I think the main reason (I'm not saying it was the right thing to do, just that it was the excuse) for the Apple legal letter was a picture posted on the SA webiste. The pic was from the manual and they sent the e-mail demaning them to take down the pic and the letter as well.
While true that it'd be cheaper to get the upgrade by buying the faster CPU in the first place, a refurb Core Solo is "only" $519 from Apple. After selling the old CPU and buying a new one to replace it, the price difference won't be too large, and, you get to have the fun of taking your computer apart and back together again. Yes, the Core Duo mini's come with bigger HDD's and better optical drives, but anyone who is going to upgrade their CPU themselves is probably going to be running off of an external FW/USB drive or running a SATA cable out to a bigger disk. In other words, cost isn't the only factor here.
The problem with people telling you can upgrade a Core Solo to a Core Duo, is that the FAN is not the same in both machines. Go to your local Apple store and ask. I went to the local one here and 3 separate techs confirmed that the Core Solo and Core Duo have different fans in them. If you upgrade a Solo to a Duo, you'll run it a LOT hotter (and potentially destroy the machine by overheating the components) than running the Duo with the Duo fan. You never want to run a Duo with the fan made for the Solo. Bad move.
(Reply to pixarman)As the other guy/girl/whatever says, the graphics are integrated, and there's not room for any graphics cards as far as I know. My take on this would be if it's really an issue, you should probably consider another Mac. The Mini doesn't appear to be designed with upgrading or internal expansion in mind.OTOH, you can order the thing with a larger hard drive and more memory; the former is pretty expensive and not worth it IMHO (partly due to 2.5" HDDs being more expensive than 3.5" models, I'd guess). However, the additional memory is affordable (well, the 512MB to 1GB is), if not dirt cheap. This is just as well, because 512MB really isn't a lot these days; the computer I'm typing this on has 768MB, and it's hardly new. Also, apparently the emulation required to run older (non-Intel) software requires a lot of memory.
i have a 1.42 ghz mini (but its really a 1.5 ghz. dunno why). and i was wondering if i could buy another one and hook them together to make a 2 in 1 computer. would it be possible to do that? would it run any faster?
hobbesdooMay 5, 2006
From what I read so far it seems that you can replace a core solo with a core duo.
wasternMay 6, 2006
you should've snagged the macbook pro service manual from something awful before apple got a hold of them....
pu_zMay 6, 2006
I think the main reason (I'm not saying it was the right thing to do, just that it was the excuse) for the Apple legal letter was a picture posted on the SA webiste. The pic was from the manual and they sent the e-mail demaning them to take down the pic and the letter as well.
ottergooseMay 6, 2006
While true that it'd be cheaper to get the upgrade by buying the faster CPU in the first place, a refurb Core Solo is "only" $519 from Apple. After selling the old CPU and buying a new one to replace it, the price difference won't be too large, and, you get to have the fun of taking your computer apart and back together again. Yes, the Core Duo mini's come with bigger HDD's and better optical drives, but anyone who is going to upgrade their CPU themselves is probably going to be running off of an external FW/USB drive or running a SATA cable out to a bigger disk. In other words, cost isn't the only factor here.
desrodMay 7, 2006
The problem with people telling you can upgrade a Core Solo to a Core Duo, is that the FAN is not the same in both machines. Go to your local Apple store and ask. I went to the local one here and 3 separate techs confirmed that the Core Solo and Core Duo have different fans in them. If you upgrade a Solo to a Duo, you'll run it a LOT hotter (and potentially destroy the machine by overheating the components) than running the Duo with the Duo fan. You never want to run a Duo with the fan made for the Solo. Bad move.
pixarmanMay 7, 2006
anyone know if you can upgrade the graphics card on a mini?
vezaMay 8, 2006
I think graphics card in mac mini is an inter-gated..
nogoodnamesleftJun 2, 2006
(Reply to pixarman)As the other guy/girl/whatever says, the graphics are integrated, and there's not room for any graphics cards as far as I know. My take on this would be if it's really an issue, you should probably consider another Mac. The Mini doesn't appear to be designed with upgrading or internal expansion in mind.OTOH, you can order the thing with a larger hard drive and more memory; the former is pretty expensive and not worth it IMHO (partly due to 2.5" HDDs being more expensive than 3.5" models, I'd guess). However, the additional memory is affordable (well, the 512MB to 1GB is), if not dirt cheap. This is just as well, because 512MB really isn't a lot these days; the computer I'm typing this on has 768MB, and it's hardly new. Also, apparently the emulation required to run older (non-Intel) software requires a lot of memory.
idrathrbedivingJun 23, 2006
i have a 1.42 ghz mini (but its really a 1.5 ghz. dunno why). and i was wondering if i could buy another one and hook them together to make a 2 in 1 computer. would it be possible to do that? would it run any faster?