New Mac Mini :(

[gus6464]

No discrete GPU option at all now. Last year's Radeon option Mini just looks a lot better than this new one.

 

[TuxDave]

What's the comparison between an HD4000 and the Radeon 6630M (last year's discrete GPU)

 

[runawayprisoner]

What's the comparison between an HD4000 and the Radeon 6630M (last year's discrete GPU)

Radeon HD 6630M can be overclocked to reach 6750M performance. Save for that it's limited to 256MB VRAM. At stock, it's faster than the 6490M in the base 15" MBP 2011 model.

In any case, 2011 Mac Mini with discrete graphics is awesome. We use it to play the odd games while we are on the couch, and the thing has been fantastic. Sad to see Apple did not upgrade the dedicated graphics for this round.

 

[gus6464]

6630M is comparable to the stuff found in Llano so here is what you can expect.

If anything Apple just took a step back.

 

[Rubycon]

6630M is comparable to the stuff found in Llano so here is what you can expect.

If anything Apple just took a step back.

Because everyone plays Crysis on their Mac Mini?

HD4000 is fine. It can handle the rmbp just fine. If you want to game you should be looking at another platform. 😉

 

[MagickMan]

What Ruby said. I'm getting one for HTPC stuff, going to pair it with a slick external BD drive I saw.

 

[Subyman]

Mac Mini is definitely not a gaming setup. Its great for people looking to wet their feet in OSX without breaking the bank and for start up programmers looking to get into Xcode. Using it for a NAS, HTPC, or to just surf the net is great too.

I wish they would update the Mac Pro. Those are going to be beastly next year.

 

[TheStu]

Mac Mini is definitely not a gaming setup. Its great for people looking to wet their feet in OSX without breaking the bank and for start up programmers looking to get into Xcode. Using it for a NAS, HTPC, or to just surf the net is great too.

I wish they would update the Mac Pro. Those are going to be beastly next year.

Well, Tim Cook stated that they would be updating it next year. I wouldn't mind seeing a new take on the chassis. The Mac Pro set the standard for monolithic minimalist workstation, but I think that something could be done with the design to update it a little bit (maybe drop the weight...).

 

[theanimala]

Curious about the new mac Mini for a non-gamer. I have been limping along with my late 2007 Aluminum 24" iMac with a 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo / 4GB ram systems for years now. The system is VERY sluggish and I suspect the hard drive is ready to die again.

I'm debating if it's worth getting the i7 Mac Mini for $200 more. My mac is used primarily for iPhoto (have to keep the library to only 1 year as my HD is too small and the iMac become unresponsive when I pull in the entire library (200GB or so), iTunes (music storing and syncing, no videos), email and web.
I would love to go dual drive (SSD and 1 large internal drive), but I am not sure if the new Mini supports that. Would also upgrade to 16GB of ram.

Does anyone think it's worth the cash to go for the i7 processor in my case?

 

[TheStu]

Curious about the new mac Mini for a non-gamer. I have been limping along with my late 2007 Aluminum 24" iMac with a 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo / 4GB ram systems for years now. The system is VERY sluggish and I suspect the hard drive is ready to die again.

I'm debating if it's worth getting the i7 Mac Mini for $200 more. My mac is used primarily for iPhoto (have to keep the library to only 1 year as my HD is too small and the iMac become unresponsive when I pull in the entire library (200GB or so), iTunes (music storing and syncing, no videos), email and web.
I would love to go dual drive (SSD and 1 large internal drive), but I am not sure if the new Mini supports that. Would also upgrade to 16GB of ram.

Does anyone think it's worth the cash to go for the i7 processor in my case?

Not worth it in your case. But an SSD definitely is. I would wait for ifixit to tear down the new entry level Mini to see if you can fit dual drives in there, or if a 256GB SSD will fit all your stuff, you can always pick one up third party if opening the Mini doesn't scare you.

 

[bearxor]

Curious about the new mac Mini for a non-gamer. I have been limping along with my late 2007 Aluminum 24" iMac with a 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo / 4GB ram systems for years now. The system is VERY sluggish and I suspect the hard drive is ready to die again.

I'm debating if it's worth getting the i7 Mac Mini for $200 more. My mac is used primarily for iPhoto (have to keep the library to only 1 year as my HD is too small and the iMac become unresponsive when I pull in the entire library (200GB or so), iTunes (music storing and syncing, no videos), email and web.
I would love to go dual drive (SSD and 1 large internal drive), but I am not sure if the new Mini supports that. Would also upgrade to 16GB of ram.

