Mac Minis?

[12-51-00]

Okay, calling all Tech/Mac Geeks...

I need a new DVD player in the bedroom and also my 17" Sony LCD is feeling a bit inadequate these days so instead of buying a regular TV & DVD I've decided to buy a Mac Mini and mate it with a 20 or 23" Cinema HD Display.

Now my question is, are the Intel Mac Minis really any better than the PowerPC ones? It's not about needing Windows as I've been using Mac OS X since 2001 and I've never even seen a Windows screen since. With that in mind I'm thinking of getting a 1.5Ghz G4 Mini since I used to have a 1Ghz G4 iMac back in the day and that always handled whatever I threw at it.

I've also got a Quad Core 2.5Ghz PowerMac G5 so I'm all set work wise, I just need the Mac Mini to rip DVDs and act as a Media PC, should a 1.5Ghz G4 maxed out with RAM be enough for that?

Also, I've seen the Mac Mini companion things that sit underneath a Mini and look exactly the same, I guess they're external hard drives but who makes them and which are the best? Also does anyone know if those new Time Capsule things will sit under the Minis in the same way?

[segages]

I bought the first edition Intel MacBook which was a 2.0 Core Duo, switching from an iBook G4 1.33GHz.

Ripping DVDs to DivX or H264 with Handbrake (first image the disc to the HD to save the drive) was at least twice as fast on the Intel. Much quicker from what I remember, so I'd go with the Intel option if possible, if you've a lot of movies to rip/convert.

[ascender]

Iomega and Lacie make external HDDs which are stackable with Minis.

Upgrade the RAM and you'll be fine. While it won't be as fast as the Intel box, it'll be more than capable. But the fact its not your main machine means you're probably not bothered about how long its going to take to rip stuff anyway.

I think the dimensions for the Time Capsule are on the Apple website.

I've been thinking about a Mini or Apple TV for a while now and the recently announced new firmware for the ATV has made me think I might pick one up soon.

[Morcerf]

I bought the first edition Intel MacBook which was a 2.0 Core Duo, switching from an iBook G4 1.33GHz.

Ripping DVDs to DivX or H264 with Handbrake (first image the disc to the HD to save the drive) was at least twice as fast on the Intel. Much quicker from what I remember, so I'd go with the Intel option if possible, if you've a lot of movies to rip/convert.

Hmm, I'm ripping lots of stuff from DVD to H264 at the moment in preparation for a stint abroad, but have been doing it in one step from DVD -> H264

When you say image the disc to the HD, how do you do this? And in what way does it save the drive? Is it quicker doing it like this?

[babs]

I don't know about making an image of the disc on a mac, but the theory I at least understand.

If you rip and encode direct from the DVD, the disc is constantly being accessed for the whole time. If you make an image, once it's copied to the HD the disc can be removed, saving the motor/heat/power wasted on the way it's normally done.

[BaudAttitude]

If you're going to be doing anything with HD video files, I'd recommend an Intel mini. I've got one of the 1.66 Core Duo 2 models (The very first round of Intel minis), and it seems to barely keep up with playing back anything in 1080.

Oh, and people want far too much for G4 minis. I've considered picking one up just to play around with, but every time I look at the prices, I say to myself "Well, with a couple hundred more I could get a new mini... and it'd be faster, and have a bigger drive, and not be 3 years old... but I can't afford that." and so I don't buy one, which is rather better for the pocketbook really.

[12-51-00]

Yeah, I've found there's only about a ?20-?50 difference in the price of G4 and Intel Mac Minis. I've heard somewhere that the Intel Core Solo's and Duo's aren't any better than the G4s though. The Core Duo 2s are supposed to be the real deal though which is why I'm thinking of a brand new Intel Core Duo 2 or a used G4. I've been using G3, G4, and G5 PowerPCs for almost a decade now and they've always handled whatever software was around at the time so I think I'll go for a G4 out of loyalty to the PowerPC... Unless someone can tell me if the Intels are signficantly better and deserve me paying twice as much?

