Dual core vs. Quad core

[famous600]

Originally Posted by cosmicjoke

I'll chime in and say I got the base model, this is what I can do with it...

I run xbmc fullscreen all the time, znc, sabnzbd (w/ post processing = cpu intensive), transmission, itunes server (streams to apple tv), i also ssh in and run handbrakecli which uses every spare bit of cpu you got (obviously this isn't super fast being a dual core mobile processor) - all of this works without xbmc so much as dropping a frame and it still (lord knows how) remains incredibly silent during operation...

Anyways, I could have afforded anything, I was just curious what I could get away with on a base model honestly, if it was insufficient I had 14 days to figure it out and get it back to Apple... does what I need though.

That's awesome. Have you tried playback of a full blu ray rip? I tried on my MacBook and it was really stumbling during playback. Keep in kind it a 40gb file with a crazy bitrate.

[cosmicjoke]

Originally Posted by famous600

That's awesome. Have you tried playback of a full blu ray rip? I tried on my MacBook and it was really stumbling during playback. Keep in kind it a 40gb file with a crazy bitrate.

Nah, I haven't and couldn't comment on that man, just 1080p mkv.

----------

one thing i did want to chime in on since you're planning on using xbmc is that it idles on menu screens with pretty high cpu usage (higher than actually playing a video!)
seems just redrawing the menus is all done without hardware accel... i discovered that if you go to ~/Library/Application Support/XBMC/userdata

and create an advancedsettings.xml with

<advancedsettings>
<gui>
<algorithmdirtyregions>1</algorithmdirtyregions>
<nofliptimeout>0</nofliptimeout>
</gui>
</advancedsettings>

in plain text (can do it with sudo nano advancedsettings.xml from terminal)

that brings cpu usage while idling in menus back down to 2% and keeps the mini much cooler idling overnight

just a quick tip (literally just discovered last night, have had the mini for about a week now)

[famous600]

Originally Posted by cosmicjoke

Nah, I haven't and couldn't comment on that man, just 1080p mkv.

----------

one thing i did want to chime in on since you're planning on using xbmc is that it idles on menu screens with pretty high cpu usage (higher than actually playing a video!)
seems just redrawing the menus is all done without hardware accel... i discovered that if you go to ~/Library/Application Support/XBMC/userdata

and create an advancedsettings.xml with

<advancedsettings>
<gui>
<algorithmdirtyregions>1</algorithmdirtyregions>
<nofliptimeout>0</nofliptimeout>
</gui>
</advancedsettings>

in plain text (can do it with sudo nano advancedsettings.xml from terminal)

that brings cpu usage while idling in menus back down to 2% and keeps the mini much cooler idling overnight

just a quick tip (literally just discovered last night, have had the mini for about a week now)

Excellent tip. 99 percent of my library is 1080p mkv but a couple full blu ray rips that you HAVE to have full bluray style such as baraka and samsara. Only thing I do different is really run the 24/7 plex server in the background. So might just go with the quad still.

[cosmicjoke]

Originally Posted by famous600

Excellent tip. 99 percent of my library is 1080p mkv but a couple full blu ray rips that you HAVE to have full bluray style such as baraka and samsara. Only thing I do different is really run the 24/7 plex server in the background. So might just go with the quad still.

heheh, love ron fricke, made trip from portland to seattle just to see Samsara in 4k
i still think base model will handle it fine quite honestly... again, i'll literally ssh in and transcode through handbrakecli and have sabnzbd post processing (do sabnzbd and transmission through their webui servers) all while watching xbmc without so much as a frame dropped. i have far superior computers to transcode 3770k@4.5ghz and my 15" rMBP, but basically after seeing it did everything i wanted fine decided to throw everything at it i could.... transcode times aren't anything to write home about on i5, remind me of my q9550 from '08, but it still can do it while watching hd video on xbmc.

[famous600]

Originally Posted by cosmicjoke

heheh, love ron fricke, made trip from portland to seattle just to see Samsara in 4k
i still think base model will handle it fine quite honestly... again, i'll literally ssh in and transcode through handbrakecli and have sabnzbd post processing (do sabnzbd and transmission through their webui servers) all while watching xbmc without so much as a frame dropped. i have far superior computers to transcode 3770k@4.5ghz and my 15" rMBP, but basically after seeing it did everything i wanted fine decided to throw everything at it i could.... transcode times aren't anything to write home about on i5, remind me of my q9550 from '08, but it still can do it while watching hd video on xbmc.

I hate you lol. I plan on using my Apple discount so the price isn't a big deal but the i5 may very well work. And yeah I can always return it if it doesn't. I just want to make sure it does all that while transcoding 3+ plex videos on the server. Guess I'll just have to give it a shot!

[cosmicjoke]

Originally Posted by famous600

I hate you lol. I plan on using my Apple discount so the price isn't a big deal but the i5 may very well work. And yeah I can always return it if it doesn't. I just want to make sure it does all that while transcoding 3+ plex videos on the server. Guess I'll just have to give it a shot!

one thing i can say is that it does it all without reving up the fans too, i'm not so sure if it's the difference between dual core i5 and the quad core i7 (in my rMBP) or just the difference between the rMBP's cooling and the mac mini's... but right now for example on the mini i'm handbraking and watching film on xbmc AND screensharing that back to my main rig, so i put xbmc into windowed and looking at istat and its fans are like 1800rpm, it just seems to hover right below that temp threshold where it's gonna ramp up the fans but never quite gets there.... which is nice.

edit: it's also funny, even the screensharing of mini with xbmc doesn't drop frames...

