I was wondering if anyone here has the new Mac Mini with 2.7 dual core i7 and if so, how many frames per second are you getting with handbrake using the High Profile preset? I'm interested in getting one for playing games and watching movies, and so I was wondering how much better this would be than my early 2008 macbook pro for encoding.
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New dual core i7 mini and handbrake
- Thread starter alehel
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I noticed the turbo boost throws things off a bit. FPS will start about 75 FPS but it can jump to 100 FPS. But over all a 2 hour movie will convert in just under 30 min
While HB is running, does it impede the rest of the OS at all? Just wondering if you can do anything significant like watch a movie or work while it's doing an intensive task like converting/encoding.
I can sill use my system for light duty like surf the internet but i have not, and would not watch a movie. Handbreak makes use of all 4 threads and pushes the system to the redline.
i know you asked about the dual i7, but here's what the quad i7 in the mini server can do:
handbrake 0.9.5 on high profile preset to encode big_Buck_Bunny_1080p_surround_FrostWire.com.avi (at the 2 minute mark into transcoding:
![Eo5Iw.jpg]()
on the appletv2 preset, handbrake finished the encode in 6:35 (min:sec)
handbrake utilizes all cores and threads, and cpu utilization jumps around between 60%-98%:
![4Dev9.jpg]()
handbrake seems to be nice about not hogging every last available cpu cycle if other apps need it. i don't know about the dual i7, but on the quad i7, i can transcode with handbrake and watch a 1080p of big buck bunny playback smoothly simultaneously:
![Iwpjl.jpg]()
Quad i7 8GB ram geekbench 32-bit: 8911
Dual i7 4GB ram geekbench 32-bit: 6927
quad i7 is about 27% faster (if you factor in ram difference)
Quad i7 8GB ram geekbench 64-bit: 9660
Dual i7 8GB ram geekbench 64-bit: 8257
quad i7 is about 17% faster
so based on these numbers, you can probably extrapolate how much faster a dual i7 is than the core2duo in your macbook pro.
handbrake 0.9.5 on high profile preset to encode big_Buck_Bunny_1080p_surround_FrostWire.com.avi (at the 2 minute mark into transcoding:
on the appletv2 preset, handbrake finished the encode in 6:35 (min:sec)
handbrake utilizes all cores and threads, and cpu utilization jumps around between 60%-98%:
handbrake seems to be nice about not hogging every last available cpu cycle if other apps need it. i don't know about the dual i7, but on the quad i7, i can transcode with handbrake and watch a 1080p of big buck bunny playback smoothly simultaneously:
Quad i7 8GB ram geekbench 32-bit: 8911
Dual i7 4GB ram geekbench 32-bit: 6927
quad i7 is about 27% faster (if you factor in ram difference)
Quad i7 8GB ram geekbench 64-bit: 9660
Dual i7 8GB ram geekbench 64-bit: 8257
quad i7 is about 17% faster
so based on these numbers, you can probably extrapolate how much faster a dual i7 is than the core2duo in your macbook pro.
Thanks for the detailed post indg. That means that the quad core will basically be able to encode 1080p at the same framerate that my current macbook pro does 480p. Maybe the server version would be a better choice for me. The ability for 2x750gb drives is also a real bonus. I could probably fit my entire blu-ray collection on there quite comfortably once encoded with handbrake. I'll have to wait and see how plex performs on these though. I remember there was quite a bit of talk on the plex forum about A/V sync issues on the previous mac mini when using an hdmi screen and plex.
i'm not a big fan of plex, but for testing purposes, it played back the bunny 1080p vid just fine on my tv over hdmi. used about 25-30% cpu, more or less depending on how much motion was in the scene.
![zELCj.jpg]()
other 720p videos i looked at all seem to be in sync and used about 20% cpu.
other 720p videos i looked at all seem to be in sync and used about 20% cpu.
You're absolutely right about the server version. A lot of people are overlooking it, but when you do the math on the upgrades that are included it's a pretty good bargain when compared to the base model.
I agree, if you're after fast h.264 encoding the server is a good choice. My work has bought a quad core with 2 X Seagate Momentus XT drives, and maxed out the memory.
We have it automated encoding HD files for broadcast, web and iPhone/Android, etc... using Compressor and some rather cool automator files to "push" the encoded files to FTP. Pretty good little machine for under $1500 we have a system that outperforms our old Cleaner XL box (dell 650 Xeon), which had cost well over $5K at the time.
With that said my home Mac Mini is the one with the AMD graphics, for an overall home system the Dual Core i7 with the AMD graphics is the better buy.
I have to agree the i7dc over all is a better system for a home user. I'm still thinking of getting the 4 core mini and setting up an xgrid with my 2010 min as an xgrid controller. All that and taking up just a little more power than a 100w lightbulb.
As a proud owner of a baseline mid-2011 mini, I can say that while Handbrake is definitely dominating my machine, if you are cash-strapped, you won't be disappointed by the i5 it comes with. And you especially won't be disappointed when you notice that for 50 bucks on amazon, you can get two 4GB sticks of corsair ram.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002YUF8ZG
Just thought I'd give an alternate perspective...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002YUF8ZG
Just thought I'd give an alternate perspective...