Just upgraded new Mini to 4GB. Video memory pictures, description etc...

[WilliamG]

So, I just received my Crucial 4GB DDR3 set from Newegg. Total cost to my door being $52.99. Thanks Newegg!

Taking the Mini apart is very easy. Slide the putty knife, as others describe, into either side of the Mini, and just bend outward. That process takes under 30 seconds, and don't be afraid to make little scratches on the white plastic underneath. It WILL happen a little bit, but it's so minor that nobody will notice, and... well.... it's underneath! So who cares?

Here was my $599 model Mini with 1GB, out of the box, with only 128MB Geforce 9400m available.

Taking it apart is VERY easy. Just remove the lid as described above, remove the 3 antennas from their clips (NOT from the motherboard). That takes about 5 seconds. Then unscrew the 4 screws in the corners of the system, taking special note of their original location! Then all you need to do is prop up the DVD drive and get your hand in there and remove the single DIMM. I was pleasantly surprised to see a 1GB DIMM in there already, not 2x 512MB, so for those wanting to upgrade to 2GB and not 4GB DDR3, you just need one stick of 1GB! Nice one, Apple! (I, of course, assume that ALL 1GB Minis come like this...).

Then, just slot your new RAM in there, plop the DVD drive back down, 4 screws back in, antennas clipped back in, replace top of Mini, and voila!

As you can see, this 100% increases the video memory to 256MB available . When it's THIS easy to upgrade the system, why bother with the $799 model? If you've never done it before, consider it a lesson on how to work with a computer, and with all the tutorials on the Internet, if my description isn't enough, theirs will be, and it really is a doddle.

And here's the link at Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820148191

 

[Beerfloat]

Good stuff, thanks. Hopefully this'll help to put the doubts to rest.

 

[inVaUSA]

thanks

glad to hear it is easy... i'll be taking mine apart Thursday to add 4GB memory and a 7200RPM drive.

a little nervous as this is my first mac.

any chance of reselling the 1GB memory and 120GB drive you think?

 

[WilliamG]

glad to hear it is easy... i'll be taking mine apart Thursday to add 4GB memory and a 7200RPM drive.

a little nervous as this is my first mac.

any chance of reselling the 1GB memory and 120GB drive you think?

Honestly not worth it. I'd just keep them around. You never know when you might need them for a friend etc. I didn't even bother upgrading the hard drive, as I use my Mini exclusively for Plex, so I have all my data in RAID arrays connected via FW800.

 

[bugout]

Here's another tip.. Why take a picture of the screen when you could just hit shift-cmd-4 and take a screen cap?

 

[WilliamG]

Here's another tip.. Why take a picture of the screen when you could just hit shift-cmd-4 and take a screen cap?

Cause I was in front of my TV, and my Mac Mini isn't set up for e-mail etc. Just was easier for me at that time. From my MBP, this would have happened.

 

[Cave Man]

I don't believe this. Those images have clearly been Photoshopped.

 

[WilliamG]

I don't believe this. Those images have clearly been Photoshopped.

Clearly.

 

[spank2223]

I just bought the ram earlier this afternoon. I hope its as easy as you say. Once i get the ram, i will go to the apple store and pick up the mini. I hope i can get my student discount. Thanks for this

 

[DHart]

My 2.26GHz base model Mini arrived this morning (Monday) from China. I ordered it on the Apple Store site last Wednesday. And also ordered a Hitachi 7200RPM 320GB drive and 4GB of RAM from Other World Computing. The FedEx driver brought both packages at the same time... what timing!

I fired it up, all worked as it should, so next I prepped the OR for surgery, laid out my instruments, opened her up, dropped in 4GB of RAM and a 7200RPM 320GB Hitachi drive, sewed her back up again and she's hummin' along better than ever! Great computer! No scratches nor any marks on the case at all. Better than the top of the line Mini for about $876!

$749 2.26GHz base model
$67 Hitachi 7K320 HDD from OtherWorldComputing
$60 4GB RAM from OtherWorldComputing

and now I have a brand new Fujitsu 120GB drive to sell... or to set up as a mobile StartUp Drive.

Surgery went very smoothly and easily. I recommend this to anyone with even modest manual dexterity. It was fun and easy... and very rewarding to be able to select the specific drive & drive speed desired. Just followed instructions and it was a piece of cake!

 

[rrijkers]

D-hart, can you do some benchmarks please? I'm especially interested in 64bit Geekbench results, some xbench too please, you seem to be the first with the 226

 

[DHart]

D-hart, can you do some benchmarks please? I'm especially interested in 64bit Geekbench results, some xbench too please, you seem to be the first with the 226

rrijkers... perhaps in a day or two... just a bit busy at present with work and reconfiguring a few of my machines.

Here's some info:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/664400/

 

[WilliamG]

My 2.26GHz base model Mini arrived this morning (Monday) from China. I ordered it on the Apple Store site last Wednesday. And also ordered a Hitachi 7200RPM 320GB drive and 4GB of RAM from Other World Computing. The FedEx driver brought both packages at the same time... what timing!

I fired it up, all worked as it should, so next I prepped the OR for surgery, laid out my instruments, opened her up, dropped in 4GB of RAM and a 7200RPM 320GB Hitachi drive, sewed her back up again and she's hummin' along better than ever! Great computer! No scratches nor any marks on the case at all. Better than the top of the line Mini for about $876!

$749 2.26GHz base model
$67 Hitachi 7K320 HDD from OtherWorldComputing
$60 4GB RAM from OtherWorldComputing

and now I have a brand new Fujitsu 120GB drive to sell... or to set up as a mobile StartUp Drive.

