2011 Mac mini performance tests

2011 Mac mini performance tests

The image below depicts the original 1959 Austin MINI automobile next to the newest MINI concept, the Rocketman. It's a visual metaphor of how far Apple's minimalist Mac mini has come since its first incarnation in January 2005. It's gone from a PowerPC G4 to an Intel Core i5/i7 processor. It's progressed from a Radeon 9200 GPU with 32MB DDR memory to Radeon HD 6630M with 256MB of GDDR5 memory. Instead of an 80GB Ultra ATA HDD, you can get it with a 750GB SATA HDD and a 256GB SATA SSD. Yet it weighs less and is thinner than the 2005 model.

We begin our coverage of the 2011 Mac mini's performance with some basic benchmarks comparing four different 2011 models. Since we consider the MacBook Air the other minimalistic Mac, we included three of those models in the graphs.

MAXON CINEBENCH 11.5
Though it appears to be just another artificial benchmark, Cinebench uses code from a real world 3D modeling app, Cinema 4D. The numbers in the two graphs represent a rating that Cinebench gives. Higher is better. The RED bar represents the fastest.

GRAPH LEGEND
Server i7 2GHz = 2011 Mac mini Server 2.0GHz Quad-Core i7
Core i7 2.7GHz = 2011 "Mac mini"* 2.7GHz Dual-Core i7
Core i5 2.5GHz = 2011 Mac mini 2.5GHz Dual-Core i5
Core i5 2.3GHz = 2011 Mac mini 2.3GHz Dual-Core i5
MBA 1.8 2011 = 2011 MacBook Air 1.8GHz dual-Core i7
MBA 1.7 2011 = 2011 MacBook Air 1.7GHz dual-Core i5
MBA 1.6 2011 = 2011 MacBook Air 1.6GHz dual-Core i5

(*NOTE: We didn't have a 2011 Dual-Core i7 2.7GHz Mac mini to test so we used the CPU results from the 2011 Dual-Core i7 2.7GHz MacBook Pro. We should have the "real" 2.7 mini results soon.)

PRIMATE LABS GEEKBENCH 2.1.13** (64-bit)
The overall score combines the integer, floating point, and two memory tests into one overall score. (LONGER bar means faster rating.) Note we used the 64-bit version. The RED bar represents the fastest.

(**NOTE: There are two versions of Geekbench that produce different results -- especially Floating Point and Memory Bandwidth ratings. Above are the results of Shareware version 2.1.13 which is downloadable from the Primate Labs website. Below are the results for the 2.2.2 version which is downloadable from the Apple App Store ($9.99). As you can see, the relative performance is the same.)

INSIGHTS
Why a Mac mini? For some it's about price. It's the lowest priced Mac you can buy in 2011 (assuming you already have a display, keyboard, and mouse). For some it's about the small footprint as illustrated in the picture above.

As expected, it's faster than a MacBook Air but slower than a Quad-Core i7 MacBook Pro or Quad-Core i7 iMac.

One interesting feature of the top Mac mini models (2.5GHz Core i5 and 2.7GHz Core i7) is the AMD Radeon HD 6630M dedicated GPU which allows it to run graphics intensive functions much faster than the low-end 2.3GHz model with the Intel HD 3000 integrated GPU. It's also much faster than all models of MacBook Air as well as the 13" MacBook Pro. Take a look at the Portal and Motion graphs below.

So, even though the 2011 mini server may have a quad-core i7, it will lag behind the 2011 mini with dual-core i5 or i7 when it comes to graphics intensive tasks.

How to setup a Mac Mini Media Center, server, and remote torrents box

How to, Mac OS X - March 22nd, 2010 - 52 Comments

Mac Mini’s make awesome little media centers since they are so small and have more features than an AppleTV. Following the below guide you will be able to do the following with a Mac Mini:

• Watch HD movies, videos, view photos, listen to music, and view weather from your couch on your TV.
• Watch Hulu, YouTube, and any other streaming online video on your TV
• Add & delete torrents to download onto the Mac Mini, remotely
• Control the media center via your iPhone
• Watch the movies stored on your Mac Mini on your iPhone
• Serve websites from your Mini to the world
• Browse the web, play games, and use your Mac Mini on a TV from your couch, wirelessly

Note: If this walkthrough seems a little overkill to you, check out our easy guide to setup a Mac Media Center which will provide a simpler setup, minus some of the features like remote torrent management.

