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Major General

macrumors member
May 26, 2012
94
0
Just got it right in time for Christmas
About to get a flatscreen monitor for it in the next 2 days
 

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TWO2SEVEN

macrumors 68040
Jun 27, 2010
3,531
741
Plano, TX
Late 2012 I7 2.3. I'm very pleased with it. I also managed to find a monitor that matches the colour.

I like the matching colors. I got a new monitor last night and the power on LED is white like the Mini. Coincidently the light on my portable HD and my PC laptop are also white. Slightly OCD I suppose haha. :)
 

pure3d2

macrumors 6502
Mar 7, 2012
418
1
My Mac Mini 2012 is running Media Center on Windows 7 64-bit. It's on the right side of the TV. Btw, the XBOX360 you see there isn't hooked up. :)

Link
 

FreakinEurekan

macrumors 604
Sep 8, 2011
6,545
3,420
My late 2012 2.6GHz with Fusion drive stacked with my cable modem, AirPort Extreme, and backup hard disk ("A" and "B" disks swap out with a Plugable docking station; the "B" disk is in the blue case). Also you can see my ReadyNAS Duo and Ethernet switch. The box on top of the ReadyNAS is the base station for my cordless phone.

Also note the "Old School" iSight camera on top of the right monitor :) I got a 400-800 FW adapter and it still works great.

The monitors are Dell 2001FP's, one plugged into a HDMI-DVI and the other a MiniDP-DVI.
 

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RG129

macrumors member
Jul 1, 2007
41
0
My Mac Mini 2012 is running Media Center on Windows 7 64-bit. It's on the right side of the TV. Btw, the XBOX360 you see there isn't hooked up. :)

Link

Are you running Windows 7 via Bootcamp or a VM? I was wondering if a VM was powerful enough to handle DVR tasks.
 

pure3d2

macrumors 6502
Mar 7, 2012
418
1
Are you running Windows 7 via Bootcamp or a VM? I was wondering if a VM was powerful enough to handle DVR tasks.

I'm using bootcamp. The only time I boot into OS X with it is to apply EFI updates. The mac mini's sole job is to be a media box which runs two HDHomeRun tuner units (4 tuners total), play 720p/1080p mkv files, and run an FTP server in the background. Occasionally, I'll use it to encode/transcode movies.

I have the concurrent user hack installed so whenever I need to perform any maintenance tasks, I just remote in with a different user account.

For mkv files, I'm using CoreAVC paired with combined community pack to take care of the audio pass-through (S/PDIF out).

Attached to the mac mini are two external USB 2.0 drives (a MyBook raid-0 2TB drive and a MyBook 750GB drive).

The CPU usage is between 10-20% when watching live TV or playing 1080p mkv files. CPU usage jumps a tiny bit when recording 4 simultaneous TV shows. The temperature doesn't go above 65C in most cases.

I have a Logitech Harmony remote configured to turn on the TV, receiver, and launch MCE whenever I push the "Watch TV" activity button. When I hit the power button on the remote, it turns off the TV, receiver, and then quits the MCE application.

I had to set some special events for the mac mini as a device in the Logitech remote profile because I'm using a miniDP to HDMI adapter for the TV. Whenever the TV turns on, there's a delay of about 10 seconds before the mac mini will detect it. If the MCE app is launched before that, it'll display in 1024 x 768 until you quit the app and re-open it. I set the remote to "open" the MCE app (in actuality, it's only hitting the OK button 2 times). Once all of the devices are turned on, it waits 10 seconds and then launches the MCE app.
 
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Sean869

macrumors member
Nov 7, 2012
64
3
Dorset, United Kingdom
I like the matching colors. I got a new monitor last night and the power on LED is white like the Mini. Coincidently the light on my portable HD and my PC laptop are also white. Slightly OCD I suppose haha. :)

No its not OCD. Its nice when things match. I searched for ages to find a set of speakers the same colour as well.
 

Soondae

macrumors 6502
May 22, 2012
253
99
Hua Hin, Thailand
With New Yamakasi Retina display

2011 Mac Mini upgraded with SSD boot drive and 8 Gb ram. I have it sitting under a U+ Board which offers additional USB on the right side. Hooked up with my shiny new Yamakasi Catleap Q271 Retina display interface using mini display port to standard display port cable allowing me to enjoy all of it's 2560 X 1440 resolution.

Note to all; to get the most out of this resolution you should use a great app called "SizeUp".
 

