iMac mini

All I know is that I have this overwhelming urge to rip a Mac mini apart and upgrade the hell out of it. Damn, that thing's small.

LOL, that's always posted first thing after a new Mac announcement. Since I have been unable to get the CC's video to sync up with a cube's video card, I suppose that would be the first challenge. I think the problem is that monitor sensing has changed a bit since the CC's days. However, this new Mac is such an attractive option that maybe I'll get out the CC and work on that issue a little more.

The other thing to consider, Color Classic-wise, is that this is sure to pull the floor out from the used Cube market. While the Cube has certain advantages (dual processor capabilities, more RAM slots), it has enough disadvantages that surely the price of Cubes, Cube motherboards, and related parts will be even more affordable than the new Mini, which means you might see more interest in Cube type Color Classic hacks.

Compare Danamania's eSlab to the new Mac mini. Good precognition, I'd say.

Actually, it's got the look of the eSlab, and the footprint of the Quadra 400.

Under 3 lbs. and only 6.5" square x 2" thick . . . I can see these things kinda walking out of school labs all over.

These things are really a gift to "our kind". Just imagine how small are the guts and how you could stuff 'em into almost anything . . .

Some internals pics here.

Man, there's sooooomany possibilities ain't there?!?!? Hey, I know! Mini cluster anyone?

On the not-so-stellar side, it's a little short in the GPU dept., only 32MB on an AGP 4x R9200. Not that I'm complaining mind you, just making a note of it.

LOL, just tried to conect to store.apple.com and I'm having no luck . . . mebbe they're a tad busy over there.

dan k

I got a trick for you, go to the ipod shuffle page, then click buy now, then click the store button at the top. it worked for me!

I hope to get a mac mini soon, i can afford the low-end one,but that's only 1.25Ghz, so as soon as I can work for the funds for the top end one (with superdrive, bluetooth and airport) i'm getting one!

Someone on MacSlash.org today was talking about how the airport-extreme slot is really an odd sort of mini-PCI slot and that an adapter could/was made that would allow you to use full size PCI cards.

Do the hack/adapter, put in a better card and there you go.

I wish someone would make a 5.25 drive case for this thing so you could stick some in a pc like the overpriced BriQ

Keep in mind that even if that works, that's still going to be PCI, not AGP.

And I'm not a mod, but isn't this the Color Classic forum?

This thing would be perfect for a Color Classic mod. However, I'm curious about the power adapter. I assume it has an external power supply. I wonder how big it is and how hot it gets. Any ideas?

... it seems similar to the size of the Cube's PSU -- perhaps 5" x 2" x 1"

One thing this Mac mini will do is make Taco projects a bit easier -- no more cutting holes in the sides of CC cases for the ports of a beige G3 mobo.

Matt

I can see this thing in a CC with an IDE CD drive and a larger hard drive with a Pisces dm10 or an LCD

It's 2" thick! Why would you bother de-casing it? Make a shelf that lines up the CD slot with the extended floppy slot (as per the CD-ROM hack above), line it with some nice felt to keep the polycarbonate shell in good condition, and slot the whole thing in from the back.

that would keep the mini's resale value pretty high. it seems a pretty good idea. i might try it with a se/30. i prefer it's design over the color classic's... especially when painted gloss white.

Because it's there?

There are so many possibilities to 'personalize' the mini. It's a sweet looking machine, but it just begs to be pulled apart and made into something different.

One of the mini-itx projects I've seen had a complete system stuffed inside an old external disk drive case. I like that. I like the idea of disguising a mini inside one of the old Apple 300i 2x CD cases - there might even be enough room inside that for the power brick as well. Or maybe in an external Syquest 44 case, with PS stuffed in also. Hmmm...maybe there'd even be room in that to use a 3.5" drive instead of the Lappy drive.*

*_{I read recently on LEM in one of Charles Moore's columns that one of 1.2GHz minis taken apart so far had a 5400RPM drive in it as shipped instead of the 4200 advertised.}

http://www.macminicolo.com - Data Colocation of Mac Minis.

Anybody know if one of these would allow you to use a PCI video card in a mini? It would be good if it could, as I see it get one of those and a cheap video card (Radeon 7000 PCI or such like) and use that for the CC's internal video (either a LCD or a CRT) and then use the DVI port on the back of the mini to drive a bigger display.

Any thoughts?

TOM

I think Apple might have switched around the Mini-PCI pinouts, but I don't know for sure. It seems like an appley thing to do. Other than that, I see no reason that it wouldn't work.

Possibly... it would be nice if they hadn't

TOM