Update: With the release of the new Mac Mini (2010 model), you won’t need any additional video or audio cables and adapters, only an HDMI cable! The new Mac Mini makes a perfect media center and outputs HD content flawlessly, plus it doubles as a great Mac, highly recommended. You can get the new Mac Mini for $669 from Amazon with free shipping

How to setup a Mac Mini as a media center, server, and torrents box

I just did all this and figured someone would benefit. It’s more of a link-list than a how-to; it’s also very dumbed down for anyone who’s not knowledgeable on any of this stuff…

Disclaimer: Do this all at your own risk. This all worked for me and I’m thoroughly enjoying the setup. If you feel there’s a better way to do some of this, feel free to comment!

Purchase a Mac Mini

You can pick up a Mac Mini from the usual suspects: Apple, MacMall (sometimes small discount), Amazon (usually good discount and free shipping), Craigslist, eBay, etc.
Apple Store – $699 with free shipping
MacMall
Amazon – New Mac Mini for $669 with free shipping – BEST DEAL

Don’t forget to check the Apple Refurbished Store for discounted machines, though most of the time there aren’t Mac Minis available.

Make sure that whatever Mac Mini you get is capable of playing high definition video if you’d like that capability. Generally speaking the newer the Mini the better (the newest 2010 model is ideal), and an Intel chip with 2GB of RAM is highly preferable.

Get the Media Center Software

Your Mini will just be a Mac hooked up to a TV without the right media center software.
Download and install Plex – Awesome media center app, this is the base software for your Mac Mini media center and runs on top of Mac OS X.

Download and install Perian – A package full of all the codecs you’ll need to play various video formats.
Download and install Handbrake – Rip DVDs to your Mac hard drive in an array of different file types, store them on the Mini for easy access within Plex.

Video Cables

Depending on which Mac Mini you have and what TV you have, you will need a different cable. Remember the 2010 Mac Mini only needs an HDMI Cable. Here are an assortment of cables you may need, verify which is necessary for your mini model:
Mini DisplayPort to DVI
Mini-DVI -> HDMI
Mini-DVI -> DVI
HDMI Cable
DVI -> HDMI
MiniDVI -> VGA

Audio Cables

Some of the newer Mac Minis have optical audio out through the headphone jack. If yours is an older Mac Mini use the mini -> RCA (red/white) cable. The 2010 Mac Mini carries audio over HDMI, so no audio cable is necessary.
mini -> TosLink (Optical Audio)
mini -> RCA

Control the Mac Mini Media Center Wirelessly

To access and control the Mac Mini from your couch (or anywhere wirelessly), you’ll need:

• Wireless Bluetooth keyboard, the Apple Wireless Keyboard works wonderfully and looks great on a coffee table
• Wireless Bluetooth Mouse, the Apple Wireless Magic Mouse is perfect

Once your Mac Mini is hooked up to your TV (through HDMI or otherwise), sync the wireless keyboard and mouse to the machine. You’ll be able to use it as a large external monitor and then browse the web, play games, and use it as any regular Mac. This ability alone is totally awesome and well worth getting a mini for. If you wanted to you could stop here and just use things like Hulu to watch streaming video on your media center mini, but you’re this far you might as well go all out!

Controlling the Media Center with your iPhone

Snatch. Awesome app that allows you to use your phone as a trackpad, as well as a remote control for Plex. This article shows you how to make a custom remote screen with a decently attractive theme. Very sweet.
Air Video. Allows you to stream movies from your Mac Mini to your iPhone, works over 3G (albeit very slowly)!

Setting up the Server

I highly, highly recommend a very strong password on your Mac Mini.
To use the Mac Mini as a web server you’ll need a few things. First, you’ll need to be able to reach the Mini from outside your network. I accomplished this by getting a free account at DynDNS. You can pick from a few free domains, most of them pretty terrible. You’ll then need to download and install their free IP updater client. This small app runs in the background and updates your dynamic IP to DynDNS. This way, when you type in your chosen domain name, your DynDNS account will always know to send the request to the correct IP and get the Mac Mini.

