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mac mini 1.66 Ghz upgrade

C

camelord

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 15, 2010
2
0
Hi there,

i just bought a mac mini
1.66 Ghz intel core duo, 2 * 512 MB 667 mhz DDR2 SDRAM.

I bought it to work mainly with XCode. Now i think it´s a bit slow.

Do you think it boost the mac, replacing the two 512 KB with two 1GB RAMs (if yes, which one? Perhaps this?)

I also have a 2 year old Desktop used with windows, that i dont need anymore.
Can i use its Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 So775 Tray 2x 2.53GHz 3MB?

regards
camelord
 
That appears to be the correct RAM. That upgrade will be a big improvement. I don't think that CPU will work.
 
OK, then i give the Memory a try.

I hope i find something usefull to do with the 'old' Desktop. I payed 500 € for the system..
 
You are lucky that your Mac mini has a CPU that is installed in a ZIF socket which can be upgraded. The problem with newer Mac mini's is the CPU's are hardwired to the motherboard.

I looked into this a while ago, I have a 1.83GHz Mac mini and I looked at upgrading it to 2.16GHz but I couldn't justify the cost and only getting a 300MHz improvement. You also need to know that the CPU's are desktop Core 2 Duo's - they're the portable ones, for their size and heat dissipation.

I think I read somewhere that someone upgraded to 2.33GHz, but I can't be sure. Even if you did upgrade, the cost would be stupid and you'd be getting between 600MHz and 800MHz increase. Is it really worth it? Probably not. Don't forget the slower speed CPU's were designed for the small enclosure, and you might find your Mac mini running a lot higher than originally designed which might cause other components as time goes on.

The best thing to do in my opinion is to swap the RAM. Yours should support 4GB, with only 3.3GB's available to OS X.

Hope this helps

pac
 
all mobile on the inside

camelord said:
...Can i use its Intel Core 2 Duo E7200 So775 Tray 2x 2.53GHz 3MB?
Click to expand...


nope, you need a mobile chip, not the desktop E series.

you can use: T7200 2.0ghz, T7400 2.16ghz, and T7200 2.33ghz in the core 2 duo line, or if you don't need the cache or c2d upgrade, you could use a T2700 core duo @ 2.33ghz with only 2gb of cache compared to 4gb of cache for the 7 series chips above.

clean the heatsink like mad before re-installing, use good compound like artic silver 5 or mx-2, watch out for the 'almost always break' white plastic mounting pins holding the heatsink on, and the cpu temp sensor glued on the bottom of the heatsink that has a really short wire (take it off slow and careful). best of luck.
 
4JNA is correct. I just want to put extra emphasis on being careful with the white nylon heatsink mounts. I broke off two when I upgraded my CPU. I ended up using nuts and bolts in their place to re-mount the heatsink.
 
Max RAM on Mac Mini mid-2010

pacmania1982 said:
The best thing to do in my opinion is to swap the RAM. Yours should support 4GB, with only 3.3GB's available to OS X.

pac
Click to expand...
Those sound like numbers from 32-bit Windows. I have not heard about such restrictions on the Mac mini mid-2010. Plus the info I have heard is that max RAM is dependent on hardware, not OS.

[1st post!]

Baby Mac
 
The limits are due to the firmware/chipset.

The original Core Duo machines (Macmini1,1) are limited to 2GB and will not boot with more memory installed.

The Core 2 Duo machines (Macmini2,1) will work with 4GB of RAM, but due to the chipset the address space is limited and the OS can only use 3.2GB. See http://www.appleinsider.com/article...bits_santa_rosa_and_the_great_pc_swindle.html - the original intel Mac minis used the same chipset as the Macbook 2006 in that article.

AFAIK there is no physical difference between the two motherboards, so the 2GB limit must be due to firmware.

The 2009 minis (Macmini3,1) can use 8GB, but the original units would slow down after extended use if a lot of memory (more then 4GB) was installed. A firmware update fixed the issue.

I do not know the limits if the thin 2010 mini (Macmini4,1), but Apple supports 8GB.
 
When 4 Gig's of RAM is to much

Cave Man said:
This thread is about the 1.66 gHz Core 2 Duo mini, built around the Intel Calistoga chipset. As ADent pointed out, it will take 4 GB of RAM (2x2 GB) but only about 3.2 GB are available.
Click to expand...
Hi Caveman, I have a 1.66 Core Duo mac Mini (model 1.1) which I upgraded to a 2.33 Core2Duo Processor. I was under the impression that all 1.66 mini's were Core Duo and not Core2Duo. The Core Duo mini's will only work with 2 Gig's of RAM max. Install more than 2 Gig's and the Model 1.1 mini won't boot.

BTW, installing a 2.33 C2D Processor was the BEST $200 I ever spent!!!
Attaching an external 600 Gig Velociraptor via a SATA hack was also money
well spent. This mini is so damn fast I'm in no hurry to purchase a '10 Unimini
(Alumini?).
 
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