My Review of Apple’s Core 2 Duo Mac Mini
Some would consider this computer nothing more than a gateway drug Apple passes out to weary PC users as it hears the remote din of Vista’s dissent from the masses. Yet they would be only half correct, for the Mac Mini is much, much more. The machine represents Apple’s finest attempts to craft a light, low cost system for the everyday user and, by and large, Jobs and company have succeeded in this effort. Despite Apple’s best intentions, however, the Mac Mini is not without its faults, quirks, and quibbles, but the fact remains that the engineers in Cupertino has crafted a beautiful computer that shines brightly regardless of its diminutive size or minuscule footprint.
Since the last performance bump, which replaced Intel’s Core Duo with the speedier Core 2 Duo, the performance of the Mac Mini has become quite respectable for daily computing tasks that the average home user might perform, such as web browsing, photo managing, music playing, DVD watching, light website creation, and document editing. Here’s the Mac Mini doing the latter.
The Mac Mini reviewed here is the low-end model, containing a 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo, 1 GB RAM, an Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64 MB Shared SDRAM., and an 80GB hard disk drive.
As is customary, the Mac Mini asks users to “BYODKM,” or “bring your own display, keyboard, and mouse.” If you’ve got those items handy (perhaps because you’re replacing an older PC), then great; if not, you may want to consider purchasing an entry level iMac, which comes with an integrated display and an Apple keyboard and mouse, not to mention more powerful hardware under the hood. Purchasing each component separately with the Mac Mini could add several hundred dollars to the price of admission.
I purchased the entry level Mac Mini as a replacement for a fairly high-end Vista Home Premium desktop tower that I had built from parts largely ordered off of NewEgg.com. Regardless of that computer’s raw processing power, I simply could not deal with some of Vista’s less-friendly quirks, such as its incompatibility with the Epson printer that I owned and buggy nVidia drivers that would intermittently render my display blank. While the machine was a necessary part of my work reviewing PC games and technology for Gamer 2.0, after I moved on and decided to enter graduate school I reckoned that something lighter, cooler-running, and less of an eyesore would be preferable for my day-to-day tasks of typing papers, checking email, organizing photographs, and the occasional Desktop Tower Defense binge. Not to waste perfectly good computer hardware, my homebrew PC sits next to a desk in the house my parents live in; they get plenty of use out of it since I set up Windows XP and some commonly used applications for them.
Upon opening the package, you’ll notice the familiar “Designed by Apple in California” emblazoned rather modestly onto the software and manual box. Unfolding the box reveals a 67-page manual, two system/software installation discs, an OSX Leopard installation DVD, a DVI-VGA convertor, and the Apple remote, which can be used with the included Front Row application.
Before we examine individual application performance, let’s take a look at the raw benchmark numbers.
The 1.83 GHz Core 2 Duo Mac Mini scored a respectable 110.32 in the Xbench test, placing it roughly 19% faster than the 1.6 GHz Core Duo Mac Mini, regardless of the amount of RAM installed on the latter machine. Predictably, with the paltry Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics processor and shared RAM, the Mac Mini lagged heavily in graphics performance behind the iMac, MacBook Pro, and Mac Pro, though it managed to beat out the MacBook’s graphics performance by roughly 15% in the Xbench graphics test.
The Mac Mini, as a low to mid-range computing desktop, won’t win any awards for its graphics capabilities. Then again, it isn’t designed to. Gamers, photojournalists, or magazine layout designers may be better suited with the iMac, which includes a discreet graphics card and thus is nearly 40% faster than the Mac Mini in the Xbench test.
The Mac Mini maintained a depressing (and unplayable) 8.5 frames-per-second average using a custom timed demo in Quake 4, a graphics and processor-intensive computer game. For a realistic look at how much better the iMac performs while running Quake 4, check out these benchmark numbers obtained from MacWord:
There are a number of reasons for the Mac Mini’s poor gaming performance. First, the GMA 950 does not contain its own RAM. It instead shares system RAM depending upon the task at hand. Second, it is not capable of handling transform and lighting effects, nor does it support programmable shaders. As a result, the Intel Core 2 Duo CPU must perform these operations, which are extremely detrimental to the game’s frame rate.
