Mac Mini Purchased!

[surroundfan]

...Unscaled mode would show all the content, but the text wouldn't look good at all.

Unscaled is the mode you should be running in IMO.

Looking at a couple of posts on the interweb, I have a few more questions.

- Do you have a choice of running your TV in HDTV or PCmode (something that some Philips TVs apparently allow you to do)? If so, is it set to PC?
- Do you have overscan on in OSX under Displays?
- Also under Displays, are you sure you're outputting 1080p, not 1080i?
- In what sense does the text look bad? Have you tried playing around with font smoothing in 'Appearance'?

 

[Cheetah]

I need some advice regarding mini.

I plan to use mini as a media server for video and audio streaming. I will run SqueezeCenter to stream audio to my Transporter

I do not plan to connect it to a monitor.

My questions are:
Is 2GB memory sufficient?
Is the new mini still pretty noisy? How high is the noise at full speed and in idling?
What is the software that I can use to remote login to mini?

Thanks

 

[minik]

Unscaled is the mode you should be running in IMO.

Looking at a couple of posts on the interweb, I have a few more questions.

- Do you have a choice of running your TV in HDTV or PCmode (something that some Philips TVs apparently allow you to do)? If so, is it set to PC?
- Do you have overscan on in OSX under Displays?
- Also under Displays, are you sure you're outputting 1080p, not 1080i?
- In what sense does the text look bad? Have you tried playing around with font smoothing in 'Appearance'?

Thank you, thank you.

I found the PC mode and it's a day/night change. It's outputting at 1080p for now with overscan checked.

I did a Terminator Salvation 1080p trailer playback test and iStat reported the following on my iPhone.

 

[tarasis]

I am surprised the fans haven't kicked in yet given how toasty the cpu is in the picture. (My mini arrives in the next couple of days, so no experience of it yet)

 

[alphaod]

I am surprised the fans haven't kicked in yet given how toasty the cpu is in the picture. (My mini arrives in the next couple of days, so no experience of it yet)

I'm sure that temperature is in Fahrenheit, so that is not hot at all.

 

[nick4597]

How's the new mini w/ some of the older Sim games? I've been back n forth about purchasing a Mini, and would upgrade to 4 gigs of ram right away. How well would it handle Sims 2 and SimCity 4? Those are really the only type of casual games I'd want to play.

 

[tom53092]

5-in-1 Paint Scraper-a Great Mini Cracker

"Flexible Filling Knife" lol packet names.. and 'spudger' cracked me up when I first heard that one
Does the metal not scratch the mini if you use a putty knife?.. I suppose you could wrap something around the knife maybe or is the gap that thin?

I've used this on two minis and it works great to crack the case open. Sharp enough to get in the gaps easily, wide so it doesn't put a lot of stress on any one spot on the case. If you're careful, it won't leave any marks at all on the underside when you're done.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100031311

 

[jnc]

Here you go.

They only have the 2GB stick but two of those are cheaper than the 2x2GB set from Crucial. Its the same stuff.

I hope you got some quidco action with your purchase

 

[DHart]

I've used this on two minis and it works great to crack the case open. Sharp enough to get in the gaps easily, wide so it doesn't put a lot of stress on any one spot on the case. If you're careful, it won't leave any marks at all on the underside when you're done.

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs...langId=-1&catalogId=10053&productId=100031311

Apple recommends starting with the thinnest putty knife you can find and then sanding the edge of the putty knife to a very fine edge... I did this and the putty knife is easy to slip into that little crack. And, yes, if you work carefully and slowly, there will be no marks whatsoever left on the case! NICE.

 

[S27]

i bought a mac mini a while back now, i have one of the older models and i have to say i havent looked back since. all i've had to do to mine is upgrade the feeble RAM and i cant ask for much more from it.

 

[theodk]

Considering how quiet these minis are, what else will you be able to bear as a desktop machine?

I can see your point (which my girlfriend also keeps telling me). Actually the machine it is replacing is a Mac Pro, however the Pro was placed on the floor, farther away from the screen etc.