Download and install XAMPP. Very nice web server stack that installs and runs very smoothly.

By default, Apache listens on port 80. Most ISPs block traffic on port 80 (mine did), so you can make Apache listen to a different port by editing your httpd.conf file:

* Open Terminal, at the prompt type:
sudo vim /Applications/XAMPP/xamppfiles/etc/httpd.conf
* Type your password and you’ll be editing the httpd.conf file in vim. It looks a little scary, but it’s just a command line based text editor.
* Press the down arrow until you come to a line that says, “Listen 80.”
* Press the letter “I” to enter edit mode, now change “Listen 80″ to “Listen 8080.” Press Esc to exit insert mode.
* While holding Shift, press Z twice to save and exit.

(Note: you can use nano/pico or another command line text editor if you are more comfortable)

There, now Apache is listening on port 8080 and most ISPs will be none the wiser.

Open the XAMPP Control app (in your applications folder / XAMPP) and start all your services. You can quit this app once you’ve started the services, they don’t stop unless you re-open XAMPP Control and stop them manually. Now go to a browser and enter the following URL: http://localhost:8080 – That website is being served from the Mac Mini!

Setup Remote Torrents

Download and install Transmission or uTorrent whichever you prefer, although we’ll use Transmission in this guide.

In the preferences for Transmission select the “Remote” tab. Check the box for “Enable remote access.” After you read the next point (Router Settings & Port Forwarding) and activate port forwarding you’ll be able to reach this web interface from anywhere in the world by entering the URL http://your.domain.com:9091 – Neat, huh? I’ve used this feature waaay more than I thought I would considering I’m out of my house all the time with my Macbook Pro. I simply download the torrent to my MBP, then upload it to my Mac Mini to do all the heavy lifting. Torrents are ready to go by the time I get home!

Router Settings & Port Forwarding

If you’re like me, you have a few different machines all getting their internet from a wireless router. I have a Linksys WRT54GL running Tomato Firmware. In order for the router to know which computer to send requests to, you’ll need to specify a few port-forwarding rules. You’ll need to get the local IP of your Mac Mini from your router device list. My Mac Mini happened to be 192.168.1.145. So in my router settings I set up the following rules under the port-forwarding settings:

Port: 5900 - Label: VNC - Forward to: 192.168.1.145
Port: 8080 - Label: Web Server - Forward to: 192.168.1.145
Port: 9091 - Label: Torrents - Forward to: 192.168.1.145

Shortening Ugly URLs

If you happen to own your own domain name you can avoid having to type in those ugly URLs (blah.dyndns.net) by using 301 redirects. Simply open or create an .htaccess file on your web host’s server that says:

redirect 301 /home http://name.domain.com:8080
redirect 301 /torrent http://name.domain.com:9091

Now when you type in yourdomain.com/home you’ll be redirected to your Mac Mini and the same for yourdomain.com/torrent! Handy.

Sharing Preferences

Open System Preferences and click “Sharing.” You’ll see plenty of options, mine look like this. You should do the same if you want the capabilities listed here.

Screen Sharing

Now that all that’s set up you should be able to access your Mac Mini’s desktop from anywhere in the world. Just activate Finder and, in the menu bar, click Go > Connect to Server. Type in:

vnc://your.domain.com

You should be able to type in your user/pass and, voila, you’re at your Mac Mini’s desktop.

Note: VNC is unencrypted traffic by default and you should tunnel through SSH if you’re concerned about security. You can see a guide to setup secure screen sharing in OS X here.

–––––

That’s about all I’ve got for now. Please let me know if I’m missing anything and feel free to add your input!

This should make for a pretty nice little Mac Mini that lets you:

* Add/Edit/Delete active torrents without being anywhere near your house
* Watch movies & TV shows, listen to music, view photos, and view weather from your couch
* Control your media center with an iPhone
* Create/edit websites on your Mac Mini and access those sites from the web
* View your videos on your iPhone while in other rooms of your house or apartment

Enjoy!

