tenpastmidnight blog

I finally got around to buying some more memory for my Mac Mini (from the ever-good Crucial.) I decided to go for the DIY upgrade when I first bought it because Apple's memory prices were rather over-priced at the time, although they've dropped since.

If you're thinking of going the DIY route yourself, my advice is: DON'T. It's very fiddly and difficult to get the Mini open, and it's easy to cosmetically damage the box. That wasn't a problem for me - I did cause a little damage, but it's not normally visible and I'm not looking to sell the computer so it won't make any difference to me. However, if you are expecting to sell one, you're likely to damage it doing this upgrade, which will effect the resale price.

I went the putty knife route for the upgrade, following a video I downloaded when I first got the Mini but can't find at the moment - do a search around if you're thinking of doing the same thing.

One thing I'll point out that wasn't in the video - when clamping it back together, there is a row of clips above the panel of ports on the back. I had to push these back with the knife so I could get the case back together. Not bad, but don't try and force it or you'll flatten the clips and you'll have to take it apart again to sort them out.

Here's some piccies:


Here's the damage I caused getting the putty knife in. I opened one side, then couldn't get the other side open until I'd clamped it back together, then started with the other side. It's underneath and quite minor, so normally wouldn't be visible.


Hmm, nekkid Mini. Perhaps this page will do well as Mac porn.


Here's a rough picture showing the upgrade to 1Gb of RAM worked.