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Ahhh I love my Mac mini
- Thread starter Sleepy01
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A guy at work has one that he uses in just this manner. He works remotely and packs up his when he comes into the office.
I don't have plans to use mine like that but its not going to stop me from doing so if I choose.
I don't have plans to use mine like that but its not going to stop me from doing so if I choose.
FWIW,
I use my Mac Mini with 2) 24" monitors. It's wonderful to have OSX on one monitor and Windows on another...
When out of the office I bring my Mac Mini and plug in a AOC E1649FWU 16" USB-Powered Portable LED Monitor which was $94.00 at Amazon.
It works rather well - they both fit in a brief case nicely.
Also picked up a 15 foot power cord ($9.00) for when I need to be mobile - easier than rummaging under and behind the desk to extract OEM power cord.
It is a rather slick setup.
Hoping this information will help someone here (I am greatful for all of the knowledge I have received from you good folks)!
I use my Mac Mini with 2) 24" monitors. It's wonderful to have OSX on one monitor and Windows on another...
When out of the office I bring my Mac Mini and plug in a AOC E1649FWU 16" USB-Powered Portable LED Monitor which was $94.00 at Amazon.
It works rather well - they both fit in a brief case nicely.
Also picked up a 15 foot power cord ($9.00) for when I need to be mobile - easier than rummaging under and behind the desk to extract OEM power cord.
It is a rather slick setup.
Hoping this information will help someone here (I am greatful for all of the knowledge I have received from you good folks)!
very cool setup thanks for sharing. It's interesting that as time moves on Tablets with keyboards so they can be more like a laptop. Now desktops with usb screens so they can be, Laptops.
Maybe its best to just get a Laptop.
Maybe its best to just get a Laptop.
I think you are on point with that. Seems to me the logical choice with less pieces to keep track of. Pull out the tablet, hook up the key board, set the tablet up so you can view it without holding it, plug it in.
Laptop, open lid power up or drop it in a dock. Oh yes the laptop is thin folder like fits the briefcase very well, lighter as well.
I have minis but I would not want to carry them around. What is the advantage of hauling that thing around anyway, trying to impress the girls?
Every notebook comes with a too small monitor. And it is cheaper to buy 2 and a mini and travel between them with the mini. And the HD4000 is great at driving a 24 inch 1920x1200 screen, where a Retina MBPro 13 inch is very sluggish with the same HD4000, and only offers a crappy 1280x800 work space by default.
It has a dedicated GPU, not dedicated VRAM though.
The fact that both reside on the same piece of silicon, is only a POSITIVE thing: there are no friggin-slow PCI busses and unnecessary copper path miles in between.
Intel is learning fast: the HD4000 is already a lot better than the HD3000, and is close in performance to the 6630M (when you have the quad-i7, the HD4000 is faster in that chip). I think their next iteration is getting very nice.
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The high-end 2011 Mini had the discrete HD 6630M. FWIW, I have one & it's a great in many respects, bar the 256 VRAM! Both 2012 Minis have integrated video cards.
However, as you say, the HD 4000 is quite impressive, capable of optimizing up to 768 VRAM if equipped with 8 GB RAM.
Didn't know about this.
So if the mini is equipped with 16 GB ram the OS and RAM eager applications still have plenty to work with.
Not bad.
Indeed, 16 GBs is plenty!
FWIW, I've upped my 2011 HD 6630M Mini from 4 GB RAM to 8 GB. Since then, my Activity Monitor regularly shows zero page outs, even when working with a few applications & over 30 tabs open. Previously, page outs were high & beach-balling was frequent.
Though purely academic re the HD 4000's ability to optimize VRAM, I've Googled about its capability in Windows 7 & I'm surprised to read that in W7 it can use a max of up to 1.7 VRAM. As I say, academic, but impressive from a gaming point of view.
If the next Minis get quad-core Haswell chipsets, at least as an option on the higher-end Mini, it'll be more than powerful enough, even for many so-called prosumers. But even dual-core Haswell's will be a significant leap forward.
I'm looking forward to it!The amount of VRAM on the HD4000 is not very important, as it uses the same bus to talk to RAM and VRAM, both are fast. So it can fill all VRAM from RAM within one or 2 frames. With dedicated graphics, VRAM is more important as the PCI bus is a true bottleneck, that is >10 times as slow as the RAM bus.
And the HD6630M has DDR5. So even though it is a little 256Gb, it is very fast (most PC notebooks with this chip use DDR3 VRAM). Again the GPU is connected much faster to the HD6630M then if it was on PCI, so the 256Gb can be refilled very quick.
And the HD6630M has DDR5. So even though it is a little 256Gb, it is very fast (most PC notebooks with this chip use DDR3 VRAM). Again the GPU is connected much faster to the HD6630M then if it was on PCI, so the 256Gb can be refilled very quick.
What do you use to get a setup of both operating systems? VMware or Parallels? Or something else?
I'm going to be purchasing a mini when Haswell comes out, and this would be the ideal setup for me. I have to do work on windows computers when working remotely, so having one operating system on each screen would be really nice to have.
Sorry for the noob question, but I have always avoided putting windows onto my current 2007 iMac, so I have no experience with those programs.
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I have 2 mac mini's. A 2007 1.83 Core 2 Duo w/ 2gb's of ram, and a 2011 base model with 8gb's of ram. I couldn't possibly be happier with both of mine. The 2007 model has been dead reliable, and works perfectly fine for browsing the internet and email. The 2011 model has been perfect as my bedroom HTPC on my 40" Samsung HDTV. Am I an Apple fanboy? NO I'M NOT!. I just know what works for me, and both do.......
From Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B006OTFVG4/ref=oh_details_o01_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Called: Apple TV (1st, 2nd & 3rd Generation) AC Power Adapter Cord [Long Run - 15' Long, Bulk Packed] (incase direct links are not allowed).
Currently: $8.38.
Hope this helps!
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I use Parallels 8. I NEED to have both operating systems as I move text between Mac and Microsoft programs for paper and electronic publishing.
It's easy to setup and use (and rather magical to watch Windows 7 'restart' in a window with iTunes importing a CD over a MAC desktop in the background).
Good luck, I hope I have answered your question sufficiently.
BTW, I Have a MM 2011 edition with a dedicated AMD graphics card...
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
9 bucks on a powercord? That is insane. They are 1$ on Ebay and shipped from China for another 1$.
Or just go to the landfill and pull one of the thousands of left behind cassette players.
Thanks. Some VG points, not least re the older 2011 HD 6630M Mini having much faster GDDR5 VRAM. FWIW, I've no complaints with my 2011 Mini, other than having 512 GDDR5 VRAM would be even better for my needs.
I like my 15 foot cord and nine dollars is a fine price to pay for it.
Root around in landfills all you wish, you will not find a 15 foot cord - nor me as it is a hobby I have yet to experience - nor will I.
I'm sure you would be alarmed at the $10 I recently paid for a 25 foot cord for my sous vide machine...The HORROR!
Unfortunately that one aspect limits the usefulness of its gpu for certain purposes. I think Apple bet on the Haswell igpu as being good enough for most users who buy the mini. They probably determined the HD 4000 was acceptable. They did move to a somewhat more expensive cpu in the mid range model. With good cord management, I could see someone having a setup for the mini at their home and office. If you only have to transport the brain, it wouldn't be that bad. You just plug in a couple things, and you have a more ergonomic setup than a notebook could provide.