Surgery went very smoothly and easily. I recommend this to anyone with even modest manual dexterity. It was fun and easy... and very rewarding to be able to select the specific drive & drive speed desired. Just followed instructions and it was a piece of cake!

Nice going DHart! It really is a fun upgrade if personal satisfaction is your cup of tea. I'm glad that Apple didn't lock down the amount of GeForce video memory based on whether you bought the low-end or "high-end" model. That would have been VERY annoying.

 

[marbles]

I'm wavering on doing this to mine or just letting them do it, only as I have a voucher and it make the RAM a little less expensive than it usually is from Apple

Just curious, If I was to use my external HD (Gtech Gdrive 500Gb, FW800, 7200, 3") as the boot disk on a Mini with FW800[and 4 Gb RAM]- would I see speed improvements?

 

[Cave Man]

Just curious, If I was to use my external HD (Gtech Gdrive 500Gb, FW800, 7200, 3") as the boot disk on a Mini with FW800[and 4 Gb RAM]- would I see speed improvements?

No. Even a 5400 rpm 2.5" internal drive (made in the last year or two) will be faster than any FW800 drive. With that said, it certainly wouldn't be intolerable. I used to run my old Mini from a 3.5" FW400/500 gb/7200 rpm drive.

 

[penguy]

well, I couldn't wait for the hard drive to arrive, so I opened it up and installed the 4 gb tonight. Now, remember, I did this to my first mini in 2005, so this should not be a problem, right?

I guess I'm getting sloppy. I opened it up without too much difficulty, but struggled with the last antenna and ended up breaking the retaining clip .

Anyway, onward, so I removed the 1 gb chip and snapped the first 2 gb in. No problem. Then the second 2 gb chip. I thought this went in as well until I booted and found only 2 gb. So apart it came again (much easier this time). Now all is well, except I'll be doing it again with the WD Scorpio 320 arrives on Friday!

Thanks for the pointers...

 

[marbles]

No. Even a 5400 rpm 2.5" internal drive (made in the last year or two) will be faster than any FW800 drive. With that said, it certainly wouldn't be intolerable. I used to run my old Mini from a 3.5" FW400/500 gb/7200 rpm drive.

Ok , Thanks...Not doing that then

 

[beatmonkeytwo]

Do you need to use a spudger when changing the memory and Hard drive? A lot of sites that I have seen upgrading the mini use them. What's so special about it? Would a small set of micro screw drivers do the same job?

 

[Beerfloat]

No. Even a 5400 rpm 2.5" internal drive (made in the last year or two) will be faster than any FW800 drive.

Not necessarily. The very fastest 5400 rpm 2.5 inch drives do up to about 65 MB/s sequential reads, well short of FW800's 100 MB/s theoretical throughput.

For single drive performance FW800 is not going to be your bottleneck, and the same goes for contemporary 7200 rpm 2.5 inch drives.

 

[marbles]

Not necessarily. The very fastest 5400 rpm 2.5 inch drives do up to about 65 MB/s sequential reads, well short of FW800's 100 MB/s theoretical throughput.

For single drive performance FW800 is not going to be your bottleneck, and the same goes for contemporary 7200 rpm 2.5 inch drives.

My existing drive I was thinking of using is a GTech GDrive 500Gb 7200 400 USB2.
I just realized my external is only FW400 , Guess I'm buying another drive soon anyway so I'll get one with FW800 and try this, any basic recommends on drive choice which would give speed benefits

 

[rrijkers]

I say, Network Drives!

Thanks Dhart, looking forward to it

 

[SydneyDev]

Do you need to use a spudger when changing the memory and Hard drive? A lot of sites that I have seen upgrading the mini use them. What's so special about it? Would a small set of micro screw drivers do the same job?

No, you don't need it. I changed the RAM and HD today and all I needed was a putty knife, a pocket knife (to help get the putty knife in) and 2 screwdrivers.

 

[WilliamG]

No, you don't need it. I changed the RAM and HD today and all I needed was a putty knife, a pocket knife (to help get the putty knife in) and 2 screwdrivers.

Two screwdrivers? You only need one. Small philips will do the trick!

 

[HiFiGuy528]

On mine, I had to relocate the temp sensor for the hard drive because my Samsung 500GB is different from the stock Hitachi. I agree that upgrading it yourself is a better deal, it you have the balls to do it.

 

[Cave Man]

Not necessarily. The very fastest 5400 rpm 2.5 inch drives do up to about 65 MB/s sequential reads, well short of FW800's 100 MB/s theoretical throughput.

For single drive performance FW800 is not going to be your bottleneck, and the same goes for contemporary 7200 rpm 2.5 inch drives.

Sorry, but this is contrary to my testing with Speedtools' Quickbench. My testing is done on a Mac Mini, not a PC, and my results are clear, time after time. When I compare my internal Samsung notebook drive to an external Segate fw400 drive, the notebook drive wins almost at every point. I've tried this with more than one FW drive and at varying capacities and available space and the internal has overall better performance each time. The new Mini has 3 gbps internal SATA (vs. 1.5 gbps on the old Mini).

1. Samsung 2.5" 500 gb 5400 rpm 8 mb cache internal SATA drive and 1.5 gbps interface on the Mini (Mac Mini HT)
2. Seagate 3.5" 1.5 TB 7200 rpm 32 mb cache drive in a FW400 enclosure (Blu-Ray)