Does anyone think it's worth the cash to go for the i7 processor in my case?

The only reason I might splurge on the Quad i7 is that you seem to keep your computer forever. 2007-2013 is a long time. If you're looking at 2013-2018, then the quad will probably come in handy at some point in the future.

But definitely get a SSD.

 

[TheStu]

The only reason I might splurge on the Quad i7 is that you seem to keep your computer forever. 2007-2013 is a long time. If you're looking at 2013-2018, then the quad will probably come in handy at some point in the future.

But definitely get a SSD.

That's a valid point, if he intends to keep it for a long time, then definitely max it out now.

 

[cheez]

Well at least the new Mini has Ivy Bridge processor.... so that's a good thing.

Unfortunately my family is short on the budget so they won't be able to buy a Mac Mini this Christmas....

Oh I want to get one. D: Eventually this will replace my huge LianLi case HTPC but it won't be anytime soon.

I have the money for speaker upgrade though! 😀 Woohooo!!~~~

 

[bearxor]

That's a valid point, if he intends to keep it for a long time, then definitely max it out now.

Just throwing this out there for the OP.

You can get a refurbished 21.5" iMac with a Quad i5 2.5ghz for $979. Compared to the new i7 2.3ghz quad-core model, I would consider it a better deal. You get a better graphics card, a desktop hard drive slot, you can pull the dvd drive for a SSD, and you get the lcd of course, instead of reusing an old one or having to get a new one. I guess you'd lose out on USB 3, but you do get Thunderbolt.

Given a choice, I'd pick a refurb iMac over the current gen Mini or a Mini Server at like $850 or so. Drop below 850 in to sub 800 territory, and I'd probably lean back towards the server mini.

 

[Kaido]

No discrete GPU option at all now. Last year's Radeon option Mini just looks a lot better than this new one.

They must not have been selling enough of the Radeon versions to justify continued production 🙁 I just wish that the Thunderbolt PCIe expansion chassis weren't so expensive...the half-height ones start at $349 and the full-sized ones are about a grand on up, and still have compatibility problems. If I could buy a dual-slot x16 Thunderbolt enclosure for like $99 and then stick in whatever card I wanted, that would be awesome.

 

[gus6464]

The Radeon Mini is not a bad gaming machine at all for casuals. I play LoL, SC2, D3, WoW on it with no problems and gets the job done for such a tiny machine.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

They must not have been selling enough of the Radeon versions to justify continued production 🙁 I just wish that the Thunderbolt PCIe expansion chassis weren't so expensive...the half-height ones start at $349 and the full-sized ones are about a grand on up, and still have compatibility problems. If I could buy a dual-slot x16 Thunderbolt enclosure for like $99 and then stick in whatever card I wanted, that would be awesome.

Not really. The thunderbolt bus is only 2 or 4 PCI-E lanes, depending on the controller. It's one thing to make an external chassis for things like high end audio cards, a Tesla compute box, or even RAID, but given the bandwidth requirements of GPUs (or 2 of them... yikes) it's not really... suitable.

 

[Ice_Dragon]

Yeah if I wanted to play Crysis and Crysis 2 (and I don't), a Mac mini would not be on my list. I would be going for a fully stocked gaming laptop, possibly desktop.

 

[theanimala]

The only reason I might splurge on the Quad i7 is that you seem to keep your computer forever. 2007-2013 is a long time. If you're looking at 2013-2018, then the quad will probably come in handy at some point in the future.

But definitely get a SSD.

You make a very valid point. I was thinking the same thing. The old iMac I have now would honestly be fine if the hard drive didn't appear as though it was about to die on me again. Don't want to put money into tech that is so old, so I figured I might as well jump with something new. I do plan on letting this computer stay around a long time, so perhaps the extra $200 is worth it. And yes, I will without a doubt be putting in an SSD. I did that to my personal Dell Precision M6500 and I can't believe the difference it made.

 

[Ice_Dragon]

I am not sure if I should start a new topic or just bump this one so I will try the latter not the former.

Predictions for the next Mac mini.

I say the base stays the same, hopefully the middle model remains with a quad-core although if they go back to dual core, get back discrete graphics.

Server model who knows.

 

[bigrash]

I am not sure if I should start a new topic or just bump this one so I will try the latter not the former.

Predictions for the next Mac mini.

I say the base stays the same, hopefully the middle model remains with a quad-core although if they go back to dual core, get back discrete graphics.

Server model who knows.

I don't think they'll update the mac mini anytime soon.

