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Mac Mini 2006 as HTPC

L

LGShepherd

macrumors regular
Original poster
Hi guys!

I am getting a 2006 Mac Mini at the weekend which is sealed and brand new for £250 with the old keyboard and mouse (both brand new). Not too sure if that is a decent price, but anyways.

I am hoping to use this as my HTPC with Plex running on it and I have a few questions.

1) Will this run well on my 50 inch plasma? I once used my old MacBook on my TV and it didn't fit correctly. I am planning on using a DVI to HDMI adapter into my amp and then using the digital audio cable for the sound.

2) I believe it will be a 1.66Ghz duo core. Will this be sufficient? I will be maxing out the RAM after Xmas also.

3) I will not be storing Movies on the Mac Mini as I have ordered a Netgear readyNAS with 2TB of storage. Again, will the Mac Mini be ok with this?

Thanks
Liam
 
At the moment I am only ripping my DVD collection using the Apple TV preset in Handbrake so nothing too major. I will still use Blu Ray for my HD stuff.

It's £250 for the Mac Mini, wireless keyboard and mouse. They are all brand new. I bought it off my uncle after he decided not to use them in a house he was building. Maybes I should have checked the prices.
 
LGShepherd said:
At the moment I am only ripping my DVD collection using the Apple TV preset in Handbrake so nothing too major. I will still use Blu Ray for my HD stuff.

It's £250 for the Mac Mini, wireless keyboard and mouse. They are all brand new. I bought it off my uncle after he decided not to use them in a house he was building. Maybes I should have checked the prices.
Click to expand...

Completely missed that L with a stroke.

The Mac mini will definitely play your SD content, for Blu Ray content only 720p might be playable, but I could play a 1080p movie on a 2GHz C2D Mac, but both cores were used more than 50%.

I would look for a C2D Mac mini if you are seriously interested in 1080p content, but for the SD videos that Mac will be enough.
 
It'll play 1080p provided it's of low enough bit rate, even if it's h.264. It would play 1080p MPEG-2 easier, but those files would be much larger than h.264 versions.
 
LGShepherd said:
Hi guys!

I am getting a 2006 Mac Mini at the weekend which is sealed and brand new for £250 with the old keyboard and mouse (both brand new). Not too sure if that is a decent price, but anyways.

I am hoping to use this as my HTPC with Plex running on it and I have a few questions.

1) Will this run well on my 50 inch plasma? I once used my old MacBook on my TV and it didn't fit correctly. I am planning on using a DVI to HDMI adapter into my amp and then using the digital audio cable for the sound.

2) I believe it will be a 1.66Ghz duo core. Will this be sufficient? I will be maxing out the RAM after Xmas also.

3) I will not be storing Movies on the Mac Mini as I have ordered a Netgear readyNAS with 2TB of storage. Again, will the Mac Mini be ok with this?

Thanks
Liam
Click to expand...


I had the same machine as you as my HTPC. I always had an issue with HD content - stuttering, buffering etc.

I upgraded it with a C2D cpu and now it runs all the content I can throw at it - with PLEX VLC etc.
 
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