2011 Mid Size Mini? Worth It

[Wicked1]

so I have a base 2011 Mini, and thinking of getting the 2.5 or 1.7 with the Dedicated GPU, for just a small bit of gaming, but is it worth the price. I will have to sell my Base Mini in order to get it, but I am just wondering if the dedicated GPU is worth the extra money.

 

[monokitty]

so I have a base 2011 Mini, and thinking of getting the 2.5 or 1.7 with the Dedicated GPU, for just a small bit of gaming, but is it worth the price. I will have to sell my Base Mini in order to get it, but I am just wondering if the dedicated GPU is worth the extra money.

Depends. For most games, yes, it's worth the extra money. What kind games do you wish to run on the Mac mini?

 

[Wicked1]

I was thinking of running a Windows 7 partition thur bootcamp and running like COD MW4, BF3 (as I heard some people say you can play this with the mid level Mini)

I was planning of bumping the ram to 8GB, and getting the new Seagate Hybrid 750 GB HDD which now works with Sata 3 or 6G speeds.

I think this with a wireless keyboard and Apple trackpad hooked up to my 22" display would be a nice setup. However I do like the 2011 Base mini, but the GPU is just not powerful enough to run Windows games.

Not a big gamer, just would love to be able to play some Windows games I have, also not a fan of Windows 7, use it at work, and not keen on the idea I now would have to buy another OS from MS, since I own Vista and XP but they do not run on the new Mini

 

[Skoopman]

If you want to play Battlefield 3, the Mini is not your first choice. The textures and details are too high for the 256 MB memory of the 6630M. Keep your Mini and get a gaming system if you really want to play those games or buy an iMac.

 

[shortcut3d]

FWIW, the base 2011 Mac Mini and the 2011 Mac Mini Server with 8GB memory can play games just fine (i.e. playable frame rate). The textures, details, and environmental effects just need to be turned down. This is assuming the resolution on your 22" is full HD (1920x1080).