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Up Graded 2006 MINI and HTPC

D

davids8477

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jan 4, 2008
282
3
Hello:

I have an old 2006 CD MINI that I used to use as a HTPC, but found that it would not handle streamed HD, ripped Blurays, content without severe stuttering etc.

I have a new MINI which works fine.

So I am think of upgrading it to a C2D CPU, adding memory etc. for use in a 2nd home theater.

Do you think that with the faster CPU it will be able to stream HD or is the graphics card the real limitation?

Thanks for any input.

David
 
Depends how high quality HD content are we talking about. Even 2009 Mac Mini with C2D CPU and 9400M had issues with BR rip playback. The biggest problem is the audio decoding if I recall correctly, that is very CPU intensive. New Mini has GPU that support hardware acceleration but your old one does not so that might cause issues.

Streamed HD usually is not very high quality due to bandwidth limitations (BR can be up to 50Mb/s) but if it's Flash based, then it will stutter as Flash sucks in OS X.

More info about the content would help but as said above, it should play Blu-Rays that are encoded correctly (may result a loss in quality).
 
Hellhammer said:
Depends how high quality HD content are we talking about. Even 2009 Mac Mini with C2D CPU and 9400M had issues with BR rip playback. The biggest problem is the audio decoding if I recall correctly, that is very CPU intensive. New Mini has GPU that support hardware acceleration but your old one does not so that might cause issues.

Streamed HD usually is not very high quality due to bandwidth limitations (BR can be up to 50Mb/s) but if it's Flash based, then it will stutter as Flash sucks in OS X.

More info about the content would help but as said above, it should play Blu-Rays that are encoded correctly (may result a loss in quality).
Click to expand...

Thanks for your input.

I am streaming MKV's or M2TS files - each is +20gig.

My 2010 2.16 C2D mini handles this fine - everything is gigabit Ethernet.
 
davids8477 said:
Hello:

I have an old 2006 CD MINI that I used to use as a HTPC, but found that it would not handle streamed HD, ripped Blurays, content without severe stuttering etc.

I have a new MINI which works fine.

So I am think of upgrading it to a C2D CPU, adding memory etc. for use in a 2nd home theater.

Do you think that with the faster CPU it will be able to stream HD or is the graphics card the real limitation?

Thanks for any input.

David
Click to expand...


Well I pulled the trigger and ordered a 2.33 C2D, 500 gig HD and 2 x 1gig memory.

Wish me luck :eek:
 
Upgrade Complete

davids8477 said:
Well I pulled the trigger and ordered a 2.33 C2D, 500 gig HD and 2 x 1gig memory.

Wish me luck :eek:
Click to expand...

Well yesterday I installed the new CPU, Hard drive and Memory. Apart from one glitch everything went well. The glitch was that I reinstalled the CPU heatsink and 90 degrees from correct - thus the airflow would be impeded.

That corrected the MINI booted up fine - actually very much faster that before.

I did notice that the CPU got too warm for my liking when streaming an HD movie from my server - via Itunes.

I think that the messing around with the heat sink may have something to do with that - so next weekend I'll reseat the heatsink with fresh thermal paste.

On a scale of 1-10 (10 being VERY difficult) I would say this upgrade was a 6.
:D
 
Couldn't wait until next weekend.

Reseated the heatsink and ran the CPU at 100% (all cores).

The temperature stabilized at 169F with a fan speed of 3200RPM after a few minutes.

Very satisfied

:)
 
Last edited:
flopticalcube said:
Well done. Time to view some BD rips and see if it was all worth it.
Click to expand...

Thanks.

Waiting for the new TV to be delivered for the bedroom. MINI will be in the next room (office) and wired through the wall to eliminate all noise.
Will control it via IPAD.

Initial test using a computer monitor shows that BD streaming is great with no stuttering or waiting for buffering - using PLEX.
 
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