Mini Not as Fast as Expected

[xlii]

I used migration assistant and my Time Machine backup of my 2009 mbp. Worked flawlessly. I will echo others in saying that a handbrake encode that used to take 6 hours or more on my 2009 mbp now takes a half hour on the 2.3 quad stock mac mini. The mini is a big upgrade.

 

[Mojo1]

If someone is seriously considering getting an SSD I recommend watching comparison videos at Other World Computing and YouTube. You can see for yourself how much difference an SSD makes vs. the 5400rpm drive.

After watching a number of videos I decided that the standard drive was fine for me; I certainly wouldn't pay Apple $300 for the SSD upgrade. I schedule my Mini to startup on its own every morning so I rarely even see it boot-up. When I arrive in my office all my mail has been downloaded, RSS feeds updated and the apps/files that I need are open and ready to use.

Everything that I have used it for so far is plenty fast. An SSD is probably in my future, but at this point it will be later rather than sooner...

 

[kdoug]

I recently purchased a new quad-core Mini to upgrade from my 2008 MacBook. My old MacBook only had 2 GB ram and a much slower processor than a quad-core, so I figured I would be blown away by the new Mini. In all reality, I haven't noticed that much of an increase in speed.

Has anyone else experienced slow speeds? I used Migration Assistant to transfer over my account from my MacBook along with most of the files on the MacBook (i.e. pictures, songs, videos, documents, etc.). My settings were also transferred. Could it be possible that my old MacBook settings are somehow slowing down the new Mini? Would I be better off just starting fresh on the Mini (i.e. not transferring my account to the new Mini)?

I haven't had a chance to read clear through this thread but I experienced the same "slow" issues with both of my late 2012 Mac Mini's. I think it's directly related to the Migration Assistant. For the 1st day or so these babies seemed to be running slower than my Dual Core iMac. For some reason today they are flying, I mean really fast. Maybe there was something going on in the background I wasn't aware of like indexing. I'm still waiting on my 16GB of memory to install in each one, that should help even more.

 

[sza]

After reading the replies in this thread, I tested my current PC (have never done that). The results are -

Dell Inc. Dell DXC061
Section Description Score Geekbench Score
Geekbench 2.3.4 Tryout for Windows x86 (32-bit)
Integer Processor integer performance 3373
Floating Point Processor floating point performance 3065
Memory Memory performance 2056
Stream Memory bandwidth performance 2088

Geekbench Score - 2873

So I guess it's safe to say that even the base mini will be like the difference between walking and being in a sports car?

Yes the score of the basic version of the 2012 Mac mini is around 6000-7000.

 

[Edge]

Maybe there was something going on in the background I wasn't aware of like indexing.

Spotlight will turn everything to molasses when it indexes the first time. It catches me out every time.

 

[Dan in VA]

Mac Mini 2012 Geek Bench Score 13,064

http://browser.primatelabs.com/geekbench2/1226541

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pW-MWvE6HxE

 

[Dizzy810]

it won't surf the net any faster then your machine does.

also if your machine had an ssd it would seem faster for all easy tasks then the new mini with a stock hdd. you only see the speed gains of you use cpu intensive programs such as handbrake where it would take you an 2-3 hours to encode a 2 hour movie the new mini would do it in under 35-40 minutes.

This.

I upgraded from a 2006 iMac to the new Server with SSD's. On my iMac I would generally get around 30fps from Handbrake. To encode it would take me about the same length as the video. Last night I did some encoding on the Mini and was getting around 330fps. It took me less than 10 minutes to encode a 1:30 long movie. I was shocked. I knew it would be faster, but I didn't know that it would be that much faster.

 

[ugadawgs311]

I haven't had a chance to read clear through this thread but I experienced the same "slow" issues with both of my late 2012 Mac Mini's. I think it's directly related to the Migration Assistant. For the 1st day or so these babies seemed to be running slower than my Dual Core iMac. For some reason today they are flying, I mean really fast. Maybe there was something going on in the background I wasn't aware of like indexing. I'm still waiting on my 16GB of memory to install in each one, that should help even more.

Did you do anything to cause the increase in speed? Did you still use Migration Assistant?

 

[philipma1957]

This.

I upgraded from a 2006 iMac to the new Server with SSD's. On my iMac I would generally get around 30fps from Handbrake. To encode it would take me about the same length as the video. Last night I did some encoding on the Mini and was getting around 330fps. It took me less than 10 minutes to encode a 1:30 long movie. I was shocked. I knew it would be faster, but I didn't know that it would be that much faster.

even faster then i thought it would be cool!

 

[kdoug]

Did you do anything to cause the increase in speed? Did you still use Migration Assistant?

Yes, I still used Migration Assistant. I have no interest in doing a clean install.
I'm not sure how long spotlight, indexing was running but it's much better now. Unfortunately running Safari, Parallels, iTunes, IE and various others brings my 4GB system to a screeching halt. 16GB will be here on Monday.