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Mac Mini 1.83 Core Duo

K

kvizzel

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 15, 2011
559
6
If I were to upgrade the CPU to say one of these core 2 duos

T7200
T7400
T7600

and upgrade the ram to a max of 2GB, will I be able to run Lion?

If I didn't do any of these will the 1.83 core duo and 1 GB ram work fine as a home theater system?

Streaming movies and playing movies at a max of 720p?
 
Yes, but 2 GB RAM is quite meagre for Lion, as it is quite RAM hungry.

But for using the Mac mini as HTPC, the C2D and RAM should more than suffice for 720p playback.
I have the T7200 in my 2007 iMac and it is capable of playing back 720p and 1080p content using the H.264 codec.
 
Sweet thank you.

The T7600 2.33ghz? I think can be had for cheap. Less than a hundred.

All I really want is a htpc would be nice.

Do you know if it's able to stream in HD over WiFi? Or is the WiFi not fast enough ?
 
kvizzel said:
Do you know if it's able to stream in HD over WiFi? Or is the WiFi not fast enough ?
Click to expand...

802.11n WiFi is fast enough for compressed HD video, as 720p and 1080p HD videos using the H.264 codec barely have a data rate above 2 MB/s, 802.11n offers much more bandwidth than that (up to 17 MB/s in my experience).
 
kvizzel said:
If I were to upgrade the CPU to say one of these core 2 duos

T7200
T7400
T7600

Streaming movies and playing movies at a max of 720p?
Click to expand...

simsaladimbamba said:
802.11n WiFi is fast enough for compressed HD video, as 720p and 1080p HD videos using the H.264 codec barely have a data rate above 2 MB/s, 802.11n offers much more bandwidth than that (up to 17 MB/s in my experience).
Click to expand...

What model Mac Mini do you have?

If it's the A1176, you can perform the CPU upgrade. However, this model only has 802.11b/g, so 802.11n would not be possible (unless you also buy an upgrade kit for the wireless card). From my experience though, b/g radio is fine for HD video. If you do have the A1176, the biggest limitation for HD video will be the video card. I used to have an A1176 upgraded to 2.0 ghz and 2 GB ram. I also added an SSD. With this config, 720p video was fine, 1080p it got choppy. I would watch out for deals on an SSD - this will be the biggest performance increase. My machine with these upgrades ran perfectly for anything not largely dependent on the video card. Booted in 15 seconds, web browser, finder, etc respond instantly.

FYI I put Lion on my upgraded machine, and it ran perfectly, but you have do some hacking to allow it to boot. It's fairly simple, see this thread - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1107457/

If your model is the A1283 or later, as far as I know the CPU is soldered on the logic board, so you couldn't upgrade it beyond the stock config.

I'm assuming though you have the A1176 based on the CPUs you referenced.

See iFixit for more details on what can be upgraded and wikipedia has a good table that shows the details of each model.
 
Last edited:
shoebobs said:
What model Mac Mini do you have?

If it's the A1176, you can perform the CPU upgrade. However, this model only has 802.11b/g, so 802.11n would not be possible (unless you also buy an upgrade kit for the wireless card). From my experience though, b/g radio is fine for HD video. If you do have the A1176, the biggest limitation for HD video will be the video card. I used to have an A1176 upgraded to 2.0 ghz and 2 GB ram. I also added an SSD. With this config, 720p video was fine, 1080p it got choppy. I would watch out for deals on an SSD - this will be the biggest performance increase. My machine with these upgrades ran perfectly for anything not largely dependent on the video card. Booted in 15 minutes, web browser, finder, etc respond instantly.

FYI I put Lion on my upgraded machine, and it ran perfectly, but you have do some hacking to allow it to boot. It's fairly simple, see this thread - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1107457/

If your model is the A1283 or later, as far as I know the CPU is soldered on the logic board, so you couldn't upgrade it beyond the stock config.

I'm assuming though you have the A1176 based on the CPUs you referenced.

See iFixit for more details on what can be upgraded and wikipedia has a good table that shows the details of each model.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Well I don't have one yet, I was just looking at a few and found some old ones for cheap like low 2-3 hundred range. But the upgrade would cost about 100 for the cpu and I wasn't sure if the WiFi would be able to handle the streaming. Since I want to be able to move this around the house.

I think I'm just going to purchase a new one, it's rare to use a cd drive these days.

Do you know if the mini can do the cd drive sharing with the windows 7 pc?

The new one will be able to run everything I'd throw at it and it comes with 500GB already loaded even though I have an external.

All i'd need is the mini, maybe upgrade the rams $40 isn't bad, then keyboard and mouse.

Shouldn't be too bad, time to save up. :D
 
oops my post should have said my upgraded mini booted in 15 seconds, not minutes :). Post updated.

The reason I got rid of my mini was cause Windows on my Dad's machine got messed up for the 5th time in a year (viruses, etc), and I got sick of fixing it, so I just gave him my mini.

I've been watching eBay to replace it and this week I purchased a Mac Mini 1,1 (1.5 ghz core solo) for $200. I found a T7200 for $25 (I really don't think the extra .13 or .33 mhz of a T7400/T7600 are worth the much higher price). I had a newegg gift card for $50, so I added 4GB of ram there. So you can really get a great little machine for under $300 since OS X runs so well. Even without an SSD, this should run fine for basic computing tasks.

However, if you are OK spending the money on a new machine I would definitely recommend that. The new Minis are very powerful and will do everything you need. Plus you'll have a full warranty, etc so you don't have to worry about how long a secondhand, hacked/upgraded machine lasts. My hacked/upgraded mini has always been a secondary machine, but if this will be your primary, i'd definitely recommend going with the new model.

I'm not sure about sharing the Windows 7 CD drive, but even if that's not a possibility, you can get a good external drive for $40 (and newegg seems to always have one on sale/rebate for $25).
 
Just ordered my mini from amazon since I have prime and they don't charge tax.

It's on sale for 568$

I got mine for $500 because I had some credit.

Guaranteed delivery on Saturday, can't wait. :D

Will be upgrading ram and adding a second hard drive.
 
shoebobs said:
I've been watching eBay to replace it and this week I purchased a Mac Mini 1,1 (1.5 ghz core solo) for $200. I found a T7200 for $25 (I really don't think the extra .13 or .33 mhz of a T7400/T7600 are worth the much higher price). I had a newegg gift card for $50, so I added 4GB of ram there. So you can really get a great little machine for under $300 since OS X runs so well. Even without an SSD, this should run fine for basic computing tasks.
Click to expand...

You added 4GB RAM to a Mac Mini 1,1??? It only recognizes 2GB max.
 
I have this same 1.83 Core Duo Mac Mini. According to this thread: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1107457/ , it seems just by deleting a .plist file Lion can be installed. And I think it works fine. I just want to know if I can go back to Snow Leopard if it doesn't (althought I'd have to find a Snow Leopard Installer somewhere).
 
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