Agree, and it's always fun to take a close look "under the hood" to see how the mini is put together. I have opened every mac I have owned since 1991, so why would I stop now? All it takes is a putty knife and 20 minutes. And now the mini has 4 GB of cheap memory and a hard drive superior to anything that Apple offers for the mini.
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Is Mini self upgrade really worth it?
- Thread starter Richard8655
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Agree, and it's always fun to take a close look "under the hood" to see how the mini is put together. I have opened every mac I have owned since 1991, so why would I stop now? All it takes is a putty knife and 20 minutes. And now the mini has 4 GB of cheap memory and a hard drive superior to anything that Apple offers for the mini.
if you want to pay the convenience and the 'keep your warranty i'm to scared to service my own computer' fees. then go ahead and pay the extra money.
if you don't think you can do it.. then don't i have opened my mini twice - and will be upgrading the processor next week.
first time for 1GB to 2GB of RAM - second time to drop in a 500GB HDD
if you don't think you can do it.. then don't i have opened my mini twice - and will be upgrading the processor next week.
first time for 1GB to 2GB of RAM - second time to drop in a 500GB HDD
i have opened my mini twice - and will be upgrading the processor next week.
first time for 1GB to 2GB of RAM - second time to drop in a 500GB HDD
Installing a 500GB HD isn't upgrading your processor. It's upgrading your HD. The processor in the Mini is permanently attached to the motherboard.
Why didn't you go all the way with the RAM and go to 4GB instead of 2GB?
If you look at the second line of his signature you would find that he has the 1.66GHz Mini which does in fact have a socketed processor.
Not me man, I'm not that hard up for cash. BTO. I got other things to do. But power to you if you want to do it.
A couple of weeks ago, I watched my friend upgrade his old mini. He told me that he was going to do it, so naturally I asked if I could be a spectator. He upgraded the ram to 4 gigs and replaced the HD with a faster larger model. Using the ifixit.com guide and answering all of my irritating questions as he went, it took about 45 minutes. Seemed easy as heck.
I think self-upgrading the mini is super worth it. I disagree with those who claim otherwise.
I think self-upgrading the mini is super worth it. I disagree with those who claim otherwise.
Recent mini upgrade problems over the last few days:
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/673167/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/571348/
Not worth trying to be a hero to save a few bucks.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/673167/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/571348/
Not worth trying to be a hero to save a few bucks.
The first link is a hard drive failure (since it worked for two days) and the second one was never modified and has no relevance to your position.
1st link: HD is only what the OP thinks is causing the Mini to freeze. If HD, they just don't quit or get fried on their own, especially on a brand new Mini. Obviously something was damaged when cracking open the hardware.
2nd link: Directly related to user upgrade with hardware obviously modified. "So about 2 months ago we brought 2 Mac minis (1.83ghz C2D's). We took them both apart and put and extra 512mb of RAM in both and I put a 320gb HD in one of them. Anyway when I replacing the Hard Drive I accidently pressed down to hard and the audio cable connector on the interconnect board broke."
Well, somehow I ended up on this thread for item #2... Weird.
At any rate, #1 is likely a hard drive failure (I had a Seagate fail on me after 10 days), and #2 didn't take his time - like we've said many times over in this thread. While it's not worth it to you, it would certainly be worth it to most people who have patience.
At any rate, #1 is likely a hard drive failure (I had a Seagate fail on me after 10 days), and #2 didn't take his time - like we've said many times over in this thread. While it's not worth it to you, it would certainly be worth it to most people who have patience.
Fair enough. Altho to those who've managed to break the hardware, it wasn't worth it to them either, let alone to people who don't need to take the risk.
The video from OWC in YouTube is exactly step by step EASY. You would have to have zero manual dexterity or extremely careless to break anything in the process I just performed tonight.
So if those above are true for anyone attempting the upgrade, or you extremely over-cautious and slightly paranoid about voiding a warranty, then go ahead and spend your hard earned cash on apple doing it for you. It would actually make sense if you were certain the upgrade would not go well for you.
So if those above are true for anyone attempting the upgrade, or you extremely over-cautious and slightly paranoid about voiding a warranty, then go ahead and spend your hard earned cash on apple doing it for you. It would actually make sense if you were certain the upgrade would not go well for you.
I could ask why are you trying to convince everyone to do it without addressing the risks? These threads here are pretty much one-sided in trying to convince everyone to do it, without bringing up the problems we see people reporting almost daily in damaging their Minis in their attempts.
I'm not trying to convince anyone not to do it. If someone's dead-set that the benefits outweigh the risks, I say go ahead. I just think these threads need some balance in presenting all sides to this. Ok, I'm done.
You have a valid point. And the risks become ten fold if someone was just trying to wing it without thoroughly viewing all information available and taking their time. There are risks, geniune ones, especially considering the antenna wires when reassembling.
That said, if you are wanting to save money and do the upgrade yourself, There is plently of information to tell you how to do this step by step safely.