[EpicBlob]

Originally Posted by Yebubbleman

Sure, but that voids AppleCare.

It's actually really easy to bypass getting caught with upgrading hard drives in Macs. I have two drives in my macbook and each time I go to the Apple store for a repair (twice) I just pop out the hard drive, stick in the disc drive, and I'm still rocking 3 years of apple care.

And it takes about 10 minutes to change hard drives on a mac mini.

[raymanster]

I have a quad core Mini. But I use my 2008 aluminum Macbook with 8 GB of RAM and SSD to run Plex server, Sabnzbd, Sickbeard and Couch Potato with no problems.

If all that runs ok on my ancient Macbook then I would say the base 2012 is more then enough for what you need it for. I would just max out the RAM and not worry about it for another 5 years.

[kiantech]

install osx server for $20 too. I have plex and osx server. Gots me a nice media server / wireless time machine server / print server.

[palebluedot]

Originally Posted by EpicBlob

It's actually really easy to bypass getting caught with upgrading hard drives in Macs. I have two drives in my macbook and each time I go to the Apple store for a repair (twice) I just pop out the hard drive, stick in the disc drive, and I'm still rocking 3 years of apple care.

And it takes about 10 minutes to change hard drives on a mac mini.

2 questions:

1. Is it easy to plug and unplug the drives, i.e. without moving the logic board and stuff?

2. Also, are there any stickers or hidden markers on the 2012 Mac Mini that get ripped/triggered showing them you moved the HDD. I remember older Macs and PCs used to have the "THIS WILL VOID WARRANTY IF RIPPED" stickers that kept you from opening certain parts of the laptop.

[Woyzeck]

Originally Posted by palebluedot

2 questions:

1. Is it easy to plug and unplug the drives, i.e. without moving the logic board and stuff?

I'd say if compared to the convenience of swapping a drive in a PC case it's far more complicated. You need special tools for removing the logic board and placing the components back in their appropriate position can sometimes be a tricky.
On the other side there are kits that contain both the required cable and the special tools. These come with very good instructions on video.
So I'd say: it's not for every user, but if you have some technicals skills it's not that much of a problem.

2. Also, are there any stickers or hidden markers on the 2012 Mac Mini that get ripped/triggered showing them you moved the HDD. I remember older Macs and PCs used to have the "THIS WILL VOID WARRANTY IF RIPPED" stickers that kept you from opening certain parts of the laptop.

Mine had none. Or at least I didn't see any

[cosmicjoke]

Originally Posted by kiantech

install osx server for $20 too. I have plex and osx server. Gots me a nice media server / wireless time machine server / print server.

wait, what? you can do all of that without "os x server"... it looks like junk to me tbh.

[kiantech]

Originally Posted by cosmicjoke

wait, what? you can do all of that without "os x server"... it looks like junk to me tbh.

Time machine over the network? VPN Server? File server with different accounts and permissions? Sounds pretty great to me.

[cosmicjoke]

Originally Posted by kiantech

Time machine over the network? VPN Server? File server with different accounts and permissions? Sounds pretty great to me.

both of my mbps back up to the attached storage of my mac mini without this os x server software and i do file share with different accounts and permissions /shrug.. i guess if you need some server activities on a computer you otherwise use as a desktop you might want it... i'm not impressed.

[kiantech]

Originally Posted by cosmicjoke

both of my mbps back up to the attached storage of my mac mini without this os x server software and i do file share with different accounts and permissions /shrug.. i guess if you need some server activities on a computer you otherwise use as a desktop you might want it... i'm not impressed.

How do you set up your macs to back up via time machine to another mac without server?

[cosmicjoke]

Originally Posted by kiantech

How do you set up your macs to back up via time machine to another mac without server?

easy peasy -set up file sharing on the mac with the drive you're using for time machine (share the drive and add users to it for each computer you want to back up)

then, on the mac you want to backup, mount the network share of the disk you're using for time machine with finder.

once mounted, from within the time machine app you'll now be able to select the shared disk... use the login/password you created for that user when prompted.

[cosmicjoke]

Originally Posted by famous600

I cant decide which 2012 mini to get. Ive read what other people have said and still am not 100% sure. Im now leaning towards the base model dual core because ill really only be running XBMC and plex server on it 24/7. I have a lot of hi def movies and a few 30gb blu ray rips. The only thing I can think of that would be processor intensive is transcoding with the plex server but should the dual core be able to hand a few transcodings at a time? Or should i just bump up to the quad core? I doubt I would use handbrake for anything honestly. Thoughts? Everything will be pulled from an external USB 3.0 HD. I just dont want to hear the fan all night if a couple friends are streaming from my server and plex is doing a lot of transcoding in the background.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ep1JJhyo4yU

ok, i just set up plex media server on base model mac mini.... basically here's what you have, the television is outputting display from the mac mini itself which is running plex media server and the plex client (watching Beasts of The Southern Wilds)...

then, my macbook pro and mac pro are each on the mini's plex media server web ui watching fight club and madmen respectively, all in HD...

finally, on the mac pro i go into screen sharing and share the mini and exit fullscreen of the plex client and check my cpu usage with istat....

the cheap iphone video may not show it, but the video on mac pro, macbook pro, and tv are all very smooth... the screensharing even isn't thaaat terrible heh... anyways, hopefully this is useful to you, i dunno exactly what you're looking for.