Mac Mini 1.66 Core Duo's capabilities?

[slipper]

Mac Mini 1.66ghz Core Duo (not Core2Duo) with Intel GMA950 64mb

Is it capable of streaming YouTube (flash) or H.264 720p video multi tasking along with other Apps such as MS Office or iPhoto editing?

 

[chrismacguy]

Mac Mini 1.66ghz Core Duo (not Core2Duo) with Intel GMA950 64mb

Is it capable of streaming YouTube (flash) or H.264 720p video multi tasking along with other Apps such as MS Office or iPhoto editing?

Well, as a performance comparison, my iMac 1.83/ATI X1600 struggled a but if I was doing a lot of things (720p Video editing in Final Cut Express with Mail,Safari,iTunes,iPhoto,iDVD in the background), If that mini has more than 1GB RAM, then it should handle it alright, but you may find it a tad slow if you dont have enough RAM (I recommend maxing it)

 

[Cave Man]

Mac Mini 1.66ghz Core Duo (not Core2Duo) with Intel GMA950 64mb. Is it capable of streaming YouTube (flash) or H.264 720p video multi tasking along with other Apps such as MS Office or iPhoto editing?

It will play moderate bit rate 1080p Blu-ray rips with 5.1 Dolby Digital or DTS surround. The photo editing abilities will depend upon the size, bit-depth and whether you're editing raw or JPEGs (or TIFFs).

 

[fkntotalkaos]

Mac Mini 1.66ghz Core Duo (not Core2Duo) with Intel GMA950 64mb

Is it capable of streaming YouTube (flash) or H.264 720p video multi tasking along with other Apps such as MS Office or iPhoto editing?

chip is on a socket. You can upgrade it

 

[slipper]

I was looking into the processor upgrade. It looks a little too difficult for me though. Upon my research it seems the 1.66ghz Core Duo is the lowest end model you want for a HTPC and anything lower will not handle HD playback very well. The Mac Mini will have 2gb RAM.

 

[matt3839]

YouTube will stream on any crappy old computer, though that one could probably push it to 720p; not sure though.

I do know, however, that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoreAVC will help greatly with streaming videos in the Matroska format.

 

[Cave Man]

I do know, however, that http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CoreAVC will help greatly with streaming videos in the Matroska format.

Not with a GMA950 Mini. It cannot do hardware decoding of h.264. In terms of software, the best playback apps IME are Plex, XBMC and MPlayer OS X Extended. VLC is a distant second.

 

[gageray]

Upon my research it seems the 1.66ghz Core Duo is the lowest end model you want for a HTPC and anything lower will not handle HD playback very well. The Mac Mini will have 2gb RAM.

I have a similarly speced Mini that I'm using as an HTPC, it streams Netflix and Hulu just find, I don't know about YouTube though. It seems to do fine with non HD h.264, but .mkv files are troublesome at times.

Perian for QuickTime and VLC have made most video playback easy in my experience.