Official "I Ordered an Intel Mac Mini" Thread...

[admanimal]

i can't give very good opinions about GIMP because the process of getting it running will overshadow and bias any rational thought i might have. i appreciate the UNIX underpinnngs of OS X. but much like a snow storm (or a car accident), i prefer to watch from a distance. you gotta install and configure X11. and then compile and install GIMP.

Have you ever tried Gimp.app? It is precompiled for (PPC) Macs, so it will run like any other app, assuming you have X11 installed. And as for installing X11...I have always just installed it from the OS X DVD, which was also didn't take any more effort than installing any other program (i.e. no compiling or configuring it).

As for GIMP vs. Photoshop...well, it's hard to complain about GIMP cause it's free and generally you can do most of the important things that you can in Photoshop. But Photoshop is way smoother in general.

 

[tjwett]

That's a great score! Let us know when you're able to do the test again with no software running. I'd love to see that 90+! Go go gadget intel mini!

this is just a preemptive flame-retardent post so just so everyone knows i've been requesting these guys to run the XBench with the hard disk and memory options unchecked. this is just how i always run XBench so it's for my own personal reference based on my needs. i'm more concerned with computation than read/write, especially on a 5400RPM drive. just wanted to say that before someone chimes in with "yeah but where's the hard disk and memory!?!". but yeah, awesome scores. c'moooon FedEx!

 

[tjwett]

For anyone on the fence about the mini, there are some xbench results to mull over while you balance.

now you can see why i was asking for the test with memory and disk turned off. the slower HD kills it in the read/write. still, not bad at all. that's the exact score i get on all the Core Duo iMac in the Apple Store. all have been between 50 and 53.

 

[yoda13]

no 3d guinea pigs yet huh? I thought surely just for the heck of it, someone would have tried to run some type of the 3d game on it.

 

[tjwett]

no 3d guinea pigs yet huh? I thought surely just for the heck of it, someone would have tried to run some type of the 3d game on it.

i will definitely when mine arrives. although i don't have much to offer. Warcraft 3 and Myst: Revelation is all i have. i don't think either is available as Universal. hell, i don't care. i'll buy a used copy of Halo or something just to see. then i'll weep.

 

[yoda13]

cool. Someone is finally willing to satisfy my demented need to know if this thing will play anything 3d at all...

 

[punkmac]

no 3d guinea pigs yet huh? I thought surely just for the heck of it, someone would have tried to run some type of the 3d game on it.

I am downloading demos for halo, Doom 3, Battlefield, Call of Duty, and Ghost Recon. None of those are Universals(I don't think)

Edit halo runs as good as my 1 ghz imac (like poop) oh well that's why I own an Xbox, who cares!

I was running other things as well so I'm not completely sure, but it sucked.

My X-Box can't encode H.2g4 at 24 fps and play 1080p video.


Still very happy!

 

[tjwett]

I am downloading demos for halo, Doom 3, Battlefield, Call of Duty, and Ghost Recon. None of those are Universals(I don't think)

Edit halo runs as good as my 1 ghz imac (like poop) oh well that's why I own an Xbox, who cares!

I was running other things as well so I'm not completely sure, but it sucked.

My X-Box can't encode H.2g4 at 24 fps and play 1080p video.


Still very happy!

ha. good attitude. when the new car smell settles a little and you have some more time try to just run a clean launch of a game and nothing else and report the horror. i'm curious if that video card will actually go ahead and grab 224MB of your RAM if it's available. might not make it if you have the stock 512 though. and i believe Doom 3 is Universal. do File > Get Info on the app icon and it will tell you the architecture.

 

[iMeowbot]

i'm curious if that video card will actually go ahead and grab 224MB of your RAM if it's available.

Apple say that it won't do that, it's been limited to 64+16 (80 total) MB. More details from Apple at Macworld.

 

[iHeartTheApple]

...i'm curious if that video card will actually go ahead and grab 224MB of your RAM if it's available. might not make it if you have the stock 512 though.

Good point. I would imagine that if anything would stress the video card out to the point of max RAM, it would be a hardcore game. It'll be interesting to see what the results of that is...What else would you imagine could cause it to take the full 224MB?

 

[iHeartTheApple]

Apple say that it won't do that, it's been limited to 64+16 (80 total) MB. More details from Apple at Macworld.

This is a bit weird, don't you think? Why would they lock the memory at 64+16MB? Furthermore, (and more importantly, in my mind) can it be unlocked? It would be great to see what could be done on the GMA950 if we had all 224MB at our disposal. It may actually be able to handle a decent game or two, methinks. I wonder if the lock is software- or hardware-based...Anyone out there that knows more about stuff like this?

 

[tjwett]

Apple say that it won't do that, it's been limited to 64+16 (80 total) MB. More details from Apple at Macworld.

thanks for that link, good info. now i gotta say i'm actually kind of bummed about this. i was looking forward to loading up 2GB of RAM to have some extra stuff to feed to the GPU. was hoping i could make it do 224MB when i needed it to and not feel the hit. so i guess 64MB it is. hey maybe there will be a hack or something. he did say it was programmable after all, and they put that cap on it in software. interesting. i hope this isn't purely to deal with the people who bought the stock 512.

 

[yoda13]

well if it is artificially limited to 64 mb, I fear this thing is gonna suck at gaming. Hope I am wrong, I guess we'll see. Perhaps someone will come up with a hack. All I want to do is play Civ IV, and a stray game of Tropico...

