Departing from previous generations, the Mini's unibody
top enclosure is machined from a single block of
aluminum.
Measuring 1.4 x 7.7 x 7.7 inches and weighing only 3
lbs, this is truly one for the books.
Contents of box:
Mac Mini
HDMI to DVI adapter
Power cord
The black logo and other accents match quite nicely
with the styling of Apple's iPad and recent iMacs.
Congrats, Mini, you're no longer the black sheep of the
family!
After removing two screws, the fan can be lifted out to
access its power connector.
The connectors inside this machine look pretty
consistent with those found in Apple's current product
lineup. Nothing too new here.
All three fan screws are isolated with rubber dampers; a
feature not seen on older apple machines. Low noise
and vibration are big selling points for Apple these
days, and the new Mini's idle emission of 14 dB is a
testament to those design goals.
Step 9
Like previous generations, the new Mini is cooled by a
single brushless fan.
The extremely high blade density of the blower pushes
a good amount of air while keeping noise at a minimum.
Removing the cowling gives access to various
connectors on the logic board:
Hard drive flex cable
Optical drive flex cable (in the server model, this
is where the second hard drive flex cable is)
Thermal sensor cables
Infrared board cable
Step 13
Behold, iFixit's specialized Mac Mini Mid 2010 logic
board removal tool!
There are two blind holes in the case of the Mini that
are meant for the ends of Apple's u-shaped logic board
removal tool.
Being the shadetree mechanics that we are, we
decided to circumvent the special Apple tool in favor of
something that works just fine while keeping extra
dollars out of Mr. Jobs' pockets.
Before completely sliding out the logic board assembly,
the power supply connector must be disconnected.
After disconnecting the power cable, the logic board
assembly slides right out.
Step 15
The top and bottom of the logic board and I/O frame
assembly.
In using unibody construction, Apple had to get creative
with the placement of the antennas. Two auxiliary
antennas are the square steel components seen at
both ends of the I/O frame.
A couple of spring-loaded T8 Torx screws secure the
oddly shaped heat sink to the processors.
In keeping with its space saving design, the fins
directing air toward the vent hole are slanted to allow
for better fan placement.
Step 19
The I/O frame is held to the logic board by a few T6
Torx screws.
The two I/O bezel antennas are more visible in this
picture. The long antenna wires are grounded
periodically along their length, presumably for better
signal transmission to the important part - the antennas
themselves.