The Mac mini form factor has been around for years without any major changes, and this frustrated YouTuber Luke Miani so much that he decided to take things to the extreme. In a new video today, Miani shows off his project to convert an old Nintendo Wii into a Mac mini, creating a device “perfect for retro gaming on a Mac.”
Can you turn a Mac mini into a Nintendo Wii?
Miani explains his motivation for the process:
It’s no secret that the Mac mini design is a little bit stale. While everyone loves its price point, size, and performance, we aren’t exactly excited by the little aluminum square anymore. Today that changes.
The other day I was looking at an old Wii and I thought HMM, that looks like about the same size to me. What if I put a Mac mini in there? An Apple Silicon Wii?!? heck yeah! Today we’ll build a DIY Mac mini Wii conversion perfect for retro gaming on a Mac. Wii games, Nintendo Gamecube, even PS2 emulation through Dolphin and Aethersx2 in the package of a Wii? Heck yeah!
One of the biggest reasons Miani was able to take on this project is because the Mac mini and Wii both feature designs that are pretty friendly to repairability. Once he had the two devices open, Miani listed out some changes he’d have to make to the Mac mini to fit its internals inside the Wii casing.
- Smaller fan
- A custom power supply unit
- Run HDMI out of the back of the Wii for easier access
With the game plan outlined, Miani started the process and focused first on the power supply problem. The different roadblocks and ultimate solutions to this problem in particular are super interesting to watch. From there, he used 3D printing to build custom components, made Bluetooth work, and more.
The final product “works flawlessly,” Miani says in the video. Despite some compromises around things like the power supply, the M1 chip is still able to hold its own. Benchmarks show that you only lose a very small amount of performance due to the removal of the full-size fan.
The video is well worth a watch and can be found below. You can see the Mac mini inside the Wii being used to emulate classic Nintendo games, used as a normal Mac, and much more. Perhaps most impressively, those Nintendo games are being upscaled to 4K resolution. Kudos to Luke for another impressive DIY project.
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