 

[plinden]

Have you ever tried Gimp.app? It is precompiled for (PPC) Macs, so it will run like any other app, assuming you have X11 installed. And as for installing X11...I have always just installed it from the OS X DVD, which was also didn't take any more effort than installing any other program (i.e. no compiling or configuring it).

As for GIMP vs. Photoshop...well, it's hard to complain about GIMP cause it's free and generally you can do most of the important things that you can in Photoshop. But Photoshop is way smoother in general.

Hmm, interesting ... Gimp.app appears to be UB, at least according to that web site. I'm downloading now. I'll agree that CS2 is smoother, I have the trial version installed, and I've played about with GIMP in Linux. But I have very little personal experience to go on here ... I'm not sure if CS2 has $600 worth of advantage over (free) GIMP for amateurs like me (who are not afraid to use X11). Actually, I lie. I am sure CS2 doesn't have $600 worth of advantage over GIMP. For me.

Edit: Wow, it's fast to load anyway ... about 5 seconds, 2x faster than GIMP on my Linux machine, and 4x faster than the CS2 trial ...

 

[tjwett]

...I am sure CS2 doesn't have $600 worth of advantage over GIMP. For me.

that's all you really need to know right there. Photoshop is an investment that should pay off in some way, unless you are cool with having an expensive hobby. and some are which is cool too. Photoshop Elements is kind of that middleground. it's really not that bad. the interface is so simple that i find it difficult though. hey this one is really fun! not nearly as full featured but damn if it doesn't feel good to see your hardware doing what it is optimized to do. realtime effects etc on modest hardware. http://www.livequartz.com/

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

My mini flew out of Hong Kong early this morning. It still has an ETA of 13th March though. From when I ordered my iPod Mini I seem to remember it getting stuck in Luxembourg for days on end which was why they have such a long delivery time. Something about TNT Express being a tad useless at picking something up.

 

[canyonblue737]

The questions are the following:

1. Will a Core Solo be enough to run 1080p decently?
2. Will the graphics card be enough to run 1080p decently?
2. Does EyeTV rely more on the processor or on the graphics card and will it be enough to run it smoothly at full screen?

If those three answers are yes, I retract my statement regarding the integrated graphics. Although it would have been nice to play the occasional game on it. But I realize that this is not the target market.

1&2: The Mac mini with the Coro Sole chugs when running 1080p, but does 720p fine. The Mac mini with the Core Duo does totally fine on 1080p.

 

[canyonblue737]

Guys... I am a potential Windows switcher. If I order the Core Duo Mac mini (w/1GB memory) will it be able to provide good performance for all iLife application including editing digital video taken with my home firewire camcorder? I don't want to move to an iMac yet since I will always need a computer to run Windows Vista and am hopefully that by this fall when Vista is released there will A) a new iMac and B) a soultion to easily getting Vista to run on that iMac. At that time I would likely move the Mac mini to family room duty with my 50' Samsung DLP HDTV and surround system for Front Row duties.

I have NO intrest in playing ANY games on the Mac, but reasonable editing of home movies will be very important.

Thanks!

PS: I have owned Macs before INCLUDING THE ORGINIAL Mac 128k, Mac Plus, Mac SE, PowerMac 6100, and 7600 and which point I switched to Windows 95.

 

[DougTheImpaler]

If you're not playing games, then the whole whining about integrated graphics point is completely and totally moo. It's like a cow's opinion: it's moo. Even the Core Solo version should be a good performer in the various iApps. You, sir, are the target audience for this box.

 

[gekko513]

Guys... I am a potential Windows switcher. If I order the Core Duo Mac mini (w/1GB memory) will it be able to provide good performance for all iLife application including editing digital video taken with my home firewire camcorder?

The answer to that is yes. If you're doing lots of video editing, you should also get one of those external hard drives in Mac mini design. You're going to need the storage space and the 3.5" hard drive will be slightly faster even through Firewire 400.

 

[MacSA]

Even the old mini would have been fine for what you want to do... The dual core mini will be considerably better. Remember, OSX and all the iLife apps are written for Intel chips now.

 

[canyonblue737]

The answer to that is yes. If you're doing lots of video editing, you should also get one of those external hard drives in Mac mini design. You're going to need the storage space and the 3.5" hard drive will be slightly faster even through Firewire 400.

I have a Firewire/USB2.0 300GB Maxtor external for backup/video editing already so I should be all set.

 

[canyonblue737]

ok a few more questions then...

Since I intend to always keep a Windows box (unless a *real* and complete soultion is developed to run Windows XP/Vista on intel Macs at which point I will die and go to heaven and buy a huge iMac) I assume a KVM switch is in order. My LCD uses DVI so I assume I need a KVM switch with DVI... does that mean I am out $200 or are there other soultions, ie. cheaper ones? And what is a good switch to get... amazon.com reviews make most of them look like they barely work.

Is Office for Mac going universal soon and for a free upgrade? I don't want to buy it if a new version (for $$$) is coming soon and universal.

Thanks...

 

[snicker71]

intel mini memory

Just a thought, according to the apple site, intel mini's memory has to be installed in pairs, even though it's exactly the same as the intel imac memory which does'nt have to be pared, what gives? this way upgrading ram is going to be expensive. why can't't they let us order with no ram, then we can go else-where and buy our own, much cheaper.

 

[bevo]

doesnt need to be in pairs, you just better performance when used in pairs.

what pc maker would sell a system without any ram at all?

These systems are built to run out of the box....