MAC Mini and WOW - good choice?

[kornhill]

Hi, I am a User from the WINTendo front, but I ´m looking forward to buy me a MAC Mini with the nVidia 9400 graphics chip. I want to build in the 320GB HD and 4GB of RAM.

My most intention in a Computer is atm playing WOW, and using it as multimedia fun.

So I´ve got some questions about that Mini I want to buy:

- The HD is very slow. Would it disturb in loading times etc. in WOW.?
- The FPS in dalaran. How much would it be with a 16mbit internet and the mini described above?
- Graphics compared to a High end system (graphics in wow of course )
- PvP and big Raids? Is the MINI handling this?
- looking forward for StacCraft 2 and Diablo 3, would a mini be enough for these? (your suggestions)
- Addons, TS, decursive, xperl... are there popular addons, which are not available for mac?
- Do not know very much about this hardware stuff, so if I forgot a major point, pls tell me about this

would be happy to get some answers, and would be more happy to throw my window machine out of the same....

 

[nullx86]

Hi, I am a User from the WINTendo front, but I ´m looking forward to buy me a MAC Mini with the nVidia 9400 graphics chip. I want to build in the 320GB HD and 4GB of RAM.

My most intention in a Computer is atm playing WOW, and using it as multimedia fun.

So I´ve got some questions about that Mini I want to buy:

- The HD is very slow. Would it disturb in loading times etc. in WOW.?
- The FPS in dalaran. How much would it be with a 16mbit internet and the mini described above?
- Graphics compared to a High end system (graphics in wow of course )
- PvP and big Raids? Is the MINI handling this?
- looking forward for StacCraft 2 and Diablo 3, would a mini be enough for these? (your suggestions)
- Addons, TS, decursive, xperl... are there popular addons, which are not available for mac?
- Do not know very much about this hardware stuff, so if I forgot a major point, pls tell me about this

would be happy to get some answers, and would be more happy to throw my window machine out of the same....

I dont know crap about wow, but I have the iMac with the 9400M (in sig) and it runs most games at full native res just fine. Most intensive game so far is Burnout Paradise and it doesnt have any problem running it, so WOW should be no problem. Get a 7200.11RPM hard drive from newegg. Do the install yourself. For what you pay for a 320GB from apple you can get a 500GB from Newegg.

 

[kornhill]

Thx for the tip. I´ll change my planned hardware setup for that mini to an 160GB drive.

But how would this HD drive behave, when i just using this one. Would I be totaly unhappy with the speed or is it ok/good?

So these questions are open:

- The FPS in dalaran. How much would it be with a 16mbit internet and the mini described above?
- Graphics compared to a High end system (graphics in wow of course )
- PvP and big Raids? Is the MINI handling this?
- looking forward for StacCraft 2 and Diablo 3, would a mini be enough for these? (your suggestions)
- Addons, TS, decursive, xperl... are there popular addons, which are not available for mac?
- Do not know very much about this hardware stuff, so if I forgot a major point, pls tell me about this


(my old computer still stand on the ledge... just need to kick it in the right direction....)

 

[cluthz]

Thx for the tip. I´ll change my planned hardware setup for that mini to an 160GB drive.

But how would this HD drive behave, when i just using this one. Would I be totaly unhappy with the speed or is it ok/good?

So these questions are open:

- The FPS in dalaran. How much would it be with a 16mbit internet and the mini described above?
- Graphics compared to a High end system (graphics in wow of course )
- PvP and big Raids? Is the MINI handling this?
- looking forward for StacCraft 2 and Diablo 3, would a mini be enough for these? (your suggestions)
- Addons, TS, decursive, xperl... are there popular addons, which are not available for mac?
- Do not know very much about this hardware stuff, so if I forgot a major point, pls tell me about this


(my old computer still stand on the ledge... just need to kick it in the right direction....)

My brother plays on a MB Alum 2.0 GHz with 9400M, and it runs oki.
It does 30FPS+ in most scenarios, except WG where it does more like 10FPS.

Don't expect to run with Full Screen glow or anti aliasing or other fancy screen candy, but bumping view distance, environmental details and spell details works.



Addons are not OS spesific, so everything works

 

[Cabbit]

- The HD is very slow. Would it disturb in loading times etc. in WOW.?