Ultimate Mac Mini Media Center / HTPC

Apple Media Center | Your Ultimate Mac Media Center / HTPC Source!

The Apple Media Center website is devoted to providing the best and most up-to-date information on how to transform your already awesome Apple Computer into a Media Center powerhouse. The in-depth guides are presented a la carte, in a coherent order and in plain English so that anyone looking to build or add on to their existing Media Center will feel comfortable, every step of the way. While the main content of the blog will change only when necessary, the blog will keep you updated with the latest news, products and software.

Using your Macintosh computer as a media hub isn’t entirely new, but for some reason the information has been scattered across the web and presented in less than perfect examples. For once, all of that information is in one spot!

With Apple Media Center you will be able to get control of your media and use your Apple Computer to enter the future of home entertainment!

New Mac minis deliver serious performance Review | Desktops | Macworld

New Mac minis deliver serious performance Review | Desktops | Macworld

More options than ever

When it comes to the Mac mini line, the biggest questions have always focused on options and upgradeability. As with most recent Macs, your build-to-order options for the entry-level model are limited: You can upgrade the $599 model to 4GB ($100) or 8GB ($300) of RAM, and you can opt for a 750GB 7200rpm hard drive ($150). For the $799 model, you can increase performance by upgrading to a 2.7GHz Core i7 processor ($100); 8GB of RAM ($200); a 750GB 7200rpm hard drive ($150); a 256GB solid-state drive (SSD; $600); and, thanks to the absence of an optical drive, a combination of the 750GB hard drive and the 256GB SSD ($750).

Yes, this means you can configure an $1849 Mac mini—and that doesn’t include a keyboard, mouse, or display. (As with previous Mac mini models, you bring your own peripherals.) To be fair, few people are going to max out their Mac mini with all these options. But for those who actually need this kind of performance in a tiny package, it’s nice to know you can.

Unless you tend to work in only two or three applications—and even then, depending on the programs—I recommend upping the $599 mini from 2GB to 4GB of RAM. In testing the stock model, I regularly saw memory-related slowdowns once a number of applications were running; the $799 mini's 4GB offered a much better experience.

Upgrading the Mac mini's RAM is surprisingly easy these days: just twist, pop, and snap.

Of course, as with most Apple RAM upgrades, you’ll get a better deal if you buy from a third-party vendor—making sure to get RAM that meets Apple’s specifications—and install it yourself. For example, reputable third-party vendors are currently selling 4GB of memory for the new mini for roughly $45, with 8GB around $65. You can also get more RAM in your mini from third-party vendors: While Apple’s official specs say the Mac mini maxes out at 8GB, accessory vendor OWC is already selling a 16GB upgrade—for a whopping $1400—that the company says is fully tested and compatible.

As with last year's mini, memory installation is surprisingly easy: You just rotate the computer’s plastic base a few degrees counterclockwise and lift it off, pop out the two stock chips, snap in the new chips, and replace the base.

While Apple still doesn’t consider the Mac mini’s hard drive to be a user-upgradeable part, iFixit’s teardown of the 2011 model shows that replacing the stock hard drive is a relatively simple task. (Apple’s general policy with the Mac mini line has always been that as long as you don’t break anything during the process, upgrading the hard drive won’t void your warranty.) Which means that if you’re looking to increase the performance of the mini, or get more storage, you can save a few bucks by skipping the build-to-order options and instead shopping for a 9.5mm, 2.5-inch laptop hard drive. For example, at the time of this review, a 750GB 7200rpm drive is just $85 to $100 from Newegg.com, and a 1TB 5200rpm drive is around $125.

In other words, while bumping the $599 Mac mini to 8GB of RAM and a faster, bigger hard drive through Apple will set you back $450, going the DIY route will cost as little as $150.

New Mac Mini Benchmarks - Huge Performance Gains - Mac Rumors

Thursday July 21, 2011 2:07 pm PDT by Eric Slivka

Just like early reports on the new MacBook Air released yesterday, the new Mac mini is also showing significant improvements in raw performance over its predecessor machines. Mac mini web hosting company Macminicolo.net has obtained both standard and server models of the new line and put them through some preliminary benchmarking using Geekbench.