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bsnoel
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Joined: 04 Jun 2005
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Location: USA
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 Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 7:57 pm Post subject: |
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| Susurrus wrote: |
How'd the upgrade for the Airport/Bluetooth kit go and where'd you buy it from? I'm going to buy and install one but it'd be nice to know what I'm getting into before hand. |
I apologize in advance for any typos, my wireless keyboard battery is nearly dead. I must run out to the store soon.
I would say that this upgrade was somewhat more difficult than the hard drive upgrade that I performed. I say that just because routing the stiff and springy antenna wires was a bit of a pain. (I imagine that after the wires are held in position for a while they probably conform to the new bends and curves.)
If you are reasonably skilled, then the upgrade should be fairly easy. Just take your time and pay attention to make sure you don't pinch the wires. If anyone is worried about this upgrade, take your Mini to an Apple Store. They will do the upgrade for you for just a few dollars more.
It would also be a good idea to pick up some KAPTON tape. They don't include any extra in the kit.
One other minor gotcha was that Apple packed the two screws that are required to mount mezzanine the board in a little plastic baggy. They also tucked two extra screws inside my 802.11 antenna assembly. The two screws in the antenna fell out on the table. (luckily not in my Mini). This may have been a fluke, but just be aware, so you don't wind up dropping any screws inside your Mini.
I purchased my kit from Erie Computer / A.K.A. Cost Central.
http://www.costcentral.com/proddetail/Apple_Airport_Extreme_Card_and_Bluetooth_Upgrade_Kit/M9870ZA/F98728/
Due to Apple's rules they will not sell this kit on the web. You have to call them on the phone to get the kit. I ordered mine yesterday Fed-Ex Ground and it was on my doorstep today. They shipped my kit from Illinois, so you can guesstimate how long it may take to get to your destination.
Everything works fine. The only minor complaint is that the WiFi range could be better. But you have to figure the antenna is inside an aluminum shell, so it is not too surprising that the range suffers a little. Still, this upgrade really adds some options and possibilities to the Mini.
Also, I suspect that most everyone here already has this official Mac Mini Service Manual from Apple. However, if you don't, you can download it from this link. It has instructions with pictures on how to do the upgrade.
http://www.macconvert.com/archives/000529.html
or here
http://www.smashsworld.com/2005/01/mac-mini-complete-technical.php
I hope this helps everyone out.
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Susurrus
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Location: Providence, Rhode Island
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| Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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So what'd you end up doing about the Kapton tape? I'm thinking about this.
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bsnoel
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Posts: 355
Location: USA
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| Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 9:48 pm Post subject: |
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| Susurrus wrote: | | So what'd you end up doing about the Kapton tape? I'm thinking about this. |
I did not have any tape on hand, I just laid tucked the wires in very carefully. However, I would suggest getting some, it would make the job easier and more professional. When I go back in to add some RAM later on I'll be sure to have some KAPTON tape on hand.
If you Google "KAPTON tape" you will find several places selling rolls of the tape at reasonable prices.
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Susurrus
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| Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 9:55 pm Post subject: |
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I hope to be getting the wireless kit and some RAM with a week or so. I will also be buying that tape and putty knife next week. If you'd like I can just mail you some in an envelope once I get some. I'd be happy to do this for anyone who'd like some once I get it. There has to be something out there I can stick it to that it can be easily removed from for shipping.
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bsnoel
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| Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 10:05 pm Post subject: |
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| Susurrus wrote: | | I hope to be getting the wireless kit and some RAM with a week or so. I will also be buying that tape and putty knife next week. If you'd like I can just mail you some in an envelope once I get some. I'd be happy to do this for anyone who'd like some once I get it. There has to be something out there I can stick it to that it can be easily removed from for shipping. |
The tape you are looking at might be a bit too thin. I think I would go for either 1/2" or 5/8". Did you look at :
http://www.kaptontape.com/polyimide_tapes_1mil.html?referrer=GoogleAdWords
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Mac Pro Quad 2.66GHz, PowerMac G5 2.3 GHz, iMac Core Duo 17", MacBook Pro 2GHz, MacBook Pro 2.2GHz, Mac mini Core 2 Duo 1.83GHz. Multi-K9 Security System. No false alarms, just lots of sharp teeth.
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Susurrus
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Location: Providence, Rhode Island
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| Posted: Fri Jul 08, 2005 10:14 pm Post subject: |
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You didn't happen to get a chance to measure the Kapton tape while you were working on your Mini, did you? It'd be nice to get the same size; who knows if I need to take this thing in for repairs, you know.
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bsnoel
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| Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 10:49 am Post subject: |
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| Susurrus wrote: | | You didn't happen to get a chance to measure the Kapton tape while you were working on your Mini, did you? It'd be nice to get the same size; who knows if I need to take this thing in for repairs, you know. |
I did not, but I'm "guessing" it was 5/8".
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Susurrus
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| Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 2:44 pm Post subject: |
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I have a confirmation on that 5/8". I just bought my awesome 1.5" Husky Mini-Disassembly Tool, (putty knife). A little expensive at $8, but I figured if I'm going to buy a tool, I'm going to buy a relatively nice one that I can use for other things too. I measured the tape when I took apart my Mini today and it is 5/8".
Man, looking at the insides of this Mini I have come up with some unique mods that should improve wireless reception though it might reduce the features, but who uses the soft-modem on these things anyways? 
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iMav
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Joined: 13 Feb 2005
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Location: Columbus, WI
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| Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 2:49 pm Post subject: |
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| Susurrus wrote: | | Man, looking at the insides of this Mini I have come up with some unique mods that should improve wireless reception though it might reduce the features, but who uses the soft-modem on these things anyways? |
Let me guess...you're gonna use the modem port as a hole to snake a cable out for an external antenna?
