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mac mini: are 2.4 GHZ and 4GB RAM feasible ???

M

meursault

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Dec 11, 2007
8
0
England
hi all,

once again i'm looking forward to your advice.

i have some pocket money and i am thinking to go on with a mac mini.

currently, the max configuration is 2GHZ and 2GB RAM.

can i modify it to, let's say, 2.4GHZ (or 2.6GHZ) and 4GB RAM ?

and if yes, how much more will it cost ???

thanks a lot, in advance.
 
meursault said:
hi all,

once again i'm looking forward to your advice.

i have some pocket money and i am thinking to go on with a mac mini.

currently, the max configuration is 2GHZ and 2GB RAM.

can i modify it to, let's say, 2.4GHZ (or 2.6GHZ) and 4GB RAM ?

and if yes, how much more will it cost ???

thanks a lot, in advance.
Click to expand...
I don't think this is possible, for several reasons:
  1. The Mac Mini doesn't have room for 2 RAM slots.
  2. The motherboard doesn't accept 4GB RAM chips.
  3. The processor is most likely NOT in a socket so it can easily be removed and replaced, unlike some other Intel-based Macs. This is due to the shared design with the MacBook.
 
RAM nope.

Processor _may_ be possible, but it's not really going to give you that much difference in performance - certainly not enough to to be worth the expense, effort and/or the trashing of your warranty.
 
FWIW, the mini does have two RAM slots (it comes with 2 x 512MB) and IIRC does have a socketed CPU.

mar2_06_intel_mini_socket.jpeg

http://paulstamatiou.com/2006/03/02/intel-mac-mini-is-upgradable/
 
2Gb dimms exists!, look at mac sales, I think that the mini can have up to 3 GB, because is not a Santa Rosa Chip set.
 
meursault said:
...can i modify it to, let's say, 2.4GHZ (or 2.6GHZ) and 4GB RAM ?

and if yes, how much more will it cost ???

thanks a lot, in advance.
Click to expand...

cpu=no. you can only use cpu's with a 667mhz fsb, so the T7600 @ 2.33 is the fastest the mini can support. the T7700 @ 2.4 has a 800mhz fsb, so will NOT work. the T7600 is $647 on Newegg as of this morning. what a bargin :confused::eek:

ram=yes. see below.


wrldwzrd89 said:
lot's of random stuff...
Click to expand...

wrong, but thanks for playing.

dollystereo said:
2Gb dimms exists!, look at mac sales, I think that the mini can have up to 3 GB, because is not a Santa Rosa Chip set.
Click to expand...

right, right, and a good place to look. the original core duo mini can only use/see 2gb. the current core 2 duo mini can use/see just a touch over 3gb, so OWC is recommending 1 x 1gb and 1 x 2gb for a total of 3gb instead of 2 x 2gb for a total of 4gb. it'll save you a bit (not much) of money and you still have about the same amount of usable memory. anyway, read their memory review as they tested every config, and then figure out cost vs. performance vs. your budget. best of luck.
 
Everything directly above me is correct.

The reason you can't use the new 2.4 chips is "Santa Rosa".

Both the Macbook and Macbook Pro run on the new Santa Rosa platform. That has an 800Mhz FSB, supports the 2.4 and 2.6 Ghz Core2Duo's, and 4GB of RAM.

The Mac Mini was never updated to the newer Santa Rosa platform.
 
The best you can get is a 2.33Ghz and 3Gb of RAM.

It will cost you, at least, $750.

In my opinion, it is NOT worth it.
 
I have a Mac Mini 2GHz OTB. Just done the following upgrades to it & it works perfectly.
1) 320GB 5400RPM WD HDD (US$180.00)
2) 2 x 2GB DDR2 Ram (US$150)
3) 2.33GHz CPU (US$325)

Currently looking at upgrading the CPU. If the 945M Intel chipset only runs at 667MHz then it sounds like a 2.33GHz CPU would be the max upgrade. But if it runs at 800MHz FSB then im going all out & getting myself a 2.6GHz CPU with 4MB L2 Cache.

Just a note however, if you are going to be installing 4GB Ram & you are going to be using WinXP please make sure you edit the boot.ini file to include the 4GB Ram address. You will need to add /4GB as described below....


[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(3)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /4GB

***UPDATE***

just purchased a 2.33GHz CPU from eBay for US$325 delivered.

My mac-mini is now fully supercharged.


thx
SL
 
I went with the CD (not C2D) 2.33. Lots cheaper. Yes, it's not the fastest I could have put in, but it was cheap, runs great in the system too.
 
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