Adding An eGPU To The 1st Gen Intel Mac Mini

[@seshpenguin]

Love that you didn't just leave it as a bare PCB and wires, but actually buttoned everything up and made it look nice!

[@ctrlaltrees]

Hopefully Steve Jobs would approve 😂

[@joysticksnjukeboxes]

You are absolutely that guy who would drop a V8 engine into a 1973 Ford Pinto wagon.

[@kyle8952]

That ATI Card's giant bracket shows how attitudes have changed. They were worried that the heatsink would be heavy enough to break something if the system got dropped, so they made sure it was well supported. Nowadays? Nvidia will sell you a four slot sagmaster 5090Ti with no support whatsoever, and if your pcie slot breaks because you accidentally dropped your computer 1 inch, it's your problem not theirs.

[@Empterdose]

To be fair, that bracket is specific to the Apple version of the card. The cases of the Mac Pros 1,1-3,1 had supports for the inside ends of cards, and so all of the cards Apple sold for them were made long enough to fit the case fully. I had two different versions of the XFX 5770, and both of them end normally.

[@RolandoMarreroPR]

You are a genius! Something so simple as RAM was causing issues with the eGPU! 👏

[@retroboby007]

Cool upgrade, man. I like the fact that you are not afraid of modding by cutting metal and stuff. I made myself a few small form factor brackets for my systems by cutting regular ones. Kudos for putting up so much work into this project. You can play a lot of games with that system now.

[@abunk8691]

Nice I was waiting for the continuation of your Mac mini upgrades

[@JapanPop]

You and Action Retro have the best shenanigans.

[@ctrlaltrees]

Sean is a big inspiration, he's really done a lot to reinvigorate the retro scene. Love his videos!

[@VideoEnjoyer-m3z]

Extra points for the Action Retro shout out!

[@nazgulsenpai]

I always hear "Ctrl alt Reese" in Action Retros patron readout at the end of his videos :)

[@RaineyPeng]

@@nazgulsenpaithis is the first video of his I’ve actually seen pop up, didn’t realize he made videos lol. Subscribed and now ready to go watch the backlog

[@HrutkayMods]

@@nazgulsenpai Yeah I hear him in the shout out a lot too :P

[@jimboblivesforever]

This makes no sense. I love it.

[@drewnewby]

The whole video I'm thinking, yes, the lengths we go to. Then out came the hacksaw to deal with the literal length.

[@ytthrowaway4584]

I remember buying the G4 version, then Apple scrapped them about 6 months later and stopped updates for it about 3-4 years later. Thanks Apple!

[@robinivanmarshall5832]

Best thing you’ve done, really enjoyed that. 11/10

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks so much, it's been a fun project to put together 😁

[@RetroSegaDev]

Genius problem solving Rees! Really impressed!

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks! Although I must admit it was more brute force and ignorance, as always... 😅

[@TechDave]

you make eGPU video, im here for it! watching now! ps: ur community post about office space made me smile the other day, studio tour soon?

[@charlesdorval394]

Well that's one ridiculous upgrade if I ever saw one ... Good job! :)

[@HrutkayMods]

Bravo! btw I came across your OS article on your site I stopped updating the Win 10 Images because they were the last single layer images M$ made. My argument is you can use the image to install the old copy of 10 then use Update assistant to update to the latest version. Great video bud :D

[@xPLAYnOfficial]

Cool to see all of the interesting suggestions. Reminds me very much of how I got many of my silly current projects up and running (currently I have a project involving Windows XP, a Dell Atom-based netbook, a Quadro 410, and the shell of a broken 2008 Dell LCD monitor... no I do not have a problem). I feel a very fun alternate-reality version of this build would involve a mATX case, the mPCIe to dual PCI adapter, Windows XP, the 2600XT, and a period-correct PCI sound card. Mounting all of that into a case, converting the USB ports back into headers using off-the-shelf adapters, wiring up the power button, creating a new I/O shield, and perhaps even converting the rear power plug into a female ATX 20+4 connector among other things, would be an extremely silly way to make the most cursed mATX XP build of all time... and of course I would be 100% on-board with it :) The RAM PCIe resource allocation table problem is an interesting one. I've seen it once or twice but totally forgot it happened on these chipsets. It's possible that your solution would be to actually push your RAM more. Since it supports 4GB of RAM there is a very high chance it will support 6GB (1 x 2GB & 1 x 4GB). Doing so should raise the default allocation pool for the PCIe resource table. Pushing older hardware using esoteric methods, strange adapters you didn't even know exist, and abuse of weird quirks in both hardware and software, is a joy I constantly find myself fulfilling all the time. Kudos to you for sticking it out, and have fun playing Portal!

