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Wifi/BT & Ant. for 1.33 G4 Mini?

Posted by: trag on 2012-07-19 10:10:44 I think I've found a workable combination of wifi/bluetooth card and antennas for the 1.33 GHz G4 Mac Mini, but I figured it was worth asking opinions here before purchasing. So, what do you folks think. Will these work? Or have I overlooked/misread some key fact along the way? wifi/bluetooth card http://www.ebay.com/itm/261054189767?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 or http://www.ebay.com/itm/380450409073?ru=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.com%2Fsch%2Fi.html%3F_from%3DR40%26_nkw%3D380450409073%26_rdc%3D1 antennas http://www.ebay.com/itm/190701156107?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649 I'm pretty confident about the card. I'm less certain about the antennas. The seller says that they should work as a wifi or bluetooth antenna on any Mac with compatible connectors, and that seems reasonable from a physics point of view. Other listings/sellers seem to want $20 and up for the antennas. I don't mind spending ~$10 on the card, but I don't want to spend $40+ on the antennas.

Posted by: insaneboy on 2012-08-31 07:08:01 so... did you try them out? I ordered a pair, see how it goes. not like I really need bluetooth or wireless in the mini I just got... but it's not that much so what the hell right? might come in useful one day.

Posted by: LCGuy on 2012-08-31 15:57:38 So long as it physically plugs in, I doubt you have anything to worry about - really, for the most part, a WiFi antenna is a WiFi antenna is a WiFi antenna. I have an Acer thing that I equipped with WiFi, it was originally never designed to have WiFi...I used antennas and a card from two seperate laptops and it works perfectly, you'd never know.

Posted by: insaneboy on 2012-09-02 20:02:21 DUR, remembered a major use for having bluetooth, HI bluetooth keyboard DUHHHHH! Since there isn't a good place to put a keyboard anywhere near the machine its self. Second, donno if it'll work, but bluetooth audio to the radio across the room, good for pandora instead of killing my iPhone battery :O

Posted by: insaneboy on 2012-09-07 18:02:27 mega sad face further research points to there being a special board for the mini, which ebayers sell for $$$$$ so much for that idea :'( if anyone has one I'll trade for the pile o' PPC games I have 🙂

Posted by: trag on 2012-09-11 12:52:30 Insaneboy, which Mini do you have? The first revision Minis (1.25 GHz, 1.42GHz) needed the special mezzanine board and used separate BT and wifi boads. That's why I specified in my question that I had the 1.33 GHz Mini. It didn't use a mezzanine board and used a combo BT/Wifi assembly. However, in my researches, I found this: http://www.primelec.com/apple-airport-extreme-networking-wireless-networking-wireless-adapters-p2693208 Check the part number, but I believe that is the riser card you need for the older Mini for ~ $10, not the $60 that the Ebayer's want. I don't know what the shipping cost will do to that.

Posted by: insaneboy on 2012-09-11 13:32:25 yeah it's a 1.42. looks like the BT module is on it in the picture but no mention of it...hummm $6 shipping, take a risk on that having the BT module attached, that's all I actually want, think it'll work with out the airport card on it?

Posted by: insaneboy on 2012-09-11 13:40:21 Oh BTW do you want the module I've got? I was about to return it, but I'll sell it to ya for what I paid($5.99). let me know I was going to ship it back thursday.

Posted by: trag on 2012-09-12 10:02:35 Thank you for the offer. However, I think I'm going to end up buying a 1.5 GHz Mini with the card already installed. That will fit with what I actually want to do, which is backtrace the connections in the expansion slot and then install a Mini-PCI gigabit ethernet card. The only thing that stops the G4 Mini from being a pretty good server is the slow ethernet connection. I'd like to have a Mini and a small stack of NewerTechnology MiniStack drives as a media/backup server.

Posted by: insaneboy on 2012-09-12 12:46:03 too bad they changed the design of the newer stacks though. That's what I'm using my mini for, backups and media. I don't have a gigabit switch so the built in ethernet isn't a problem for me. oh and stacking the newer drives you may run into heat issues, stacked I had the fans in them running on high all the time, heat sink is on the bottom, so I have mine side by side with holes on the shelf under them and an air filter blowing up at them... keeps them nice n' cool. 🙂 I also had good luck adding a spacer between the drives and a scoop to push air between them.

Posted by: trag on 2012-09-13 15:47:30 Thank you for reporting your experiences. Yes, I am worried about heat. I have a couple of Ministacks already from OWC's clearance a year back or so. They're the one's with PATA internally, so they won't go higher than 750 GB. I also picked up a used Ministack with a 500 GB drive in it and I can use that one to mirror the internal hard drive -- the other two will mirror each other. That's probably enough storage for my music server, and the backup server function is going to use a Firewire SATA Dock with 2 TB SATA drives. I have a bunch of the little clear stick-on feet that are about 3/8" thick. I've been putting those on the bottom of the Ministacks to space them further apart. Do you think that will help with heat dissipation, enough? I really don't want to add external fans. On the other hand, the thing should spend most of its time sleeping, maybe.

Posted by: insaneboy on 2012-09-13 18:22:50 True I have found mine with the drives spun down most of the time. previously I had them on my desk with my intel mini (LOUD) later hooked up to a LaCie d2 network which kept them spinning. the airfilter was already being used in the basement, so not a big deal to move it under the drives (which also helps move air around the DSL modem, router, network switch etc) worth having. I got a PATA because I had a 750GB bare drive kicking around and I got a SATA with a 1TB 1TB is the media drive and the 750 is the backup. don't have massive amounts of data here I guess(190GB on that backup drive so far). music/movies if they're gone oh well I have the DVDs and CDs still (if they're apple bought I've got iCloud now... and a good sized batch are backed up to DVD-Rs) using CF card as the boot drive now too. seems to be working well.

Posted by: insaneboy on 2012-09-14 16:26:59 Got nothing from the new card, BT card is attached but it doesn't show up. guess I need to get an extreme card. 😛

Posted by: insaneboy on 2012-09-22 16:39:56 Got the extreme card, it works! BT range kinda sucks though. Might open it up, move the antenna around a bit... Wifi has no antenna, older style extreme card uses a different style antenna plug, so its antenna-less for now.

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