Mac mini Core Solo: First Impressions

It may surprise you, based on my initial and following response to the news of the new Mac mini, that I acquired one for myself.

My initial reactions were largely in response to the elevated price of the entry level model in comparison to the new features offered. Nevertheless, I like the mini as a development box to run odd experiments on, so I placed my hands on a Mac mini Core Solo this weekend. This initial post will be my first impressions of the device after having toyed with it for the better half of a day. I can sum up the experience in one easy to understand sentence: I'm considering taking it back before the Apple Store's 14 day return period expires.

There are several little oddities and one big problem that are making me think that either I got a dud, or Apple let this little Mac out into the wild a bit too soon. If you look at the picture accompanying this post, you'll see the Mac mini doesn't fully comprehend what it is. It thinks it is an 1.5Ghz Core Duo in the About this Mac panel, but the System Profiler, pictured to with this paragraph, knows the secret truth. This could be a very minimal glitch, and not something over which to return the machine, but if you read on after the break, you'll see more reason, including Front Row performance that is much below what any of us, I think, expected.

More after the break...

It looks like the Safari that comes with the new Mac mini is slightly newer than the one that was rolled out to my new iMac in the recent surge of updates, and as a result, my favorite little Safari helper, Saft, isn't working. This, again, is no big deal, and in fact is not even a glitch in the Mac mini, but just something that I thought worth noting for the curious amongst you.

The real disappointment with this device is Front Row's performance. Although you may be able to install Front Row on any Mac, I'm not sure if you'll want to. All the shows I purchased from the iTMS play fine streaming through Front Row, as do all the video podcasts I've downloaded, but absolutely none of the other iPod and iTunes compatible videos in my iMac's iTunes Library—which by the way play fine on my iPod, in iTunes, and even on the new Mac mini if I go to the trouble of manually transferring them over to it—will stream over the much praised magic of Bonjour savvy Front Row. Instead, the screen goes blank, and if I am lucky after about 30 seconds to a minute a screen comes up saying that the server couldn't play this particular file. If I'm not lucky, I have to hit Option Apple ESC to jump out of Front Row and find iTunes spiraling a multi-colored beach ball of death. I then have to force iTunes to quit. The problem could be associated with the miniscule 512MBs of RAM included with the Mac mini, but these files vary from the easily managed 3 minute clip from a local news affiliate featuring my father-in-law all the way to full length DVDs that I own and have ripped to be viewable on my iPod, so it would appear to be some other problem. Why does the $1.99 purchased episode of Lost stream fine, but an episode of Arrested Development that plays fine locally in iTunes and on my iPod not?

This is not unique to videos. iPhoto streaming has some pictures coming through fine, while others just return a black screen. Also, Front Row cannot connect to any of this media if you don't have iTunes and/or iPhoto running on the machine hosting the media and actively sharing the media. You'd be better off to fake it all with something like a Linksys NSLU2, a large USB hard drive, and a SMB share.

On the upside, World of Warcraft, though not as fast as on the iMac, is playable on the Mac mini, and better yet the small form factor of the Mac mini means it can sit nicely underneath my 32-inch LCD TV and I can play via my bluetooth keyboard and mouse in large, while reclining on my couch. Overall, I'm disappointed, and hoping that there are some Software Updates in the works that will fix these problems before I end up returning the Mac mini. I want to keep it. I mean, I already have VNC up and running and have started testing a few ports of things on it. It works well as a nice little UNIX-based box for me to experiment with away from my production machine. Unfortunately, if Front Row continues to languish with these problems, why would I keep this more expensive model, when I could buy a PPC version on the cheap for a good $200 or more less?

Stay tuned, as I intend to do a full video review of the device over the next several days to show you all the problems and cool bits I've discovered.

Update: I forgot another image in the original post. As you can see, it depicts Internet Connect clearly showing the Mac mini connected to my Airport network while also saying that I am connected to the Internet via Ethernet. That plus the Core Duo misreading make me feel a bit uneasy about the hardware in this mini.

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It may surprise you, based on my initial and following response to the news of the new Mac mini, that I acquired one for myself.My initial...

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Chas

Gabe,
I had the same general idea. Especially with that video and shared memory, I was thinking that the Mini's best value may be as a server. (And from reading other posts on other sites, I'm far from alone.) I hope you'll post again after you increase the RAM and let us know the results.

Everyone,
I don't see this original blog as a review, but as an experience shared. Except for the assumption of hate or bias, I found this blog and the responses educational.

