Mac Mini 1.66 Cpu Upgrade

[systemsjedi]

Hi All,

Kind of a newbie when it comes to Macs, Been working with PC's quite a bit, but love the Mac OS and Macs in general.

I just upgraded my HDD, Optical Drive and Memory, HDD to 320GB, Optical Drive to a MCE 8X Superdrive Dual Layer and Memory to 2GB RAM.

Just wondering what CPU should I buy, or what CPU would be compatible to upgrade my Mini. Basically looking to boost performance in iMovie.

Any help or guidance you can provide would be great!

Thank you so much in advance.

Mac (Seriously)

[hwojtek]

Kinda newb when it comes to forums, or just too lazy to do a search?

Hint: T7200. Search for T7200 in this forums.
_________________
Wojtek

[ADent]

Per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_2_microprocessors The following Core 2 Duos will work (Socket M, 667MHZ FSB):

T5500 - 1.67 GHz 2MB L2 Cache - SL9SH
T5600 - 1.83 GHz 2MB L2 Cache - SL9SG
T7200 - 2.00 GHz 4MB L2 Cache - SL9SF
T7400 - 2.16 GHz 4MB L2 Cache - SL9SE
T7600 - 2.33 GHz 4MB L2 Cache - SL9SD

Per http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Intel_Core_microprocessors the following Core CPUs will work:
T1200 - 1.50 GHz 2MB L2 Cache - Single Core
T1300 - 1.67 GHz 2MB L2 Cache - Single Core
T1400 - 1.83 GHz 2MB L2 Cache - Single Core
T1500 - 2.00 GHz 2MB L2 Cache - Single Core
T1600 - 2.16 GHZ 2MB L2 Cache - Single Core
T2300- 1.67 GHz 2MB L2 Cache - Dual Core
T2400 - 1.83 GHz 2MB L2 Cache - Dual Core
T2500 - 2.00 GHz 2MB L2 Cache - Dual Core
T2600 - 2.16 GHZ 2MB L2 Cache - Dual Core
T2700 - 2.33 GHZ 2MB L2 Cache - Dual Core


Looks like a U2300,U2400,U2500 might work - but those only come from the factory in a BGA and of course you need a PGA in a mini.

BGA - Ball Grid Array for directly soldering - A few people are selling BGA cpus with pins soldered on.
PGA - Pin Grid Array for removable CPUs - Intel spec # listed above for C2D.

The Core 2 Duos (C2D) are 64 bit chips and standard in the later minis. Mac minis that originally shipped with C2Ds can see 4GB of RAM and use up to 3.3 GB. To see which mini you have go to About This Mac, select More Info and look for Model Identifier. "Macmini2,1" is a C2D machine, "Macmini1,1" is a CD machine and can only see 2GB of RAM even if the CPU is upgraded to a C2D.

Here is an AppleInsider article on 4GB seen vs 3.3 GB available: . The Mac mini uses the same chipset as the MacBook 2006 used as an example in that article.

This OWC page show speed differences between the 1.83 GHz C2D, 1.6 CD, and 1.5 CS with different amounts of RAM. It shows adjusted for clock speed a C2D is generally 10% faster than a CD - and these were not the 4MB L2 C2D (which should be even faster).

This Macworld Review compares the C2D and CD 1.83 GHz directly.

[hwojtek]

The above post should be a sticky.
_________________
Wojtek

[marco007]

i think T7600 temps will be supper hi
i have core duo mini (upgraded to 2Ghz T7200) + artic silver 5.
temp:60-65c idle

[hwojtek]

My T7600 runs @ 43-45 deg. Centigrade (109 - 113 Fahrenheit) idling. Arctic silver as well.
_________________
Wojtek

[Retrogamer]

My T7600 with Tuniq TX-2 with plain web browsing is between 55 and 59 Centigrade.

[Shito]

Thank you for the very detailed post. Agreeded it should be sticky for anyone to read.

As a C2D 2.0 Mac Mini owner, I was cosindering a 2gig -> 2x2gig RAM upgrade.

Yet, reading here:

[ADent]