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MatthewAMEL

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Oct 23, 2007
380
13
Orlando, FL
Greetings all.

I've had my 2.6GHz i7 Mini for 2 weeks now and have run about 15 Handbrake encodes through it.

I posted my thoughts on the initial few encodes vs. my Late2009 iMac in an earlier thread, but wanted to update it after more observations.

For comparison:

Late2009 iMac, i7 2.8GHz, 16GB RAM, 10.8.2, 2TB WD Black (FASS)

2012 Mini, i7 2.6GHz, 16GB RAM, 10.8.2, 256GB SSD.

Geekbench (64-bit)
iMac: 9742
Mini: 12830

Handbrake (64-bit, 0.9.8)
Both using the same source stored locally and encoded using the AppleTV 3 pre-set in HB.
Source is 1920x1080, output is 1920x1080

iMac: average 14.24fps, 680% CPU, 64c CPU, fans 3800 rpm
Mini: average 13.92fps, 720% CPU, 96c CPU, fans 5500 rpm

I have to say I am disappointed in the performance of the Mini. I thought based on Ivy Bridge vs 1st Gen i7 and the geekbench numbers, the Mini would be 20-30% faster than the now 3-year old iMac.

Another surprise was how much cooler the iMac runs. 30c? That's a huge margin.
 

Rhinoevans

macrumors 6502
Oct 5, 2012
408
63
Las Vegas, NV
The performance to me is a wash, they are basically the same chip, i7 and 2,6

The temp surprised me but the iMac probably has better cooling capability as opposed to the mini which is very small confined space.

Thanks for the data
 
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