How much time I'm looking to spend? Upgrade.

[boneca]

Hi guys,

All my MacMini upgrade parts are finally arrived.
I'm trying to figure out more or less estimate as how much time this upgrade will take.

The upgrades are:
Pioneer 8X DL SuperDrive,
Hitachi 60GB 72K RPM HardDrive
AirPort/Bluetooth Kit.
I might do overclock as well but I’ll see about that.

TAIA

 

[MattG]

Hi guys,

All my MacMini upgrade parts are finally arrived.
I'm trying to figure out more or less estimate as how much time this upgrade will take.

The upgrades are:
Pioneer 8X DL SuperDrive,
Hitachi 60GB 72K RPM HardDrive
AirPort/Bluetooth Kit.
I might do overclock as well but I’ll see about that.

TAIA

Nice

Well, it's easy enough to open up. It only took me a few minutes to upgrade the RAM in mine. No idea about the other stuff though.

 

[emw]

I've never replaced the drives in a mini, but did swap an optical in my PowerBook. It could take a little bit of time to do that, but I'd think longer would be getting everything set back up on the new HD. Do you have an external FW enclosure or drive that you'll be using to backup your current drive and move it over?

 

[boneca]

thanks guys, I forgot to mention that I did upgrade memory to 1GB a while ago, so I do know how to open the case.

As for backing up stuff. I have it on network and I don't really have that much on it (maybe 10GB) so I'll back up everything before doing it. I assume I'll be able to hookup my current hard drive externaly later if I needed to grab something else?

 

[emw]

I assume I'll be able to hookup my current hard drive externaly later if I needed to grab something else?

You'll need some time of connector/enclosure to do it, but it is possible.

 

[boneca]

You'll need some time of connector/enclosure to do it, but it is possible.

yes I have external 2.5" USB enclosure, which I don't really use on a day to day basis and its not super fast ether but I guess it will do if I need to look for something.
I might even be able to boot from it which I'm not looking to do anyway.

 

[wdlove]

Good luck with your upgrade work boneca. You will then have a really awesome Mac mini.

 

[stevep]

http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=Video/mini/high.html
This link will tell you, run the video and time it - there's your answer. (you'll need to add on the time taken to d/l the video, its 199 mB.......but there are lower quality ones available to d/l here http://eshop.macsales.com/tech_center/index.cfm?page=Video/directory.html)

 

[boneca]

Just wanted to update you guys with my results.
Its all took me about 30min (without installation the OS of cause), pretty easy task(s).

I can feel noticeable performance gain after upgrading the HD from 42K to 72K RPM, I haven't tested the SuperDrive yet (it did read fine while installing Tiger), the AirPort and Bluetooth working fine even I'm not planning to use AirPort since I'm on wired LAN.

Thanks everybody for the help.
p.s. after looking at jumpers and reading some suggestions here and there I decided not to do overclocking at this time.

 

[stevep]

Sounds like a good job you've done there - How old is your mac mini? Now that you've done it do you feel it was a worthwhile upgrade?

 

[swiftaw]

thanks guys, I forgot to mention that I did upgrade memory to 1GB a while ago, so I do know how to open the case.

I have a mini with 512MB and was thinking of upgrading to 1GB. How noticeable was the performance increase when you added the RAM? Significant?

 

[boneca]

Sounds like a good job you've done there - How old is your mac mini? Now that you've done it do you feel it was a worthwhile upgrade?

I put order for MacMini 10 min after Steve presented it in SanFran first time. So I believe mine is one of the first Minis out there.

I think it would be much better if I bought higher configured Mini to begin with but I didn't even know at the time If I'll like it or not, so after playing with it for some time (upgrading memory to 1GB almost right away and upgrading to Tiger when it came out) I felt that upgrade is needed.
I didn't play that much with new upgraded machine yet, but I did feel difference right after upgrade.

 

[boneca]

I have a mini with 512MB and was thinking of upgrading to 1GB. How noticeable was the performance increase when you added the RAM? Significant?

I went from 256MB to 1GB and performance was very very noticeable. If you can do it, just buy known brand memory.
Don’t try to save $20 on something that might fail you latter.