Mac Pro Mini mod is almost the midrange tower Mac you've always wanted
By Nilay Patel 
posted Mar 13th 2008 9:34PM
posted Mar 13th 2008 9:34PM
[Via Unplgged]
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Wow, that's a pretty sweet mod.
Since when is there a 2.33 GHz Mini? Is it overclocked?
@imacmatt09
No, he swapped the cpu.
hahaha it's so cute!
Awesome. 6 months from now, when Apple thinks people have forgotten this, they will release a similar mid-tower and call it revolutionary and original. Just wait.
... and our friends here at Engadget will have all the coverage!
"Mac Pro mini! The wave of the future!"
What's next, the macbook pro air mini modular awesomness mini? :P
I searched the website, but could not find if the moder posted any CAD files for this. Has anyone found any inventor/solidworks/autocad/step/iges/ or anything type CAD files for this?
I have not, but I'm curious why you would want them.
Plan on starting up a CNC or waterjet and cutting out your own case and implementing the mod yourself?
I work at Trumpf, one of the worlds largest manufacturing companies. So I could easily get access to a laser/punch/sheet metal bender and cut the parts for it. Even if I did not plan on making it, it would be cool to just see how the moder did it in cad form. No need to CNC any or that from what I can tell from the pictures, a laser, sheet metal bender, and welder would do the trick.
Of course I would not take the credit, or make them for profit. But it would be an awesome case mod of the moder made the directions available.
I don't know if you even looked at the site, but it's plastic.
@ jethro "I don't know if you even looked at the site, but it's plastic."
So you are saying because he used plastic, that means I would not be able to use sheet metal and he would not have any CAD files?
Material in this case does not matter at all, at long as you know how to use them.
And anyone making any project should use CAD, just to make sure you don't do anything wrong. It is a very very common thing for someone to CAD a plastic part.. like a mold for example, to make sure it is made correctly. ( there are programs in most cad programs that deal with only plastic.
And as for the first part of your assumption on materials.. lets take a look at the first 4 words in my post.. "I searched the website". By reading that, it is pretty obvious that I looked the website.
The iMac is great and all but sometimes you want to add a PCI card, which this bad boy doesn't offer...
What a lame article.
Great mod, lame write-up.
I run a maclab with 32 emac G4's (the old CRT ones) and the main desktop is a Aluminum cased G5 with 512 MB of ram.
I recently upgraded to Leopard (if you wanna call it an upgrade) and half the programs I used stopped working properly such as Remote Desktop and Workgroup Server.
Apparently with Leopard Server, RD and WS have been combined into a single program...its not likely that updates will be available for these older programs since Apple doesn't mind leaving you hangin'.
The case for my computer is the taller case and I have to admit, its really cool. I wouldn't mind having a case of this quality for a PC though...especially one that can run CRYSIS.
Ummm...yeah...
::nod nod::
Oh look, a birdie!
I'm my family's system administrator; we have 3 machines. One of them is a laptop with virtualization acceleration and a windows XP vm and another is a dual seat desktop with two virtual sound sinks piping sound from the two simultaneous users to their respective speaker of my stereo speaker set.
No one in my family ever has or ever will purchase an apple product. All machines are running Ubuntu. And /that/ is why I'm telling you instead of the dude that writes these engadget posts. Do I mind? Meh. Apple does something innovative quite often. This isn't that, so I really don't care. Sometimes the comments manage to be interesting anyway.
Maybe if you'd bother reading instructions? Remote Desktop 3 is the only Remote Desktop that works with Leopard. It has special installation instructions, and an update upon installation that is required. Don't blame an operating system for your own shortcomings.
@ethana2
Wow, that was a whole lot talk for a whole lot of nothing.
If you don't like Apple, don't read it. If you do read it for the comments, don't be surprised that there would be pro-Apple comments...
Nobody cares that your family has a SysAdmin, which seems a little odd for you to admit to anyway, and it didn't have any bearing on ANY part of discussions.
does that USB slot in the front work? Because I know he pretty much slid the mini through the back facing front, meaning all those ports are on the back.
I have just realized I answered my own question...
It has one port on the front.
see here: http://hanabusa1.blog29.fc2.com/blog-entry-79.html
or: http://blog29.fc2.com/h/hanabusa1/file/Mac-Pro-Mini-005.jpg
or just look at the pic in the post.
LEEERROOOYYY MMMJJEEEENKERRNS!!!!!!
what?
i don't understand....
He means Leroy Jenkins. Popular WoW and internet phenomenon. Look it up on wikipedia
no, no, i know that, but how is it relevant?
LEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY- jenkem.
It's always relevant.
Fuck the RIAA
Us gamers like to yell WoW phenomenons once in a while :)
Fuck yea, leroy jenkins!
That looks good, almost like he stole it from an apple design studio. I want one!
so wait, that's just a mini shoved into a little case?
so that's only like, 8 inches tall, total?
He also added a 3.5 inch hard drive, upgraded the CPU, and did a wicked nice mod.
It's more then just sticking a mini in a new case. He'd have to get a new power supply for the HDD or jump off the mini's power some how.
Timmay
If you're gonna bring up Crysis at least do it in a PC comment not a mac one.
The Cube mod on his site is pretty sweet looking also.
The Cube mod on his site is pretty sweet looking also.
oooo! Double post! The Big brother is watching you
:P
Well actually...
