Core 2 Duo Mac mini gets tested
By Donald Melanson 
posted August 16th 2007 1:19PM
posted August 16th 2007 1:19PM
Apple's new Mac mini may not have gotten quite the overhaul that the iMac got last week, but PC World thinks there's still quite a bit to get excited about, largely due to the system's new Core 2 Duo processor. In its tests, PC World found that to give the mini a significant boost across the board including, for example, a 24-percent jump in Photoshop performance over the old 1.83GHz Mac mini (the new 1.83GHz Core 2 Duo mini showed a 19-percent increase). In other tests, the new top-end Mac mini managed to pump out 13-percent more frames per second in Unreal Tournament 2004 than the old top-end model, and it proved to be about even with the new 2GHz Core 2 Duo iMac in tests like Compressor and Cinema 4D, although the mini's slower 5,400 rpm hard drive caused it to drag in tasks like importing files into iPhoto. If you're itching for even more benchmarks, you can get your fix at the link below.
$?
www.apple.com/macmini
I actually got the new iMac but almost got this one because I think it is a better deal.
In Soviet Russia, Mac Mini tests you.
does this one have the santa rosa inside?
No.
Damn Engadget... locked the previous post from comments (JUROR LISTENS TO MP3 IN COURT). That was probably a good idea but I envisioned a chaotic slew of comments for that post... for which I would have most certainly participated in!
The mac mini is by NO means a deal compared to an iMac.
If you take a 2Ghz mini and add a 20" apple display to compare it against a low-end iMac 20".
For $250 less (canadian pricing) if you buy an iMac, you get:
- Bigger Faster Hard Drive : 320 vs 120 GB
- Better Graphics card
- iSight
- Nice new keyboard
- better Speakers (is there any in the mini?)
Last year when I looked, some of the bundled software on the iMac like the WorldBook encyclopedia didn't even come on the mini.
They're really pricing this high.
I did the same math you did and I agree with you for a completely new purchase,
but if you already have a monitor, keyboard, external hd, etc, then this is a pretty good deal. ala carte is always more expensive the the full dinner...
DVI out on the mini makes it really nice to plug into the 46" LCD in my living room. Plus it is nice to have good looking white mini on the A/V stack. Now if I could just get the settings for res and stretch from the TV to work out right...
The point of the mac mini is that you bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse. It even says (or said at one point, not sure) that on Apple's website, because that's what it was made for. People who don't want the built-in monitor limitation of the iMac and already have that stuff should consider the mac mini. Also, the footprint of the iMac is significantly greater than the footprint of the mac mini for obvious reasons. This is perfect for a guy like me who has a G5 which is still a very powerful machine, but can't run 30% of new applications due to the intel transition. A KVM switch ought to work out nicely.
@Mike
If you have not already heard, try DisplayConfigX. It can be maddening to tweak the numerous settings. I did the trial and error thing for hours. But, once I was happy with the settings, clown fish never looked so good, (in my living room).
Of course, the 20" ACD is a much nicer display than comes in the iMac and it is quite expensive compared to other available 20" displays.
This would be perfect if it had 2 changes:
1. Swap 2 of those 4 USB ports with eSATA ports, and put a RAID 0/1 controller on the mboard (it should cost Apple less than $10 per machine to do it)
2. Support BootCamp on the Mini when the next version of OSX comes out.
1. has it built in.
2. i am pretty sure it does support boot camp
@ Trevc: Why buy an Apple screen? A Samsung 226 (22" widescreen 1680x1050) costs 220£ + 500£ for the mini 720£ or 230£ (500$ canadian) less than the 20" 1680 res imac. Or get the 20" 205BW from Samsung same res just 2" smaller and save another 150$ canadian. And the differences between the minis are so small that I would opt for the lower end one building a system for less than 1000$ canadian... The iMac is nowhere near there.
@Phil: The mini does bootcamp just fine, I am using bootcamp on my 1.66GHz Core Duo with 2GB RAM just fine!
hmmm...i like my PC with 20 in monitor, but it would be so easy to throw one of these into my setup...voila, a mac and a PC for only $600 more
AND, it supports 3 GB of ram...kinda neat..
I'd love to see this box with 3 hot-swap bays with wd or samsung 500GB drives.
I know it totally kills the space issue, but it would be a nice low power, quiet file server/NAS.
Hard to understand why the new iMac does support 802.11n but the new Mac mini does not.
It can be a number of reasons, from market segmentation to cost issues to technical issues.
If it only had a better graphics card I would so be all over that. And the hdd is not that hard to replace, its just a sata lappy hdd. And yes eSata would he hella sweet.
Well, "not that hard" is relative. Nothing is easy to replace in a mini. Furthermore, it's really hard to replace the drive with a 3.5" one or one greater than 9.5mm thick.
You can also replace the processor if you wish as long as you don't mind the roar of a 5000 rpm fan. By syliss's standards it's not that hard either.
LONG LIVE THE MAC MINI!!! :D
Mike, JP,
I don't personally like or recommend DisplayConfigX. It offers no information on existing video modes nor any help for setting up custom ones, it is possible to get the machine into a state that can't be recovered from without a clean install, and the author provides no support whatsoever while happily taking your money. Try SwitchResX instead.
Like others have said, it's nice to see the upgrade to C2D. But why not put a decent mobile chip set in it instead of that piece of crap GMA 950? It's not like it would cost them more than $15 bucks to do so.
Yeah thats what I said, And Craig, yes I have very low standards!
i wouldnt mac it with that mac look ugly look like that booty next to me.
oopsss...
Can a mac mini output any resolution besides widescreen? I have a 17" LCD monitor (1280 x 1024)...so I would like to know if the mac mini can display this resolution without a problem