Mac Mini energy efficient and powerful?
- Thread starter cavonia
- Start date
Can you post some nice pics too?
Ok, currently it's sat doing a full disc erase (I've always done a full format/verify on new drives). Then the OS gets reinstalled.. so it's not going to be up and running for another couple of hours.
Initial impressions is that the machine is slower than the MBP but that's not surprising with the MBP being powered by an SSD and running 8600M GT.
However I think the additional horsepower will show up once it's in use.
The machine is going to be used as a media/home server/development box.
Running in 32bit mode 10.6.2, C2D 2.66GHz, 4GB, 320GB 5400rpm HD.
Code:
Results 121.05
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6.2 (10C2234)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model Macmini3,1
Drive Type Hitachi HTS543232L9SA02
CPU Test 189.15
GCD Loop 312.62 16.48 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 150.81 3.58 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 125.50 4.14 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 298.57 51.99 Mops/sec
Thread Test 346.14
Computation 421.48 8.54 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 293.65 12.63 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 179.35
System 208.08
Allocate 409.32 1.50 Malloc/sec
Fill 162.83 7917.35 MB/sec
Copy 171.43 3540.79 MB/sec
Stream 157.59
Copy 150.78 3114.32 MB/sec
Scale 147.64 3050.19 MB/sec
Add 167.36 3565.07 MB/sec
Triad 166.60 3564.00 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 204.62
Line 145.48 9.69 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 192.95 57.61 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 182.35 14.86 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 196.11 4.95 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 556.63 34.82 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 94.32
Spinning Squares 94.32 119.64 frames/sec
User Interface Test 246.08
Elements 246.08 1.13 Krefresh/sec
Disk Test 40.78
Sequential 89.64
Uncached Write 86.98 53.40 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 103.15 58.36 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 70.67 20.68 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 107.77 54.16 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Random 26.39
Uncached Write 8.75 0.93 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Write 76.16 24.38 MB/sec [256K blocks]
Uncached Read 66.86 0.47 MB/sec [4K blocks]
Uncached Read 108.56 20.14 MB/sec [256K blocks]The MBP without disc test but also with a heap of apps running:
The interesting one is the thread test - the mini is twice the speed! Although it holds up quite well at OpenGL too!
What's interesting as a developer is that I can use Xcode on my MBP and then just set the mini as a distributed build service. So when I compile it'll use the MBP and the mini.
Code:
Results 161.71
System Info
Xbench Version 1.3
System Version 10.6.2 (10C540)
Physical RAM 4096 MB
Model MacBookPro3,1
Drive Type OCZ-VERTEX 1275
CPU Test 168.93
GCD Loop 283.04 14.92 Mops/sec
Floating Point Basic 136.43 3.24 Gflop/sec
vecLib FFT 110.06 3.63 Gflop/sec
Floating Point Library 268.18 46.70 Mops/sec
Thread Test 185.97
Computation 211.76 4.29 Mops/sec, 4 threads
Lock Contention 165.78 7.13 Mlocks/sec, 4 threads
Memory Test 162.53
System 176.29
Allocate 357.97 1.31 Malloc/sec
Fill 137.18 6669.87 MB/sec
Copy 144.21 2978.56 MB/sec
Stream 150.76
Copy 141.46 2921.84 MB/sec
Scale 140.94 2911.76 MB/sec
Add 162.60 3463.68 MB/sec
Triad 160.84 3440.83 MB/sec
Quartz Graphics Test 205.95
Line 157.42 10.48 Klines/sec [50% alpha]
Rectangle 205.33 61.30 Krects/sec [50% alpha]
Circle 174.34 14.21 Kcircles/sec [50% alpha]
Bezier 183.36 4.62 Kbeziers/sec [50% alpha]
Text 536.23 33.54 Kchars/sec
OpenGL Graphics Test 89.99
Spinning Squares 89.99 114.16 frames/sec
User Interface Test 271.29
Elements 271.29 1.25 Krefresh/secThe interesting one is the thread test - the mini is twice the speed! Although it holds up quite well at OpenGL too!
What's interesting as a developer is that I can use Xcode on my MBP and then just set the mini as a distributed build service. So when I compile it'll use the MBP and the mini.
Last edited:
Just tried XMBC rather than VLC on a 1080 plasma via HDMI the result is less (ie only 3) dropped frames compared to the continuous dropped frames from VLC. CPU utilisation whilst playing is 75%.
Happy now - just need to sort out sound but as I only have a stereo that will have to wait
Happy now - just need to sort out sound but as I only have a stereo that will have to wait
In short yes. My concern was if if could properly drive a large 1080 plasma and with xbmc (rather than vlc) it could.
The 9400 H.264 acceleration only applies to Quicktime as Apple have not opened the API (I think they'd prefer that people use OpenCL rather than allow Apple to get locked into nVidia's API).
A mate has a Revo with the ION chipset (basically the same chip in the Mini). He uses linux with it because it can use the hardware H.264 acceleration. So although the CPU in the Revo is an Atom, whilst at playback it's only using about 13% CPU (and 13% from the hyperthread too).
So with the Mini doing pure software and taking 75%, I'm happy. If need be I can always dual boot XBMC on linux and get both the hardware acceleration and the C2D 2.66 power
So as a media machine it's acceptable with the Apple imposed HW acceleration restriction.
Secondly as a server - it runs wireless and via ethernet. I didn't realise it had wireless (bonus!). It also has FW800 (I thought it was FW400) plus the USB connectors mean it'll work nicely with the planned external drive caddy (4 bay via FireWire/USB).
I need to get around to copying over my iTunes library to a shared location.
For development it works extremely well. Not only do I get distributed compilation (important for a few of the libraries I've used in the past), I've got virtualbox installed for linux installs. My m-Audio Audiophile FireWire MIDI interface works with it nicely so I can plug in my vDrums and develop the software I'm writing for it.
Ahh that old chestnut
Originally I used to game a lot (my PC was a pre order X2 4400 etc). Then with the instability of gaming I wanted to separate my domestic things and my gaming rig. So I looked at the alternatives - linux.
I dual booted the PC with gaming on one HD and Linux (kubuntu) on another. After a year I got sick of the patching dependences (if you compiled or used anything other than official resources). My gaming had dwindled down to quake wars and battlefield.
Then I started thinking about macs. A mate was moving more into laptops and I used a laptop at work.. so that got me thinking..
I bought a MBP in November 07 (C2D 2.4GHx, 4GB, 8600GT M).. It's now my defacto domestic machine. My PC doesn't get used (nor do I game much now). The MBP got an SSD in april 09 and it's the fastest thing I've seen..
I used it for mail, web, calendars, web surfing, development, domestic things (letters/accounts), chatting to people and development - I'm writing this on the MBP driving the 1680x1050..
In short it's all I need, except if I want to have something going on or available for the TV as it usually accompanies me to work and other places - enter the mini..
The mini is more powerful than the MBP although the SSD makes up for it (apps load faster on the MBP but on CPU intensive tasks the mini is faster).
Will it play games - probably but that's not really my focus. Will it do everything I want for home? Yes but as always there's different ways of doing things.. If all you do is read mail, surf the web and watch movies then any of the MB/MBP or Mini will do the job.
* movie sound - you'll need to look at the optic out or suffer stereo sound output as Apple don't output sound over HDMI!