The hard drive speed does let down the loading time of WOW a lot i have noticed on my Macbook, also seems to affect the framerates when it is loading everything.

- The FPS in dalaran. How much would it be with a 16mbit internet and the mini described above?

Dalaran is effected by the number of people there.

- Graphics compared to a High end system (graphics in wow of course )

WOW looks good or bad depending on how you look at it pretty equally on all systems.

- PvP and big Raids? Is the MINI handling this?

No real issues here.

- looking forward for StacCraft 2 and Diablo 3, would a mini be enough for these? (your suggestions)

Unknown but most game makers will design with the 9400m as the base GPU for the next few years.

- Addons, TS, decursive, xperl... are there popular addons, which are not available for mac?

WOW addons work on any system

- Do not know very much about this hardware stuff, so if I forgot a major point, pls tell me about this

Get base mini and upgrade to 4GB ram and a 7200 rpm 500GB hard drive then your sorted.

 

[Shivetya]

Was resolution do you plan to run at? 1024x768 should be fine for this and WOW. For Mac clients we still need to turn shadows to far left on slider.

Oh, and go into key bindings and remove all bindings to QT recording.

 

[tofagerl]

Do NOT buy a Mac Mini if your primary need is games.

Buy a PC instead, you'll get way more bang for your buck, and with a certain *hack* operating system *intosh* choice it will work just as good as a regular mac. Hint hint.

 

[Cabbit]

Was resolution do you plan to run at? 1024x768 should be fine for this and WOW. For Mac clients we still need to turn shadows to far left on slider.

Oh, and go into key bindings and remove all bindings to QT recording.

Recording is safe to use no need to disable them, you can have the shadows high in some places such as 10 man raids just fine, and finally it runs very well at 1200x800.

 

[cluthz]

I guess people have different opinions about what's good or not.
Some ppl are happy with 15 FPS, I for one, do not settle with anything less than 30 FPS.

 

[kornhill]

u

Hui thx. These were good informations you gave me.

The QT binding thing I did not understand. Is this mac specific or am I just a little bit slow atm....

Screen resolution is very interesting. Thought I could run with 1900x1080 on a 23" monitor. Is that impossible for a mac mini?

The HD is this an external drive or can I upgrade/replace the internal HD by myself?

 

[Shivetya]

Recording is safe to use no need to disable them, you can have the shadows high in some places such as 10 man raids just fine, and finally it runs very well at 1200x800.

It isn't that recording is safe or not, its that many people get stuck recording when they did not mean too, ending up with lots of trash on their hard drive.

 

[Liquidog]

I used to play the snot out of WoW on a mini. It was a G4 1.25Ghz with... 512mb of ram, I think? Stock hard drive. Performance was... not good. It was usable, though. Orgrimmar was a nightmare.

You will be fine with the intel mini for WoW - it's actually quite an old game now and not that graphically demanding compared to newer titles. I advise you to look to the future, however. Consider this:

1) The mini is due to be updated or discontinued SOON. Either way there is money to be saved.

2) WoW has another xpac coming out probably next year which may alter the system requirements slightly.

And lastly, consider that WoW is a really immersive game and "good enough" is still a lot of fun, but if you can really crank it, then it really does get more fun.

Ok, and the last thing I'll say: be careful about PvP or raiding on the mini. Do some research on benchmarks because if you're not cranking at least 20 FPS then those aspects of the game won't be very fun.

Hope this helps.

 

[kornhill]

1) The mini is due to be updated or discontinued SOON. Either way there is money to be saved.

Thanks this was a very important information. So I think I will wait until a new Mini will go to market. Then I will decide to buy me the new one for playing or the old one for just having fun with all other stuff.

My last question was about the Screen Resolution, is ist possible to run wow on a Mac mini with a screen resolution 1900x1080? Or is it impossible OR possible but going to be a Dia Show?

 

[cluthz]

Thanks this was a very important information. So I think I will wait until a new Mini will go to market. Then I will decide to buy me the new one for playing or the old one for just having fun with all other stuff.

My last question was about the Screen Resolution, is ist possible to run wow on a Mac mini with a screen resolution 1900x1080? Or is it impossible OR possible but going to be a Dia Show?

1920x1080 might be pushing it.
Remember most ppl with macbooks and 9400M runs at 1280x800.