Mac Mini 2.0 or 2.26

[keisuke_7]

Hi all I have a question that I think a lot of people are also wanting to know the answer to.

I'll be using the mac mini as a HTPC using plex streamed using unRaid for my DVD/Blu-Ray collection. I'm wondering if the 13% increase in CPU will make any noticeable difference and its it worth the extra US$150?

I think the most processor intensive task is gonna be playing Blu-Ray Rips through Plex and ripping Blu-Rays using AnyDVDHD and external BR Drive in VM.

Ram wise won't be a concern as will be upgrading to 4GB max myself anyway.

Many Thanks!

K

 

[jw2002]

I'm wondering if the 13% increase in CPU will make any noticeable difference and its it worth the extra US$150?

In my case I feel it is worth it to have an extra 13% buffer in cpu power. I am justifying that I can make up much of the $150 splurge through the savings on buying my own 4 GB ram ($60 instead of $150).

 

[the_fellowship]

I would like to know if the extra £120 for the upgraded processor is worth it? I would be using the mac mini mainly for iLife 09 (video/photo editing) and basic internet/email/word processing etc. I plan to go for the base model plus 2GB Ram.

I did actually go for the refurb iMac 20" 2.66GHz 2GB Ram which arrived today, but since it has the "buzzing" screen issue when decreasing the brightness setting, I have requested a refund.

I'm thinking of going down the mac mini route now instead of trying to get a replacement iMac refurb. I have a 20" Dell monitor which is good enough, so maybe it's a blessing the iMac was faulty lol

Any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated

Thanks

 

[jjahshik32]

Honestly I dont think the 2.26ghz is worth it on the mac mini as to the 2.0ghz stock. Its not that much big of a difference at all in real world usage and $150 for that very very small upgrade is too expensive.

Think about it $150 is 1/4th the price of the mini itself for less than 2-3% increase in real life speed. My 2.0ghz mac mini with a 320gb hitachi travelstar 7200rpm (I upgraded the hdd) and 4gb of RAM (upgraded it too) plays 1080p movies just fine with no stuttering whatsoever.

Infact I can have 6 spaces open, run unison downloading 50gb+, transmission uploading 20gb+ files, 20 safari tabs open, email, even vmware fusion on one of my spaces running windows vista and one of the other spaces running a 1080p mkv bluray 11gb movie playing (no slowdown whatsoever), eyetv hybrid playing an hd channel just fine all runs buttery smooth while connected to my 24" LED ACD via mini displayport and not to mention an external 1tb hdd connected via firewire 800 moving 20gb files.

 

[rrijkers]

Thing is the processors wil not be upgradable, or so i heard on these forums. Then I heard the 256 MB or VRAM will be there when you plug 2+ Gb RAM in it? This sounds weird but is the case. So basicly all you buy is a larger Harddrive which can be replaced for much cheaper yourself.

Now I still like to max stuff out on this one, but €200 for that little of a difference? I dont know

 

[md63]

Think about it $150 is 1/4th the price of the mini itself for less than 2-3% increase in real life speed.

Actually you should see a 13% increase in speed. Since the chip appears to be soldered, I am considering it when I'm in the market for a new Mini

 

[PeterQC]

Actually you should see a 13% increase in speed. Since the chip appears to be soldered, I am considering it when I'm in the market for a new Mini

The processor isn't the only bottle neck in a computer. You will rarely see the benefice of the additional 0.26 upgrade if you actually do nothing that will max your CPU, like video processing or image editing. The cheapest way to get better performance is with faster hard drives and rams.

 

[Superman07]

Okay, made up my mind. I almost hit order on a 2.26 with 4GB ram. However, since this is my first Mac I'm simply going to go with the store bought $599 model. That way if I don't like it I didn't put too much into it. Plus that way I get it sooner.

 

[MattZani]

Infact I can have 6 spaces open, run unison downloading 50gb+, transmission uploading 20gb+ files, 20 safari tabs open, email, even vmware fusion on one of my spaces running windows vista and one of the other spaces running a 1080p mkv bluray 11gb movie playing (no slowdown whatsoever), eyetv hybrid playing an hd channel just fine all runs buttery smooth while connected to my 24" LED ACD via mini displayport and not to mention an external 1tb hdd connected via firewire 800 moving 20gb files.

No you Cant, any 2Ghz CPU Would start to struggle with that much going on.

 

[rrijkers]

Okay, made up my mind. I almost hit order on a 2.26 with 4GB ram. However, since this is my first Mac I'm simply going to go with the store bought $599 model. That way if I don't like it I didn't put too much into it. Plus that way I get it sooner.

You've been lurking around for quite some time then

 

[aaquib]

No you Cant, any 2Ghz CPU Would start to struggle with that much going on.

Yeah, what he/she described was absolutely ASTONISHING. I have a unibody MB with 2.0GHz, 4GB DDR3 RAM, and it wouldn't be able to do NEARLY as much as mentioned.

Bluray movie, additional HD channel, 20 Safari tabs, VMware, 6 SPACES?!?!!?! Maybe all his apps are idle...Or maybe he's confused with a dual quad Mac Pro.

 

[jjahshik32]

No you Cant, any 2Ghz CPU Would start to struggle with that much going on.

Nope, its running smooth as butter.

I'm watching nba league pass and thats an nba commercial coming from the eyetv hybrid thats connected to the mini.
I just finished uploading the files from transmission but other than that everything I listed is running and using 6 spaces no slow downs for me.

