mac hardware advice

Cortb

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Not sure if this forum is staunchly PCMR, but im looking for some solid hardware advice on a 2007 mac mini. im looking to upgrade the gpu. i already have my plan b (external gpu in a little case) worked out, but i need some help with plan a which would be putting one inside.

specifically, im looking for a place i can siphon about 2.5 amps of 12v power, internally. anybody know where i could, or if there is another forum i should post this on.


so, i know there are probably a few questions people have, like:

q) why do you even want to do this? you could buy much better stuff that isn't a decade old! a)because i can. yeah, i know, my personal rig is a ryzen, this isn't about money. this was the first computer i ever bought.

q) the mac mini has integrated graphics, you know there's no way to upgrade that right? a) wrong, i'm going to use the mini pcie port with a converter and a pcie x1 gpu. yes, they do make gpus in x1 cards. mini pcie doesn't have 12v, which is why i'm here.

q) you know the throughput on a mini pcie port is going to bottleneck the gpu right? a) yeah, and i don't care, it will still be sooooo much better than the gma950 this is in there.

and no, i don't have any qualms about cracking it open, i've done it 3 times now when upgrading the ram, cpu and ssd. i would prefer not to have to solder, but i'm not completely against it.
 
I would think you'd get a better response asking your questions in a Mac oriented forum. As you stated, this forum is pretty much PCMR oriented.

Sounds like an interesting project though.
 
I figured as much, thanks all the same! i'll post some photos, if i ever get it done...
 
a 2007 mac mini
...
no, i don't have any qualms about cracking it open, i've done it 3 times now when upgrading the ram, cpu and ssd.

@Cortb - Mac Mini owner here. Yeah sorry i can't help you out but if I were you and if my computer was under warranty, I would send it back to Mac to take care of it. Don't go to local unofficial Mac places. Great for PC but Mac is a completely different animal. If its not under warranty, I would back up everything and still send it to mac and buy a refurbished one. They will add a little $$ from your Mac to so you can save a little. Keep us posted.

lmao, i'm waaaay out of warranty. even if they did warrant a 10 year old device, it has a cpu that apple never sold, more ram than they ever put into this mini, and an ssd which definitely weren't in macs a back then.

Though, if i did have one under warranty, i'd totally take it back to apple.
 
It's the t7600, I got it for $20 on eBay like a year ago. Ironically it was originally too expensive for this Apple product. It's the highest clock speed chip for the m socket on the early Intel minis. ifixit.com has a load of step by step instructions on upgrades like that. Only took an hour, and it runs pretty smooth. Aside from the graphics. Which is why I want to upgrade to a discrete card (see op)
 
Even after your upgrade it will be terrible compared to anything now. I'd put it away and save it if you have a sentimental attachment but not try to make it anything decent. It never will be that again as it's time is past.
I understand the attachment, I still have my Altair and a timex Sinclair. I don't plan on upgrading them to compete with a new system though.
 
It is honestly pretty snappy after the upgrades I already made, it just doesn't have the hardware video decoding for online services like Netflix and YouTube. It plays locally stored bluray 1080 files without a hitch, but trying to decode newer html5/h265 is pretty taxing on the cpu. At this point it's just a media center computer and it does its job well, as long as you're ok with 720p for streaming.

This is just a 'because I can' project. While you may not upgrade your Sinclair, I'm sure there is a group of people out there that do, even though it's like 35 years old. Like this guy who is modding the video out on his zx81:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=5OQuJ-GMwF4

Kinda similar to what I'm going for, just on an older computer... ;)
 
You asked for advice my advice is don't think money into Old Hardware that isn't going to perform like new hardware just buy the new hardware it's not that expensive.
 
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