March 10 2006 at 2:35 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Gabe da Silveira

I just picked up one of these with the stock configuration to use in place of my Powerbook which needs to be sent in for repairs. I also hatched the idea of using it as a home server that is always available to sync my work to.

I attached a USB2.0 drive to provide the necessary capacity, and moved my iPhoto and iTunes libraries to the external drive, leaving the paltry 60GB drive free for applications and actual work when I need it.

My first impression is that 512MB is just not enough. I knew it wouldn't be, but I ordered stock anyway so that the machine would come faster. I'm planning on dropping 2GB into this sucker to see how it performs then. There are some performance issues with non-universal apps, particularly of the Adobe and MS bent, but honestly I think RAM could be a big contributor.

I can't really speak to all the streaming issues, but thinking back to the 68000->PowerPC transition of the 90s, I think Apple is doing a good job. The mini may not live up as a media hub... but as a Mac I think its a damn good deal.

March 10 2006 at 12:29 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Jason

I've had my intel mac mini duo since Monday and I love it. The only problem I have is trying to get the mini to see my itunes songs on my WinXP machine, probably is a WinXP issue though. As far as playing WoW on the thing, I love it, graphics are crisp and clean and oddly enough my latency is at least 2x lower than my WinXP machine. Both computers on the same connection. Just my $.02 =)

March 10 2006 at 12:06 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

peyote

http://www.macfixit.com/

titled "iPhoto 6.0.2 (#4): Another fix for an issue where photos do not display (blank screen) in Edit and other viewing modes"

thought this might be helpful. sounds like a software glitche on nested folders. i have a 2ghz mbp but haven't messed with pics or folder of movies.

March 09 2006 at 12:27 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

re: Internet Connect update

Internet Connect isn't reporting that the Mini is connected by both AirPort and Ethernet. The last line under status reports what your access point is connect to the internet via.

"You're connected to ckhome, and it's connected via ethernet."

March 08 2006 at 11:23 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mike

A follow up...I upgraded my ram and the whole machine runs vastly better. There's a night and day difference in how Front Row runs, with the extra ram it's completely usable. Looks like 512 just isn't enough to run FR plus iTunes plus iPhoto.

I'd keep the machine. Overall, t's a great box, it just needs more ram.

March 08 2006 at 11:07 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

mike

I can absolutely confirm this experience. Front row sometimes takes MINUTES to go from one menu to another. This is running all local content, nothing over the network. It's incredibly slow, don't know what the problem is, and I'm running a core solo.

It's not a streaming problem, it's a playback problem.

It may be ram related, especially since FR will fire up iphoto and itunes as well. I'm planning on keeping the box since I plan to use it more for real computing than for media on my TV. I have ram coming in the next couple days, I sure hope it makes a difference.

Another issue is that airport performance seems to be awful. It's OK when the wireless hub is a couple feet from the box, but if I take the mini upstairs it connects but data moves VERY slowly.

So how does FR run on the other macs like the iMac and Macbook...or even the hacked version on a G5? I'm tempted to try it out but it sounds risky.

Don't write this guy off as a hater. FR perfomance on the mini is shockingly bad, at least with the stock ram.

March 07 2006 at 1:03 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chris

Yes, it does seem as though the author is predisposed to hate it. I mean, you can't write up a pre-review rant like that and not appear to have be biased. Don't get me--there's plenty to be wary of in this new mini--I'm just not sure the author is drawing attention to the most important issues.

March 06 2006 at 3:18 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Kai Cherry

*my* problem with this piece, to be clear, is that it smacks of "confirmation bias"...and it doesn't help that its just *flat out wrong* on the Airport issue, and has yet to be corrected in this regard.

-K

March 06 2006 at 2:50 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Wow, amazing how quick people are to jump on C.K. for posting his take on the Mac Mini.

And what I especially love about these responses is not just how it is ok for the software to not be up to snuff yet, but that the fact it isn't shouldn't play a role in his feelings on the machine.

If you want your Mac news to be pro-Apple, all the time, you might want to swing by MacDailyNews, they have what you are looking for.

In my case, not trying to justify C.K.'s potential return of the Mini or not, I am glad to get a little insight into any Front Row glitches he may be experiencing. He may not be looking for a quasi Mac Mini Media Center, but hooking it to my TV to use the Bonjour powered Front Row IS what I would be doing with it. So hearing that the software may not be prime time yet is beneficial to me, so I will keep pitch fork safely in tow, for now at least..... ;)

- AH

March 06 2006 at 1:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply