Mac Mini energy efficient and powerful?

It uses mobile (laptop) components, whereas desktop PCs use normal desktop components which do tend to be engineered more towards performance rather than reduced heat/power. This does mean that a Mac Mini uses far less power, but of course you're paying for that benefit by way of the cost of the machine itself.

They're not slow, but I'm not sure I'd call a Mac Mini powerful either.
 
Mac mini is a great example of Apple’s energy-efficient design philosophy. It uses less than 14 watts of power when idle
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To put it in even more crazy terms: the energy efficient bulb above my head uses 11 watts.

Only you can decided if it's powerful enough for your needs :)
 
It's as powerful as the 13" macbook pro, a lot of people use those as main machines. I think it's a faster machine than people give it credit for...
 
In terms of raw computer power it's got more grunt than my 15" Macbook Pro. It's not a slow machine.
 
I totally underestimated the power of the Mac Mini until I got a new one for use as a dedicated Media Centre.

I'd be more than happy to use one day-to-day if I had to replace a desktop (and didn't need the power of an iMac). If anything I feel the power I bought is underused, so at least I know it'll last a while longer :)
 
They are very energy efficient and perfectly useable everyday, plus they are virtually silent. An excellent desktop if you don't need to put a load of hard drives inside it.

The latest models will even take 8GB of RAM if you really want (and can afford it!).
 
Worth saying though, even the base iMac looks better in the value stakes if you need a screen also. I'll probably get an iMac when I need to replace my mac mini (which is struggling, being a core duo 1.66)
 
cavonia said:
I have a nice screen so trying to see if Mac Mini would be a good buy.
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I recently bought a 2.53Ghz Mac Mini (about 2 weeks ago) to start playing around with OSX and have a look at getting into Objective-C programming. Since I bought it my PC has probably only been turned on a couple of times to copy files (photo's/music etc) to the Mini.

Typing on it now and absolutely loving it. Using it with a Dell 24" screen and PC keyboard and mouse. There's a few keyboard differences (like copy/paste), but you soon get used to it. Love the fact you just turn it on and it works. No messing with drivers and downloads like on the PC.

Small, quiet and does everything I need (I don't game on PC anymore).

1080p HD Videos also stream flawlessly through PS3 Media Server.

After the Apple conference at the end of the month, I may hand over my Aspire One Notebook to the girlfriend and look at getting myself a MBP 13" to complement the Mini :D

The only thing I'm missing at the moment is enough storage space to move all my files from Windows over to Mac, but I'm looking at NAS/FW800 solutions, so this should soon be resolved and my PC can be relegated to the cupboard forever or sold.
 
What about the 2.26Ghz Mac Mini? They just as good? Can they be overclocked up to 2.53Ghz?

Have you tried running Windows on it at all?
 
I have a 2.26GHz Mac mini that I'm typing on right now and it does everything I need it to. I have Windows 7 64 bit installed on it which runs great too.
 
Superewza said:
Who said anything about Atoms? There's no official definition of a nettop, but small, low power workhorse sounds about right.
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A comparison of the benchmarks alone would show it bears no resemblance to a nettop. It has the same internals as the macbook and unless you propose suggesting it's actually a netbook it's fairly clear it's a level above that.

And wiki does directly associate the atom, ion and via equivalent platforms as being nettops.
 
Superewza said:
It's essentially an overpriced nettop.
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Rot.

Small case does not make it a nettop.

I've had one since March and it's used as my daily machine. With 4Gb of RAM it quite happily runs multiple Virtual machines at the same time, and only sips power. According to my plug in power meter thing it's around 20-25 watts in normal use.

Oh, and they do a server version with a pair of 500GB HDDs. You won't find Acer shipping a nettop with pre-configured Windows Server 2008.
 
Hmm.. need more powah!

Ok, seriously I'm currently running:
* XP32 in Parallels 4 - for running a friend's DL service I'm writing an iPhone manager for.
* Xcode + iPhone Simulator - for my development, connecting into the VM
* VLC watching Sophia Myles being very sexy in 1080p..
* Driving 1440x900 and 1680x1050 screens.

Not bad for an old 2007 MBP model 3,1 (2.4GHz C2D) with 4GB. So I think you'll find the 1066 bus and speed of the CPUs being as fast as you'll need for "domestic" use.
 
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