Anyone know how easy/hard it is to get a Mac Mini apart to replace the RAM and HDD?

I'd rather not damage the case if that's possible. I'm not especially keen to pay silly prices to have Apple do it on my behalf, but if it's rather difficult to do myself I'd probably opt for Apple to do it.

It's pretty easy. There's plenty of how-tos on the interwebs. It's just a matter of having the right decorator's tools to hand.

I've done it to a friend's PPC one. Upgraded his HDD to a 250GB with no issues at all.

What about his Mac though - did you replace the disk in that??? (8-p)

It's easy providing you're comfortable taking it apart.

Yeah I'll probably whip it apart then. That way it will work out much cheaper than getting Apple to do it.

The worst bit about taking a MAc apart (especially one which is not meant to even be taken to bits by an Apple engineer) is that moment when you pick up the first screwdriver. It‘s actually not that bad, and as long as you have a clean place to work, any instructions laid out, then it’s fine.

When I took a friend’s iBook apart, I taped the screws to the instruction sheet I printed out as I went along. Some of those screws are very small.

ifixit.com FTW!
The worst bit is the sound of cracking plastic, then you realise it's just the clips clicking out of place.

On another note, what's the cooling for the Mini like? If I leave the CPU at 100% load is it going to overheat?

Depends how long you leave it for, doesn't it? There probably isn't a PC on earth that's designed to run at 100% CPU all the time.

Jon

Most of the day, with the machine being put to sleep/shut down for about 6-8 hours a day.

What is it actually doing? I can't imagine there are many jobs a mac mini would be appropriate for that would require that amount of 'CPU time'.

Jon

World Community Grid/BOINC projects, all my PCs do it and the Mini would be no exception.

Then your best bet would be to NICE it a bit or find a way to throttle it. Mac Mini's definitely aren't designed to be doing long-run batch processing jobs for hours and hours on end. It's really not a use they were intended to be put to. You might get away with it if it's in a very well ventilated area but I wouldn't bet on it.

I do remember somebody built a beowulf style cluster using mac minis, but they had really over the top ventilation in the racks they put them in to.

Jon

Hm, I could throttle it to 50% I s'pose, or save up the extra for a basic iMac.