Inspired by this thread I finally put an SSD into my mini 2,1. I plan to use it as a ”remote desktop server”.
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Intel Mac mini CPU madness - how (s)low can you go?
- Thread starter Amethyst1
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BTW, off topic, from my experience GeForce 9400M found in 2009 machines do not play nicely with (latest) Linux. The best experience seems to come from using a Linux kernel that is old enough to allow Nvidia 390 series driver. (To be fair intel open source drivers also bit rot over time from my experience).
just BGA solder a socket in place of the stock CPU
and then you can install a T9900 no problems (and whatever the slowest socketed Penryn CPU is LOL)@dosdude1 has done it
and when soldering sockets you dont have to worry about them pop corning at least LOL
something ill probably be trying myself at some point, but iv got other soldering projects to worry about first!
Once you've successfully done this - can I send you my 2009 mini's logicboard for the same surgery?
Curious is there a reason to prefer 2009 mini over 2010 mini? 2010 has slightly better graphics? I have neither right now.
At least where I live, 2010s tend to be up to twice as expensive as 2009s - not worth it just for better graphics. I also prefer the older design.
pleased to report the Intel Celeron 445 CPU does indeed work a MacPro1,1
I dont think you can make a slower Mac Pro then this LOL (not with a stock CPU/system, otherwise you could BSELing this CPU down to an 800Mhz FSB if the MP1,1 even supports that)
shot of it in tiger (complete with 64GB of RAM for the LOLs)
I have included a quote from the Post I just made in the Mac Pro sub section, on this CPU where I go into a little more detail and include El Cap and windows shots and a link to said post for those curious https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-cpu-compatibility-list.1954766/post-29518768
I dont think you can make a slower Mac Pro then this LOL (not with a stock CPU/system, otherwise you could BSELing this CPU down to an 800Mhz FSB if the MP1,1 even supports that)
shot of it in tiger (complete with 64GB of RAM for the LOLs)
I have included a quote from the Post I just made in the Mac Pro sub section, on this CPU where I go into a little more detail and include El Cap and windows shots
and a link to said post for those curious https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/mac-pro-cpu-compatibility-list.1954766/post-29518768continuing on from this
im pleased to report the Intel Celeron 445 CPU works in a MacPro1,1, LOL, I had known about this CPU for many years now, and had always been curious if it would work in a Mac Pro, its a weird single Core Socket 771 Celeron, but is based on the same Arch as the Xeons used in the MP1,1/2,1 so I wondered if it would work, well recently I finally got my mits on one and can confirm and indeed it does indeed work, with all 64GB of RAM too, hows that for unbalanced LOL
View attachment 1715167
it shows up as a Core 2 Solo in about this mac, because the MacPro1,1 Firmware does not know what this CPU is, so does not set an appropriate cpu-type number in firmware on boot (which is how OS X's about this mac figures out what CPU name to display)
now normally this would result in an an "Unknown" in about this Mac, exactly like Quad Core CPUs in a MP1,1 on stock firmware, but for the earliest of Core 2 based CPUs about this mac will actually try and guess what the CPU is even without the cpu-type value from the firmware
it is curious that Core 2 Solo is string about this Mac has since no Mac shipped with a Core 2 Solo, as a side note there is also a "Single-Core Intel Xeon" string in about this mac again curious that it is there since no mac shipped with a single core intel Xeon, I wonder if I flash this MacPro1,1 with MacPro2,1 firmware if it will report a Single Core Xeon cpu-type value instead (which I will try at some point) the Core 2 Solo/Single-Core Intel Xeon strings might also be from back in the day when you used to use CHUD tools to disabled CPU cores, which sometimes would change what about this mac would report
heres what windows/CPU-Z etc make of it for those curious
View attachment 1715170
Intel Core 2 @ 1861.72 MHz - CPU-Z VALIDATOR
[an4s5l] Validated Dump by LightBulbFun (2021-01-18 18:01:28) - MB: Apple Computer Inc. Mac-F4208DC8 - RAM: 65536 MBvalid.x86.fr
That's just awesome, the poor Mac Pro LOL! I still have to try the Celeron M 520 in the mini but I'm almost positive it'll report as a Core 2 Solo
That's just awesome, the poor Mac Pro LOL! I still have to try the Celeron M 520 in the mini but I'm almost positive it'll report as a Core 2 Solo
Yeah! (tho all things considered it did surprisingly well in El Cap LOL)
Yeah I still look forward to seeing what your Celeron M 520 does and reports as, it will be interesting to see if that reports a cpu-type in firmware
you can check by doing a ioreg -c IOPlatformDevice and looking for the cpu-type string like so from my MacPro4,1/5,1 as an example
this value is how About this Mac generally determines what to CPU name/Type to display, its technically an SMBIOS value IIRC
It's a shame Lion and up require SSSE3 - I'd love to see a 64bit P4 struggle with El Cap LOL.
