mac+]

Good luck turby.

Seeing this thread makes me realise how quickly time passes - RIP Schnauzer. :(