Installing a Core 2 Duo in a Mac mini
2007-02-08par Lionel
Which Core 2 Duo model to choose - Best performance/price ratio
Introduction
For reasons as of yet unknown, Apple has still withheld shipping Mac minis with Core 2 Duo processors installed, although they already have done so with with their other machines. But that's not too much of a problem as it's not very complicated to do it yourself. We've published an article detailing changing the processor of this machine. So it's rather logical that we tested several processors in the machine during this process.
From left to right:
- A Core Solo T1200 à 1.5 GHz. The previous entry level processor with one core and 2 Mb of cache.
- A Core Duo T2300 à 1.66 GHz. The current entry level processor with two cores and 2 Mb of cache.
- A Core 2 Duo T5600 à 1.83 GHz. A processor with two cores and 2 Mb of cache.
- A Core 2 Duo T7600 à 2.33 GHz. The top of the line Merom with 4 Mb of cache.
We installed each of these processors in a Mac min Core Solo which was purchased from the Refurb Store. It's memory was bumped up to 1 Gb while the original 60 Gb hard drive was retained.
We performed many tests on these processors. These tests were chosen for the stability of their results according to time and for not being limited by any component other than the processor.
For reasons as of yet unknown, Apple has still withheld shipping Mac minis with Core 2 Duo processors installed, although they already have done so with with their other machines. But that's not too much of a problem as it's not very complicated to do it yourself. We've published an article detailing changing the processor of this machine. So it's rather logical that we tested several processors in the machine during this process.
From left to right:
- A Core Solo T1200 à 1.5 GHz. The previous entry level processor with one core and 2 Mb of cache.
- A Core Duo T2300 à 1.66 GHz. The current entry level processor with two cores and 2 Mb of cache.
- A Core 2 Duo T5600 à 1.83 GHz. A processor with two cores and 2 Mb of cache.
- A Core 2 Duo T7600 à 2.33 GHz. The top of the line Merom with 4 Mb of cache.
We installed each of these processors in a Mac min Core Solo which was purchased from the Refurb Store. It's memory was bumped up to 1 Gb while the original 60 Gb hard drive was retained.
We performed many tests on these processors. These tests were chosen for the stability of their results according to time and for not being limited by any component other than the processor.
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