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Discrete Graphics cards in Mac Mini?

4th Page!!!

negatv1 said:
Then there is the fact that most people just don't get it. They dont know why anyone would want to hack up something to do things it wasn't built to do. Seems like a good percent of Mac people aren't comfortable even opening their machines up to add memory, in fears of voiding their warranty, or breaking the machine entirely.

...And I would throw all this of this contraption in a little Shuttle type case (g4 cube?) and would be totally digging it.
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Agreed. I love taking this thing apart and modding it! I've had all kinds of people ask me "Why do all that when you can just (whatever)?" That's half the fun! Everyone's got hobbies!

toru173 said:
Aprilfools1993: Well done! I hope you enjoy your perky new mini ^_^

To all, thank you for you help and I hope that one day Apple will give us the expansion options we desire, so we don't have to go hunting all over the web ^_^
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THANKS! ...Part of me would like to see that. Part of me doesn't. Finding this stuff is the other half of the fun! The anticipation! Let Apple restrict us and see how far we can go! BWAHAHA!!!

But ya, something like that would be nice on the other hand...

:)
 
I know I got tired of waiting for Apple to release the "Cube 2" so I went ahead and built my own ^_^

I was gonna start a thread once I've taken pics. It's schweet
 
If you want to have a look at incomplete build pics, check out my photo stream here. At the risk of derailing this thread, though, that's all I will say for now. PM me for more details
 
toru173 said:
Negatv1: That looks like a very cleanly done mod. I presume the mini runs quieter as well now?
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It was always quiet, and it still is after the e-SATA modification. I suppose removing the internal drive may lower internal temps by a single degree or two, but the main goal was simply to be able to use standard 3.5inch 7200rpm SATA drives (without sacrificing speed over the FW400 or USB bus). And the disk access is sure faster. (and cheaper, and with more capacity than a notebook drive)
 
Sorry, I did mean cooler when I asked that question. Interesting that it's just as quiet with the faster drive, though.
 
Well, depending on the hard disk when accessing it is more audible than the standard drive. But the speed and capacity makes any extra drive access noise worth it.
 
I didn't think to ask, but I would assume the price is close to the price of the mini itself - perhaps even more. The last time I emailed them they said they weren't prepared to make a custom unit for such a small order, so I don't know if the 100 piece lower limit would apply to us anyway.

Feel free to email Orbit Micro (sales@orbitmicro.com) with a request. I don't think they would take too kindly to me emailing them, they were rather abrupt with their last email.

The alternative is, of course, to find a different retailer that stocks the adapter.
 
toru173 said:
I didn't think to ask, but I would assume the price is close to the price of the mini itself - perhaps even more. The last time I emailed them they said they weren't prepared to make a custom unit for such a small order, so I don't know if the 100 piece lower limit would apply to us anyway.

Feel free to email Orbit Micro (sales@orbitmicro.com) with a request. I don't think they would take too kindly to me emailing them, they were rather abrupt with their last email.

The alternative is, of course, to find a different retailer that stocks the adapter.
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If the adapter really works, even if the bulk pack costs $600 then you're still saving $1300 off a Mac Pro along with the cost of a Mini :D Especially if we're able to run big-boy apps like Final Cut Pro and whatnot!
 
What do you want done? I'm handy with a soldering iron, but I think building this adapter is beyond most people. Could be done, though, with the right equipment
 
Seeing in how the onboard "GPU" is part of the chipset... I'd surely hope not.

I think he was hinting on somebody hacking up a homebrew mini-pci-express->pci-express adapter.
 
negatv1 said:
Seeing in how the onboard "GPU" is part of the chipset... I'd surely hope not.

I think he was hinting on somebody hacking up a homebrew mini-pci-express->pci-express adapter.
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Although if you think about it, we have the potential to run dual monitors on a Mini...that would be fantastic! The stock GMA950 can support up to 1920x1200, so you can go as big as a 27" LCD from Dell for a secondary monitor if you wanted. Secondary monitors are great for running email all day, putting palettes from graphics programs on, etc. Wouldn't it be great if we could get dual-link DVI on the Mini? A 30" primary plus a second monitor running off the Mini...mmm :rolleyes:
 
Dual monitors is great. Although I find that my single 24inch @ 1920x1200 at home is better than my work setup of two 1280x1024 panels. No gap between the two, just pure screen real estate.
 