 

[Ice_Dragon]

I don't think they'll update the mac mini anytime soon.

An update I feel is coming late next year for sure probably around November. (I hope)

 

[Koing]

You make a very valid point. I was thinking the same thing. The old iMac I have now would honestly be fine if the hard drive didn't appear as though it was about to die on me again. Don't want to put money into tech that is so old, so I figured I might as well jump with something new. I do plan on letting this computer stay around a long time, so perhaps the extra $200 is worth it. And yes, I will without a doubt be putting in an SSD. I did that to my personal Dell Precision M6500 and I can't believe the difference it made.

I'm with a 2007 or 2008 Macbook C2D 2.1 as well. I upgraded the ram after a few months or so. 1GB was not cutting it. Really good engineering to put the ram and make the HD really accessible by the battery with taking 3 screws out!

I just put in a Samsung 830 256GB SSD. Makes the laptop feel completely new. Great upgrade. Either £150 or £1000 on a 2nd hand 13 MBA or £1400+ on the 13 Retina.

theanimala get a SSD and see how it is. If it isn't fast enough, sell it or use it in the next Mac you get.

Koing

 

[ColdFusion718]

For those of you who are thinking about using the Mac Mini as an HTPC, go for it! It's a great box for media at very low power usage. I bought the base unit.

My setup:

2012 Mac Mini Dual Core i5 2.5GHz
16GB ram (upgraded from 4GB)
256GB SSD OS drive (using the dual drive kit from ifixit)
500GB (stock drive used as storage)
2x HDHomeRun units (4 tuners total)
2TB MyBook Raid-0 USB drive
750GB MyBook USB drive
Windows 7 64-bit Ultimate
eHome USB IR receiver
Harmony 880 remote

I'm using a mini-DisplayPort to HDMI adapter for the TV (contrast appears to be better compared to using HDMI port). This causes an issue that required a workaround. When the Harmony remote turns on the TV, receiver, and Media Center (configured as an HP Z500 PC), the TV doesn't get detected by the Mac Mini quickly enough so when Media Center loads, it displays at 1024 x 768. This issue does not happen when using the HDMI port.

To get around this problem, I told the Harmony remote to set the "HP Z500 PC" to "MyTV" as the input when it "powers on." The "MyTV" input command is the IR signal for the OK button. Once the Harmony remote is done turning all of the devices on (or so it thinks), I told it to wait 10 seconds and then send the IR signal for the Green button, which launches Media Center. This way, it comes on when the TV is properly detected so it displays at 1920 x 1080.

I also configured the "HP Z500 PC" to power on and off using "different buttons." For powering on, it's basically just hitting the OK button. For powering off, it sends a sequence of IR signals: Green button, DirectionDown, DirectionLeft, OK, OK. This sequence exits Media Center.

According to CPUID HwMonitor, the Mac Mini is using about 12 watts when I'm watching/recording TV or watching mkv files. When it's idle with Media Center closed, it uses 2-4 watts of power. I might hook up a Kill-A-Watt meter to find out how much it's actually drawing from the wall.

As for the performance, everything is as smooth as button including 720p/1080p mkv files. With the concurrent user hack, I'm able to log in and do administration, rip movies, etc.

I haven't tried Blu-Ray content on it yet. I only boot into OS X for EFI firmware updates. Before I bought the 2012 Mac Mini, I was running the same set up with a 2007 Mac Mini (Windows XP Media Center 2005).

Some of you might ask why on earth did I not just build an HTPC. I used to have one with tuner cards and a bunch of hard drives, but it used up too much energy and produced too much heat. It was also bulky, which made it difficult to fit into the living room area.

Here's a picture of my setup:

FYI, the 360 isn't connected. That ethernet cable on the right side of the floor is just temporary. 🙂

 

[dagamer34]

@ColdFusion718

I recently bought a 2012 Mac mini as a server (they are clearly designed to be used as such, with a ton of CPU power in such a tiny, well designed box) and almost installed Windows 8 to use as a Media Center box so my gaming PC doesn't have to turn on all the time, but I have a strong suspicion that Microsoft will have a better TV solution with the next Xbox.

As far as the GPU is concerned in the 2012 Mac minis, GPU performance gets outdated so quickly that it makes little sense to pay attention to it in any device where it can't be replaced. GPU performance in games still increases by 70-80% with each generation, meaning in 2-3 years, its horrendously outdated. CPU performance however doesn't have such an increase, which makes getting a quad core CPU a much better bet than a better GPU.