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Susurrus
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Location: Providence, Rhode Island
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| Posted: Sat Jul 09, 2005 4:02 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I'm not really going to use the modem port as a hole to run the cable out, that'd be ugly. What I'm going to do is remove the soft-modem as well as the modem jack. I'm going to buy a new modem jack from Apple or an authorized dealer. I'm going to buy an RJ-11 male adapter and fit an external antenna jack into it, whatever the name for the small one is. I will also splice part of the antenna cable off so that there is a Y connection along the wire. I will use this wire as a male connector for a screw-fitting that will lead to the modem jack.
Hopefully that makes sense. I don't have the wireless kit yet, but that's my next purchase. After that, it shouldn't be too hard to get this mod done.
I might just be able to use the existing jack and set up a switch to switch between the soft-modem and the external antenna using the security slot as the location for this switch.
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Junior, Brown University
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TheModWiki.org
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Joined: 04 Jul 2005
Posts: 145
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| Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 10:47 pm Post subject: |
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Pioneer Drive Installed!
It's an 8X DVD+/-RW with DL capability, and seems much peppier than the standard Apple solution, a Matsuisha brand I believe. The Pioneer is substantially lighter than the standard drive too. It seeks and reads discs faster as well. Overall this was a great upgrade, and I think other mini owners would agree. There is one thing to note though... The drive ships with a plastic front plate, as if the drive were to be used in a laptop. For the drive to fit in the mini, you must remove this plate, but it is easy to take it off.
No real performance tests yet... but I did burn a DVD with Toast 6 in about 4 minutes @ 8x .. i think it was only 2.7GB though
I took a few pics during the process, http://www.themodwiki.org/index.php/Mac_Mini#Optical_Drive_Upgrade
By the way... what's the big deal with kapton tape.. is it just so that Apple won't know you've been snooping around? Or does it not block signals for the antenna as much as , say electrical tape would?
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Susurrus
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Location: Providence, Rhode Island
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| Posted: Tue Jul 12, 2005 11:15 pm Post subject: |
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I'm sure kapton tape just doesn't fall off for like 10000 years or something. It seems to be standard fare for a lot of industrial devices. That's what I read from descriptions of it on websites that sold it. I don't get why it's so expensive though.
Oh, nice job on the upgrade. Glad to hear it's working. I'm planning on doing this also. Too bad you're just a coupple hundred dollars ahead of me....
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Computer Engineer
Junior, Brown University
15" NC8430 HP Laptop
1.42Ghz PPC Mac Mini, 1Gb RAM, 1st Gen
40GB G4 iPod
2GB Black iPod Nano |
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serpent
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Joined: 07 Jun 2005
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| Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 8:59 pm Post subject: |
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yeah whats the big deal with the kapton tape any work thats done by Apple is documented to your serial # so if you do the install yourself your voiding any warrentee that apple might have provided anyway! I used black tape to replace the Kaptain tape, and everything is working fine! Ive upped the ram to 1g pioneer 8xDL, 100g HD, added wifi/BT, and upped my processor speed from 1.25 to 1.50. everythings been working fine for a few months now, and I couldn't care less for my voided warrantee nor for wasting any $$$ on kapton tape.
Serpent
It's so expensive 'cause Apple prob holds the patent for it!!! |
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Susurrus
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Location: Providence, Rhode Island
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| Posted: Wed Jul 13, 2005 10:26 pm Post subject: |
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| serpent wrote: | yeah whats the big deal with the kapton tape any work thats done by Apple is documented to your serial # so if you do the install yourself your voiding any warrentee that apple might have provided anyway! I used black tape to replace the Kaptain tape, and everything is working fine! Ive upped the ram to 1g pioneer 8xDL, 100g HD, added wifi/BT, and upped my processor speed from 1.25 to 1.50. everythings been working fine for a few months now, and I couldn't care less for my voided warrantee nor for wasting any $$$ on kapton tape.
Serpent
It's so expensive 'cause Apple prob holds the patent for it!!! |
GAA! Where's the grammar? Where's the punctuation? Where's the consistent and correct capitalization 
Anyways, how much did you spend on all of those upgrades, Serpent?
Sorry, just a pet peeve...
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Computer Engineer
Junior, Brown University
15" NC8430 HP Laptop
1.42Ghz PPC Mac Mini, 1Gb RAM, 1st Gen
40GB G4 iPod
2GB Black iPod Nano |
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serpent
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Joined: 07 Jun 2005
Posts: 559
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| Posted: Fri Jul 15, 2005 4:03 am Post subject: |
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@Susurrus
well maybe you should keep your pet in your pocket then! 'cause where I come from, CPE in front of a name or position means they're a " Candidate for Penile Enlargement"! wahaha
and NO I don't believe you are sorry. Here's a little something my grandfather taught me when I was a little kid. "Just always remember that no one will ever know how stupid you are until you open your mouth." Try it, if it doesn't work for saving face it might just save ya a few teeth.
Anyway as far as my upgrades & mini:
mini bought as an open box 400$
100 gig hard drive Seagate 167$
1 gig ram 99$ pc 2700, 3200 just a waste of $ noperformance difference
8x dual layer dvd Pioneer 149$ later found place for 99$
bt/wifi 89$ apple store w/ student disc-eventhough i'm not student.
total with tax & freight 825$ sold old parts for 100$
upped proccessor speed from 1.25ghz to 1.5ghz was a freebee. closest possible configuration from Apple to my mini would have cost 1105$
Serpent |
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