Trust me I used to own a 2.8ghz 8 core mac pro with 16gb of RAM with a 150gb 10,000 rpm raptor drive as my main machine and a 17" and 15" 2.6ghz mbp. The mac mini is a fine main machine.

 

[robotartfashion]

if you're going to run PLEX get the 2.26

it will NOT take advantage of the new graphics card at this time as it is entirely processor driven

this may change with snow leopard as snow leopard will allow the use of the core2duo and the nvidia cores

in the mean time for 1080p 2.26 is a must

 

[jjahshik32]

if you're going to run PLEX get the 2.26

it will NOT take advantage of the new graphics card at this time as it is entirely processor driven

this may change with snow leopard as snow leopard will allow the use of the core2duo and the nvidia cores

in the mean time for 1080p 2.26 is a must

I run plex all the time, no problems at all no stuttering no slowdown whatsoever. Even with all that stuff I have open running in the background.

Like I said mkv movies take advantage from the gpu most of the time unless your rendering something extensively the extra mhz is worthless.

Now if the mini was a 2.4ghz or 2.5ghz for $150 bucks it will be worth it.. but 2.26 =/

Even a last gen macbook or even the first gen macbook can do 1080p just fine.

 

[macrockbuddy]

Infact I can have 6 spaces open, run unison downloading 50gb+, transmission uploading 20gb+ files, 20 safari tabs open, email, even vmware fusion on one of my spaces running windows vista and one of the other spaces running a 1080p mkv bluray 11gb movie playing (no slowdown whatsoever), eyetv hybrid playing an hd channel just fine all runs buttery smooth while connected to my 24" LED ACD via mini displayport and not to mention an external 1tb hdd connected via firewire 800 moving 20gb files.

Wow, gonna have to file that under, "I'll believe it when I see it!" But if wat ur saying is true makes feel like my macbook should perform better.

 

[robotartfashion]

I run plex all the time, no problems at all no stuttering no slowdown whatsoever. Even with all that stuff I have open running in the background.

Like I said mkv movies take advantage from the gpu most of the time unless your rendering something extensively the extra mhz is worthless.

Now if the mini was a 2.4ghz or 2.5ghz for $150 bucks it will be worth it.. but 2.26 =/

Even a last gen macbook or even the first gen macbook can do 1080p just fine.

really? i hear so many differing reports from people about this very issue

i guess it seems to come down to the file and how its encoded?

oh well, i'll see when i get mine

thanks for the info!

 

[jjahshik32]

really? i hear so many differing reports from people about this very issue

i guess it seems to come down to the file and how its encoded?

oh well, i'll see when i get mine

thanks for the info!

I have 1tb worth of bluray movies each being about anywhere from 9-16gb full 1080p mkv with dts, or aac or ac3. Plex runs it easily with the apple remote I just sit back and watch.

 

[jjahshik32]

Wow, gonna have to file that under, "I'll believe it when I see it!" But if wat ur saying is true makes feel like my macbook should perform better.

I would post a video but I have no camcorder. Anyways why would I be lieing? If the mac mini was not capable of doing all of this since this is my typical usage pattern, I would ditch the mac mini and go back to my 15" 2.53ghz mbp.

 

[belvdr]

Wow, gonna have to file that under, "I'll believe it when I see it!" But if wat ur saying is true makes feel like my macbook should perform better.

Yeah, I'm not buying it either. The system just doesn't have that much capability. Unfortunately, there's just no way to prove it without trying it.

There has to be a performance hit doing all of that, and a single processor will feel it.

 

[belvdr]

I would post a video but I have no camcorder. Anyways why would I be lieing? If the mac mini was not capable of doing all of this since this is my typical usage pattern, I would ditch the mac mini and go back to my 15" 2.53ghz mbp.

There's just too much activity to believe a single CPU system with a 2.5" hard drive is not seeing any performance hit from running all of that.

 

[jjahshik32]

Yeah, I'm not buying it either. The system just doesn't have that much capability. Unfortunately, there's just no way to prove it without trying it.

There has to be a performance hit doing all of that, and a single processor will feel it.

Whoever has the new mini's just try this test and then think to yourself with jjahshik32 saying to you "I told you so."

Transferring 20gb is nothing, I typically transfer about 90gb+ back and forth from my 1tb every other day.

 

[flopticalcube]

really? i hear so many differing reports from people about this very issue

i guess it seems to come down to the file and how its encoded?

oh well, i'll see when i get mine

thanks for the info!

Its not just the encoder but the decoder as well. I run Plex on my 1.66 mini and it rarely stutters on 1080p video but then I rarely play 1080p video anyhow. The new minis should have absolutely no problem playing any 1080p video, given the right decoder.

 

[rrijkers]

Let us all hope this is true!

 

[Ballis]

really? i hear so many differing reports from people about this very issue

i guess it seems to come down to the file and how its encoded?

oh well, i'll see when i get mine

thanks for the info!

Dont worry. I to run plex all the time on the old 2 ghz mini, 1 gig ram. I have never had problems with 1080P mkv encodes and i have quite a few of them.

 

[Smacky]

Well I decided to do a google search on P7350 (2ghz) v P8400 (2.26)
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=330592

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=291720


Also:

Intel Core2 Duo P7350 @ 2.00GHz
Passmark CPU Mark 1276
Rank (lower is better) 147

Intel Core2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz
Passmark CPU Mark 1554
Rank (lower is better) 122