Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Mac Mini 1.1 Upgrades?

6

655324

Guest
Original poster
Dec 31, 2011
14
0
Hi,

I've bought my first ever Mac off eBay for a great price, only thing is it's an old Mac Mini and it probably is going to need upgrading. Although i've never had a Mac i've been upgrading PCs for years so i'm not necessarily new to getting my hands dirty. I've sourced a new hard drive for it as it only had 80gb and i've looked over many tutorials and videos on how to replace it and i'm feeling pretty confident on replacing it. Thing is though, I thought whilst i'm already opening the case to upgrade the hard drive should i upgrade the 1.66 ghz intel core duo CPU to an intel core 2 duo? I've look on eBay and saw quite a few, would this one fit?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Cor...-CPU-/220804297406?pt=UK_Motherboards_CPUs&ha...

If not, what about this one?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....rvr_id=303473030963&mfe=sidebar#ht_500wt_1156

Or even this one?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....rvr_id=303471376395&mfe=sidebar#ht_535wt_1031

What's the difference between them?

Don't really want to spend too much, but if I have to i'll wait a bit and save up some money. Do you think this is worth it? As the CPUs on eBay with the M socket are only £10-20 so I thought for that price it must be? Can you offer any other advice or tips?

This is my first post here and I am hoping you can help,

Thanks in advance,

Josh
 
Only one of those would work. The 2006-2007 Mini's need an Intell T7200, T7400, or T7600 as a CPU upgrade. Another thing would be to upgrade the ram to its maximum of 2Gb.
 
Okay thanks, i've already maxed out the RAM thanks but they're the only 3 that you can buy that will fit? Would you recommend it?
 
Those are the three fastest, with the T7600 being 2.33Ghz, then 2.16Ghz, and 2.0Ghz. I assume the 1.83Ghz one is called the T7000, it'd work as well.
 
joshdowney said:
Do you mean this?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Intel-Cor...oards_CPUs&hash=item2c61495556#ht_1370wt_1139

Would i notice a significant difference in speed/reliability on my mac mini though or would you just leave it?
Click to expand...

I believe that one would work, but you'll have to do some more research first. Coming from a 1.66 CD, you'll notice a big jump going to a 2.0Ghz C2D.

joshdowney said:
Would it be hard to do this?
Click to expand...

It isn't too hard, but there is the possibility of bricking your Mac. Only do this if you have another machine to use in the event you brick your Mac.
 
Intell said:
I believe that one would work, but you'll have to do some more research first. Coming from a 1.66 CD, you'll notice a big jump going to a 2.0Ghz C2D.



It isn't too hard, but there is the possibility of bricking your Mac. Only do this if you have another machine to use in the event you brick your Mac.
Click to expand...

I think i'll leave it at 2gb as i've never used Macs before and maybe 6 months down the line i'll decide to do it but thanks anyway.

As for the CPU, I think i'll go for the Intel Core 2 Duo 2ghz T7200, just one last question-will i then be able to run Lion or is that out of the question?
 
joshdowney said:
As for the CPU, I think i'll go for the Intel Core 2 Duo 2ghz T7200, just one last question-will i then be able to run Lion or is that out of the question?
Click to expand...

Good choice, 2.0 Ghz is still a good speed for modern Macs, despite it being 5 years old. With the Core2Duo CPU you'll have a 64-bit CPU that will allow Lion, but you'll have to remove the SupportPlatforms.plist before it'll boot. There are a few threads about this procedure here on MacRumors.
 
Intell said:
Good choice, 2.0 Ghz is still a good speed for modern Macs, despite it being 5 years old. With the Core2Duo CPU you'll have a 64-bit CPU that will allow Lion, but you'll have to remove the SupportPlatforms.plist before it'll boot. There are a few threads about this procedure here on MacRumors.
Click to expand...

Yeah, i've seen a couple of the threads, I think i'll go for it! Thanks for all your quick responses! I'll definatley use this thread again! Any tips for upgrading a CPU? :)
 
Upgrade Successful!

Hi,

I know you probably don't really care but I wanted to kinda give you an update on what i've done. I took your advice and bought a T7400 processor off eBay and I installed it myself (with a few hairy moments were I thought I was going to throw the heatsink pins out the window!!) and everything is now running smooth and a WHOLE LOT FASTER! I can't believe how much of a difference that has made! I just want to thank you for all your help, especially Intell.

Just a quick question, I dowloaded a widget for my dashboard ( I think it's called iStat) and it says my CPU is running at 60c, is this normal?

Thanks!
 
The T7400 had the same thermal output as the 1.66Ghz CD you had in there before. But its idle temperature may be slightly higher. Glad you got it all working well.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back