how fast is the current 1.4GHz Mini, compared to a Macbook Air?

http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_mini/specs/mac-mini-core-i5-1.4-late-2014-specs.html

versus

http://www.everymac.com/systems/app...book-air-core-i5-1.6-11-early-2015-specs.html

Check out the Geekbench Scores. Pretty similar, with the Mini being a tad behind.

 

If you put a SSD in the Mini, it should be almost the same. The spinning HDD is the thing slowing it down the most.

 

Right out of the box the difference in user experience will be substantial. The base model MacBook Air has a very fast SSD (solid state drive) and 8GB of memory. The base Mini has a slow mechanical hard drive and only 4GB of memory. So the base MacBook Air has a disk that's about 6 times faster than the base Mini and it has twice as much memory. This makes a big difference.

I have a base Mini and it is a really sluggish feeling computer. For example, it takes about 15 seconds just to open the System Preferences. This happens almost instantaneously on the MacBook Air - I have owned two MacBook Airs and they literally run circles around the base model Mini. I would not recommend the base model Mini for an all around computer, most people will find it very frustrating. I use mine as an iTunes server and it works fine for that (it just runs iTunes with home sharing for my two Apple TV's and Macs).

 

Oops. How could I have forgotten about the spinny drive. lol


forget the base mini, unless you are using an external SSD drive, or replace the stock drive.

 

The 2.6 mini with the spinner is utterly painful to use. We have one in the office and it's slower than any of our 2009 minis that were upgraded to SSD.

 

Even with a SSD, the base mini only has 4gb RAM and the base MBA has 8gb.

 

True. I wouldn't do it, but who ever listens to me? Just ask my wife