Note to myself: get going!
I have been meaning to mess with that, a long time ago I did get 10.9.5 running on my P4 531 but it was very crash happy LOL
and I know there is a custom kernel somewhere for at least up to 10.10.5 that should work for a 64bit Pentium 4
as I know of someone who had a Dual P4 Xeon Paxville Dell workstation that he had put a lot of effort into getting OS X running on and working well, with a custom DSDT etc, I think it was Hervé on the osxlatitude and insanelymac forums, and I think he was running 10.5.8 or 10.6.8 all the way to 10.10.5 on it
just need to track down these legacy kernels and see whats what, (I wonder if anyone ever wrote an SSSE3 emulator kernel for 10.11.6...)
Just flashed the Above Celeron 445 MacPro1,1 to MacPro2,1 firmware and as I thought it now reports the CPU a Single-Core Intel Xeon
so I managed to get both the unused CPU strings in about this mac to display on real Mac hardware
heres the obligatory Tiger shot for this part of the forum
now its a shame I dont have a MacPro3,1 because in theory this CPU should work in that machine too (since I know the MP3,1 does still support Merom CPUs)
and as a side note I do want to get a MacPro3,1 to see if I can get E0 Stepping CPU's working in one and If I can do that only will the X5492 then work hopefully,
but in theory so will the L3014 which is a funky Single Core Penryn based LGA771 Xeon but its of the E0 stepping only sadly so wont work OOB in a MP3,1 unless I can get E0 stepping CPUs working in a 3,1 and sadly I have not found an L3014 on ebay or anything such, but being a Penryn CPU means it can run modern OS X's as it does support SSE4.1
so I managed to get both the unused CPU strings in about this mac to display on real Mac hardware
heres the obligatory Tiger shot for this part of the forum
looks like I was right on the money, flashed the machine to MacPro2,1 firmware and now indeed a cpu-type is reported and it is the Single-Core Intel Xeon Value
this is on the MacPro1,1 firmware
View attachment 1715302
and this is on the MacPro2,1 firmware
View attachment 1715303
View attachment 1715304
and for those curious heres a Geekbench 4 run (done while still on MP1,1 firmware)
MacPro1,1 - Geekbench
Benchmark results for a MacPro1,1 with an Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU 445 @ 1.86GHz processor.browser.geekbench.com
now its a shame I dont have a MacPro3,1 because in theory this CPU should work in that machine too
(since I know the MP3,1 does still support Merom CPUs)and as a side note I do want to get a MacPro3,1 to see if I can get E0 Stepping CPU's working in one and If I can do that only will the X5492 then work hopefully,
but in theory so will the L3014 which is a funky Single Core Penryn based LGA771 Xeon but its of the E0 stepping only sadly so wont work OOB in a MP3,1 unless I can get E0 stepping CPUs working in a 3,1 and sadly I have not found an L3014 on ebay or anything such, but being a Penryn CPU means it can run modern OS X's as it does support SSE4.1
With the firmware apparently that confused about the CPU, it's a wonder that your system could even boot.
