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DIY Mac mini Overclocking
mirko writes "So, you wanted a 1,42GHz Mac mini but either because of some distribution woes or because of your tight budget you could just get a 1,25GHz ?
Don't worry : Leo Bodnar just found out how to overclock your machine. Of course, you'll have to open it prior to anything else but you already know how to do this."
I can't imagine that little box is all that great at cooling. I know the cube wasn't. :)
I wonder if there is going to be a surplus of dead mac minis hitting ebay soon.
Pretty Pictures!
...but then the warranty will be void, and any mistake will be fatal. Damn Apple.
So, you wanted a 1,42GHz Mac mini but either because of some distribution woes or because of your tight budget you could just get a 1,25GHz ?
No, not really. 1.42 GHz isn't really so much faster than 1.25 to justify voiding the warranty.
Is the jump from 1,25GHz to 1,42GHz that great an improvement. Yes I know how many operations are done in every Megahertz but in my mind, the point of the mini was not speed but rather using less power for simple things. My e-mail, browser, Word, soltaire, etc is not going to open that much noticably faster with this bump.
I like more speed as much as the next guy but the next guy didn't buy the Mac Mini for speed.
-Teiresias
First of all, the mac mini is cooled passively... It is designed to dispate the heat of what stuff Apple put in there. I know the attitude might be to do it for the sake of doing it, but why ruin a perfectly good mac-mini through overheating with it, with a relatively small gain in performance. I hope people don't do this in the long run as a permanent solution.
Although the Mac mini is said to be extremely quiet, it does have a fan. considering that Apple does produce a 1.42 MHz model, speeding up the 1.25 is probably not going to produce more heat than the system can handle.
Who are the morons that modded this "interesting". Customers really want and need a computer that works, is stable, and provides the end users the functionality they need to either do what they want to do, or need to do. Bumping your cpu speed by 5% don't do squat for what a customer REALLY wants. Hell, I have a 20 yo computer in my garage that I can tweak the microcode for it's processor on, I got you way beat. Is that what users REALLY want, uh, NOT. You have it totally backwards my friend. Apple, on the other hand, absolutely "gets it".
That's what YOU Geeks want, not ordinary computer users. All they want is everything to WORK. Period. You think someone thats just getting into the computing world will want to overclock their processor? If every single computer user was a geek then you'd have a valid point, but you fail to realize 0% of the worlds computing population care about that stuff.
So let me get this straight...
Frequency doesn't matter when comparing processor performance because PPC chips do more per cycle _but_ frequency is important when comparing FSB's because doing more per per cycle is some how irrelevant?!
I find it a bit scarry that you can change these things from within windows rather than the BIOS. This seems like its more likely that an average user would modify the values and cause problems. Nothing like low core voltage or high FSB to give a nice stable system! Computer too loud? I'll just turn off the fan - much better.
Why the hell not? Some engineers like to take a little pride in their work and make things look neat - have you never seen the inside of a PowerMac G5?
No wires.
Not one.
That was classic intercourse!
I don't get the complaints about the news/market share ratio. The most interesting stuff is not what everyone's doing, but rather what's happening on the fringes. I mean, if that's the news you're looking for, try here.
"...when you consider how small of a share of the market they have."
Yeah, same with all these Linux and Firefox stories!
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
they will always lack this aspect of providing what the customers REALLY want or need
Yes, but most customers don't really NEED those features. Just geeks. And the geeks who want to play with their hardware that way know they won't get that from Apple.
Basically what I'm saying is that, while it's true Apple doesn't let you play with FSB, voltage, etc, people don't buy Apple hardware to do that. And would they if Apple provided a means to make your system unstable in that way? Probably not.
I mean, the company motto is "It Just Works."
Mac Mini does come with some pretty nice software out of the box. To me this makes up the difference between the price of a Mini and the price of a low end PC ($300 Celeron/Semperon + Radeon 9200)
Mac OS X (Windows XP OEM costs at least $50)
iMovie - editing software, better than Avid FreeDV or Microsoft Movie Maker 2.0
iDVD - DVD mastering software for making menus, etc, and burning to DVD
Garage Band - compose, edit, and mix music
Also included, but not too useful for schools:
iPhoto - sort, edit, and print digital photos
iTunes
Xcode - software development suite for C/C++/Java
Quicken 2005
Nanosaur 2
I see a bunch of posts discussing the fact that the mini will have problems cooling the overclocked CPU.
/. can answer anyways.
Too lazy/busy to do some real research here, I know that someone here on
The same case is used for the faster processor. How different are the processors themselves? ie, The mini has already been designed to handle the heat output of the 1.45GHz, so how much more heat (if any) would an overclocked lesser cpu generate?
Is cooling the overclocked chip even a concern?
People complaining that the hack is really not worth voiding the warranty are missing the whole point. It is just the coolness factor out here. Somebody, somewhere figured out that by setting those specific tiny little jumpers (I still can't believe how tiny they are), the Mac Mini could be overclocked and shared this info with the whole wide world. Appreciate that and just think about what *you* have figured out lately. Losers.
6% increase in the CPU speed merits voiding the warranty? (and this *will* void the warranty - good luck trying to explain any heat damages when the apple S/N says what was purchased was a 1.25 GHz, but the machine profile says 1.42 GHz.)
All this talk about saving money by overclocking it is goofy (not so goofy if you are just a nerd looking to play with it)
I find it interesting that all the comparisons I've read primarily compare the hardware of the mac mini to the hardware at a comparibly priced Pee Cee system.
