Mac Mini 2.7ghz i7 - anyone got one?

JKD · 22 Oct 2011 at 14:31

I'm thinking of getting one of these to replace my late 2009 2.53 ghz Mac Mini. Benchmarks look pretty good. I was wondering if anyone has one of these and tried it for some light gaming activities? I'm talking COD4, and TF2.

My plan is to donate my old Mac Mini to my kids, and they'll use it on our HD tv downstairs.

I can get one for £700 quid with education discount, I'm thinking it's going to be faster than the Macbook Pro that costs more. I did also think of the base 21 inch iMac as well but as I plan to put an SSD drive into it I really don't fancy dismantling the iMac!

Am I doing the right thing? My activities will be mainly Aperture 3/Lightroom, surfing, word processing and light gaming.

pingwing · 22 Oct 2011 at 15:14

I haven't got one but iv been thinking a lit about getting one with the ati card for about 700 too which I assume is the one you've been eyeing up.

It a frustrating machine as it should be pretty fast, especially with an ssd, but it's quite expensive for only a dual core proc. I found a few bench marks for the unit that show it to be good for the odd game but not amazing for 3d intensive stuff and could do with a quad chip with the graphics card.

It would be a good step up for your current one but it does depend what you want to play (I'm debating it's f1 2011 a d new deus ex ability as these are what my mbp struggle with)

JKD · 22 Oct 2011 at 15:34

Yeah it's the one with the discrete ATI card I'm considering.

If I'm honest what got me started thinking about upgrading is the length of time Aperture 3 takes to open my photo library. I'm up to > 120GB now and it's just starting to get sluggish. I tried Lightroom 3, which opens faster, but in app it gets sluggish again.

woodpigeon4 · 22 Oct 2011 at 21:00

I believe it's got the same GPU as in my 2011 27" imac, and I find it more than enough for light gaming. I was worried it wouldn't have enough memory to run anything at high res, but I can pretty much max out cod4 and tf2 at 2560x1440 and haven't found a game yet that it won't run smoothly.

Conanius · 23 Oct 2011 at 11:03

Also interested in this thread. I'm considering getting one to replace the HTPC in the lounge which doubles up as my main PC. I'd be considering dropping in an SSD, Maxing out the RAM (8GB?) and then the i7 and ATi GFX option. Interested if anyone has similar and how they think it performs in that guise.

Apologies if this feels like a hijack OP, but feels connected to me and you'd want to know also !

I'd be upgrading from a 2.66ghz Wolfdale CPU'd Win 7 32bit box with 2gb ram and an ATi 2400 pro, so should be rather noticable

lamboman · 23 Oct 2011 at 12:57

woodpigeon4 said:
I believe it's got the same GPU as in my 2011 27" imac, and I find it more than enough for light gaming. I was worried it wouldn't have enough memory to run anything at high res, but I can pretty much max out cod4 and tf2 at 2560x1440 and haven't found a game yet that it won't run smoothly.

Note that it is based on the same architecture, but it isn't the same. You will be looking at around 60-70% of the performance of the 6770M.

For CoD4 and TF2 though, it should be absolutely fine (of course, resolution dependent).

What display do you have though? If you want a better display, you'll have figured this already, the Mac mini then doesn't even become worth remotely considerable.

JKD · 23 Oct 2011 at 13:07

I have quite a reasonable dell 24" 1080p display. I actually prefer the quality of this over the 21.5 inch iMac Display I looked at in a shop (could have been dodgy lighting int he shop though - I did read great reviews on the standard iMac display).

I'd like to keep my present monitor if possible (assuming whatever gfx I get can drive it at a reasonable frame rate.

Edit: It's a Dell ST2410 I'm using at present

lamboman · 23 Oct 2011 at 13:14

JKD said:
I have quite a reasonable dell 24" 1080p display. I actually prefer the quality of this over the 21.5 inch iMac Display I looked at in a shop (could have been dodgy lighting int he shop though - I did read great reviews on the standard iMac display).

I'd like to keep my present monitor if possible (assuming whatever gfx I get can drive it at a reasonable frame rate.

Edit: It's a Dell ST2410 I'm using at present

Believe me, it was dodgy lighting. The iMac displays should all completely blow your Dell out the water. The Dell is a TN panel, the iMac panels are IPS panels (of course, it isn't the technology behind it, the iMac displays are actually better). Aside from pro-displays from the likes of Eizo, you can't really top them (or the Dell U2711, which uses the same panel as the 27" iMac/Display).

That said, if you are happy with your current display, don't want to spend any more money, and don't need the best colour accuracy for large amounts of money, then just stick with the Mac mini.

JKD · 25 Oct 2011 at 07:30

Ok so of the two 21.5 inch iMacs, how big a difference am I likely to see by getting the (much) more expensive 6770M gfx equipped model over the 6750M gfx?

I'd rather save some money and put it towards a shed load more RAM and later an SSD - once people have come up with a work around for the temperature sensor and fan.