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webcity

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 16, 2011
94
0
United Kingdom
I've just bought a Mac Mini off my brother and I'm wondering how far I can upgrade it without spending stupid amounts of money.

The mini is a Core Duo 1.66GHz model with 1GB Ram installed and a 60GB hard drive.

I know the official supported max ram is 2GB but will it take more or not? Is the hard drive IDE or SATA? If it's SATA, is it worth sticking a small SSD in there? (It's currently got a 60GB hard drive).

Cheers :)
 

David085

macrumors 6502a
Nov 9, 2009
811
3
You should of gotta a 2010 or Mid 2011 Mac Mini online or in store and then worry about upgrading it since that system only his a 60 GB Hard Drive seems old you could of gotta a 500GB and then upgrade it to a 750GB or 1TB drive don't know how old is the mini you got and how well it will perform.
 

webcity

macrumors member
Original poster
Sep 16, 2011
94
0
United Kingdom
You should of gotta a 2010 or Mid 2011 Mac Mini online or in store and then worry about upgrading it since that system only his a 60 GB Hard Drive seems old you could of gotta a 500GB and then upgrade it to a 750GB or 1TB drive don't know how old is the mini you got and how well it will perform.

Well I paid a hell of a lot less than a 2010 or 2011 mini would've cost so I'm expecting it to not be as good but it's only for a browsing machine so not mega important :)
 

robbie12345

macrumors 6502
Nov 5, 2011
400
0
United States
how much did u pay for it it is one peace of crap right now in terms of computing so i would probably only pay maybe 75 dollars for it max and maybe that and i doubt it is data and no it isn't worth it to purchase a small sad due to the fact u would be stuck with a 2.5inch sad when u choose to upgrade in a week when u want a machine that can support lion and doesn't take forever to even read an email or watch netflix with flash

all i can say is i hope u didn't pay much for it
 

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,362
248
Howell, New Jersey
the 2007 c2d 1.83ghz is the oldest weakest mini that can be useful. it can use 3.1gb of 4gb ram. it can use a sata ssd it runs nicely with a wd scorpio black hdd . and you can upgrade the cpu to a 2.33ghz c2d.

the cost;

the cpu is 100 or so on ebay

a scorpio black is high cost due to hdd shortage 100

and the ram is 35 so to make the machine close to good it cost more then 200 bucks plus the purchase price of say 100 you are at 300 to 350 for a machine that has no warranty and is 4 years old!

please remember your machine can't ever be as good as the 2007 that I described above.


Either yours or the 2007 is A lot of grief when this one is in stock;

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC270LL/A

cost 469 and crushes any 2006 or 2007 also come with a warranty of a year. has dvd player and runs snow or leopard or both with a dual partition
 
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jdreier

macrumors member
Dec 20, 2010
52
0
Don't let everyone hate on your new mini purchase. There's still some life left in it. I've got the same mini... but i've added a few upgrades. I use mine as a media server in my living room. It streams and plays HD video fine.

Maxing out the RAM is a must. Put 2gb in it.

Then add a SSD. That will give your mini a whole new life. I put a 60gb SSD in mine as a system OS and application drive. All my movies and music files are stored on externals.

Check out a CPU upgrade also. I got my 2.33ghz c2d cpu on ebay for less than $120. This upgrade was also worth the money. I also run OSX Lion on my computer now too. It just takes a simple file hack to making lion run.

I plan on using my mini for couple more years, at least.
 

dolphin842

macrumors 65816
Jul 14, 2004
1,172
29
2GB RAM + an SSD will make it surprisingly responsive. We put an SSD in our old MacBook (2.0 Core 2 Duo, GMA 950 graphics, SATA I), and for light everyday computing, it's indistinguishable from a current MacBook Air.

Just don't expect it to do any cpu-intesive stuff (i.e. HD video viewing or editing) and you'll be fine.
 

keekl

macrumors regular
Nov 9, 2008
175
0
PA
I have same mini~see sig...5 years old last month and still working great with no immediate plans to replace it...only used for everyday stuff (email, internet, documents, streaming netflix) and my 11 y/o playing "Blockland".

