This was never quantitatively resolved to everyone's satisfaction. It could be that the 1080p movie that seemed to work was effectively 800p content or so. A lot has been written on this issue.
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Opened my new Mac Mini - some info
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This was never quantitatively resolved to everyone's satisfaction. It could be that the 1080p movie that seemed to work was effectively 800p content or so. A lot has been written on this issue.
I've been looking at the photo and don't see anything about to break off.
EDIT: Nevermind... Was looking at the person's left thumb. I see it now.
Every m2ts file (i.e., Blu-ray rips) I have that is 1080p, 24 fps with AC3 or DD plays perfectly on my 2 ghz/GMA950 Mini with Plex, regardless of video codec used (MPEG2, H.264, VC1). The only problems have been those encoded with variable frame rates (of up to 45 fps). These seem to be pretty rare.
more CPU details
I hope you can correct me, but to my understanding cheaper mini has P7350 CPU and expensive one has P8400 CPU, unfortunately P7350 doesn't support VT, so no matter how much I overpay Apple upgrades, if I need VT I have to go with expensive model, please tell me I am wrong
I hope you can correct me, but to my understanding cheaper mini has P7350 CPU and expensive one has P8400 CPU, unfortunately P7350 doesn't support VT, so no matter how much I overpay Apple upgrades, if I need VT I have to go with expensive model, please tell me I am wrong
You're not wrong. People have also gone over this with the Macbook's, as they are the same (2.0ghz is P7350, 2.4ghz is P8600). As far as the Mac Mini's cpu, I don't know what the 2.26ghz version is, but it probably will be the P8400 as you mentioned.
The simple fact is, VT is not needed to virtualize. In fact, VMware doesn't even use VT to virtualize 32 bit guests as they have found doing it in software is faster than using VT. They do use VT to virtualize 64 bit OS's. Now I'm not 100% sure if that is true on Mac OS X, but I know that's how it works for ESX.
I wouldn't buy a Mac Mini to virtualize my 64 bit OS's. The only time I virtualize 64 bit anyway is to run W2K8 x64 for things like Exchange 2007. And I do most of this on my HP server or even my Mac Pro.
I wouldn't let the lack of VT in the P7350 stop you. Think about it, when would you really truly need it?
Thanks for an answer, indeed I don't need 64 bit OS's on Mini. But this is first time I was told that VMWare actually doesn't use VT for 32-bit. Well make sense if it faster without it, I am going to find out more about it, especially if it is so under Mac OS X.
But what about in a couple (few) months when 64-bit Snow Leopard is upon us and VMware rewrites Fusion to take advantage of it?
Well it looks like things are changing slightly...
I found this post:
http://communities.vmware.com/message/1112346;jsessionid=CF38A9C6FB1B7432690D086A4FDC8589
Which states the following:
The following applies only to Fusion 2.0.1.
* VT-x is preferred for all 64-bit guests. (BT is not supported for 64-bit guests.)
* VT-x is preferred for Mac OS X, OS/2, SCO UnixWare and SCO OpenServer guests.
* For CPUs with FlexPriority or EPT, VT-x is preferred for all 32-bit Windows guests except Windows NT and Windows 2000.
* For family 6 model 17H and later CPUs with FlexPriority or CPUs with EPT, VT-x is preferred for all 32-bit Linux and 32-bit FreeBSD guests.
* BT is preferred for all other guests.
So it looks like there are different scenarios where VT will be used. Basically this says VT is required for 64-bit processors as BT (binary translation, VMware's way of running virtual machines before VT existed) isn't supported for 64 bit OS's, as I already knew.
I didn't realize that they're changing the rules with newer CPU's. From what I've just quickly read, the VT in the newer cpu's is starting to catch up or even surpass the speed of their BT method so on newer CPU's they're actually preferring VT over BT in some OS's.
But it really looks like the only thing you lose entirely without VT is 64 bit guest OS support. On a Mac Mini, I don't really see that as being a huge issue. It's not as if you're trying to address more than 4GB in a virtual machine when the physical machine itself can only take 4GB.
I am with you though in one respect. I don't like to limit my options if I don't need to. I would have preferred they had given us a VT capable chip even in the low end Macbook/Mac Mini, but that's where they are saving some costs.
This doesn't change anything. 64 bit applications, such as VMware, will still run fine. It just means you can't run 64 bit guest OS's.
Snow Leopard will be 64 bit, Fusion will be 64 bit, but you can't run 64 bit guest os's. That's all.
A developer may want to run a 64 bit OS to test the application in a 64 bit OS. Or you may have an application that is only supported on a 64 bit OS (Such as Microsoft Exchange Server 2007). They may not need 64 bit only to address more than 4GB of RAM.
Exactly!
Well, taking available options out of limit, I think I follow different approach how (on what) to boot vanilla Mac OS X. What common mortal can do else, Mac Pro is too expensive and Apple is limiting upgrade options on rest of Macs more and more.
Apologies for the noob question but will the new Mini's work fine with a 32" Philips Plasma/LCD?
Mac Mini 2009 Northbridge
is NB in this little beast PM45 ? or is it some cost saving downgraded cheap stuff ?
is NB in this little beast PM45 ? or is it some cost saving downgraded cheap stuff ?
It's an nVidia chipset, not Intel. I don't know what the nVidia model numbers are exactly, but whatever is in the Macbook is probably what is in this Mini. PM45 is Intel.
That's how it is. I should read more before asking stupid questions. So it is NB, SB and GPU in one chip. Interesting.
(I thought that NVidia GeForce 9400M is just discrete GPU added to what ever NB/SB is there)
Thanks for posting them, its good to know what they are like. Currently running 3DMark 2006 on my old gaming PC (built 2004 which GFX 2005) to give myself a comparision, though sure its running slower on my system than it used to.
BTW Did you run the full tests or just the ones in the basic version of 3dMark 2006? Plus what screen res for the test, was it 1280x1024?
Thanks
EDIT 2: My results (ouch, didn't realise I was _that_ badly out of date that the new Mini, beats the pants out of my gaming PC. Maybe Oblivion will play a bit better now
)Athlon XP 2800+, 1GB Ram, NVidia GeForce 6600GT 128mb
3DMarks : 518
SM2.0 : 265
HDR/SM3.0 Score : 104
CPU Score : 703
I did the mod over the weekend. iFixiT.com missed a couple of steps that was important in my case. I had to relocate the temp sensor because my Sammy 500GB hard drive was different from stock. I didn't unplug the black connect like ifixit instructed. I didn't want to risk pulling the wires off its connector. Only one antenna was "pinch release" the other two pulls straight up to remove.