So I have this 1.66GHz Core Duo Mac Mini (1,1), and it was a bit slow for my new TV tuner, just barely keeping up. Given than Core 2 Duo is so vastly superior, and they’re old enough now to be (relatively) cheap on eBay, I decided to upgrade.

I found a T7400 on eBay for about $150 shipped, which runs at 2.16GHz and is the next-to-best processor that will fit in a current Mac Mini. (Any Intel mini will do, even the old skool Core Solos) You need a pinned model, but I found that I could get the other (solder-type) model from Kaga with “aftermarket” pins for a bit cheaper, (something like this) so I did. It works great.

There are instructions on how to do the upgrade all over the place, but here are three very important notes:

1. Buy a 4-40 bolt set. The nylon fasteners on your Mac Mini are fragile, and even if they don’t break, probably shouldn’t be reused. Most people recommend nylon nuts/bolts, but I could only find metal at my local hobby shop (RC planes and cars use this kind of thing), and they’re working fine. There’s limited clearance underneath your Mini’s mobo, and you don’t want large nuts touching any of the circuitry underneath, so put your bolts in upside-down. Buying bolts that are “too long” will make it much easier to get the nuts on over the springs that hold your heatsink in place. Since I used metal screws, I put a piece of 3M electrical tape (the good 33 stuff) on the metal mobo tray underneath them, just to eliminate any possible electrical oddities.
2. Get your thermal paste right Clean the HS off well with Rubbing Alcohol. Put a small glob (like 2 grains of rice worth) of Arctic Silver 5 (or whatever goo you’re using) on the center of the die. Don’t spread it out, just put the HS on top and fasten ‘er down. If you spread it out yourself, you could get air bubbles and crud in there, which is not good. I did this wrong the first time and found that even with my fan set to 1900, my Mini would idle in the mid-to-high 50s. By reapplying, now my fan is at 1800 and I’m idling in the mid-to-high 40s.
3. Use smcFanControl. Set your minimum fan speed to 1800, because the Core 2 Duos run a little hotter than the Core Duos.

That’s it! My “new” Mac Mini (now with 2GB of RAM and the 2.16GHz processor) just flies, and it benched at somewhere around 30%+ better with XBench. The real story though is in how it “feels,” which is about twice as fast–I don’t hit that ceiling anymore where everything just starts acting like crap.

So… if you’ve got an Intel Mac Mini, upgrade already! You won’t regret it! (Just make sure you get your thermal paste right…)