[@ctrlaltrees]

Interesting idea with the 6GB of RAM, I think I'll give it a try. BTW, the dual PCI adapter does work with the reduced RAM but the performance with the Radeon HD5450 was even worse than the integrated graphics so I didn't pursue that route any further. Still a very interesting thing to get hooked up 😁 Oh, thanks for all of the suggestions, they're appreciated! I'm not so sure about the case idea as I quite like the form factor of the Mac Mini and have a lot of nostalgia for it, but it would certainly be an interesting project.

[@danielktdoranie]

Glad you got it working!

[@HMods1991]

I'd love to see you test El Capitan with the eGPU

[@WhatHoSnorkers]

Fascinating stuff Mister Rees!

[@av_oid]

If the 5770 works, a 7950 with Mac firmware would likely also work.

[@HMods1991]

7950 is 64bit efi only I think... so no it wouldn't work sadly

[@onigvd77]

I am very please you got those working! This is something I have been getting parts for. There is a forum on MacRumours where someone had this idea many years ago. I dont think there was ever a solution on there, after i made some suggestions someone said not to bother given the age of the machine etc. I dont care I wont to do this with my Mini and put in a different case as well :) Thank you so much for deep diving and figuring it out! Its a shame about the RAM limitation, it would be nice to have double the RAM installed.

[@werehyenataur]

it can run 6gb ram, use a 4gb/2gb combo

[@2048Megabytes.]

it can’t that’s only on the 2007/2008 macbook pros these mac minis only support 4gb

[@tuff_lover]

​@@2048Megabytes.Is that even a good idea to run 2gb and 4gb sticks at the same time?

[@2048Megabytes.]

@@tuff_lover there is little to no performance impact from using mismatched ram sticks. one of my friends has an iMac with a 2 and 4gb stick and it definitely runs better than when it has 2gb and 2gb matching ram.

[@tuff_lover]

@@2048Megabytes. It just always felt off.

[@bzavacado]

@@2048Megabytes.what about server edition late 2009 Mac?

[@atarixle]

My MacMini just needed a newer Wifi card. Until I watched this video! Now I also want an eGPU on mine.

[@williamlafrance2514]

Got the exact same mini and gpu at home, guess I found my next tinkering project ! Nice video !

[@JoshuaSolanes]

Whoa that intro - I had no idea any systems could be upgraded from 32-bit to 64-bit CPUs, let alone a Mac Mini When I transitioned from 32-bit to 64-bit I clearly remember a new PC build. Granted it was from the Athlon XP era to Core2 Duo so a bit of a jump at the time

[@MSThalamus-gj9oi]

I'm impressed that you got this all working! FWiW, the PC version of the card should have worked fine, though. I had a 2010 Mac Pro and had a couple Mac firmware-based cards in it but then switched to PC versions because they were much cheaper and there were a million more options (I was running Windows so drivers weren't an issue). The only difference was that you didn't get the Apple logo and spinning circle, but you're running Linux anyway.

[@leangxd]

Really cool video Usually I'm for keeping parts as stock as they could be but your sawing skills seem to bee great Shame that u can boot with only 2 gigs Love to see more

[@faenethlorhalien]

It's almost nostalgic to see an old Mac Mini like that one.

[@ctrlaltrees]

They're so cheap nowadays and a lot of fun to hack about

[@Yesterzine]

Big fan of "Could I have just bought the PC version? Yes.".

