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For six years, the Internet Nexus served as my technology blog, but I've since started blogging at the SuperSite Blog instead. If you're looking for the blog, please head there. --Paul

Saturday, February 05, 2005

Mac mini CPU intensive tests

Bare Feats produces the first credible Mac mini performance test, and the results are unsurprising:

The Mac mini is a credible performer when running "normal" productivity applications. Unless you are a speed fanatic with demanding, resource hungry applications, you should be very happy with your mini.

But the mini has weak spots. If you play 3D accelerated games, it won't do as well as its siblings ... The biggest weakness is the hard drive speed. As you know, the size, weight, and price design goals dictated that it have a sluggish 4200rpm 2.5 inch drive. If you aren't on a tight budget, I recommend either upgrading to a 5400rpm or 7200rpm drive.

It's a scandal that Apple still considers 256MB as adequate for entry level Macs. They must know better since they send out review units with 512MB. Mac OS X is a virtual memory operating system, but I don't think you want constant virtual memory hits on your mini ... I think your mini will "feel better" if it had 1GB of memory.

Of course, adding drives and memory can drive the price of the mini up quickly. If you don't have a keyboard, mouse, and display already, you can find yourself spending as much as the cost of an iMac G5/1.6 -- which is a faster machine

I agree with all of this. So I love the Mac mini, but increasingly I have to wonder why Apple went with such a small form factor when making it, say, 25 percent bigger would have allowed for larger, desktop-type hard drives. This change would have pleased everyone: It still would have been smaller than a PC ought to be, but the upgrade crowd could have gone nuts. And don't get me started about the hard drive needs of a DVR.

Still, the mini is a neat little machine, no doubt about it. That its performance is on par with a similarly-equipped Mac notebook (sans a decent graphics accelerator) is pretty much what I expected.

[ Posted at 4:45 PM | Permalink ]