Question, re: mac mini as digital media center

[msingerman]

Hi all,

So, I (like many other people) plan on buying a new Mac Mini to use as a digital media center. I am planning on using it to play music and to copy my DVDs to video files for playback. One thing I am *not* planning on doing is using it as a DVR or for playing HD-quality media - DVD quality is about the highest I plan on going, since I would like to rip movies at their full size.

Everything I have been reading suggest purchasing the core duo model of the mini, but they all assume that it will be used for HD media playback and/or DVR purposes. If I am using it just for playing videos and music (as well as other computer tasks), I think I should be all right with the core solo model. Am I right in thinking this? Any suggestions/observations?

[mrichmon]

So, I (like many other people) plan on buying a new Mac Mini to use as a digital media center. I am planning on using it to play music and to copy my DVDs to video files for playback. One thing I am *not* planning on doing is using it as a DVR or for playing HD-quality media - DVD quality is about the highest I plan on going, since I would like to rip movies at their full size.


For what you are describing, a mac mini solo will be sufficient. However, if you are planning on re-encoding the DVDs when you rip them, or re-encoding any recorded TV shows then a core duo would make much of this re-encoding faster. (Alternatively, the duo would allow you to dedicate a single core to the re-encoding while leaving you a core free making the machine still usable for other tasks at the same time as re-encoding.)