[@ctrlaltrees]

Even funnier - I was at the office on Thursday and it turns out we actually have one there 🤣

[@gazehound]

​@@ctrlaltrees This guy....

[@flickwtchr]

Wow, I have that same MacMini in storage as well as that same card that I took out of my Mac Pro 2010 years ago when upgrading to an RX 580. Hmm, I smell a project.

[@Aeduo]

It looks like you're using xfce, something to make sure of is that xfce isn't using its compositor because even in the best of situations, it has a lot of overhead, and in this case it's all quite old hardware. I think the option is in "window manager tweaks". It basically only allows for some simple effects. Kinda ends up being a neat XP-era lightish gaming PC. Unfortunately, Linux is probably not the best match for it. It is quite old and probably also using less-ideal drivers. Kinda impressed it's working particularly well at all with an older AMD GPU.

[@安柠-l2y]

As a PC card collector and been with more than 10 different versions of HD5770s I can confirm that you are able to just remove the backplate. That part only functions in a Server/Workstation/Mac Pro as a GPU holder and handle for quick removal purposes.

[@安柠-l2y]

NIce handwork in the video!

[@alexisguerrero7551]

Simply Amazing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@FireFlyinWonderland]

great job!

[@RyanMercer]

🤘

[@mattsword41]

There are few problems that cant be solved by buying more and more on ebay...

[@chelsona2574]

its the journey that counts!!

[@Akselmoi]

I love seeing these old machines running games on Linux. Would be kinda cool to see you try out different desktop environments with older PC's, like KDE Plasma :) (although the Debian version of Plasma is a bit old already)

[@lexisnep525]

“What are you doing in the garage with a saw?” “Tinkering with an 18 year old Macintosh!”

[@RandomDudeFromYT]

Just a small hint for maximum youtube performance, youtube nowadays uses codecs that old cards cannot really handle (vp9 and the like). If you use a browser plugin like h264ify you can force youtube to use the old codec again and your graphics card can accelerate the video correctly :)

[@Two-Robot]

"And you're right, I could have done that" Refuses to elaborate further lmao 😂

[@LuminalSpoon]

2:40 I hate it when I'm hungry as well haha

[@EnvAdam]

2:34 - that looks like A Dell branded Meanwell PSU, stronk 💪, solid those are. 16:57 - oh i just clocked that when the fan died on my GTX 1060, this GPU has the exact same fan, along with the R9 290 reference card, its just its red instead of black and has an ATI or AMD sticker instead of an Asus one lol.

[@MrPufins]

i didn't have a mac mini but i did have a macbook at that time, i had the 945 chipset with a GMA 950 and it was in fact the system i played portal and half life on. had to edit a lot of ini files and it was very very low resolution to even play.

[@onigvd77]

something i forgot to mention, someone on a forum said that the internal video may also be trying to allocate VRAM for itself from main RAM even with an eGPU in play. i read it can be turned off but wondered if that would help with how much RAM can be installed?

[@ThePsychoticWombat]

A 32-bit OS, regardless of flavour of OS will probably help a lot with the sluggishness. As a retro gaming PC, Windows XP will probaby be the best OS.

[@crissnickers_frog6689]

pls it's me or you need a old case to?its a nimi itx motherboard and a big GPU?why not?

[@davidmostly8410]

are you cornering the defunct card market?

[@ctrlaltrees]

This is my retirement fund

[@jdomingo91]

nice video, where did you got the mouse mat?

[@k.m4061]

is it possible that a PCIE graphics card could work by using one of the pci to pci-e adapters?

[@ikangulama]

This is cool experiment

[@nalinux]

This Mac Mini is so easy to open, compared to my 2012 ! :) I wonder if I can upgrade this one too.

[@waldfruchttee]

you could techincly use the core2duo t7600g for overclocking (that variant was only used in the dell xps m1710)

[@cyrqulz]

James Lambert vibes!

[@ctrlaltrees]

Oh interesting, I hadn't come across his channel. Checking it out now - thanks for the suggestion!

