I7 and optical

[SoundFX]

So after looking at the teardown of the i7 mini, it's looking a lot like the older model. Does anyone think it's the same enough to pull the i7 logic board and swap it into my existing mini with SuperDrive, and put the old board into the new disc-less case?

[Am Yisrael Chai!]

How does that make any sense?
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Proud Cube owner. Oh, I also own a 2011 2.7ghz i7 Mac Mini.

[gigaguy]

Makes sense to me. I'd love the upgraded CPU in a 2010 Mini optical drive case.

[Am Yisrael Chai!]

Why not just put it in an external case and be done with it? I can't remember the last time I needed to use optical media other than to watch a movie on my TV. I use my DVD player for that. I like the idea of modular functionality. After all, wasn't that kind of the purpose of a mini; otherwise, wouldn't we just buy iMacs? The new mini just takes this concept a bit further. Heck we are soon going to have the capability to have a modular thunderbolt accessory to hold a full size PCIe video card. It seems like the modular concept I always thought would arise as a design paradigm.
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Proud Cube owner. Oh, I also own a 2011 2.7ghz i7 Mac Mini.

[Smithcraft]

Simply because you do not use your optical drive on a routine basis, does not mean that others do not.

Why should I have to add something that should have been there in the first place?

SC
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Grumpy old man of computing.

[Desktop] G4 mini - 1.5Ghz 1GB 80GB HDD - Newer miniStack v2 500GB - 10.5.8

[Media System] Intel i5 mini - 2.33Ghz 8GB 500GB HDD - 4 x Hitachi 2TB HDD in a qBOX-SF - 10.7.5 (Thanks Phil!)

Make sure it has pins!

[PaPat]

Not sure this swap is possible. I looked at the 2010 and the 2011 snapshots on iFixit and the boards are definitely different with regard to the connectors. Proceed at your own risk....

2010:
http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/dfpJTrwGPPc5kTBm.huge

2011:
http://guide-images.ifixit.net/igi/EZIUXBTdgRa3QANK.huge

[SoundFX]

well for the curious this did not work out. the new i7 logic board has many components that intrude into the space required for the optical drive. too bad...

[Bandit Bill]

Thanks for the update. I can see you reasoning behind want to do this.

Btw this certainly isn't the place to condem people for wanting to mod their minis . This is one of the more logical requests.

That being said, you can set up drive sharing if you want to share the optical drive from your older mini (likely you already knew that). The other option you can entertain is purchasing the Apple SuperDrive.

[geeji]