Mac mini Core Solo: The good stuff and a peek inside

Despite my previous two posts on the topic, there are things to like about the Mac mini, and so I've decided not to return the machine. I still think it is overpriced and I also maintain that the Front Row performance over Bonjour is shoddy at best. However, if you keep all your media on the Mac mini, it works nicely as a little media server offering the local media up to my TV. My only complaint about that is that Front Row doesn't recognize my iPod and the content on it when it is mounted on the Mac mini, even though I can navigate and play all that content via iTunes itself.

I also discovered that the 512MB chip that I ripped out of my iMac when I upgraded it to 2GBs of RAM fits quite nicely and works well inside my Mac mini, which is now running 768MBs of RAM after an easy bit of tinkering (Photos of said tinkering after the jump). The added RAM has doubled the frame rate at which I can run World of Warcraft on my 32-inch HDTV. It's still a bit sluggish at 16-20fps in crowded areas, but it is playable and overall a cool experience while lounging on my couch with wireless bluetooth keyboard in lap and mouse to my side. Additionally, using this wonderful little program called iRecord, I can hook up my digital cable box to the mini via a FireWire cable and record shows in HDTV. Unfortunately, playing back these HDTV shows with their large 7.35GB size footprint (for an hour of video) via VLC seems a little beyond the capabilities of the mini as the video shows up as an animated series of stills during fast-moving sections. However, I can easily bring these large files over to my iMac where I can watch them and compress them to a smaller, more mini friendly format. Also, as a dev box, I am liking the mini. I can jump into it easily enough using Chicken of the VNC on my iMac and OSXvnc on the mini. I can also ssh in via the command line. Compiling code, while not blazingly fast, isn't snail-crawl slow either. So, I'm enjoying the box for what I bought it for, I just wish it had a Core Duo, came with more RAM, Bonjour video worked better, and it hadn't cost so much.

I used a palette knife to pop the lid off of the Mac mini.

I had to remove the Airport Antenna to get to one of the 4 corner screws holding the hard drive and combo drive onto the base.

This little nasty plug was tightly shoved into the board, but I had to remove it so I could get access to the memory sticks. Very tiny too, so it was a pain to plug back in. Had to use tweezers to position.

Here's the bottom layer of the beast. More memory. Yum! Later on I may upgrade the hard drive and processor. ;-)

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Despite my previous two posts on the topic, there are things to like about the Mac mini, and so I've decided not to return the machine. I...

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John

> 5. The core duo with 1GB can handle HD 1080P video without any problems.
> I ran several 1080P trailers and never saw more than 75% CPU usage from
> activity monitor.

mini Core Duo here as well, and it runs 1080p fine as well, though it does drop frames (but generally not noticeable).

Also, as to the RAM thing. You supposedly get bette rRAM performance, which should equal better display performance, when the RAM is in matched pairs.

March 09 2006 at 5:59 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Mike Shaffer

Don't know if anyone will see this...since it's late in the comments queue.

To Martin (and anyone else): I just popped into the local Apple store to do some Mini "computer" testing. All they had were Duo's but all of them were stock 512MB models. I opened a couple of Safari windows, took one to Quicktime.com and started playing the large (not HD) version of the X-Men III trailer. At the same time I opened iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, Excel, Word and Pages. iDVD seemed to beach ball the longest but after a while (maybe 15 seconds) all of them were open. The trailer was still playing, looking good. I could Expose, no problemo. Dashboard popped in and out without a hitch. I could type in Pages, then jump to Excel, created a big spreadsheet with a ton of formulas, then jump back to iTunes and play a song. Go back to Safari and jump to another trailer. No problems at all.

All in all, I was very impressed. I would have loved to see how a Solo compared to the Duo, but the Mac guy wasn't sure when they'd have a floor model of a Solo. I pretty sure now that I'll spring for the Duo, upgrade to 1GB and enjoy the thing.....

March 09 2006 at 5:36 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Chris

I think any HD cable box with a firewire port will work

March 09 2006 at 2:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Martin

Can someone with a new Mini tell how the shared graphic system performs when the Mini is used as a computer, please?

That is: pack Dashboard 3/4 full of widgets, open 10 regular windows. Expose all windows. Smooth? Now open Dashboard? Smooth?

March 09 2006 at 5:14 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

I own a Mac mini Core Duo with 1GB RAM. It plays HD content REALLY fine, even 1080p is damn smooth :)

March 09 2006 at 2:56 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

indolene

You need to install the ram in pairs if it is DDR (dual data rate) in order for the ram to work in DDR mode. Also they both have to be the same size and frequency stick (like 2x256 or 2x512 and matching frequencies). I don't know why, that's how it is. When you match them up, they move data twice as fast I guess. If you don't match them, it's not gonna kill your comp, but it won't take full advantage of the transfer rate, either.

March 08 2006 at 11:14 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Johannes

I tried the streaming of video today in an Apple Store, and it was the same as you described but with a core duo. It just beachballed itunes. My guess it's a software problem and will hopefully be fixed in a future update of itunes. Playing the HD Demos they have in the apple store was no problem with the mac mini otherwise.

March 08 2006 at 11:13 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

henrrrik

So the old hideously slow G4 was a good deal and this so-fast-it's-actually-useful machine with wifi, bluetooth and a remote included isn't?
I don't get it. This is a cheap computer, the old mini was an expensive paperweight.

March 08 2006 at 9:54 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Dave

Can you tell us what model of cable box? I am thinking of one of these for the top of my television and the DVR from my cable company has all sorts of firewire and USB ports.

March 08 2006 at 9:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

There should be a performance difference if you don't install RAM in pairs since you won't get dual channel.

March 08 2006 at 9:37 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply