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Anyone damage your mini upgrading it?

U

urbanskywalker

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Apr 30, 2007
255
0
If you have opened up your new mini did you damage it while making the upgrade?

I'm trying to decide if it's worth the hassle to upgrade myself. I get the education price which already cuts the price by $150. I estimate that I would save another $150 by upgrading the base model, plus I would end up with a faster drive.

How easy is it too damage the case with putty knife? I did upgrade my imac 2.4ghz to a larger hard drive. It was a bit stressful and I ended up breaking a plastic clip that holds the screen in place.
 
It's really hard not to scratch some of the white plastic on the bottom even with a near razor thin putty knife. Not that you'll ever see that damage...
 
If youve worked on and inside computers before, and you go slow, its not that bad. I opened my old mini 3 times. Never left a mark on it.
 
urbanskywalker said:
I get the education price which already cuts the price by $150. I estimate that I would save another $150 by upgrading the base model, plus I would end up with a faster drive.
Click to expand...

Do different places give different amounts off? Education discount for me on the base Mini is $50.
 
I didn't damage mine when i upgraded the RAM (Core Duo Mac Mini). But I like doing the work on my computers. It's a very easy upgrade, and if you're careful, and not drunk, you'll be fine!
 
In Canada the high end mini gives you $150 off. The low end is less....Thanks for the tips I'm going to give it a try. I'll probably get the faster CPU to start with and then add ram and a 7200 rpm drive.
 
My razor sharp putty knife scraped some of the plastic off; it's not even visible.
 
I had to work the case open with a putty knife (standard thickness) and a flathead screwdriver. It was a pain in the butt to get it started but once you start getting one side open the rest go a little easier. Another thing you have to be careful with is lining up the top and bottom when putting it back together. Mine has some scratches but all the damage is on the bottom and you'll never be able to tell anyways.
 
You know, someone should design a tool for folks that want to upgrade their Mini. There would be a lot of money that could come from that. Make it $5 and you would make a ton.
 
I didn't have a putty knife laying around, so I used 2 butter knives to open my new Mini. Super easy and I didn't harm the Mini at all. :)
 
Pizza cutter

I opened up my G4 Mac mini last year. My putty knife wasn't thin enough. I ended up using a pizza cutter, which worked like a charm.
 
I damaged the wireless board

Well I DID damage my brand new mini 2009 while upgrading it: I disconnected the two smaller antennas from their wireless board instead of removing their spring-loaded heads.
Big mistake: one of the tiny, rickety contactor sockets on the board self-destroyed (hum...) when I put the antennas back in place (even though I was being very delicate with my paws). Result: dead blutooth.

Fix option 1: get a wireless board replacement from apple. Price, availability? Not smelling good...
Fix option 2: I headed for a local electronician's workshop, who permanently soldered the antenna wire onto the board. Cheap and effective (and not that ugly either I must say).

Conclusion: absolutely avoid disconnecting antenna cables form the board !!!
 
sombrenouille said:
Well I DID damage my brand new mini 2009 while upgrading it: I disconnected the two smaller antennas from their wireless board instead of removing their spring-loaded heads.
Big mistake: one of the tiny, rickety contactor sockets on the board self-destroyed (hum...) when I put the antennas back in place (even though I was being very delicate with my paws). Result: dead blutooth.

Fix option 1: get a wireless board replacement from apple. Price, availability? Not smelling good...
Fix option 2: I headed for a local electronician's workshop, who permanently soldered the antenna wire onto the board. Cheap and effective (and not that ugly either I must say).

Conclusion: absolutely avoid disconnecting antenna cables form the board !!!
Click to expand...

When I opened up my Mac mini to upgrade the hard drive, one of my Airport antennas was not only not connected to the wireless board, but there was nothing on the board for it to connect to. I know that I did not do this. It sounds sort of in the ball park of your problem, except from the factory for me. I wonder if this is a build quality issue.
 
bozz2006 said:
It's a very easy upgrade, and if you're careful, and not drunk, you'll be fine!
Click to expand...

Well there's the quote of this thread! LOL

I upgraded both my iMac and my Mac Mini, actually my iMac got a new core2 cpu (early 2006 - original white intel iMac) and my mini got the CPU from my iMac (1.6??? to 2.0 core duo). I also upgraded the drive in my mini.

The take apart is easy, there's not that many parts in there. There's video guides online (ifixit and others) that show you step by step how to get it apart. I was a little nervous about screwing it up, but it wasn't bad at all, you just have to remember to put everything back where it came from.

The process will leave a little mark on the plastic unless you can find the plastic putty knife to do the job. It's not noticeable at all once it's right side up again.

If you want to do the drive upgrade, get yourself an external drive that has the model drive you want, this way you have a small backup drive when your done. It's also nice to duplicate the drive so you don't have to reinstall.

It's a shame they soldered the CPU's on the new minis. It really stunts their upgrade path just to save the cost on the socket.
 
I managed to break the tiny nub off that keeps the front most antenna from swiveling. Other than that, a problem/scratch free RAM and hard drive upgrade to the Mini.
 
Forget this, I'm getting Apple to put 4Gb RAM in for me , I 'know I know ..it's a bit more expensive, but not that much and if I have any hassle with the machine down the line-I don't have to take it apart again to put original RAM back in...for that I think the extra 20£ is worth it....+I've not enough time,....am just thinking out loud here really :eek:
 
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