Intel-based Mac mini Memory Upgrade Note

Last time I bought a mini, I purchased it with minimal RAM and upgraded it myself. Once you got comfortable wielding a sharp putty knife, upgrading the RAM is trivial.

This time I’m purchasing my mini with its RAM compliment from Apple as a BTO option. While the mini appears mostly the same externally, it’s significantly different internally. Getting at memory is more difficult — it now lives underneath the tray. Watch out for the separate delicate audio board and its cable.

I’m pretty handy inside tight machines, and I’m pretty sure I could upgrade the box successfully, but it’s not worth my time or the risk.

Update: Eric Gundrum writes:

Some friends and I have been discussing how the internals of the new Intel-based Mac Mini differ quite a bit from its predecessor. Here are a few things that may not be immediately obvious:

The audio board contains some very fragile components. They can be knocked off or damaged quite easily when sliding the board into or out of its tray. This board must be handled with great care. If you must remove the audio board, remove the drive tray first, then the board. Be sure to put it back in reverse order: board first, then drive tray. Also keep in mind that the attached cable could be damaged if handled too much.

Folks may find disassembly easier if they un-clip the Airport antenna from the right rear before removing the drive tray. Of course, forgetting to reconnect it may cause poor Airport performance (as has been reported by some).

If you are adding memory, be gentle with the SODIMM connectors. Take the time to be sure the memory is well seated all the way from end to end.

There is a short cable which attaches to the right front of the main logic board. The other end goes to a heat sensor between the optical and hard drives. Without this cable, the Mini cannot tell when it is cool enough to turn off the fan — the fan will always run at full speed. Similarly, there is a sensor attached to the CPU heat sink. Do not forget to reattach its cable if you detach it.

The new external power adaptor is 110 watts. It is plug-compatible with the older Mini, but the 85 watt power adapter from an old Mini will not power the new one. Apple changed the sense resistor in the new adapter to help the new Mini detect when it has the right power. Plugging a new Mini into a car may require some adjustments.

Some folks have complained that the new Intel Mini does not have a graphics chip of its own. A likely reason for this is that there just isn’t room for one. In time Intel may combine the north and south bridges into a single chip, leaving room for a graphics chip. On the other hand, some reports suggest that, with some clever coding by Apple engineers, the integrated Intel GPU is just as fast as the ATI 9200 that is in the PPC Minis. Likely we will be seeing some Intel-native benchmarks soon enough.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006
12:00 AM