Core 2 Duo in Mac Mini

Hi,

If I put a Core 2 Duo in my Mac Mini, would the rest of the system support 64-bit?

Thanks, Ant

You can't upgrade the processor in your machine

trpnmonkey41 said:

You can't upgrade the processor in your machine

Click to expand...

yes you can!!!

all you need is core 2 duo "merom" CPU. it uses the same socket as current core duo.

Yep, they are definitely pin compatible and since the chipset seems to be the same, you can swap the processors in the mini & iMac.

Doing so will most definitely void any warranty you might have though and is NOT recommended unless you are comfortable doing this sort of thing.

It also doesn't make that much sense, as the processors are quite expensive and the performance increases not that great.

The minis might also have thermal issues if you put a much faster processor in there.


This will NOT work on Macbooks and Macbook Pro's as the processor is soldered onto the logic-board in these machines.

If you put in a faster processor how does the logic board raise the clock speed? Is there a configuration for this somewhere or jumpers on the board or does it auto detect within a certain frequency range? I know on any PC motherboards I've worked with the clock frequency had to be jumper selected...

Aptmunich, Agreed completely. It would for sure void the warranty. I think maybe that is what trpnmonkey meant.

dtravis7 - I don't think that's what trpnmonkey meant, he says there's a different chipset involved on another thread... although noone else is confirming this?

http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41092

I used to be an field engineer for fujitsu fixing gateway, compaq, etc (albiet five years ago) and they all automatically detected processor clock speed, etc. The Core 2 Duos run cooler than the previous models, but the architecture may or may not support 64-bit memory access. That was my question. If it worked in 64-bit, there should be a 50% increase in speed and would work with the 64-bit functionality in Leopard. OSX wouldn't detect it as a core two duo at the moment, but in light of the new imacs running core 2 duos an update should take care of that.

I could, of course, be talking nonsense!

Friday's a good day for talking nonsense

I'd be dubious of the 50% speed increase mind you especially considering Apples past record for performance improvement exageration - who really believes an Intel iMac is twice as fast as a G5....

So I guess even if the architecture was the same and you could swap chips, would it be worthwhile? 64-bit isn't meant to be that wonderful in every-day terms unless you're involved in serious number crunching with custom written software so is a slight speed increase going to be noticeable?

Don't know, but if a program is written in 64-bit, which will eventually happen, it won't be compatable, whether it needs the extra speed or not. Maybe i'm just too obsessed with numbers cos i'm a boring old PC guy whos trying to change. I'll probably still buy a superdrive to upgrade my combi though...

Mmmmm wellll perhaps... but then if a program is written for an Intel iMac it won't be compatible with a PPC based iMac... oh hang on a moment, thats why Apple came up with Universal Binaries. I'd be very surprised if they don't do the same thing with 64-bit support, at least for the foreseeable future.

I'm also a boring PC guy who took the plunge a few months ago after about 20 years of PC programming (still my job) and I've still to read any REAL benefit to 64-bit apps, yeah I believe it's meant to be helpful for biiiiiiiig number crunching apps and I bet it'll be great at intensive image manipulation tasks but at the moment I can't see a good argument to go upgrading.

Even Apple are only claiming a 40% (is that right?) increase going from a 2.0GHZ Core Duo to a 2.33GHZ Core2Duo and if that's Apples figures I'd take it with a pinch of salt as to what you'll see in the real world.

Maybe I'm just consoling myself, but my iMac is gonna have to last me a few years before I upgrade, that way at least the upgrade will be noticeable!

Yeah, true. And people use old macs for ages before they upgrade because, for most packages, they will be more than enough for years. I know people still running g3 and g4 machines quite happily. I was considering this more when the base model was a core solo but now that the base model is a duo I should be OK with that.

Apple has had 64bit processors since this time 3 years ago and they still haven't done anything solely 64 bit. They won't start making anything that is only 64bit until several years after every machine has gone to 64 bit