[@Merlinkatamari]

I had the same problem with a thinkpad T400 with a pci express dock ^^

[@techfixuk]

Never thought I'd be commenting on hand tool use on a computer video, but here goes. You should use the whole length of the saw blade; you'll find it faster, easier, and less effort than just using a few centimetres

[@ctrlaltrees]

Thanks for the suggestion. In all honesty the saw blade was pretty badly beat up and kept snagging so I was using the one good part that was left. I knew I'd get comments about this 😅

[@techfixuk]

@@ctrlaltrees So I sounded like my dad for no reason 😅

[@cowboyfimbop]

Do you have the mips data? Any GCC data for testing? 🙂

[@drzeissler]

It's still windows right? Would be interesting for MacOS.

[@nalinux]

I think it's Linux all the video.

[@DrDooDooBucket]

@@nalinuxso is it possible to boot into macOS?

[@norkshit]

Next mission: Hook up an EGPU to a gen 1 Apple TV

[@stephanemignot100]

I guess I'll buy a 2009 iMac instead ^

[@ctrlaltrees]

It would be less effort 😅

[@Space_Reptile]

i have a 2007 Mac Mini 2.1 myself, and its running 3gb of ram (2+1) i wonder if thats a change from the 1.1 Mac Mini

[@Milan012]

Have you tried installing Alpine Linux on a Mac Mini 2007 or 2009?

[@weelebaseknowles4410]

That would be a great xp gaming machine and I think u could run 3g of ram

[@BrassicGamer]

Rees you are one crazy mofo and this is a supremely cursed build. My hat goes off to you!

[@sdgx0]

reminds me of the time when i added a egpu to my acer aspire one 725

[@mlthmp]

If I'm not mistaken upgrading the CPU the machine stays 32bit may be a 64b CPU but pretty sure it stays 32

[@GarthBeagle]

if only there was an easier way! 😁

[@joshj88]

I wanna see someone try this with the 9600 PCI mac edition and a Mac Mini 2005! like seriously there is an adapter to go from the mini PCI to a normal PCI slot or slots.

[@PearComputingDevices]

I would try a 512mb dimm. They definitely make them

[@LukeLiterati]

You don’t saw a file back and forth it degrades the teeth faster you just go one way it’ll save you money on new files in the long run

[@Flo8770]

It can't work because of DVI is digital and VGA is an analog Port. You need a Converter that can translate the Signal.

[@preferredimage]

You'd get 7FPS if you just used one of those cheapo USB to HDMI adaptors you can buy for a few quid.

[@ctrlaltrees]

I reckon so

[@the_sjdo]

does he not know, he can just flash the Mac Bios on the gpus ?

[@connors3356]

my first gen mac mini was a web server for my aunt’s painting service in kansas but i made some chinese govt officials angry and they pinged my mini so many times that it melted

[@rubiigen]

That back metal piece serves no purpose, could just have removed it and left it off. I've done that with no issues.

[@salahbaker4089]

/3gb switch was a thing

[@mell0wzgmd]

“this is my original 2007 intel mac mini” -ctrl-alt-rees

[@ctrlaltrees]

Bought it new in my first full time job! I know, it's hard to believe I'm really that old...

[@mell0wzgmd]

@@ctrlaltrees i have an ‘06 iMac (the first intel one) that i bought for 50 bucks a bit ago

[@Ag89q43G0HyA]

the driver itself is gonna eat all the system ram.

[@tonycosta3302]

It’s sad when the power supply is bigger than the computer😂

[@CovenantAgentLazarus]

This guy is obviously from Europe so don't even try to think that you're going to get a deal in the USA like this. It's not happening with the USA ebay. End of story.

[@werehyenataur]

use 3gb... then use an amd w5100 4gb card

[@pablogirol]

You did not watch the end did you?

[@SockyNoob]

Inb4 people claim you ruined the GPU and history lol.

[@janquieldapper]

Nooooooooo... whyyyyyy you do this??? Cut the enclosureeeeee kkkk Not the GPUUUU kkk 😝

[@beanwithbacon]

Or you could've saved a lot of time and energy and just bought a real computer instead...

[@nalinux]

But where is the fun ?