2009 Rev Mac Minis: Anybody here have one?

Doronron

I've been thinking about replacing my 2006 Intel iMac with a 2009 rev Mac Mini. The TV's been my monitor for a while now, so the iMac's screen is rather redundant.

The machine would get Bootcamped, with the OSX partition for websurfing, word processing, and Hulu, and the XP partition for some gaming -- HoMM5, Civ4+Mods, Diablo, MMO, etc. Not an FPS thing. Heat is a concern, given the small size of the Mini. Power's another. According to the Data Sheet, it's running everything at 110 Watts. Not sure how this would handle the gaming stuff.

The Mini's specs look like a performance improvement across the board, but if people have some anecdotal information about their experience, it'd be nice.

corky842

For $600 you could build a pretty nice gaming computer. More powerful than the mac mini, at least. See the computer build sticky.

If you have the desk space and don't need the cash selling your old imac would get you, I would keep the imac and build/buy a decent gaming computer. You get OS X, a good gaming machine, and all without the hassle of dual-booting. Plus, instant multiplayer goodness if a friend comes over.

Doronron

That's not really an option -- the point here isn't to build a gaming computer to begin with. A number of the programs I use regularly are Mac only. I don't want a second machine taking up more space, I want to replace the one I have that's getting a little long in the tooth. Gaming isn't the priority, but it would be nice to have access to a few older games, like Civ4 and such. I want to know if anyone here has experience with the current Mac Mini.

Jasconius

The hardware itself will be fine for Civ 4 at all but the highest nation count.

Quantitatively, the Mac Mini will probably be better than what you currently have, and it's about 10 to 15% weaker than the newest iMacs in processing/RAM power if you get it fully loaded.


The thing is, a fully loaded Mac Mini is only 50 bucks cheaper than a base model iMac which comes with a screen, a stronger video card, and a faster HD.


Mac Mini is either for people who don't care about performance or need the portability.

Doronron

I'm guessing no one here has one of the 2009 Minis.

Thanks for your time.

VulnoX

Hiya,

Sorry to be late to the party, hopefully you still see this.

I have a 2009 Mini. Its the base line 2.00GHz duder that came with 1GB ram. I bought 4GB for about $30 from NewEgg and upgraded it myself.

It plays WoW at decent settings, and a friend of mine that got one at the same time played some FPS' and RTS' on it. Its a powerful, quiet, impressive little dude.

I mainly got it as an HTPC running Plex (www.plexapp.com) which has given me an amazing setup for all my movies and TV Shows (It adds all the episode data, pictures, and even theme music on its own).

Basically, I could have built a machine for the price and maybe it would have been more powerful, but it would have in no way been as small, quiet, or as low on power draw. Mine draws about 55 Watts on average, only kicking it up if I am really pushing it. 55 Watts is while watching 1080i BluRay rips too. (My BluRays before anyone gets upset).

I also got my fiance an iMac 3.06 GHz with the Radeon 4850. There is no comparing these two machines as the iMac slaughters the Mini, but I could buy about 4 mini's for the price.

For what you want, I think the Mini would make you more than happy. Buy a baseline one, use a Student Discount, and then add the ram yourself unless you really don't feel comfortable doing it. My total cost was $630.

Doronron

Thank you, VulnoX. If my experience is similar to yours, the mini should last me about as long as my iMac has.

maximumzero

VulnoX wrote: »

I also got my fiance an iMac 3.06 GHz with the Radeon 4850.

Jealous. I'm on the 3.06Ghz with the 512MB 8800GT