Having established the lowest 64-bit CPU as the Celeron M 520, does that also make it the very slowest CPU that could potentially boot into Big Sur / Monterey, provided you've done all the other hacks?
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Mm 1,1-6,2 Maxing out the mini - 1,1/2,1 Mac mini CPU Upgrade Guide
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Oh, didn't know about that. But Core 2 Duos can go up to Monterey right? Hrutkay did it on a 2007 iMac with GPU mod.
Only 45nm (“Penryn”) Core 2 Duos can. 65nm (“Merom”) Core 2 Duos can’t.
You can upgrade a 2007 iMac (Socket P) to a 45nm CPUs, but not a 2006 iMac or Mac mini (Socket M). There are no 45nm CPUs for Socket M.
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Fair enough. Well in that case, I'd still love to see someone try El Capitan on a Celeron!
The only way that could be done is with MacPostFactor. So, yes it would El Cap but since there is zero graphics acceleration performance would be abysmal.
This is what also limits the Mac Pro 1,1/2,1 to El Capitan as well?
I'd presume so. Every other component is fully supported on Sierra, unless you have the 7300 GT which I don't think runs on El Cap either.
This is an interesting thread about attempts to bypass the Mac Pro 1,1/2,1 limitation with posts as recent as October. I'll post there or create a new thread rather than derail yours.
Had a quick read of it, seems like some definite progress is being made. Might be helpful to see if a Clovertown could at least post on a 3,1, but I'll leave that discussion to the MP forum.
Yup. There are both Merom and Penryn Core 2 Duos for Socket P.
Yup.
Wouldn't installing a newer supported operating system classify as "maxing out the mini" also?
I installed Windows 10 (I know, ewwww) on my 2,1 after maxing out the CPU with a T7600 CPU and it worked, although it was slow. I dual booted with Mac OS Lion on that machine. I later installed an SSD into the same mini and transferred the Lion OS but haven't figured out how to transfer the Windows installation from the old hard drive to the new SSD (Windows always is a pain in the ass isn't it).
Anyways, my 2 cents...
Fun Thread!
I installed Windows 10 (I know, ewwww) on my 2,1 after maxing out the CPU with a T7600 CPU and it worked, although it was slow. I dual booted with Mac OS Lion on that machine. I later installed an SSD into the same mini and transferred the Lion OS but haven't figured out how to transfer the Windows installation from the old hard drive to the new SSD (Windows always is a pain in the ass isn't it).
Anyways, my 2 cents...
Fun Thread!
Usually, maxing out a computer only implies hardware upgrades.
<irony>And installing Linux, which is the best upgrade you can do to a computer.</irony>
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In the past Norton Ghost always came up trumps whenever I needed to image a Windows installation but its been discontinued since 2013 and appears that compatibility with newer versions of Windows is problematic.
I've seen mentions of Winclone but have no personal experience with it.
I've got a question. First the intro:
Recently I've bought a defective Mac mini mid-2007 2.0GHz (listed as "parts only" and the PSU, the harddisk not included) for $12 shipping included. (I usually buy such cheap & defective Mac minis for fun & profit) When I got it, its parts were dismantled like this:
I've installed a Leopard 10.5.8 harddisk and 2GB DDR2 RAM and powered it on. It powered on but no chime sound came. I did a hard shutdown and it did hard shutdown so the logic board must have been fine. I assumed it must have been either a bad GPU or CPU preventing the chime sound. Bad GPU is a quite common occurance but abad CPU? You don't hear bad CPU often. Nonetheless, I decided to replace the Intel T7200 CPU with the T2300 which had been lying around in my drawer for a decade! Before removing the heat sink, I took a look at it from its side.
It's quite hard to photograph that section using a cellphone so it's a bit blurry. Whops! The pins of the CPU are seen from the side. The CPU seemed not fitted in the socket, it seemed angled to the right.
I removed the heat sink and I saw the CPU locking screw was close but not at the lock position. I rotated the lock screw to relieve the CPU from its angled position, put it back right into socket and rotated the lock screw to its lock position. Powered the Mac mini on again and wow! the chime sound came out and it booted without any issues. So the culprit was definitely that misfitted CPU.
The question is: How could that CPU have come to that angled/miplaced position at the first place? Did anybody ever see such misplaced CPU before?
