Wiley 978-0-471-74900-4 Datenblatt

Chapter 1Modding a Mac mini: An OverviewIn This Chapter䊳 Discovering hacks and mods䊳 Knowing when to mod your Mac䊳 Finding out what you can do to your

Estimating timeEstimating how long it will take to complete a project is one of the more diffi-cult aspects of planning, but it is important to know i

Now add up the costs. If the total exceeds the amount you wanted to spendfor the project, you may want to rethink your plan. But it’s better finding t

buy the new software, you first need to find out if your Mac mini is up tosnuff. When to upgrade Mac OS XDon’t be a Mac OS X pioneer when it comes to

Don’t squeak bySoftware manufacturers always list the bare minimum hardware required torun their software. This is kind of like watching a big blockbu

22Part I: Owning a Mac mini 05_749001 ch01.qxp 12/14/05 8:18 PM Page 22

Don’t worry if you aren’t daring enough to do the most radical modsdescribed in this book. There are plenty of down-to-earth mods that won’tcost more

The answer is that there’s no reason to let the marketing gurus and engineersat Apple decide what you should do with your mini. Their job is done,beca

⻬ RAM: Depending on when you bought your Mac mini, you either have256MB, 512MB, or 1GB. When you order a Mac mini, Apple offers to upyour RAM memory f

your mini’s processor speed and the amount of RAM. To find the amount offree hard disk space, go to the Finder and look at the bottom of a folder wind

3. Click Disc Burning to find out if your optical drive can burn DVDs. Figure 1-4 shows that this Mac mini can.4. Click Bluetooth or AirPort Card to s

Changing your mini’s lookSome modifications have no productivity value at all but are very high on thecoolness meter. Making your mini look different

Adding softwareNot all modifications are made completely with hardware. Some modifica-tions require you to install new software on the Mac mini. For i

have a wrist strap, just be sure that before you touch any of the Mac mini’sinternal parts, you touch a metal lamp or other metal object to discharges