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Mac Mini boot up times

A

adamb100

macrumors regular
Original poster
For those who own a Mac Mini what is the startup time from the point you turn it on to when you login?
 
Last time I actually watched a clock whilst booting, it was somewhere between 1:00 and 1:30. Could be a little more depending, but I'd say that's about average for me.
 
I estimate mine to be only about 20-25 seconds. I'll try to officially time it tonight when i get home.
 
Reason I ask is I plan on buying a mac mini either before MacTel or after and I know the minis have a slow hd, I wanted to see how slow. 🙂
 
Boot times will also depending on what you have connected to your MacMini. FW Devices may hurt boot times. Also it will depend on the amount of RAM installed.
 
I would probobly boost the mini to 1GB(I got a GB of 400MHZ(PC3200 Ram in this pc right now that can go in mini).
 
Boot time isn't really a good gauge to measure a computers performance.

That being said, my mini probably boots in under a minute.
 
Keep in mind that if you are using the small and slow notebook drive that came with your Macmini it is going to have a slow boot time. I bought a MiniStack, put in a 7200 WD drive, and I use this as my boot drive. It is almost twice as fast booting up and running applications.
 
Is that like an external hard drive case that you can put an internal hard drive in?

How much do they cost?
 
adamb100 said:
Reason I ask is I plan on buying a mac mini either before MacTel or after and I know the minis have a slow hd, I wanted to see how slow. 🙂
Click to expand...
The mac mini uses 4200rpm Hard Drive that is equal to all PowerBook and iBook lines of Apple, that perform quite good. Put some more memory in it (upgrade it from 512MB to 1GB) and you will realize how fast is your mac mini.
 
adamb100 said:
Is that like an external hard drive case that you can put an internal hard drive in?

How much do they cost?
Click to expand...

External HDs are internal HDs, they are just in a case. Price varies, you can buy an enclosure for $20-30, or you can spend a whole lot more. It's up to you.
 
Gah ! I've got to stop thinking in PC terms - I just did not realise that I could do this (boot from an external disk)...

Last month I became the proud owner of a Mac Mini (1.25 Ghz, now 1 gig ram from Crucial I installed myself). I wanted to run it as a headless server, but the difference in speed compared to my old pbook (867Mhz) is enormous, so I keep returning to it all the time.

I'll probably be splurging out on either a ministack or an iomega maxmini drive, now that I know this.
 
Boot times are dependent on a lot more than system performance. For example, my 1ghz PowerBook G4 boots faster than my dual G5 powermac.
 
seabass069 said:
Keep in mind that if you are using the small and slow notebook drive that came with your Macmini it is going to have a slow boot time. I bought a MiniStack, put in a 7200 WD drive, and I use this as my boot drive. It is almost twice as fast booting up and running applications.
Click to expand...

Ok, you have sparked my interest here...Is this just a feels twice as fast or did you do any benchmarks before and after?
 
RAM has a major effect on boot time. My iMac booted in 38 seconds with 512 Mb of RAM. At 1.5 GB it boots in 25-27 seconds.
 
stevep said:
1.5Gb ??? I didn't think you could put this amount in. Is it just a little typo or have I missed something here?
Click to expand...
Yes, you can have 1.5 GB in a Rev. B iMac G5. I have the stock Apple memory and a OEM 1 GB Apple stick I bought online.
 
Eidorian said:
Yes, you can have 1.5 GB in a Rev. B iMac G5. I have the stock Apple memory and a OEM 1 GB Apple stick I bought online.
Click to expand...
Along with the Rev. A's and Rev. C's. The rev c's can have 512MB built in and can carry another 512MB stick, 1GB stick, or 2GB stick.

😉
 
rickvanr said:
Boot time isn't really a good gauge to measure a computers performance.
Click to expand...

Ditto. My Powerbook (1 less processor, slower processor, less RAM, 5400rpm HD) spanks my dual G5 in bootup for whatever reason. Yet my G5 would spank my Powerbook in any other task
 
rickvanr said:
Eidorian, this thread was about Mac mini boot times.
Click to expand...
I'm just proving that amount of RAM is a variable on boot time. And that I have 1.5 GB of RAM in my iMac.
 
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