Is anyone actively pursuing this?

I'm saving up for a 15" MBP right now, but I'd be happy to make it my next project. Serpent and I are still working on the ATX power supply issue. Currently you can get away with using a CarNetix CNX-P1900 "voltage converter" along with their Mac Mini cables, but it's expensive ($125 plus a PSU). Serpent is doing a good job testing out some direct connection options. If we're successful at both, then the Mini will basically be 100% hacked:

-Processor (Yonah or Merom up to 2.33ghz)
-Ram (up to 2gb)
-SATA (Laptop hard drive or 1 full-sized drive with cable)
-IDE (Laptop CD/DVD drive or 2 full-sized drives with adapter kit)
-Power supply (standard ATX/mATX PSU)
-Wireless card (802.11g Wifi card or 1x PCI-Express video card)

I think the most difficult part will be the video card. Even if the adapter works, we still need to set the card up with a Mac BIOS. If we can get it working under Windows I'll talk to my Mac video card hacking buddies and see if we can get rolling! :D
 
kaidomac said:
I think the most difficult part will be the video card. Even if the adapter works, we still need to set the card up with a Mac BIOS. If we can get it working under Windows I'll talk to my Mac video card hacking buddies and see if we can get rolling! :D
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Heard you got the video sorted - how's the performance? What card did you end up using?
 
toru173 said:
We did? Did someone succeed and not tell me? *pouts*
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Serpent posted claiming success with 1x pci-e graphics on the intel mini over on 123macmini.com forums, but is being a bit cagey about sharing any details - seems he has some concerns about getting credit for the hack...

...that and/or he enjoys having a nice gloat. :)
 
vga4life said:
Serpent posted claiming success with 1x pci-e graphics on the intel mini over on 123macmini.com forums, but is being a bit cagey about sharing any details - seems he has some concerns about getting credit for the hack...

...that and/or he enjoys having a nice gloat. :)
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Could you please give a link to that thread on 123macmini.com so that I could have a look, sounds like things came a long. But there's not much more info here.
 
There's a little bit more in the topic "Mac Mod Challenge 2007."

It's good that he's finally come up with something - I'll be PMing him in a minute. I dunno what all the fuss is about though. The idea of putting a pcie card in a mac mini is pretty old. Even before I posted here, HarryRex mentioned the idea on the 123Macmini forums way back in January.

I hadn't found the topic at the time, so I assumed I'd come up with it - http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/729.html, for those interested. It's about half way down.

Anyway, my point is that Serpent ought to share what he's learned with the rest of us so that we can all benefit. We're a community after all, aren't we?

Plus, pix or it didn't happen Serpent!
 
toru173 said:
A thought struck me just recently - why can't we have discrete graphics inside the mac mini? Two reasons. There isn't any space, and there's no way to connect it. To the first we could always mount the card outside the enclosure - I'm sure many of us here are able and willing to sacrifice the time needed to make that look pretty (or even the good looks) in order to get some better frame rates.

The second is more difficult to deal with. With a lot of thinking, though, I realised that the Airport card has to have an expansion bus of some sort. I had a look at pictures of the mini nude (here, labled "J") I recognised it as a mini PCI-e port. This is basically a PCI-e x1 port plus a usb port. Checking out the manufacturer's details for the 802.11n airport module (an Atheros card) confirmed this.

I went and checked out one of my favourite sites for bus adapters, http://www.adexelec.com/ and I found this:



This means that any PCI-e x1 card can be plugged into a mini PCI-e socket. With
this, also from them, one could conceivably use any graphics card on the market today.

Mechanically, they are now compatible. This article shows that it would also be electrically compatible, so long as the mechanical adapter would be able to supply sufficient power. Software? I don't know, but I'm quite sure that it would work under windows. Perhaps if the mac-specific cards were used, they would also be recognized by the mini?

I don't have a mini nor do I have the funds to try this out. I'm almost positive that it would work, but I don't know how much of a performance gain you would actually see. Certainly any of the hardware accelerated features of the card would be demonstrated, but would one be better off just using the integrated graphics?

At the very least, though, this would be an interesting hack. I hope someone tries it out ^_^
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Shoult it be possible to put a pci-e sata card in it? i never use the wireless card and i think the sata controller on the mini doesnt support FIS or portmapping.
 
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