A Mac mini inside a Wii isn't the Apple-Nintendo collab we had in mind, but we'll take it

Mac mini inside a Nintendo Wii on a desk
(Image credit: Luke Miani)

Have you ever looked at your M1 Mac mini and wished that it looked more like a Nintendo Wii? No, probably not. But you will after watching this video.

YouTuber Luke Miani definitely thought a Wii crossed with a Mac mini was the way to go, so he set about taking Apple's miniature Mac apart and then squeezing it into the even smaller Nintendo Wii's case. It, as you'd expect, took some work. But the results speak for themselves.

Game-changing

"The other day I was looking at an old Wii and I thought HMM, that looks like about the same size [as the Mac mini] to me," said Miani. "What if I put a Mac mini in there?" So he did.

The M1 Mac mini is already pretty small and powerful, but it doesn't look exciting. Putting it into a Wii's case fixes that, but it also requires some custom fittings as well. Miani had to go about getting a smaller fan and a custom power supply unit to get everything into that case, but the result is a Mac like no other.

As if being able to get your work done on a Wii wasn't enough, Miani also says that the machine plays Wii games, not to mention PS2 and GameCube games thanks to the installed Dolphin emulator. That means this machine is equally at home plugged into a Studio Display in the office as it is a big-screen TV in your living room.

With Apple expected to refresh the Mac mini within months, likely adding M2 chips along the way, we can only hope that we get a case redesign that's half as cool as this one. The Mac mini is already one of the best Macs for a ton of people. Now it's the best Nintendo Wii, too.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.

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