Honey, I shrunk my Mac: Enthusiast makes Mac mini even smaller

At 7.7 x 7.7 x 1.4 inches, Mac mini is a tiny desktop computer. When the form factor debuted in 2010, it was pretty impressive. But 12 years later, with mini PCs like the 4.6 x 4.4 x 1.5-inch Intel NUC, the Mac mini doesn’t seem so small anymore.

As it turns out, PCs have extra baggage, and by getting rid of some of those parts, such as an overly powerful internal power supply (PSU), the enthusiast was able to rebuild the system with a 28 percent reduction in power consumption. volume, while supposedly maintaining the same performance as the original machine.

The Snazzy Labs YouTube channel shared their miniature Mac mini mod in a video titled We made the Mac mini a REAL mini! “on Tuesday. The idea came from the fact that the M1-based Mac mini relied on an outdated design based on more power-hungry Intel chips. Part of this design was a large fan. Snazzy Labs removed the fan, confident that a fanless Mac mini would work due to the performance of the M1 in a fanless Macbook Air laptop.

The current Mac mini also uses a 150W internal power supply. Snazzy Labs found that the computer consumed only 67.5 watts, even when all ports were loaded to the limit. Before switching to Apple M1 silicon, the company offered a Mac mini with an Intel Core i7 chip with a TDP of 70W.

Snazzy Labs has redesigned the Mac mini to use an external power supply, further reducing the footprint. The new power supply is actually a 65W Microsoft Surface Power Adapter paired with an Apple MagSafe 2 card from a 2015 MacBook Pro. The board can support up to 87W and ends with a MagSafe 2 connector.

Snazzy Labs noted that it cannot use an official Apple adapter because it “sets up a rather complicated handshake with a real MacBook before it starts charging.”However, the enthusiast stated that the fix is ​​”quite safe””because the Microsoft Surface Charger has its own intelligence.”According to Snazzy Labs, if the contacts are short-circuited, the charger will work.

Snazzy Labs also unscrewed the Mac mini’s three wireless antennas and removed the plastic-welded power button with a soldering iron, and then the ribbon cable. This allowed the PC to ditch the wider I/O screen in favor of a 3D printed trimmer.

Snazzy Labs stated that the Mac mini “shows the same results as the original”if it still uses the built-in heat spreader and heatsink. This little PC is also “quiet”according to Snazzy Labs.

Snazzy Labs has shared the CAD files for the project online. If you’d rather watch someone else do the work, watch the Snazzy Labs video: