Slash your way inside Apple's Mac Mini
Putty knife adventure
Photos You can break into Apple's new Mac mini, but it's nerve-wracking. However, if you do, you can up its storage capacity to one terabyte.
On Wednesday, the folks at Mac repair-shop and parts-supplier iFixit tore a new 20-inch iMac into pieces. Today, they did the same with the new Mac mini.
Popping open a Mac mini for the first time is not for the faint of heart. Unlike the iMac teardown, which requires only a full complement of Torx drivers and a pair of dent-puller suction cups, disassembling a Mac mini requires a putty knife, serious leverage, and nerves of steel. After you've done it once or twice, however, it's easy.
Before we pry apart Apple's dwarfish desktop, let's take a look at its three main incarnations since the Mac Mini's original release in January 2005.
The original PowerPC G4 Mini (bottom), the Intel Core Duo (middle), the new Core 2 Duo (top)
The original Mac Mini was a PowerPC G4 machine, which went through a few upgrades before it was discontinued in February 2006. The PowerPC G5 never made it into a Mac Mini, running too hot for its tiny confines.
The first Intel Core Duo/Solo Mac Mini showed up in February 2006, ditching the modem and doubling the number of USB ports. It went through one processor upgrade, then received an Intel Core 2 Duo in August 2007.
Earlier this week, it received a more-powerful build-to-order Core 2 Duo and an additional USB port, swapped its DVI port for a Mini-DVI port and a Mini DisplayPort, upped its Firewire port from FW400 to FW800, and moved to an Nvidia GeForce 9400M integrated-graphics subsystem.
From left to right: the old, the middle-aged, and the newborn
The original Mac Mini had a toy surprise inside - one that was never used: an extra Firewire connection underneath its top. Rumor had it that it was originally was intended to support a built-in iPod dock. As you know, that dock never materialized.
You didn't really need that warranty, right?
COMMENTS
Dangling testicles
I always believed that the reason why testicles were on the outside was that the optimum temperature to keep stored wrigglers was a few degrees below body heat.
This is normally quoted as the reason why you should bin the Y-fronts or briefs for boxers if you are trying to procreate. Apparently, higher temperatures make male gametes lazy, like Paris on a sunbed, so they don't move as fast.
What no putty
How come there is no putty on your putty knife, surely fake photos!
More appropriate tool...
...would be a post driving sledge hammer, perhaps a ten pounder.
Reducing the average quality but overpriced Apple scam footprint in the world is a good thing.
@Sam Radford
Buddy, if it takes you twenty seconds to swallow an oyster, you should introduce yourself to Paris right quickly.
Paris, because she has a nice oyster.
Beat this
I've got it down to a fine art. I can de-shell a Mini in just 20 seconds with the bottle-opener blade of my pen knife. Heck, it takes me longer to swallow an oyster!
P.H. because she knows about swallowing.
