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Trying to connect old Mac Mini to old 23-inch Cinema Display

S

stanw

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 29, 2007
842
5
I have an old Mac Mini, I think it is from 2006 or 2007 and I would like to connect it to a 23-inch (maybe it is 21-inch?) Cinema display that is also from either 2006 or 2007. The connector on the end of the display does not connect directly into the Mac Mini, so I had to use an adapter. After powering up the Mac Mini and the display, nothing comes on the display, just the little indicator light telling me that it is turned on.

1. Is this Mac Mini powerful enough to run this display?
2. Any idea why it is not working? Is this not the right adapter? Picture #3 shows the adapter connected to the Mac Mini.
3. Without being able to get the Mac Mini working with the display, is there a way to figure out the graphics card, or processor from some model number on it?

Thanks for any info!
 

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That screen should plug right into the Mini, no adapter is required. The Mini has an Intell GMA950 that is able to drive any and all Apple displays except for the 30" model. It has either a 1.5Ghz CoreSolo to a 2.0Ghz Core2Duo in it. Besides the CPU, the 2006 and 2007 Mini's are identical.
 
OK, I feel stupid...that took care of the problem.

1. I think I'm going to use this Mac Mini to just stream Netflix and maybe DirecTV. Is the graphics card in this going to be good enough to support doing this with the 23-inch display?

2. Any idea how much one of these go for these days? Is it not worth much at all?

Thanks.
 
The Intell GMA950 is one of the worst GPUs Apple ever put into an Intell Mac. While it will drive that screen, it will struggle with some more intense things. I've had mine drive a 23" ADC screen before with no problems when playing movies. Depending on the CPU in yours, it could be worth between $200 and $400. Not too bad for a 6 or 7 year old Mac. If you look at the sticker on the bottom, you'll see some information about that particular Mini. You'll see the ram it cam with and the CPU it came with as well. It'll look something like "2.0/2x512/160" on it. This is the CPU speed, the ram 2 sticks of 512MB, and the hard drive size in GB. It'll say some other stuff as well, but that's the most important. I've found that the 1.5Ghz can barely do Netflix and 1.86Ghz is needed for 1080p playback at the very least. You can upgrade the ram to 4GB, of which only 3.3GB will be usable due to hardware limitations, the CPU, and the hard drive. You can upgrade the CPU to a 2.33Ghz Core2Duo.
 
I just got it turned on, here is a bit of info about it:

Macmini2,1
Intel Core 2 Duo
2 GHz
2GB memory
Bus speed 667 MHz

It is running 10.4 and Netflix will not work with it, though I can't download Firefox or Chrome to it because it is such an old OS. I am doing the basic OS updates right now.

1. What is the latest version of OSX that I should try to update this Mac to without it becoming real slow?
2. Any other advice?

Thank you!
 
That Mini can run up to Lion. I suggest Snow Leopard. If you're technical, you can open it up and upgrade the ram to 4GB and install Lion. With Lion, that machine will have a few years of life left in it. Even more if you aren't really wanting to run the latest and greatest software on it.
 
I have one of these, a 1.66 core duo that still runs constantly. It was originally supplied with a DVI to VGA converter for use with a VGA monitor. I use a 23 inch VGA monitor, works great. The connector you see is DVI, not the mini DVI that newer units have.

I even use mine to run Handbrake, a standard movie takes 6 to 7 hours overnight to run. It gets the job done. I put in 2gb of memory.

I don't think it will ever wear out, going more than 6 years now and running like new. I have upgraded the OS to Leopard.
 
I'm not so sure if I care about upgrading to Lion, as much as I just want it to be able to watch Netflix, DirecTV and maybe share my iTune Library from another Mac in the house.

1. Will upgrading the RAM on it make much difference with watching Netflix/DirecTV?

2. What type of RAM do I need to get for it?

Thanks!
 
For those simple tasks, 2GB is plenty. It takes two standard 200-pin PC2-5300 (667MHz) DDR2 SO-DIMMs.
 
1. So the max ram you can put in it is 4GB?
2. If I want to upgrade I will need to but two separate 2GB of RAM?

Thanks!
 
gertruded said:
I have one of these, a 1.66 core duo that still runs constantly. It was originally supplied with a DVI to VGA converter for use with a VGA monitor. I use a 23 inch VGA monitor, works great. The connector you see is DVI, not the mini DVI that newer units have.

I even use mine to run Handbrake, a standard movie takes 6 to 7 hours overnight to run. It gets the job done. I put in 2gb of memory.

I don't think it will ever wear out, going more than 6 years now and running like new. I have upgraded the OS to Leopard.
Click to expand...

6-7 hours to convert a movie. Lol. My new 2012 mini converted Avatar in 25 minutes. :) Though I'm sure that old mini will surf the web and do most tasks just fine. Its amazing how well Macs still work over time. You take a 2 year old Windows laptop and you feel like you want to throw it out of a window. Sure wiping it and reinstalling Windows freshens it up again, but most people won't be able to do that.
 
The maximum ram that Mini can take is two sticks of 2GB for a total of 4GB. However, due to limitations of the chipset, the Mini will only be able to use 3.3GB of it. But for maximum speed, 4GB is better than 3GB.
 
stanw said:
1. So the max ram you can put in it is 4GB?
2. If I want to upgrade I will need to but two separate 2GB of RAM?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

I have a 2gb set (2x 1gb) that I used on this model Mini for a few months before I sold it. If you are interested I would let it go pretty cheap. Just let me know.

As others have said, I ran Snow Leopard on mine and it ran smoothly. I don't remember if I used Netflix on it, but any other task went smoothly. Especially after the RAM upgrade.
 
Thanks everyone for your help!!!!

TWO2SEVEN, thanks for the offer, though if I upgrade it, I think I'm going to max it out with 2 2GB sticks.
 
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