Going past patched Mountain Lion will lose graphics acceleration which makes the UI slow and glitchy. Additionally, El Capitan is as far as it will go because the CPU lacks SSE4.
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Mm 1,1-6,2 Maxing out the mini - 1,1/2,1 Mac mini CPU Upgrade Guide
- Thread starter theMarble
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Tried patched El Cap on my maxed-out 2,1 (upgraded CPU, max RAM, SSD) one time, and it was by far one of the single slowest computer experiences I've ever had. GPU performance was definitely the biggest issue, but overall the hardware couldn't handle it. Ended up going back to Snow Leopard after ~30 minutes of trying to use/troubleshoot it.
Mavericks may run slightly better on the CPU front (considering Merom was used in the 2007 MBP), but graphics will most likely still be painful.
Honestly, the GMA 950 is so weak (even by 2006 standards) that I wouldn't bother going past Snow Leopard with it. The 9400M was a desperately needed GPU upgrade for the Mac mini.
I had no idea that even Mavericks is a stretch for this machine.
Thanks for the clarification.
ML is a stretch as not everything will work on it as per Amethyst1's link to NexPostFacto. Lion is fully supported though on the 2,1 and will work on the 1,1 if you flash it with the 2,1 firmware, although you won't be able to install it directly onto flashed Mini's without doctoring the install media as Lion performs a platform check.
The OS X without graphics acceleration experience gets worse with each version.
A while ago I bought couple of Mini 2,1s. Upgraded RAM, SSD, CPU. And then installed Snow Leopard and Linux Mint. Good machines. I bought one new too back in 2007 and used it for my business computer for 2 years until I bought an iMac 27" Late 2009.
Here is the post I made when I upgraded the CPU from C2D 1.83GHz to 2.33GHz.
Here is the post I made when I upgraded the CPU from C2D 1.83GHz to 2.33GHz.
Sorry for an old thread revival, but I got a carried away upgrading a whole load of Mac mini 1,1 / 2,1 with a variety of socket M CPU (some not on the OP list), so thought Id put my findings here for anyone else to use. As well as testing out which non OEM fitted CPU would work, I also did a bit of benchmarking.
Non OEM CPU installed:
C2D: T7400, T7600
CD: T2300E, T2250, T2450
Celeron: 410, 440, 520, 530
Pentium Dual Core: T2080, T2130
All worked other than the Celeron 5*0 CPU.
I used Xbench 1.3 and Geekbench 2.2.7 on a fresh install of SL 10.6.8. 2GB RAM, 128GB SSD and included the OEM fit CPU data also so you can see how they compare.
XBench:
Geekbench:
Observations:
Core Duo and Pentium DC perform better in Geekbench than they do Xbench.
Celeron 5*0 CPU wouldn't boot. (I tried a 520 and 530). If buying 5*0 be cautious, most are Socket P.
2,1 firmware is not required to run C2D CPU, all CPU worked regardless of 1,1 or 2,1 firmware. (2,1 allows 4GB mem).
Pentium DC are reported as Core Duo in system profiler. CPU-X and bench sw does a better job of recognising CPU.
Celeron's are reported as Core Solo in system profiler. CPU-X and bench sw does a better job of recognising CPU
One of the Celeron 440 used reports as running at 2.13ghz in Sys Profiler.
On 533FSB CPU, you could use PC2-4200 Ram, but the fitted PC2-5300 667 ram was fine.
Data:
Album link with screenshots of each CPU working
Thanks to all the previous posters; I had to refer to this thread a couple of times when I was getting a list of CPU to try.
Non OEM CPU installed:
C2D: T7400, T7600
CD: T2300E, T2250, T2450
Celeron: 410, 440, 520, 530
Pentium Dual Core: T2080, T2130
All worked other than the Celeron 5*0 CPU.
I used Xbench 1.3 and Geekbench 2.2.7 on a fresh install of SL 10.6.8. 2GB RAM, 128GB SSD and included the OEM fit CPU data also so you can see how they compare.
XBench:
Geekbench:
Observations:
Core Duo and Pentium DC perform better in Geekbench than they do Xbench.
Celeron 5*0 CPU wouldn't boot. (I tried a 520 and 530). If buying 5*0 be cautious, most are Socket P.
2,1 firmware is not required to run C2D CPU, all CPU worked regardless of 1,1 or 2,1 firmware. (2,1 allows 4GB mem).
Pentium DC are reported as Core Duo in system profiler. CPU-X and bench sw does a better job of recognising CPU.
Celeron's are reported as Core Solo in system profiler. CPU-X and bench sw does a better job of recognising CPU
One of the Celeron 440 used reports as running at 2.13ghz in Sys Profiler.
On 533FSB CPU, you could use PC2-4200 Ram, but the fitted PC2-5300 667 ram was fine.
Data:
Album link with screenshots of each CPU working
Thanks to all the previous posters; I had to refer to this thread a couple of times when I was getting a list of CPU to try.