The fact that one system runs OS X and the other runs Windoze always seems to be a secondary consideration when looking at the price tag and comparing it to a Dell/clone/ect...
The fact that you can buy an OS X system that "feels" just as fast or faster than a comparible Pee Cee system AND has all the advantages of OS X over Windoze (security, ease of use, ect..) is something you should factor in when evaluating the price. How much is it worth to you in $$$? Is saving $200 bucks on a Dell worth the heartache that living in the windoze world entails?
Let's see. Low end Dells and Mac Minis are both sold as high-performance computing devices, there is that. Also, ":)" at the end of the message means the author is flamin' serious. Nope! Still something missing! If your head just didn't hurt so much when you were trying to think...
To find out, get an $725 Dell, download a 2 hour movie from your digital camcoder, add some music, watermark captions and video transitions and burn it to DVD. Report your experience here.
Apples aren't the cheapest machines. You can always get a slighty higher spec machine for less $ in the PC realm.
But the 199$ pc you point to has some real difference to the mini. I think they have significant differences in there target markets.
The PC--
No Dvd player.
No CD burner.
only 128 megs of ram (what century is this?)
Linshpere which is fine, but if you wanted windows add $$ (I think about 200$ if bought retail).
With mac your also paying for the applications they through in and OS X os and support.
with everything you need
Assuming you can live with integrated video, no DVD, 128M RAM, Lindows OS, no FireWire, no DVI, no iLife, ugly box, etc.
Come on, you're not really suggesting that that computer would be a good purchase are you?
Well first start with the CPU the G4 can crunch about 150% more than a x86 (it varies)
Price watch
tower 2 ghz on board network and video and windows $250
Video card (because a shared memory isn't equal to a nvidia$50
Upgrade the memory to 512mb ~$50(depends on type)
Total $350 Plus say an hour to assemble at $40/bucks an hour employee rate.
$390 and you have a comparable performace. Of course your still using a butt ugly case that is noisey, takes up 10 time the physical space.
Quality does matter, Apple isn't perfect, but I do prefer it over my dell everyday.
i thought once I was found, but it was only a dream.
Actually, this might be interesting to use for underclocking. Take your Mac Mini 1.42, underclock it a bit to 1.25, and it's even less likely that the included fan will turn on. Makes it all the more of a silent computing solution.
Or you could pay the $100 less for the 1.25 and not have to void your warranty or fool around with pinhead sized jumpers.
Or even better yet you could buy a 1.42 and realize that they are unbelievably quiet all the time as long as you aren't using the CD/DVD drive.
While I have to use windows at work, since the original iMac came out I've used Macs at home exclusively. Now you notice, this was pre-OSX. Yes, MacOS 9x sucked, but I endured it out of principle (not that anyone does that for any modern x86 OS, right?). What I didn't do was complain that there were no Mac stories on slashdot. Why? Because the OS was deemed unfeasible for the sufficiently technically inclined (you, I'm guessing). Fast forward six years, and not only does Apple ship arguably the nicest 'nix out there, but they've also done some amazing things with their hardware from both an engineering and design standpoint. I'm sorry, but Apple is quite relevant to the
This assuming you are looking for an alternative to setting your prefs to block apple stories.
"You know why you do not see me styling wit my homies? Because I have no homies!!" -Mojo Jojo
This is not specifically addresed to you but it does apply to your post as well. .002 cents cheaper. It is not worth it from a manfactoring and parts ordering standpoint. Three of my previous cars are perfect examples. My Honda had the rear speaker wires run and attached to the back of the stereo even though it came stock with only two front speakers. One Ford had the wires run for auxiliary fog lights from the internal switch location (a blank plate) to the lights but there was no switch and no lights. Another Ford I had ordered without a radio had all the wires, antennea, and speakers in place, just no radio. This happens all the time and is VERY common. It is just not worth it to specifically produce specialized variants.
In large production or assembly of commodity parts (which is just about everything inside ANY PC or iMac), it is much cheaper to use the as much of the same exact components as possible then two maintain double supply and production of the slightly different things. I'd being willing to bet my left testicle that 99% of the internals that can be the same are same between the two models and keeping as much as possible the same was a specific design criteria as it is with almost any electronic part made in the last 15 years. Ever see all of those empty dip solder pads on a soundcard or MB? That is because the MB or soundcard was designed and built for the highest optioned model and the unused chip slots are simply not filled with chips. They do not silscreen or make different boards for each option they offer. They are not going to stock 10 different capacitors of the same value just because the lower voltage models are
I highly doubt the production of the different speed CPU's happens to match up with exactly what the market demands either. Depending on how mature the specific process is, every single CPU they make could be certified at the higher speed and the lower speed is scrictly sold for marketting, no one here really has NO IDEA and any guesses would be exactly that, a pure guess. I bet their goal is make one chip that would work for all conditions and mark and price them as the market demands.
I'm a hardcore computer nerd, but this Apple news isn't the slightest bit interesting to me.
Let's see: the resurrection of NeXTSTEP, the blissful marriage of open source with corporate proprietary technology, a rallying point against the Microsoft hedgonomy, a desktop UNIX that your grandmother can use, a box with a groundbreaking price-point and footprint, and definite proof that geeks can have style, and you have zero interest whatsoever?
The definition of "hardcore computer nerd" must be very lax in your neck of the woods.
--R.J.
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