Not saying accidents won't happen, but I think the large majority of upgrades by people who educate themselves ahead of time and take it slow, have been successful.
To try to convince anyone this is a full-proof self upgrade would be foolish.
To try and convince someone that the benefits outweight the risks, well that's all subjective isn't it? Hence, why we're still talking about it.
Yawn. This is stuff is approaching the border of trolling. Performing a mac mini self-upgrade is fine for some and not for others. 'Nuff said.
Besides if you can afford a base mini + upgrades to ram and disk ($700+) you can most likely afford the extra $50-$80 to pay an ASC to perform the upgrade. I think some people like to tinker and when it works great. I replaced the screen on my out of warranty MBP because I was willing to take the risk with a 2.5 year old out of warranty laptop.
Paid someone to work on my brand new mini. Comes down to personal preference, comfort level and to a lesser extent $$$ (if you can afford a mac the install fee is probably not an issue).
Cheers,
This is a personal preference, but some of those who upgrade do so not just to save money, but to choose components that make the mini much more powerful than what you can do by going BTO with Apple.
You cannot get a 7200 rpm drive from Apple. So right there, for some (such as me), it is worth it to upgrade yourself. There is no alternative, and your argument is dead - you are FORCED to live with an inferior machine from Apple BTO.
And as has been pointed out, you can get an authorized reseller to do the work for you at a cost of $60-$100. So you DO NOT lose your warranty.
To sum up:
1)You get a more powerful mini than going with Apple BTO
2)You save money
3)You do NOT lose warranty or mess up your mini, or lose time if you use an authorized reseller.
Now what's your argument?
And if you have a minimum of dexterity, you can skip step 3, do it yourself, and STILL not lose the warranty or mess up your mini and save even MORE money. So your argument seems pretty thin to me. I am no great shakes when it comes to tinkering. I was never a star in the shop projects at school. I am not a techie who loves to get into guts of things. In fact, I am bored by a lot of tinkering. I would never open up my iBook - too much work and too complicated for me. Yet, I easily upgraded my RAM and HDD several times with minis over the years - never had a problem. Different strokes for different folks.
So, to me (a below average dexterity person), it was totally worth it. To you, it may not be.
You cannot get a 7200 rpm drive from Apple. So right there, for some (such as me), it is worth it to upgrade yourself. There is no alternative, and your argument is dead - you are FORCED to live with an inferior machine from Apple BTO.
And as has been pointed out, you can get an authorized reseller to do the work for you at a cost of $60-$100. So you DO NOT lose your warranty.
To sum up:
1)You get a more powerful mini than going with Apple BTO
2)You save money
3)You do NOT lose warranty or mess up your mini, or lose time if you use an authorized reseller.
Now what's your argument?
And if you have a minimum of dexterity, you can skip step 3, do it yourself, and STILL not lose the warranty or mess up your mini and save even MORE money. So your argument seems pretty thin to me. I am no great shakes when it comes to tinkering. I was never a star in the shop projects at school. I am not a techie who loves to get into guts of things. In fact, I am bored by a lot of tinkering. I would never open up my iBook - too much work and too complicated for me. Yet, I easily upgraded my RAM and HDD several times with minis over the years - never had a problem. Different strokes for different folks.
So, to me (a below average dexterity person), it was totally worth it. To you, it may not be.
For me i just couldnt live with myself knowing i COULD have a 7200 500GB hard drive and 4gb of CHEAP ram in my computer. Im seriously considering letting my local dealer doing it proper for a 100 bucks. Im going to have that mini for a long time so the cost is ok. Hell, ive spent 100 bucks on booze on a thursday night. F it.
I hesitated a lot when deciding if I should attempt the upgrade myself or not.
It's really not that difficult once you get going. You don't even need to have exactly the right tools. I used a cheese slicer instead of a putty knife, and the screwdriver I used wasn't a Philips one, nor was it magnetic. Still, it wasn't such a big deal. Installing the new memory was the only part where I had trouble, since they need to be inserted in a very exact angle, with quite a lot of force.
Be sure to do a lot of research before you start, and take your time. As someone already mentioned, it's important to make sure that the antenna wires doesn't get pinched when reinstalling the drive assembly.
I did my upgrade about a week ago, and I haven't experienced any problems whatsoever (yet...)
It's really not that difficult once you get going. You don't even need to have exactly the right tools. I used a cheese slicer instead of a putty knife, and the screwdriver I used wasn't a Philips one, nor was it magnetic. Still, it wasn't such a big deal. Installing the new memory was the only part where I had trouble, since they need to be inserted in a very exact angle, with quite a lot of force.
Be sure to do a lot of research before you start, and take your time. As someone already mentioned, it's important to make sure that the antenna wires doesn't get pinched when reinstalling the drive assembly.
I did my upgrade about a week ago, and I haven't experienced any problems whatsoever (yet...
)https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/677154/
More proof that this upgrade is by no means without risk. You were right to point out same, you may save a lot of new mini owners a bit of frustration and more $$$ than they thought they would save DIY.
Cheers,