Macworld benchmarks: Mac mini BTO can match iMac performance

Obviously what this story proves is that purchasing upgrades from Apple is a bad idea other than for the processor (and video in this case). Drive and memory upgrades should never be purchased from Apple unless you enjoy giving away your money for now good reason.

A huge advantage with the Mini is the flexibility it gives you in the future. You have the ability to upgrade your peripherals as you need them instead of having to replace your entire AIO iMac. Think of the Mini as a modular component in your Mac setup. When the CPU needs to be upgraded then all you have to do is sell the old mini and purchase a new one while also getting the bonus of a graphics card upgrade without all of the fuss.

AIO Macs are nice, but in the long run you are stuck with what you have much more so than a Mac Mini owner.

Chris, thanks for posting your article. I recently purchased a BTO mini just like the one you tested. I still think I'll own an iMac someday but thanks to the increased performance of the new minis, I'm in no hurry to upgrade.

The important part here is the build to order i7. That's a terrific $100 upgrade. Buying an SSD from Apple is not such a good idea. If you are at all handy, it's not difficult to buy an SSD yourself and replace the 500GB hard drive with it (a little bit harder to ADD it to the Mini). You can get an equivalent SSD to the Apple offered one for about $200 less (or better if you find a deal, or a rebate). This makes the Mini one of the best price/performance winners on the Mac side, and a LOT of performance in a very small and quiet package. For someone like myself who also has PC and Linux boxes that I use through a KVM switch, the Mini is a MUCH better option than any of Apple's other offerings.

Mac Mini's AMD Radeon HD 6630M - 256MB video card can be another issue for some vs iMac's AMD Radeon HD 6750M (or 6770M) - 512MB.

What a stupid test. Um lets see here is an i7 with ssd drive faster than a slower i5 with a 500 rpm disk drive? hrm I dont know. DUH!!!!

Now if you told me that the mac mini core duo 2.4 GHz was faster than 2.5 GHz Core i5 but 400 dollars less I would deficate concrete. This is reading for !d10T5!!!!

What a stupid test. Um lets see here is an i7 with ssd drive faster than a slower i5 with a 500 rpm disk drive? hrm I dont know. DUH!!!!

Now if you told me that the mac mini core duo 2.4 GHz was faster than 2.5 GHz Core i5 but 400 dollars less I would deficate concrete. This is reading for !d10T5!!!!

I could run faster than Usain Bolt if I shot him in the leg but you don't hear me bragging about it. : )

Oooh, really?
That's really strange considering that the mac mini is a i7 with an SSD and the iMac is a i5 with a normal HDD.

You have to stop thinking that bigger = faster ;)

A faster and more expensive computer outperforms a slower and cheaper one? Shocking!

iMac's are already great deals in apple territory.A 21.5 inch iMac has a better screen (full HD IPS),faster drive,processors and GPU than a macbook pro 17 inch.You also get a wireless keyboard and mouse all for the price of a 13 inch macbook pro.
a mac min is great,especially in conjunction with one of those nice dell 27 inch screens.However those HDMI ports can only drive 1080 lines of resolution.