so how many points is this worth
its a an original Asus EEE PC that I got in today which means an 900Mhz Pentium M based Celeron CPU running under clocked at 630Mhz, Intel GMA 900 Graphics and an 800x480 screen LOL
so of course I had to shoehorn OS X on it the Graphical artefacts are because the SSE3 emulator is a little broken in Legacy Snow leopard kernels sadly (and this is an SSE2 max CPU)
the CPU is a Celeron M 353, heres my CPU-Z Val of this system http://valid.x86.fr/3391j0 the fun thing is the CPU is of the C0 stepping so it supports NX bit which means I should also be able to run Windows 10 on here, although sadly without any graphics acceleration as they never made WDDM Drivers for GMA 900 sadly
I wish there was a BIOS mod or such to run it at full speed (there are ways to do so in windows, but not much good if your booting alternate OS's)
here are some Bonus shots of it in Tiger I do plan to try and finagle 10.4.11 onto it at some point
its a an original Asus EEE PC that I got in today
which means an 900Mhz Pentium M based Celeron CPU running under clocked at 630Mhz, Intel GMA 900 Graphics and an 800x480 screen LOLso of course I had to shoehorn OS X on it
the Graphical artefacts are because the SSE3 emulator is a little broken in Legacy Snow leopard kernels sadly (and this is an SSE2 max CPU)the CPU is a Celeron M 353, heres my CPU-Z Val of this system http://valid.x86.fr/3391j0 the fun thing is the CPU is of the C0 stepping so it supports NX bit which means I should also be able to run Windows 10 on here, although sadly without any graphics acceleration as they never made WDDM Drivers for GMA 900 sadly
I wish there was a BIOS mod or such to run it at full speed (there are ways to do so in windows, but not much good if your booting alternate OS's)
here are some Bonus shots of it in Tiger I do plan to try and finagle 10.4.11 onto it at some point
That's the perfect machine for me. 480p will make me so much more productive.so how many points is this worth
its a an original Asus EEE PC that I got in today
so of course I had to shoehorn OS X on it
the CPU is a Celeron M 353, heres my CPU-Z Val of this system http://valid.x86.fr/3391j0 the fun thing is the CPU is of the C0 stepping so it supports NX bit which means I should also be able to run Windows 10 on here, although sadly without any graphics acceleration as they never made WDDM Drivers for GMA 900 sadly
I wish there was a BIOS mod or such to run it at full speed (there are ways to do so in windows, but not much good if your booting alternate OS's)
here are some Bonus shots of it in Tiger I do plan to try and finagle 10.4.11 onto it at some point
Seriously though, that is quite impressive to see. About This Mac takes up almost the whole height of the machine. How slow does it run via Tiger?
so how many points is this worth
View attachment 1725138
its a an original Asus EEE PC that I got in today
so of course I had to shoehorn OS X on it
the CPU is a Celeron M 353, heres my CPU-Z Val of this system http://valid.x86.fr/3391j0 the fun thing is the CPU is of the C0 stepping so it supports NX bit which means I should also be able to run Windows 10 on here, although sadly without any graphics acceleration as they never made WDDM Drivers for GMA 900 sadly
I wish there was a BIOS mod or such to run it at full speed (there are ways to do so in windows, but not much good if your booting alternate OS's)
here are some Bonus shots of it in Tiger I do plan to try and finagle 10.4.11 onto it at some point
View attachment 1725169
View attachment 1725170
Wow!!!! I'm impressed - that thing has to be unbearably slow.
LOL!
Thanks
I have not run any benchmarks or such, but it is surprisingly snappy for what it is, probably helped I was running snow Leopard from a fast CF card (via a fast USB card reader)
but I imagine it would bog down easily
this machine has a 4GB "SSD" internally, I think I should be able to squeeze 10.4.11 onto that, will be interesting to see how it does
will be interesting to see how it benches against my AppleTV1,1 (which runs a Full Fat 1 Ghz Pentium M CPU but only has 256MB of RAM which knee caps it somewhat sadly)
as a side note I would love to get ahold of an Atom 230 NVIDIA Ion based machine, as im pretty sure I could make one of those run OS X El Capitan...
(the Atom 230 is the 64bit version of the Atom N270 and it does support SSSE3 so with some CPUID spoofing I think I could boot OS X on one, and an NVIDIA ION iGPU is just a variant of the GeForce 9400/MCP79 which is well supported in OS X)
Thanks
I have not run any benchmarks or such, but it is surprisingly snappy for what it is, probably helped I was running snow Leopard from a fast CF card (via a fast USB card reader)
but I imagine it would bog down easily
this machine has a 4GB "SSD" internally, I think I should be able to squeeze 10.4.11 onto that, will be interesting to see how it does
will be interesting to see how it benches against my AppleTV1,1 (which runs a Full Fat 1 Ghz Pentium M CPU but only has 256MB of RAM which knee caps it somewhat sadly)
as a side note I would love to get ahold of an Atom 230 NVIDIA Ion based machine, as im pretty sure I could make one of those run OS X El Capitan...
