miazmaticdotcom Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 Hey everyone, I am considering selling my hackintosh (with XP on it, of course) and buying an Intel Mac Mini as they are small and quiet. However, I need some way to realistically compare the performance of the two before I go through with such a decision. I've been looking at the Xbench scores of the new Mac Minis, but have found them to be quite disparate (ranging from the lower 50s to upper 70s for the Core Duo model alone) so I need additional information before I can make a decision. My first instinct was to track down the SPECint benchmark - the very one Apple uses to advertise the speed of these machines - and run it on the one I might sell in order to see how it stacks up. I later discovered, however, that even a minimal license for this benchmark software is $500+. So much for that. Any other ideas to help me make an informed decision? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
A Nonny Moose Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 It depends on what you want to do. For some people, the Mac mini would be fine, especially for everyday things like surfing the web, checking email, and word processing (this is what most users do anyway). Games tend to be iffy on the Mac mini, as it features integrated graphics (boo hiss), so hard core gamers would be happier with an iMac (actually, a G5 tower would be better, but let's not split hairs right now). Plus, the iMac has an integrated camera, so if you use a webcam a lot, go for that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thrunner Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 http://www.macintouch.com/specialreports/perfpack02/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slantyyz Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 It all depends on what you're looking for. I just picked up my 1GB Core Duo today, and for every day stuff, it is snappier than the 1.25 G4 Mac Mini it is replacing. I don't play games, but I highly doubt that this would make a _great_ game machine, but I'm sure it would be competent. Right now, I don't feel too much of the speed benefits... until I load an application like Preview, which was sloooooooooow on the G4 and faaaast on the Core Duo. Until you see more "pro" universal binaries, I'm not sure you're getting any advantage with a Mac Mini today. For the every day stuff, especially apps that need to run in Rosetta, the difference isn't too noticeable. I expect to really start feeling the speed in the coming months. Just not right away. Myself, I'm just glad I'm not trying to get Mac OSX to run on my Centrino notebook any more. The Centrino can keep Windows for the time being. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miazmaticdotcom Posted March 5, 2006 Author Share Posted March 5, 2006 I don't have time for gaming but I do some audio and video work - my 2.8GHz OSx86 box screams past my 1.33Ghz iBook with the universal binary iApps on it. However, maybe my initial question wasn't clear. I am wondering if it would be wise to replace this machine (2.8GHz Celeron D, 80GB Sata, 512 PC3200, Intel GMA900) with a 1.66GHz Core Duo Mac Mini. All the specs on the Mini are equivalent or better except the processors. So in short I need a way to compare the performance under Mac OS X of the Celeron and the Core Duo. I know Mac OS X is very good at taking advantage of the two cores, and that more RAM would speed things up significantly. But is it wise to buy now, or wait until the Mini contains a higher clocked Core Duo? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bug Posted March 5, 2006 Share Posted March 5, 2006 I'd suggest waiting. Yeah, I want one now too... But the iBook's should be out in a couple months so what's the harm in waiting if you machine works for you now. The Macmini Core Duo will spank you 2.8 Celeron, btw. The large caches, more modern design, dual cores, will all make it a much faster processor. And, besides all that, it'll be supported by Apple! I know running OS X on our XP Boxes is fun and all, but I just see this as a prelude to actually having an Apple-Intel box. I'm not going to keep re-booting and hacking just so I can keep running this box (which scores a 81.24 in xBench w/ Prescott 2.8 & 9800SE). I'm going to pick up the iBook the day it's in the store. Go to the terminal and copy and paste; appletviewer http://math.nist.gov/scimark2/run.html This will test your machine and you can compare it to the Macintosh results. Here are my results; 188.3 105.2 379.1 12.2 138.5 306.2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
miazmaticdotcom Posted March 5, 2006 Author Share Posted March 5, 2006 I ran the benchmark, but I don't see where similar scores are available for the Mac Mini Core Duo. I'll hold onto that link though, should I come across an unsuspecting Mac Mini to run it upon (hello, Apple store...) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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