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Mac mini Core 2 Quad

V

vodius

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 26, 2005
6
0
Hi,
I've just received email about Intel price drops on Core 2 processors.
I was wondering what's the max CPU can go into Mac Mini with Core 2 Duo 2GHz originally installed?
Would Core 2 Duo 3.16GHz work or could it take Core 2 Quad?
What I use my Mac mini is for watching HD videos on my 1080P TV. But I'm having problems with choppy video at full 1080p, 720p works perfect.
Would faster processor be beneficial, or is it impossible to get Mac Mini to display 1080p flawlessly?
Thanks
 
vodius said:
Hi,
I've just received email about Intel price drops on Core 2 processors.
I was wondering what's the max CPU can go into Mac Mini with Core 2 Duo 2GHz originally installed?
Click to expand...

T7600.

Would Core 2 Duo 3.16GHz work or could it take Core 2 Quad?
Click to expand...

No, wrong pinouts.

What I use my Mac mini is for watching HD videos on my 1080P TV. But I'm having problems with choppy video at full 1080p, 720p works perfect. Would faster processor be beneficial, or is it impossible to get Mac Mini to display 1080p flawlessly?
Click to expand...

The Mini can play 1080p video already. The problem is the lack of suitable software to do so. The best is XBMC, next if VLC. QT is a piece of sh!+ for playback. You'd think Apple would do better.
 
The one cool thing about the lack of significant mini upgrades is that you can grab the crappiest Intel mini you can find and upgrade it to something comparable to the current-day mini.

I was one of the stupid few that bought a core solo mini when they first made the switch to Intel (replaced one of my G4 mini's). Last summer, I upgraded it to a 2.0Ghz C2D.
 
bob vansteel said:
core 2 quad + anything apple under $4k = no
Click to expand...

Mac Pro is 2299 for a Quad 2.8, and 2799 for an Octo.

Mac Mini's bottleneck is the laptop hard drive inside, a crappy video card, and the fact that it hasn't been updated in nearly a year.

Despite that, I think the Mac Mini can play 1080p video with the processor inside, but I haven't tried so I couldn't confirm it.
 
I currently have a Core solo 1.5GHz, and I just installed XBMC. I must say I am very impressed.

Can someone confirm playback of 1080p (10.5Mbit/s) within XBMC on a 2.33 T7600 processor, before I upgrade?
 
TurboLag said:
I currently have a Core solo 1.5GHz, and I just installed XBMC. I must say I am very impressed.

Can someone confirm playback of 1080p (10.5Mbit/s) within XBMC on a 2.33 T7600 processor, before I upgrade?
Click to expand...

10.5 Mbit/sec H.264 1080p video uses about 55% of my Core 2 Duo 2 GHz CPU during playback in QT. (MacBook)
 
10.5 Mbit/sec H.264 1080p video uses about 55% of my Core 2 Duo 2 GHz CPU during playback in QT. (MacBook)
Click to expand...
Sounds promising!

I'm transcoding a 1080p m2ts h.264 video with AAC and AC3 at 10.5 mbps for you. After it's done, I'll let you know how it performs on my 2 gHz Core 2 Duo Mini.
Click to expand...
What are you transcoding from to get down to 10.5mbit??
 
OK, here you go.

File info:
  • The Fifth Element from Blu-Ray
  • 1920x816
  • 24 fps
  • Encoded in H.264
  • 10.6 mbps
  • Both AC3 (DD 5.1) and AAC audio tracks
  • File size is 9.92 gb (from 26.26 gb m2ts rip) using VisualHub 1.34.
XBMC - Plays beautifully.
VLC - Plays beautifully.
Quicktime - Plays...well, not so beautifully.

It seems QT has to rebuffer or something because it stutters every 30 to 45 seconds, regardless if it's a complex scene or not.

So, if you want Blu-Ray quality video from a Mac Mini, you'll likely need to use XBMC or VLC. I'm not sure if a T7600 (2.3 gHz) would perform much better than my T7200 (2 gHz).

And if anyone ever doubts that a Mini can do 1080p high def movies, point them to this thread.
 
Will all the Minis playback 720p or 1080i? I'm looking at getting one rather than an AppleTV. My main use will be for videos shot with a 1080/60i camera, edited in iMovie and exported/encoded as h.264. I'd like to use Front Row for viewing. My thought was use a FW400 drive and not compress to heavily (50Mbps?).
 
CMD is me said:
Will all the Minis playback 720p or 1080i? I'm looking at getting one rather than an AppleTV. My main use will be for videos shot with a 1080/60i camera, edited in iMovie and exported/encoded as h.264. I'd like to use Front Row for viewing. My thought was use a FW400 drive and not compress to heavily (50Mbps?).
Click to expand...

50 mbps MPEG-4 h.264 is too much for a Mini. The most I've seen for 1080p is about 15 mbps on vbr. You should keep it around that. Of course, if you use use MPEG-4 part 2, you might be able to do 50 mbps, but you'll have huge files.
 
Cave Man said:
50 mbps MPEG-4 h.264 is too much for a Mini. The most I've seen for 1080p is about 15 mbps on vbr. You should keep it around that. Of course, if you use use MPEG-4 part 2, you might be able to do 50 mbps, but you'll have huge files.
Click to expand...

I take that bitrate back. More like 25Mbps. I shot some footage with a Canon HV30 at 720p. I imported it into iMovie and exported it as h.264 with little compression. It played great on a C2D MacBook Pro. The 3 minute clip was just over 1GB and at 25Mbps.... so 90 minutes would a hefty 30GB! I guess I could compress it more, but the point is to keep the quality up.
 
CMD is me said:
I take that bitrate back. More like 25Mbps. I shot some footage with a Canon HV30 at 720p. I imported it into iMovie and exported it as h.264 with little compression. It played great on a C2D MacBook Pro. The 3 minute clip was just over 1GB and at 25Mbps.... so 90 minutes would a hefty 30GB! I guess I could compress it more, but the point is to keep the quality up.
Click to expand...

Which C2D in MBP?
 
eXan said:
Which C2D in MBP?
Click to expand...

2.16Ghz with 3.3GB RAM. I've yet to try it on my wife's 2.0 MBP Core Duo. I may need to try a longer clip as well. I've read were people have mentioned dropped frames every couple minutes or so. I only watched a 3 minute clip at 720p.

Additionally I set the compressor to medium and the bitrate drops to 9Mbps. I have another post on this topic (no intent to cross post).
 
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