Recently I've bought a defective Mac mini mid-2007 2.0GHz (listed as "parts only" and the PSU, the harddisk not included) for $12 shipping included. (I usually buy such cheap & defective Mac minis for fun & profit) When I got it, its parts were dismantled like this:
I've installed a Leopard 10.5.8 harddisk and 2GB DDR2 RAM and powered it on. It powered on but no chime sound came. I did a hard shutdown and it did hard shutdown so the logic board must have been fine. I assumed it must have been either a bad GPU or CPU preventing the chime sound. Bad GPU is a quite common occurance but abad CPU? You don't hear bad CPU often. Nonetheless, I decided to replace the Intel T7200 CPU with the T2300 which had been lying around in my drawer for a decade! Before removing the heat sink, I took a look at it from its side.
It's quite hard to photograph that section using a cellphone so it's a bit blurry. Whops! The pins of the CPU are seen from the side. The CPU seemed not fitted in the socket, it seemed angled to the right.
I removed the heat sink and I saw the CPU locking screw was close but not at the lock position. I rotated the lock screw to relieve the CPU from its angled position, put it back right into socket and rotated the lock screw to its lock position. Powered the Mac mini on again and wow! the chime sound came out and it booted without any issues. So the culprit was definitely that misfitted CPU.
The question is: How could that CPU have come to that angled/miplaced position at the first place? Did anybody ever see such misplaced CPU before?
No idea. The only things I can think of is the heatsink was/is too loose or the socket retention clip isn't working properly.
Also, the mini would not have booted up with the T2300 in it, as the 2007 mini requires a firmware patch to run Yonah-based CPUs.
Without the firmware patch, the 2007 (2,1) mini is locked to Merom chips and the 2006 mini (1,1) is locked to Yonah chips. No boot screen, nothing displayed on a monitor, no post codes, no diag sounds.
I'm posting to this old thread because I have a late 2006 Mac Mini 1,1 I wanted to upgrade. I'm quite confused regarding the contradicting infos from theMarble and dosdude1:
According to the post above the firmware is locked to the Yonah or Merom architecture. On the other hand, for upgrading the machine e. g. dosdude1 and other say that the CPU must be upgraded first before flashing the other firmware. Just yesterday evening dosdude1 pushlished an upgrade video for a MacBook Pro. After the CPU upgrade the CPU wasn't fully recognized but the system booted.
The reason why I'm posting is that after the CPU upgrade the system wouldn't boot anymore (no chime), so I changed the CPU back. The question is: Is my CPU broken or are there more dependencies not being communicated. I don't want to upgrade the firmware without the CPU upgrade as that could easily brick the machine...
According to the post above the firmware is locked to the Yonah or Merom architecture. On the other hand, for upgrading the machine e. g. dosdude1 and other say that the CPU must be upgraded first before flashing the other firmware. Just yesterday evening dosdude1 pushlished an upgrade video for a MacBook Pro. After the CPU upgrade the CPU wasn't fully recognized but the system booted.
The reason why I'm posting is that after the CPU upgrade the system wouldn't boot anymore (no chime), so I changed the CPU back. The question is: Is my CPU broken or are there more dependencies not being communicated. I don't want to upgrade the firmware without the CPU upgrade as that could easily brick the machine...
The firmware update is required before it can detect any Merom/64-bit CPU.
Very hard to something to go wrong with the firmware upgrade, and the 2,1 firmware can function with a Yonah/32-bit CPU.
The Mac mini is very different to the MBP in that aside from the CPU being socketed, there are zero other hardware differences between the Mini 1,1 and 2,1, while there are with the MBP 1,1/2,1.
It's been years since I did mine but as far as I remember, the 1,1 firmware will boot fine with a Merom CPU. Flashing the 2,1 firmware gains you support for more than 2GB of RAM and Lion, although you will have to copy Lion across from another working Mac. I am pretty sure I put my C2D processor in before I updated. the firmware. There are plenty of Youtube videos where people are just dropping T7200 chips into their Yonah based Minis without flashing. Lowendmac seems to agree.
Hey y'all! I've got a Mini 2,1 (T5600 CPU) that I'd like to have some fun with. I'm planning to add 4GB of RAM and put in an SSD, but I dunno what OS to put on it.
I'd like to keep it a Mac machine, and I do have the original Leopard discs I could use, but it feels like I could do more with the machine upgrading to say Mountain Lion or Mavericks. What are my options aside from ordering discs on eBay, and without changing the main chip what's going to work smoothly?
I'd like to keep it a Mac machine, and I do have the original Leopard discs I could use, but it feels like I could do more with the machine upgrading to say Mountain Lion or Mavericks. What are my options aside from ordering discs on eBay, and without changing the main chip what's going to work smoothly?
You don't need to pay for discs from eBay - or anywhere else for that matter.
Apple made Mountain Lion available for free in 2021 so you can download it and burn a disc yourself or install it via USB if you prefer. Mavericks was never released (officially) on disc but it can be downloaded from here.