Ancient Mac Mini A1176 - Opened and Disassembled

I’ve always wanted one of these. When the Mac Mini first came out the idea of having a mini computer was a novel idea. Having a Mac also sounded like loads of fun. The design was beautiful. I wanted one of these so badly. They originally came with a G4 processor but were transition over to Intel not too long after the first model was released.

Apparently the original G4s from 2005 are going for vaguely around $300 or so depending on the condition and what is included ( June 2020 ). The slightly newer model that I bought (2006 to 2007) comes with an Intel Core Duo or Core Solo. It goes for about $50 if it is working. Mine was listed “as is” and didn’t include a power adapter. It was about $30 including shipping and about $15 before shipping.

This isn’t the first Mac Mini I’ve owned I still have a 2011 Mac Mini which is also awesome. The design is great but isn’t quite the same as the original.

I bought this primarily for the purpose of taking it apart. After that I figured that I might try to get it working and after that I would use it as basically a $30 paper weight. It is most likely going to just sit on my shelf.

Here is the video of us taking it apart:

It is worth noting that we could have had a much easier time if we had used the correct tool to open it.

Update: It Works

After ordering a power adapter for it (about $17 I think) we were able to try actually turning it on. I was not surprised to find that it actually worked. We were also able to login. We were able to guess the password on the second try. It turned out to be “admin”.