Overclocking Mac Mini

[Josh Kahane]

Hi

Its about a year or so old now but i recently found this when trying to find out about speeding up my old mac mini G4 1.25GHz computer.

http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/macmini/

If I was to open up my Mac Mini, I have 3 questions:

1. Can I just break these transistors off? (With some kind of pick or tweezer, small thing)

2. From the chart below, does 'yes' mean remove this transistor?

Speed R362 R358 R355 R351
1.25GHz yes yes yes -
1.42GHz - yes - yes
1.50GHz - - - -
1.58GHz - yes - -

3. Using the picture in the link, also below, which numbers refer to which resistor/jumper thingy? E.g R362 = one on far right.

http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/macmini/macmini_jumpers.jpg

They are the main things I'm interested about. One last thing, if I was to tackle this, what should I watch out for? Be careful about? I don't want to mess my poor old mac up. Any help much appreciated, thanks.

 

[WayneStewart]

I don't have a mini but I have done a bit of overclocking on other Macs.
I would suggest against breaking off the resistors as most likely you'd damage the traces on the board. Those traces can be very easily damaged.

I've removed resistors two ways. My preferred way is to use two soldering irons to desolder it. I've also had good luck cutting them off with a utility knife, though I've only done that on boards I don't care about.

Keep in mind before you start that if anything goes wrong you may need a new computer

 

[alex000it]

Hi

Its about a year or so old now but i recently found this when trying to find out about speeding up my old mac mini G4 1.25GHz computer.

http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/macmini/

If I was to open up my Mac Mini, I have 3 questions:

1. Can I just break these transistors off? (With some kind of pick or tweezer, small thing)

2. From the chart below, does 'yes' mean remove this transistor?

Speed R362 R358 R355 R351
1.25GHz yes yes yes -
1.42GHz - yes - yes
1.50GHz - - - -
1.58GHz - yes - -

3. Using the picture in the link, also below, which numbers refer to which resistor/jumper thingy? E.g R362 = one on far right.

http://www.lbodnar.dsl.pipex.com/macmini/macmini_jumpers.jpg

They are the main things I'm interested about. One last thing, if I was to tackle this, what should I watch out for? Be careful about? I don't want to mess my poor old mac up. Any help much appreciated, thanks.

1. Those are not transistors, but 0 Ohm resistors (same as jumpers). If you want to remove them, you have to dissolder them from the logic board, because if you break them off, you could mess your mini.

2. Yes means don't remove this resistor.

3. R362 is the one on far left, R358 is the next, then R355. R351 is empty because you need it only for the 1,42 speed setting.

4. Pay attention when you dissolder the resistors, because if the soldering iron is too hot, you will screw the Logic Board

 

[dustinschings]

Update

I am not trying to bring an old topic back to life, but if others, like my self, find this site while trying to overclock their Mini, I'd just like to add this:

In my opinion, a steady hand and a scribe (similar to a dentist's pick) is the easiest method of removing these resistors. I have my mini apart in under 5 minutes, and the board flipped over. I had already decided that I wanted 1.5GHz (originally a 1.25GHz). This meant removing the three resistor on the board. I simply, and CAREFULLY, "picked" them off. Took a total of 45 seconds to do all three. I held my breath as I fired it up, and voila, 1.5GHz. Only thing is to make sure you don't let the scribe brush the board when the resistor breaks free. (It doesn't take much at all to break it off). After they were removed, I just made sure there was nothing else between the two contacts for each of the three resistors, and packed it up. Looks a lot cleaner actually compared to what other peoples' minis looked after they removed them with a soldering iron.

Good luck and, really, don't be afraid to do it, just be careful. It is pretty worth it. 250MHz extra on a G4 is a lot, and it took a total of maybe 7 minutes from the time I shut down the mini to the time i was booting it back up.

 

[OSMac]

I am not trying to bring an old topic back to life, but if others, like my self, find this site while trying to overclock their Mini, I'd just like to add this:

In my opinion, a steady hand and a scribe (similar to a dentist's pick) is the easiest method of removing these resistors. I have my mini apart in under 5 minutes, and the board flipped over. I had already decided that I wanted 1.5GHz (originally a 1.25GHz). This meant removing the three resistor on the board. I simply, and CAREFULLY, "picked" them off. Took a total of 45 seconds to do all three. I held my breath as I fired it up, and voila, 1.5GHz. ...

Life to this thread again, just did the same,
I didn't have a scribe but used the tip of a very small jewellers screwdriver to pick them off.

Got the mini for free so figured it was worth a shot.

Fired it up and 1.5 GHz on a 167Mhz bus, think its faster than the big Quicksilver on the floor!

Thanks for the pick tip, I would have never been able to desolder them...

Long live the overclocked mini and this thread

 

[Giuly]

This belongs in the PowerMac subforum.

Use a soldering iron, as the system might get unstable and you need to clock it down one step again.
That said, all my Macs run fine overclocked, but you want to research the jumper settings and possible multiplicators (there are data sheets for the CPUs available), as it might not work properly at 1.42GHz, but you should have the option of 1.33(/1.35 on 166MHz bussed systems)GHz.

 

[alex_free]

Update

I am not trying to bring an old topic back to life, but if others, like my self, find this site while trying to overclock their Mini, I'd just like to add this:

In my opinion, a steady hand and a scribe (similar to a dentist's pick) is the easiest method of removing these resistors. I have my mini apart in under 5 minutes, and the board flipped over. I had already decided that I wanted 1.5GHz (originally a 1.25GHz). This meant removing the three resistor on the board. I simply, and CAREFULLY, "picked" them off. Took a total of 45 seconds to do all three. I held my breath as I fired it up, and voila, 1.5GHz. Only thing is to make sure you don't let the scribe brush the board when the resistor breaks free. (It doesn't take much at all to break it off). After they were removed, I just made sure there was nothing else between the two contacts for each of the three resistors, and packed it up. Looks a lot cleaner actually compared to what other peoples' minis looked after they removed them with a soldering iron.

Good luck and, really, don't be afraid to do it, just be careful. It is pretty worth it. 250MHz extra on a G4 is a lot, and it took a total of maybe 7 minutes from the time I shut down the mini to the time i was booting it back up.

Attempting this for 1.58GHZ... here is the pic from the Wayback machine if anyone needs it.

 

[dustinschings]

Attempting this for 1.58GHZ... here is the pic from the Wayback machine if anyone needs it.View attachment 917446

How did 1.58GHz go? From what I recall when I did this back in 2011 (Im kerberosv2 FYI) that the guide I followed said that it was unstable, so I did not do it. Temps were the reason I believe.

Edit: I tried it since it only required me to remove one of the two resistors I needed to remove anyways. It booted, but showed 750MHz and was very slow. I plucked off the other resistor and we are chugging along at 1.5GHz now. A small boost from 1.42GHz, but anything helps!