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Dan156

macrumors newbie
Dec 26, 2012
10
0
Just got mine for Christmas, currently hooked up to a ~32" television in the front room. Still playing with it, had to lower the resolution to 1600*900 to get a text size that can be read from across the room. Love it so far - works flawlessly, near-silent and SO much more powerful than the P4 it replaced.

Yes, I'm still running a Pentium 4. Integrated graphics too. :cool:

Edit: apologies for poor pic quality, the mini is kind of visible in the bottom-right corner.
 

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Homer-J

macrumors newbie
Oct 26, 2012
8
0
took a while to get my setup, but here's mine, happy in my decision
 

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ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,613
6,909
No fair!

You guys have displays and keyboards and stuff.

Mine just sits in a firesafe, connected to power, ethernet, and a 3TB drive. I guess I need cool LED backlighting or something. :rolleyes:

0n6uT.jpg
 

Homer-J

macrumors newbie
Oct 26, 2012
8
0
Who cares about the setup. You have a Space Ghost figure and a giant Yoda!

Edit - I just noticed the leg lamp as well. Classic!

Bob & Doug McKensie, Space Ghost, Yoda & Doctor Who. good things to look over your Mac :)

I'm loving the minimalist my work space has become! used to have a big tower next to my monitors w a fan running all the time in the PC. loving the quiet the Mini has. Leg lamp was in the window but felt better next to the Mac

----------


amazing setup! must have taken a while to wire up & get just right!
 

CausticPuppy

macrumors 68000
May 1, 2012
1,536
70
My late 2012 2.6GHz with Fusion drive stacked with my cable modem, AirPort Extreme, and backup hard disk ("A" and "B" disks swap out with a Plugable docking station; the "B" disk is in the blue case). Also you can see my ReadyNAS Duo and Ethernet switch. The box on top of the ReadyNAS is the base station for my cordless phone.

Also note the "Old School" iSight camera on top of the right monitor :) I got a 400-800 FW adapter and it still works great.

The monitors are Dell 2001FP's, one plugged into a HDMI-DVI and the other a MiniDP-DVI.

Ugh, that's a great way to keep your Mini nice and toasty. :eek:
Do you notice the cooling fans running a lot?
 

ActionableMango

macrumors G3
Sep 21, 2010
9,613
6,909
What do you use that setup for?

The Mini is the perfect server for my needs. Only 12W at idle means I can keep it in an enclosed safe without overheating. In fact, I used to keep a 13W heater in there to keep sensitive belongings at room temperature, so the Mac Mini is literally acting as a heater too.

While my computers and data can be destroyed by fire or stolen, I will at least have my backups and media.

It provides 24/7 access to:
A network share for backups
iTunes server to store and serve media
DVR duty using EyeTV software and a Silicon Dust network-based tuner
FTP server to receive footage from security cameras
A secondary computer to offload handbrake queues to

I initially considered a NAS such as a Synology, but for not much more money I could get a real computer with vastly superior OS and software, thus greatly increasing flexibility and capability. In fact, I am considering running a Windows VM so I can switch DVR tasks from EyeTV to Windows Media Center (WMC has no yearly fee for scheduling data).

The other nice thing about network storage is that both Windows and OS X can read/write them with no worries about whether you are NTFS or HFS, third party drivers, OS hacks, etc.
 

TWO2SEVEN

macrumors 68040
Jun 27, 2010
3,531
741
Plano, TX
The Mini is the perfect server for my needs. Only 12W at idle means I can keep it in an enclosed safe without overheating. In fact, I used to keep a 13W heater in there to keep sensitive belongings at room temperature, so the Mac Mini is literally acting as a heater too.

While my computers and data can be destroyed by fire or stolen, I will at least have my backups and media.

It provides 24/7 access to:
A network share for backups
iTunes server to store and serve media
DVR duty using EyeTV software and a Silicon Dust network-based tuner
FTP server to receive footage from security cameras
A secondary computer to offload handbrake queues to

I initially considered a NAS such as a Synology, but for not much more money I could get a real computer with vastly superior OS and software, thus greatly increasing flexibility and capability. In fact, I am considering running a Windows VM so I can switch DVR tasks from EyeTV to Windows Media Center (WMC has no yearly fee for scheduling data).

The other nice thing about network storage is that both Windows and OS X can read/write them with no worries about whether you are NTFS or HFS, third party drivers, OS hacks, etc.


Very cool.
 
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