Hi guys,

I am looking at my Mac mini G4 - nice machine. But too slow. And also ugly. I want to do something about it.

Naturally, looks first! The sides are nice and silvery and can stay that way. But the top has this very ugly, whitish top with the Apple symbol. I would like to open up this Mac and replace this top with a different cover. Preferably one with a MorphOS logo. Does anyone know of any options?

Is there anything else one can do to make the G4 mini more beautiful?


Then RAM. Seems like I have 1GB. Now, I heard I could go no further. Sad. How about adding RAM via USB - using Virtual Memory? Is that possible?


How about the hard disk? I heard you could replace it with an SSD mSATA using an IDE adapter. Has anyone tried this? I assume it makes the system more responsive.


I also know that it is possible to overclock the Mac mini from 1.25 to 1.5 GHZ. Did anyone try this? I am not good at soldering but would pay for it.


What else have I missed? Ideas?

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Changing the "lid" would not be so easy, as it's (AFAIR) glued-and-bolted in place. It would be far easier to remove the top casing (the metal sides plus acrylic top) and have it painted with whatever design you like.

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And that's maximum for this machine.

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Never heard of any method to add more RAM to Mac Mini (especially with MorphOS).

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You can surely do that. And yes, it makes the system much more responsive. But do not expect miracles - the data is still being pushed through IDE interface.

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This can actually be done. And requires re-soldering some resistors on the PCB. You can find detailed info on how to do this here.

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Yes, I have in my Mini I have 44-pin IDE -> mSATA adapter + mSATA SSD

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I overclocked my Mini from 1.5 GHz to 1.83 GHz. Generally it is possible. Top frequency depends of your real CPU - you have to remove heatsink and see the exact markings. CPU 7447A is less capable of overclocking than 7447B. And I read somewhere, that 1.42 GHz and 1.5 GHz versions have better cooler, but I cannot confirm this, because I have only 1.5 version.
Look at link that kozser sent. Also on obligement.free.fr is another article.
If you will be patient enough, I will write during few weeks an article about Mac Mini updates.

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Clean the fan and heatsink, and you can put your Mini on little stands for better cooling of bottom side. Bottom side serves as cooler for builtin GPU.
And you can connect external storage via FireWire - there are some in Mac Mini design (Iomega MinMax, and G-technology )
You cannot do much more - it is a Mini

For MacMini I suggest you to find a silent upgrade to 1,5GHz and 64mb ram gfx board.

@Flash
I totally agree. I have problems even with 64MB VRAM. I am used to open own fullHD sreen for every main application

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Well it has been a decade (give or take) since my 1st Mini and I just kicked out the plastic top replaced it with piece of acrylic (was some work to grind it to a perfect fit) and placed a printed out MophOS-butterly behind it.

Look good at 0.5m or more.

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But it's close to miracles, the ide controller used in the mini seems to be done pretty well . My ide adapter mSATA Kingston ssd comes really close to the IDE theoreticall maximum. For comparison: the Kingston ssd (of coure another model, but similar leage of the mSATA model used in my mini and pb) in my iMac G5 does not yield better speeds.


To make it short: the ssd replacement is pretty easy to do , most el cheapo ide2mSATA adapters seem to work, the original hdds are slow and generally old anyway. The replacement is very well spent money and time.