Currently I am evaluating the mini as a mediacenter (which is not going as smooth as I had hoped), and then I will have to consider what to do as a desktop machine.

I might buy a wall mount for the mini, and place it under my desk. That might help soundwise, but ofcourse make it harder to turn on/off

 

[QuantumLo0p]

Nice buy! Sounds like the speed is the same as the older model but the new model has better graphics and other things.

To be honest I have been a big critic of the iMac and the Mini for lacking speedier chips and quad cores but I like the Mini a lot because of the form factor. I am just not a all-in-one kind of person. Well, maybe also because my Apple Cinema Display still has some life left in it!

Have fun with your new rig!

 

[lamerica80]

I can see your point (which my girlfriend also keeps telling me). Actually the machine it is replacing is a Mac Pro, however the Pro was placed on the floor, farther away from the screen etc.

Currently I am evaluating the mini as a mediacenter (which is not going as smooth as I had hoped), and then I will have to consider what to do as a desktop machine.

I might buy a wall mount for the mini, and place it under my desk. That might help soundwise, but ofcourse make it harder to turn on/off

Why arent you satisified with the Mini as a media center?

 

[theodk]

Why arent you satisified with the Mini as a media center?

The issues I am having is how to integrate EyeTV (for recording and watching tv) and Plex as the general media center. Since the two products are not integrated then you need to setup all sorts of workarounds to switch effectively between the two etc.

The best product I have found so far is Remote Buddy. I found some very simple Applescripts that quits EyeTV and starts Plex and vice versa, so I am getting there. But it doesnt have the "apple feel" that I found have hoped. From a pure software standpoint I actually prefer Windows Media Center (since everything is integrated), but when I get this solution tweaked that might change.

But hardware wise the mini is great for a mediacenter. I have not tried any 1080P content yet, but that is on the todo list

 

[robotartfashion]

The issues I am having is how to integrate EyeTV (for recording and watching tv) and Plex as the general media center. Since the two products are not integrated then you need to setup all sorts of workarounds to switch effectively between the two etc.

keep an eye on PLEX, i don't think the eyetv integration is that far away

they've been doing such an awesome job haven't they?!

i hope you enjoy your mini!

 

[DanTheMan]

I can see your point (which my girlfriend also keeps telling me). Actually the machine it is replacing is a Mac Pro, however the Pro was placed on the floor, farther away from the screen etc.

Currently I am evaluating the mini as a mediacenter (which is not going as smooth as I had hoped), and then I will have to consider what to do as a desktop machine.

I might buy a wall mount for the mini, and place it under my desk. That might help soundwise, but ofcourse make it harder to turn on/off

I'm curious about the MacMini replacing the MacPro, what do you usually use the MacPro? I am sort of in the same boat my PowerMac G5 just died and I'm thinking of replacing it with a Mini for now. I mostly do work in Aperture and Photoshop and it seems that the Mini might be "OK" for this.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

keep an eye on PLEX, i don't think the eyetv integration is that far away

they've been doing such an awesome job haven't they?!

i hope you enjoy your mini!

Agreed. I only came across it a few days ago myself. I couldn't get mkv files to play smoothly in Frontrow and thought I'd have a look and see what the whole Plex thing is about. It really is fantastic once you've got your video files labelled right.

Frontrow's still a fair bit better for audio and photos at the moment so I'm switching between the two. Plex is vastly superior for video though.

 

[Whackintosh]

I can see your point (which my girlfriend also keeps telling me). Actually the machine it is replacing is a Mac Pro, however the Pro was placed on the floor, farther away from the screen etc.

Coming from the Mac Pro, do you find the mini with 4gb of ram to be a slower or less snappy experience for things like web browsing, video viewing, photoshop etc? I keep fence-sitting between an Imac or a mini (already have an ACD that I'm very happy with and would prefer not to have an all-in-one) and my holdout is the worry that it will be too slow a machine compared to my current 2-year-old PC desktop (which I can't wait to get away from). The slower processor and smaller L2 cache worry me a little.

