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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."
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.
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!
"...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!!!
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.
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?
Pee Cee price comparison weenies
While you do have a point, and I happen to agree with your underlying point, you're never going to convince anyone like that. Because starting off by calling the people you're trying to convince "weenies" just attacks and aggravates them and puts them on the defensive. Once you've put someone on the defensive, any hope of having a rational, constructive argument is gone, as well as any hope of convincing them to see your viewpoint. The question is do you want to just insult people who are wrong about something, or do you actually want to help those people see that they are wrong and introduce positive change? (That's not easy.) If the latter, you'll have to change your strategy. Calling people "weenies" and telling them they're "living in the wrong world" is no way to convince anyone of anything, except for people who already agree with you (perhaps you just want the affirmation from that group?). Anyway, a better strategy is to open by "giving" something to the listener that they would like to hear, a concession that doesn't make them feel stupid, e.g. start out by pointing out the perceived merits of their argument are not baseless, e.g. you could say "it's true that a Dell PC with similar performance can be obtained slightly cheaper", but then (rationally) add valid (backed up) counter-arguments for why that little saving is not worth it, in a non-offensive way that doesn't make you sound like a zealot, which results in having the opposite of the desired effect, because most people instinctively do the opposite of what zealots do even if the zealot happens (by coincidence) to be doing the right thing.