"piece of crap" indeed~it doesn't take "forever" to read email:rolleyes:
 

bwrairen

macrumors 6502
Jun 23, 2010
345
2
You should of gotta a 2010 or Mid 2011 Mac Mini online or in store and then worry about upgrading it since that system only his a 60 GB Hard Drive seems old you could of gotta a 500GB and then upgrade it to a 750GB or 1TB drive don't know how old is the mini you got and how well it will perform.

how much did u pay for it it is one peace of crap right now in terms of computing so i would probably only pay maybe 75 dollars for it max and maybe that and i doubt it is data and no it isn't worth it to purchase a small sad due to the fact u would be stuck with a 2.5inch sad when u choose to upgrade in a week when u want a machine that can support lion and doesn't take forever to even read an email or watch netflix with flash

all i can say is i hope u didn't pay much for it

These are a couple of the most useless and uninformed posts I've seen in awhile. That mini will run Lion flawlessly with a ram and CPU upgrade. Ssd will definitely make it snappier.
 

dolphin842

macrumors 65816
Jul 14, 2004
1,172
29
That mini will run Lion flawlessly with a ram and CPU upgrade. Ssd will definitely make it snappier.

I'd almost want to leave it at Snow Leopard even if the OP does the CPU upgrade. At least for me, Lion seems more sluggish than 10.6 on identical hardware (a 2.4GHz Core 2 mini in my case).
 

DePaulBlueDemon

macrumors 6502
Sep 27, 2010
250
40
You should of gotta a 2010 or Mid 2011 Mac Mini online or in store and then worry about upgrading it since that system only his a 60 GB Hard Drive seems old you could of gotta a 500GB and then upgrade it to a 750GB or 1TB drive don't know how old is the mini you got and how well it will perform.

Well, you "gotta" work on your computer knowledge.
 

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,362
248
Howell, New Jersey
I'd almost want to leave it at Snow Leopard even if the OP does the CPU upgrade. At least for me, Lion seems more sluggish than 10.6 on identical hardware (a 2.4GHz Core 2 mini in my case).

YEAH leave it at snow and by the way if the op feels like doing an efi hack the machine can do 3.1gb out of 4gb ram .. I just learned about the hack. this means the 2006 is as good as the 2007 and my earlier post that claims the 2006 1.66 cd can not be upgraded as much as a 2007 1.83ghz c2d is no longer correct!!


this thread claims that doing an efi Firmware hack will allow the op's 2006 machine to be a 2007 machine.

http://forum.netkas.org/index.php/topic,874.0.html


much like the efi firm ware hack to a 2009 mac pro to a 2010 mac pro... So the op could create 2.33Ghz c2d machine with about 3.1gb ram for 300 to 325 maybe 350. that is a pretty good machine .

personally I would still buy this machine (no longer in stock it sold out over night).


http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC270LL/A

add some ram and be done with it. the graphics are better the ram goes to 8gb and the price is close, has a 1 year warranty etc.
 

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,362
248
Howell, New Jersey
thanks for all the advice. What sort of processor will I need? Is it a mobile processor?

okay I will give links


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-iMac-...44?pt=CPUs&hash=item41606c9204#ht_1551wt_1328

this is the fastest one for the 2006. I will look for a better price



http://www.ebay.com/itm/DELL-LATITU...ultDomain_0&hash=item256a910ea3#ht_500wt_1109


this guy has the best price for the t7600




below is the second fastest cpu for your mini.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Core-2-Mobi...86?pt=CPUs&hash=item2a16ad1fee#ht_1923wt_1328


you have to check for pins. maybe some one on this site will double check with you that has done the upgrade. some of the cpus do not have pins. \\

a few years ago around 2008 a mini with 4gb ram and the 2.33 gpu (t7600) would go for 1k on ebay.
 
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