Upgrading the Mac Mini
by Kevin on Sunday, May 4 at 8:55 PM GMT-4
I have plans of upgrading the wireless network in the house to 802.11n soon, most likely an Airport Extreme. The main problem in doing this was the Mac Mini as the main advantage was for moving media around.
Luckily, Ebay came to the rescue with a pretty cheap 802.11a/b/g/n upgrade card. It also came with a pair of antenna as well as the mini only has a single antenna for 802.11b/g in it normally. I did end up using the original antenna along with one of the additional ones though as the stock antenna has a nice mount to the cover which would have just been wasted (and one antenna stuck to the cover ghetto style with tape is my limit).
Luckily, Ebay came to the rescue with a pretty cheap 802.11a/b/g/n upgrade card. It also came with a pair of antenna as well as the mini only has a single antenna for 802.11b/g in it normally. I did end up using the original antenna along with one of the additional ones though as the stock antenna has a nice mount to the cover which would have just been wasted (and one antenna stuck to the cover ghetto style with tape is my limit).
The install is pretty simple, just a lot of tiny screws. I had already tore it apart to upgrade the RAM previously, so I knew what to expect in the hideous crunching noises that happen when you pry the case off using a paint scraper. I then used the instructions here, and everything went pretty well. I didn't route the antenna to the back like in the guide though, I rigged it to the metal shield in a similar fashion to the stock antenna using tape as mentioned previously.
While I can't test my signal/speed on 802.11n, the card still works great with 802.11g in the mean time.
While I can't test my signal/speed on 802.11n, the card still works great with 802.11g in the mean time.