You can configure the Mac Pro with a single quad-core processor for $2299. Still a good chunk of change? You bet. But that is the actual starting price for a Mac Pro.
It would be nice if it's a Pro. but it's a mini :(
Heh.
Looks sharp too. Good work.
I personally find it pretty ugly... not "polished" nearly enough.
^^so's your face.^^
Sorry i couldn't resist. Just finished a Scrubs marathon. :)
dont listen to him, hes drunk on cheese!
I have a mac mini. It doesn't have a graphics card. OS X relies heavily on hardware acceleration. Intel's craptacular GMA integrated "graphics" processor is craptacular. In the future, Apple, don't do this. The form factor is great, but no. Just don't.
GMA 950 is great for integrated graphics. OS X doesn't pull it off as nicely as Windows does, but it's a solid card for casual computing. the X3100 is sex compared to it, but the GM945 was a huge leap in performance for laptop chipsets.
just sayin'.
And BTW the Mac Pro starts at $2,300 if you only want the Quad core. And it's even cheaper at Mac mall.
If you must run OSX, I recommend getting a pegasosppc machine or patching your kernel and buying an ubuntu dell and triple booting it.
Don't give those stuck up control freaks any more of your money than you have to to feel good about yourself.
@ethana2
What did Apple do to you to get your panties in a knot? No matter what you buy, some of your money goes to a big stuck-up corporation, be it Apple, Microsoft, or Dell! They're all bad in some way, so how can you hate one while supporting another?
As for buying an Ubuntu Dell... Dell offers sales on some configurations of Windows PCs for less than the Ubuntu equivalent. Dell is charging MORE for a FREE operating system, and pocketing your money!
Even though I don't have any Macs that is still realllly cool. It could be refined in certain aspects, but besides that pretty sweet.
meh, i'm not that impressed. All he did was create an aluminum case to put around the stock mini case. not that difficult or impressive.
Not quite. He put a quicker processor in and he connected an 3.5" Harddrive, all in all this is a faster machine than the stock TOP mini!
This mod is so good looking, Apple better take notes.
Why should Apple be taking notes? It's based off of THEIR design, remember?
Duh it is not their design. They should make a sleek looking desktop to fit in between the Pro and Mini line.
Wait a second... 2.33 GHz Mac Mini doesn't even exist.
Paloooz adds "rather lie than admit I'm wrong" to the list of characteristics he willingly demonstrates on Engadget.
Please ignore my previous comment. My browser likes to remember an old form and post it repeatedly.
The mac mini in my home theatre has a 2.33GHz processor. Can't buy it from Apple but you can always upgrade it if you have the nerve. The biggest concern is cooling and this project is a mod after all.
engadget i have been reading u guys for awhile whatz wit all the mac BS. modin a mac lolz gj..wast of moneys!
When is Apple going to update the bloody Mac mini? Don't they realize that most people want an affordable headless Mac and not a crappy glossy all-in-one like the iMac.
There was a couple rumors going around that they are going to be updating quite a few products before summer. The Mini was on the list with a Penryn and X3100 video.
This means it will be 64 bit and upgrades to 4gb and beyond can be had by all!
Well everyone who buys one. I already got mine though.
What people want is a Mac like this one. 1 PCI-E 16x, 1 regular PCI, and a full 3.5" drive. We want it to be user serviceable. Apple could make a mint selling one of these stripped with the X3100 and dual mini-DVI ports using the macbook connectors to save space. Use a bigger power supply to power a video card. Then let somebody make video cards to upgrade it (loosen the reins Steve).
The size factor of the Mini is the smallest and cheapest mass-produced PC with real horsepower out there. Lack of upgrades means it can't be used for embedded applications like POS, Kiosks, robots and public facing machines that need "one more thing" (video input, machine control, etc) and would benefit from Apple software. Apple needs a machine that will let people do whatever they want, not just what Apple wants. Keeping it to the notebook processor range would keep away all the competition from the Mac Pro because regular people will never pay that much just to mess around.
Very good looking model. Shame that it is not availalble in my country yet lol
@ ethana2
Dude, congrats on your little Ubuntu kingdom. But I want a beautifully designed case, a machine that can run OS X (legit with all the updates), Windows (For Crysis) and the option of Linux (You never know, I *might* want it for *something*).
Thats why I have an 8 core Mac Pro with an 8800 GT. And I'd take it every time over some Plastic, rattling, noisy, cheap piece of dell sh*t running hacked software.
That is all.
The main point being is ALMOST the midrange tower Mac you've always wanted. :)
A system like this with PCI-E slot and the ability to take one of the cheaper QUAD core (Non-Xeon) processors would be my DREAM machine.
I don't know any one who WOULDN'T buy one.
Wake up Apple. The Mid Range is calling.
I so agree with you!
It's actually a whopping $2299, but thanks for playing. Now get out.
@ imacmatto9: Upgrading to a 2.33ghz processor is not news as seen here http://www.ambor.com/public/meromswap/meromswap.html.
Enjoy!
it'll be easy to make a terabyte NAS in the same box as well...and will make a nice desktop set. i'd buy one. looks like it took alot of work to make it look this nice.
Hope no one has posted this: http://www.applefritter.com/node/2232
Specs are not impressive but the case is pretty sweet!
That's pretty bad ass, nicely done.
Love the look of it. Maybe Apple will make this guys a "Proprietary Solution Provider"?
How 3,5" is powered? From mini power cord?