Now, If only they'd stuck a 2Ghz G5 in a Mini

[CMcK]

The Core Solo Mac mini is a damn site quicker than any of the G4 models for pretty much everything. Even though the G4 models have discreet graphics it doesn't make up for the Intel based models having faster CPU's, more memory bandwidth and faster I/O.

If your intending to watch DVD's on the mini get an Intel based model and Leopard. The new version of DVD player has far better image quality than before and really takes advantage of the Intel chips for scaling etc.

As for DVD ripping I would advise you to go with a Core 2 based mini. Programs like Handbrake really take advantage of the SSE3 support and dual cores to significantly decrease ripping and encoding times. And they are great for Folding too.

The Apple Time Capsule is wider than a Mac mini and I'm not sure that sitting a computer on top of the router will help the signal at all.

[12-51-00]

The Core Solo Mac mini is a damn site quicker than any of the G4 models for pretty much everything. Even though the G4 models have discreet graphics it doesn't make up for the Intel based models having faster CPU's, more memory bandwidth and faster I/O.

If your intending to watch DVD's on the mini get an Intel based model and Leopard. The new version of DVD player has far better image quality than before and really takes advantage of the Intel chips for scaling etc.

As for DVD ripping I would advise you to go with a Core 2 based mini. Programs like Handbrake really take advantage of the SSE3 support and dual cores to significantly decrease ripping and encoding times. And they are great for Folding too.

The Apple Time Capsule is wider than a Mac mini and I'm not sure that sitting a computer on top of the router will help the signal at all.

So if the intel chips are faster does that mean if I spent the extra £200-£300 on a 2.0Ghz Intel Core2 Duo Mini and max it with 2GB of RAM I'll get similar, or better, performance to my Quad Core G5 also W/2GB RAM?

Also not sure I can buy the Time Capsule anyway, my Broadband is with BT so came with the hub, and my G5 runs off the ethernet cable so I'll probably just get the biggest HDD I can find that fits under the Mini and use the wireless on that with the hub.

[Magnakai]

All things being equal, I'd assume the G5 will still be faster, though that Mini will be far from a slouch. My Macbook's a similar spec and it's really very nippy. Anything G4, however, will be whupped from here to beyond.

[wakka]

I use a 1.25Ghz Mac mini that I bought back when they came out (when they shipped with 256MB of RAM as default!). It runs Leopard a lot better than it ever ran Tiger, and Front Row 2.0 looks awesome. I've got 512MB of RAM in there, and it's connected to a 750GB Seagate FW drive.

Plays everything great HOWEVER totally forget about watching anything in HD.

EDIT: The Apple monitors are incredibly overpriced and since they're so high resolution will make most of your video files look like ****. Be warned. For instance, my 26 inch HDTV with 1366*768 resolution is MUCH more flattering to standard resolution video files than my 1440*900 MacBook Pro screen, simply because the latter is so much more precise.

[kez]

as a guide my 1.33Ghz G4 powerbook takes about 8 hours to encode a 2hr film to h.264

[fuse]

I'm a bit new to the Mac camp, does the RAM really make that big a difference on them? I got a brand new Intel 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo one not long back and was put off the extra gig because of the price tag, figuring if I did change my mind I could always do it myself... not so sure now that I look at the thing though - fiddly to say the least.

[CMcK]

Any computer will benefit from having plenty of RAM especially if you are running multiple programs at once.
Which model of Mac do you have and how much RAM does it have at present?

[segages]

I'm a bit new to the Mac camp, does the RAM really make that big a difference on them? I got a brand new Intel 2.0Ghz Core 2 Duo one not long back and was put off the extra gig because of the price tag, figuring if I did change my mind I could always do it myself... not so sure now that I look at the thing though - fiddly to say the least.

The more the merrier but it depends on your needs.

On my current MacBook (2.2GHz C2D Santa Rosa) booting to Tiger will use about 512mb although I've a few 'login programs'. Leopard will use closer to 750mb-800mb so by the time I've fired up Photoshop it's closing in on virtual memory on the 5400rpm drive which isn't good.

Originally I stuck with the stock 1gb RAM then upgraded to 4gb myself and now it flies. 2gb should be plenty for most people, though. Never order extra RAM from Apple since it's outrageously overpriced.