 

[foulmouthedleon]

I just got one of the new mini's today and looking forward to using it. In the past I've always had a MacBook or MacBook Pro and I've never used them enough to justify having them (they tend to compete with my PC laptop). But I figure if I have a desktop then I can use my mini for iMovie/app development, etc.

Anyway, long story short - my Apple store said they'd install 4gb of RAM for free if I brought it in. Is this pretty standard or was my sales associate full of it?

I can probably do it myself, but if they're going to do it for free, I'd rather have them do it.

 

[panzer06]

I just got one of the new mini's today and looking forward to using it. In the past I've always had a MacBook or MacBook Pro and I've never used them enough to justify having them (they tend to compete with my PC laptop). But I figure if I have a desktop then I can use my mini for iMovie/app development, etc.

Anyway, long story short - my Apple store said they'd install 4gb of RAM for free if I brought it in. Is this pretty standard or was my sales associate full of it?

I can probably do it myself, but if they're going to do it for free, I'd rather have them do it.

I've seen a couple of other posts like this but it doesn't seem to be a common occurrence.

Cheers,

 

[theodk]

keep an eye on PLEX, i don't think the eyetv integration is that far away

they've been doing such an awesome job haven't they?!

i hope you enjoy your mini!

Yeah, I saw a post over at plexapp.com that sort of hinted that it might be comming. I will keep my fingers crossed, because only having do all the work is very much prefered

And yes, Plex is VERY nice for everything except PVR stuff, but let hope thats comming soon

 

[theodk]

I'm curious about the MacMini replacing the MacPro, what do you usually use the MacPro? I am sort of in the same boat my PowerMac G5 just died and I'm thinking of replacing it with a Mini for now. I mostly do work in Aperture and Photoshop and it seems that the Mini might be "OK" for this.

I basically just did basic computing (surfing, emails etc), and some occasional gaming from time to time. Thats why I sold the Pro, it was totally overpowered for my needs. But now I can say that I had one, and found out it was not for me.

The mini is a great machine, but you have to remember that it is more or less a laptop without a screen and keyboard. So if you have a Macbook or Macbook Pro (unibody) then try out your needs on that. But I have no doubt the mini would be able to run Aperture and Photoshop, just not if its fast enough for you

 

[theodk]

Coming from the Mac Pro, do you find the mini with 4gb of ram to be a slower or less snappy experience for things like web browsing, video viewing, photoshop etc? I keep fence-sitting between an Imac or a mini (already have an ACD that I'm very happy with and would prefer not to have an all-in-one) and my holdout is the worry that it will be too slow a machine compared to my current 2-year-old PC desktop (which I can't wait to get away from). The slower processor and smaller L2 cache worry me a little.

Things are slower then on the Mac Pro, but that has to be expected. But I would say that is mostly due to IO issues. My old pro had a stripped RAID 0 array with two drives as system drive. This made it very fast on bootup etc.

When the mini is fired up, its very usable and perfectly fine for normal browsing, video work. Im sure if you only use Photoshop occasionally and not with huge images, that a mini would be a great match for you.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

Things are slower then on the Mac Pro, but that has to be expected. But I would say that is mostly due to IO issues. My old pro had a stripped RAID 0 array with two drives as system drive. This made it very fast on bootup etc.

When the mini is fired up, its very usable and perfectly fine for normal browsing, video work. Im sure if you only use Photoshop occasionally and not with huge images, that a mini would be a great match for you.

You could probably get most of that snappyness back by putting an SSD drive in there - it'd likely be at least as fast as the RAID 0 array from your previous system. A mac mini with an Intel SSD main drive and an external 1.5TB drive would be a mighty snappy machine.

 

[Whackintosh]

Things are slower then on the Mac Pro, but that has to be expected. But I would say that is mostly due to IO issues. My old pro had a stripped RAID 0 array with two drives as system drive. This made it very fast on bootup etc.

When the mini is fired up, its very usable and perfectly fine for normal browsing, video work. Im sure if you only use Photoshop occasionally and not with huge images, that a mini would be a great match for you.

Cool. If there was to be the very odd huge image, would it still be workable and just a bit slower?