Apple Mac Mini 2.26 info

atomac

atomac

atomac

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Hi. Been thinking of going for an apple mac mini. I very much like the new 2.26 one but with possibly a 4g memory upgrade and i wouldn't mind putting an ssd in one too.

Now, i do like to play the occasional pc game like Call of Duty. I understand that windows can be installed on a mac. Anyone here got windows installed on their mac (Win 7) and also do a bit of gaminig on it? Any good?

Would i be happy with the 2.26 cpu speed for general pc usage? Would that run all the apple software ok / swiftly?

Would i notice a slowdown with windows running on a mac?

Sorry for all the questions. thanks anyway.
 
It wouldn't run Call of Duty very well (18fps on normal resoultions).

I had Windows installed on a Mac Pro but it had a 8800GT and so games run flawlessly. It was epic.

Yeah. I have the 2.66GHz Mac Mini (OK higher spec, but you get the gist) and it runs all apps fine. With an SSD installed it will improve app opening times by a significant factor. Have a look at the guides on iFixit.. it's a bugger to work on.

There is no slowdown. It runs Windows natively, so it would perform on the same level as a PC of the same spec. You can also boot Windows in a VM (virtual machine), and that is when the performance would suffer..
 
So tempted to buy one. Space saving and quiet too apparently. Either that or i could build myself a quad PC!! Thing is though, i very much like the Apple OS.
 
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That's only a choice you can make.

I've got a PC for gaming/LAN parties that doesn't get used much otherwise, and a Mac Mini 2GHz with a 4GB upgrade which gets used for everything else.
 
MagicBoy said:
That's only a choice you can make.

I've got a PC for gaming/LAN parties that doesn't get used much otherwise, and a Mac Mini 2GHz with a 4GB upgrade which gets used for everything else.
Click to expand...

So, you use the Mac Mini for all day to day stuff? Do you find it fast enough etc?
 
I use a 2.26 MBP 13" for my day to day stuff, albeit only for a couple of days now.

I find it fine with just 2GB of ram, thats with 10+ tabs in firefox, mail, skype, msn, irc, itunes and photoshop most of the time.

This is coming from a Quad 3.3GHz PC, and I honestly don't notice any particular slow down in comparison.

That said, I have 4GB coming tomorrow though, and plan on buying a 128GB SSD next month - it should fly then :)
 
MikeHiow said:
I use a 2.26 MBP 13" for my day to day stuff, albeit only for a couple of days now.

I find it fine with just 2GB of ram, thats with 10+ tabs in firefox, mail, skype, msn, irc, itunes and photoshop most of the time.

I have 4GB coming tomorrow though, and plan on buying a 128GB SSD next month.
Click to expand...

Nice one. Keep us posted of what you think
 
Yeah. It's upgraded to 4GB as I'm running VMs on it, although for general use it was fine on the original 1GB. It's also got a large FW800 drive to host them.

For day to day stuff it's more than fast enough. Certainly more nippy than my launch model MBP.

Running three heavy VMs will slow it down. Not bad for something the size of 5x CD cases, that sips power and is virtually silent.
 
I use the Mac Mini everyday (as a media centre and occasional web browser) and it's been amazing in the 2 weeks I've owned it.

Can't hear it running and it's so small people don't even realise it's a full PC when they come around.
 
EVH said:
I use the Mac Mini everyday (as a media centre and occasional web browser) and it's been amazing in the 2 weeks I've owned it.

Can't hear it running and it's so small people don't even realise it's a full PC when they come around.
Click to expand...

So, good enough for most PC stuff then.
 
I bought the 2.26ghz mac about 2 months ago. I got rid of my 2.6ghz AMD XP 5000+ to this machine. Verdict? Mac Mini is just.... :eek:.

Whn you use the mac mini you feel :cool: and :). When people see it, they're amazed, and you pull a ;). It's just so good at everything it does you;re just :eek:. And love it when it tries to connect to windows PCs and the BSOD icon comes up :p. You;re never :mad: or :confused: but always :D Buy it!!!
 
EVH said:
I use the Mac Mini everyday (as a media centre and occasional web browser) and it's been amazing in the 2 weeks I've owned it.

Can't hear it running and it's so small people don't even realise it's a full PC when they come around.
Click to expand...

I keep thinking of getting a Mac Mini 2.66GHz, SSD, 8GB and maybe stick a Blu-ray drive in :cool:. Stick it in the lounge running Plex getting (and ripping) the Blu-Rays/DVDs from a NAS in another room..... Must resist. Must resist.
 
Why 8GB? Easiest way to waste £400 imo. Especially for a Media Centre.

I just dropped 4GB in my MBP and its quite an improvement, Parallels runs pretty well now with Windows 7.
 
The big problem i see with a Mac is if anything goes wrong after the warranty period. With a 'Normal' PC that is easy to rectify. What about Apple? If the mobo fails etc?
 
NickK said:
I thought the mini was 4GB max?
Click to expand...

Apple officially say 4GB however the early 2009 Mini (with EFI Firmware Update 1.2 released by Apple in late August 2009) and the late 2009 Mini and the late 2009 Mini Server can all do 8GB (4GBx2).

Given that the current Mac Mini hardware, firmware, and operating system can support it I don't get why Apple don't list it as a build option :confused:.

MikeHiow said:
Why 8GB? Easiest way to waste £400 imo. Especially for a Media Centre.
Click to expand...

$465.99 from OWC.
 
atomac said:
The big problem i see with a Mac is if anything goes wrong after the warranty period. With a 'Normal' PC that is easy to rectify. What about Apple? If the mobo fails etc?
Click to expand...

I'd get an extended warranty - do a forum search, there's a cheaper way to do it than through Apple directly, hopefully someone here can give some feedback on it.

I bought one when I was in San Francisco recently and am using it as a media centre in my living room. Got Plex set up to stream all my stuff from my server, plus I got an early Christmas present of a Logitech Dinovo Mini to control it. Having a few teething problems with it, but once it's all done, will be an absolutely wicked set up :D
 
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