Converting a MacMini to a PC

Okay I've moaned on here a few times about how my Macmini died a month after the one year warranty expired and the staff at the completely inappropriately named Genius Bar didn't know waht was wrong but wanted £200 to fix it. Thought about about pursuing Apple on it but left it for over a year now so sucking it up and moving on.......

Thought I could salvage some components from it an build another PC. From what the genius said, something keeps shorting out the power supply whenever they tried to turn it on so I guess its something on the motherboard (or logic board as Apple like to call it).

So thought if I got a mini-ITX based board, I could salvage the CPU, cooler, memory, hard disk and optical drive from the mini and build a little PC. Anyone done this before and any major road blocks that I should be aware of? The CPU is an Intel Core2Duo of some kind.

I would loook carefully into the components Apple use before going out and buying extra stuff. A lot of the time it has custom bios on the drives etc that arnt compatible with PC side of things. Definately do a bit of research. The hard drive may be able to be formatted to NTFS and the Core2Duo should be fine as it is a universal part.

Will take a look about and see what I can find on the net. I also have a few friends that are Genius and they may be able to give me a bit more info.

Thanks Ferral, was wondering about that - whether firmware on components will be PC BIOS compatible.

Most Google searches on this topic are about running Windows on a Mac or running MacOS on a PC. I have Windows 7 running on a Macbook Air but am conscious that this requires Boot Camp running in the background.

Okay I cracked open that tin of tuna they call a Mac Mini

Here's what I found:

1) Memory - SO-DIMMS
2) Hard-disk - hitachi SATA disk with Apple firmware
3) Optical drive - Pioneer with funny looking connector must be specific to Apple
4) CPU - phew - Intel Core2Duo

Looks like I'll be able to scavenge the CPU and memory.
HDD not sure if it'll work due to Apple firmware but worth a try
Optical disk definitely not salvageable due to proprietary interface (and probably firmware too)

I might look into getting it repaired as a Mac

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmac

Okay I cracked open that tin of tuna they call a Mac Mini

Here's what I found:

1) Memory - SO-DIMMS
2) Hard-disk - hitachi SATA disk with Apple firmware
3) Optical drive - Pioneer with funny looking connector must be specific to Apple
4) CPU - phew - Intel Core2Duo

Looks like I'll be able to scavenge the CPU and memory.
HDD not sure if it'll work due to Apple firmware but worth a try
Optical disk definitely not salvageable due to proprietary interface (and probably firmware too)

I might look into getting it repaired as a Mac

---

It's definitely not just a slimline SATA cable, with the data and power combined into one connector?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmac

Okay I cracked open that tin of tuna they call a Mac Mini

Here's what I found:

1) Memory - SO-DIMMS
2) Hard-disk - hitachi SATA disk with Apple firmware
3) Optical drive - Pioneer with funny looking connector must be specific to Apple
4) CPU - phew - Intel Core2Duo

Looks like I'll be able to scavenge the CPU and memory.
HDD not sure if it'll work due to Apple firmware but worth a try
Optical disk definitely not salvageable due to proprietary interface (and probably firmware too)

I might look into getting it repaired as a Mac

---

Here are some teardowns of the Mac Mini:

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac-m...Teardown/659/1

http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Mac-M...eardown/3094/1

Also slim optical drives use a propriety connector usually and you can get an adapter for this:

http://linitx.com/viewproduct.php?prodid=11678

Thanks Cat, need to find out exactly which Core 2 Duo CPU they use so I can get the right socket motherboard. Hoping to pick one up cheeply, but still not sure the Apply drives will work with PC bios.

If the CPU is socketed it probably will be using socket 479 as the Mac Mini used mobile Core2 processors AFAIK. If you look on Ebay you can get a suitable motherboard for not too much money:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Asus-Pegatron-...item43a60c382e

However,£200 for repairing the Mac is not worth it IMHO.

If you spent around £400 you could get an entirely new SFF PC with a similar form factor to the Mac Mini you have ATM.

http://i559.photobucket.com/albums/s...cification.jpg

Agreed, which is why I didn't go for the repair. I have already built another mini-ITX based machine for around similar money ( http://forums.hexus.net/hexus-hardwa...-needed-3.html) and in fact I bought the Mac Mini for around £400 with a corporate discount

Will try and replicate the Mac mini as a PC so as small a build as possible. Will probably use a Pico PSU

CPU is socket M, Meron core, its socketed - ZIF.

Yikes, not easy to find a Socket M board with SO-DIMM slots

Personally i would cut your losses and build a new mini system, it can be done fairly cheaply and will probably be much faster than the botch job you are considering!

I would spec one up but im pushing my boundries with regads to how much i can skive off on the internet today... (i had no lunch though, stupid meeting)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmac

Yikes, not easy to find a Socket M board with SO-DIMM slots

---

What version of the Mac Mini do you have??

Edit!!

Here is a socket M motherboard with SO-DIMM slots:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Commell-LV-677...item2a0f9daca6

BTW,I would check the previous Ebay listing. It was sold complete with a CPU and IIRC the seller has sold that combination before.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by CAT-THE-FIFTH

What version of the Mac Mini do you have??

Here is a socket M motherboard with SO-DIMM slots:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Commell-LV-677...item2a0f9daca6

BTW,I would check the previous Ebay listing. It was sold complete with a CPU and IIRC the seller has sold that combination before.

---

Will check. The model I have is A1176 2Ghz Core2Duo with 4MB shared L2 cache

The mobo in that link has normal Dimms as well as So-dimm slots?? Normal on the right the so-dimm are the white plastic [ shaped thingies?

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Biscuit

Personally i would cut your losses and build a new mini system, it can be done fairly cheaply and will probably be much faster than the botch job you are considering!

I would spec one up but im pushing my boundries with regads to how much i can skive off on the internet today... (i had no lunch though, stupid meeting)

---

Truth is I don't need another system. Was just something to do with the bits in the MacMini - just seemed like a waste. If I can do something where say mobo is circa £40, case £30, then only thing left is PSU. I will run and old XP license I have.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by kmac

Will check. The model I have is A1176 2Ghz Core2Duo with 4MB shared L2 cache

The mobo in that link has normal Dimms as well as So-dimm slots?? Normal on the left the so-dimm are the white plastic [ shaped thingies?

---

Crap!! No it is a pair of mini-PCI slots!! Sorry!!

The motherboard is for the mid 2007 version of the Mac Mini:

http://www.macpartsonline.com/661-44...007-a1176.html

It also means you have a T7200 CPU:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Mini

Edit!!

There is this bundle for sale:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Jetway-9F2-Ext...item4cf658f712

Thanks CAT, will shop around for a board only option as I think my CPU is fine - buying another one really defeats my purpose of trying to reuse the bits from the old Mac mini...