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admin Site Admin

Joined: 21 Jan 2005 Posts: 2048 Location: U.S.A
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 12:04 am Post subject: Ars Reviews 2011 Mac mini as HTPC |
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Ars Reviews 2011 Mac mini as HTPC
Wednesday, August 10, 2011
Posted by: Kenan
Ars Technica has posted a review of the new 2011 Mac mini being used as a home theater PC. This means putting it through the paces with Plex and Boxee, and talking about accessories and alternative devices for the living room. They also take a deeper look at the performance and energy efficiency of the mid-range model with AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics. So, if you're interested in using the new Mac mini as a home theater PC, you should definitely give it a read. They seem to come away pretty impressed.
http://www.123macmini.com/news/story/1688.html |
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macmanmacman Veteran Member

Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 1682
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 7:28 am Post subject: |
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Wow Pretty cool Read!!!
Thank you!!! |
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curt Veteran Member


Joined: 17 Mar 2005 Posts: 1412 Location: Oregon
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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Not much new, but a good read nonetheless. _________________ 1.42GHz Mac mini
1.66GHz Intel Mac mini
2.0GHz 2009 Mac mini
46" Sony LCD
50" Sony KDS-50A2000
EyeTV 250 Plus
My Setup |
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Bandit Bill Veteran Member


Joined: 07 Jun 2005 Posts: 5793 Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 8:15 pm Post subject: |
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| curt wrote: | | Not much new, but a good read nonetheless. |
Agreed. It's more of an overview than a review. I expected much more from a HTPC review.
They made a mistake. Somehow they geekbenched a 2.0 GHz quad i7 mini. It doesn't exist. This should be a 2.7GHz dual core i7. |
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philiparcario Veteran Member

Joined: 19 Jun 2006 Posts: 4567 Location: Howell NJ USA
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 9:17 pm Post subject: |
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the server mac mini is a quad core 2.0Ghz and it is very fast for handbrake it scores 9500 geekbench 64 bit. may be the best 2011 mac mini to get. a server 2.0 quad is 999 add a pair of 750gb 7200hdds for 100 .
1099 add your own ram 8gb 50 bucks = ($1149) a very good machine that comes close to a 2010 quad 2.8 mac pro($2499) for geek bench _________________ 2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd
promise pegasus r6 3x 3tb + 3x 4tb =21tb hdds
lacie little big disk 2x 512gb ssds
synology 2tb disk station |
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ez061111 Veteran Member


Joined: 29 Mar 2009 Posts: 888
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 10:09 pm Post subject: |
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| Bandit Bill wrote: | | They made a mistake. Somehow they geekbenched a 2.0 GHz quad i7 mini. It doesn't exist. This should be a 2.7GHz dual core i7. |
2.0 GHz quad i7 Mini _________________ 2.0 GHz i7 Mini 8 GB RAM, OWC Merc Extreme SSD & Samsung Spinpoint
2.6 GHz i7 Mini 16 GB RAM, Samsung 830 & Hitachi
15" 2.3 GHz i7 MBP 16 GB RAM, OWC Extreme Pro 6G SSD & WD Black |
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Bandit Bill Veteran Member


Joined: 07 Jun 2005 Posts: 5793 Location: Edmonton, AB, Canada
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Posted: Wed Aug 10, 2011 11:51 pm Post subject: |
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| ez061111 wrote: | | Bandit Bill wrote: | | They made a mistake. Somehow they geekbenched a 2.0 GHz quad i7 mini. It doesn't exist. This should be a 2.7GHz dual core i7. |
2.0 GHz quad i7 Mini |
Thanks guys, I didn't realize the server model had a quad core. Good to know.
It would be interesting to see how the quad core i7 with the lower end video compares to the i5 with the higher end video in an actual multimedia shootout. |
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Smithcraft Veteran Member


Joined: 09 Nov 2008 Posts: 3012 Location: Seattle
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Posted: Thu Aug 11, 2011 1:57 am Post subject: |
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For most multimedia aspects, I can't see it making much of a difference.
Now if Apple did like they did with a video plugin for the nVidia cards, then there might be a difference.
Either way, both systems should be able to play straight up Bluray rips. I still don't know about if they handle the HD audio via the HDMI connection. This would be something that the AMD graphics might handle if the drivers supported bitstreaming.
SC _________________ Grumpy old man of computing.
[Desktop] G4 mini - 1.5Ghz 1GB 80GB HDD - Newer miniStack v2 500GB - 10.5.8
[Media System] Intel i5 mini - 2.33Ghz 8GB 500GB HDD - 4 x Hitachi 2TB HDD in a qBOX-SF - 10.7.5 (Thanks Phil!)
Make sure it has pins! |
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