(the Atom 230 is the 64bit version of the Atom N270 and it does support SSSE3 so with some CPUID spoofing I think I could boot OS X on one, and an NVIDIA ION iGPU is just a variant of the GeForce 9400/MCP79 which is well supported in OS X)
Not so fast!!!!🤣
Why do you people want to go slower?
If speed is what you don't need, install linux with x-windows on an LCII and see how long it takes a web browser to load a simple jpeg.
See that, problem solved.
Why do you people want to go slower?
If speed is what you don't need, install linux with x-windows on an LCII and see how long it takes a web browser to load a simple jpeg.
See that, problem solved.
Mini-ITX Intel Atom 330 NVIDIA ION 1GB RAM 1.6GHz 4xSATA HDMI retro & low power | eBay
Zotac IONITX-G-E mini-itx motherboard with CPU and 1GB RAM included. Includes 1GB DDR2 667 RAM. HDMI and DVI ports. Includes 4x SATA port along with 1x PCIe x1 and 1x Mini PCI-e. Tested, working, and includes I/O backplate.
www.ebay.co.uk
I know it's a 330 but...
you gotta understand im an enthusiast of computers in general, be it fast or slow or new or old ones
I just like to tinker with computers and I enjoy both ends of the spectrum
(although generally I can only afford the slower end! for example I would love to get my hands on a MacPro3,1 and see if I could make X5492's work but I cant afford that sadly)
and yes I do want to get my mits on a 68030/68040 Mac to try and run linux (And A/UX etc) on it LOL ideally id love to get an SE/30 board for my SE (and max it out with 128MB of RAM)
Mini-ITX Intel Atom 330 NVIDIA ION 1GB RAM 1.6GHz 4xSATA HDMI retro & low power | eBay
Zotac IONITX-G-E mini-itx motherboard with CPU and 1GB RAM included. Includes 1GB DDR2 667 RAM. HDMI and DVI ports. Includes 4x SATA port along with 1x PCIe x1 and 1x Mini PCI-e. Tested, working, and includes I/O backplate.www.ebay.co.uk
I know it's a 330 but...
ohh those have come down in price since I last saw, I added the 2GB one to my watch list
yeah I have noticed 230 boards tend to be a bit rarer/harder to find (I just mentioned 230 as its the slowest
but id be happy with a 330 since its just 2 230 dies on the same package basically so if I can get el cap to work on one of those then I know it will work a 230 as well)as a side note I do wonder If I could BGA solder an Atom 230 or even 330 CPU to my Asus 1005HA netbook and give it 64bit capiablities
the "socket" and even the CPUID is the same so it should work in theory, well the 230 at least, ill have to check the APIC tables to see if the 330 will worktho this does depend if the BIOS is 64bit aware, for example there is a rare 64bit Intel Pentium 4 socket 478 CPU, but it wont work in a lot of Socket 478 motherboards because its 64bit
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Probably still faster than a 400~600 MHz G3 though and I have run Tiger on these.that thing has to be unbearably slow.
The 230 has a higher TDP so better watch out for the temps then
Woah. Which one?
indeed once I get 10.4.11 on there I will bench it
, its amazing what range of Hardware tiger ran on officially, from a 300Mhz G3 BW to an 8 Core Mac Prothe speed difference between those 2 machines is an order of magnitude you just dont get today with computers of the same age gap
which is really quite fascinating
Haha yeah, although its amusing on all these Atom netbooks and Motherboards, you will find the fan is for the chipset not the CPU! LOLThe 230 has a higher TDP so better watch out for the temps then
yeah there where a couple, specially ordered by IBM for one of their Servers IIRC
SL7Q8 (Intel Pentium 4 3.4 GHz)
www.cpu-world.com
SL7QB (Intel Pentium 4 3.2 GHz)
www.cpu-world.com
I hackintoshed the Acer Revo R3610 with a dual core 330 Atom. Ran SL not too shabbily and I finally got sleep to work on it. Also have the R3600 with a single core 230 but haven't done anything with it apart from installing Win10.
Neat! I saw an R3610 on ebay the other day for a fairly decent price given it also had a 120GB SSD, but I decided to pass as I had already spent far too much on Lightbulbs and computers at that point in time LOL