Game performance notwithstanding, the Mac Mini holds its own surprisingly well in business and home applications. From a cold boot, Microsoft Word 2008 loaded in 7.6 seconds while iTunes and Safari each loaded in less than three seconds. iPhoto, which taxes the GMA 950 processor, was a little less responsive than we would have liked with our library containing 3,705 photos, though it was still very much usable. The graphics-intensive Google Earth, though, displayed choppy animations and aliased edges prior to turning off some of the graphics overlay options.
While PCs exist near the Mac Mini’s sub-$800 price point that give better performance, particularly with many cutting-edge games, one cannot deny the perks associated with buying Apple hardware. The main advantage, in this case, is the miniature form factor. Measuring 6.5” x 6.5” x 2” and draped in ivory white and silver, there’s no denying that Apple’s talent for creating beautiful, striking, and compact hardware has been upheld with the Mac Mini.
Additionally, the iPod shuffle-esque Apple remote is included in the package. The included Front Row application, serving as a full-screen photo, movie, and music center, supports the Apple Remote. It’s a particularly neat addition if you’ve got a large HTDV television or monitor. Other noteworthy uses entail controlling Keynote presentations with the Remote, but chances are, most users will see the Apple Remote as a small novelty bonus and nothing more.
The Mac Mini comes with a host of bundled software that is immediately useful and pertinent to the daily tasks most people expect the computer to perform. The software installation CD comes with demo versions of Microsoft Office 2004 (which runs through emulation using Rosetta, unfortunately) and iWork 08. That’s about it for the trial plugs, fortunately, as full versions of Front Row, iWeb, GarageBand, iDVD, iPhoto, and iMovie are present. Leopard comes complete with Mail, Safari, iTunes, iChat, and Time Machine, which has gotten tons of press coverage already. In short: if you don’t back up your files already, visit Best buy, nab an inexpensive external hard drive, and use it with Time Machine; you’ll be glad you’ve got it running when you accidentally delete your entire thesis (trust me, it happens). Lastly, CD burning is integrated into the Leopard operating system, so no third-party software is required if you need to duplicate some files in a pinch.
The answer, thankfully, is a resounding “No.” The Mac Mini is a capable little machine that should satisfy casual business users, students, and storage-unintensive users. This isn’t the computer for a music or entertainment junkie, as the 80 GB hard disk drive simply can’t stand up to the pressures of constant movie and song downloads. Nor is it a system that will please gaming die-hards. But it will handle most business tasks you throw at it - just not as snappy as Apple’s more expensive computers.
Can it deliver a good-enough Leopard experience to convert longtime Windows users who happen to dislike Vista’s heavy-handed approach to personal computing? That is up to each individual’s computing preferences, but I suspect many users will answer, “Yes.”
The Mac Mini is unquestionably elegant and unobtrusive. It was designed for people who desire simplicity in their computing technology, and who believe that computers should not be seen or heard. The Mac Mini, while sleek and sexy in its own right, sits quiet, cool, and unassuming on the desk as if it weren’t there at all. Most of the time, it just works. If that sounds like the ideal computer, then it’s very likely that the Mac Mini was made for you.
If you’re considering a purchase, you may want to hold off until the Mac Mini receives a performance upgrade. It’s been some time since Apple’s last Mac Mini spec revision, and rumors continue to swirl that an upgrade is coming soon. Could it be in June at Apple’s WWDC? Maybe.
Tags: Apple, Core 2 Duo, critique, document, editing, email, gaming, GMA 950, graphics, Intel, Leopard, Mac Mini, Music, OSX, photo, processing, review, Time Machine, word, WWDC
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May 12, 2008 at 9:08 am
It’s not quite fair to compare a custom-built machine with a Windows OS to a fully-tested and certified Apple-built machine. Granted, this doesn’t mean that store-bought Windows machines will work with every peripheral, even Macs don’t work with everything. Also, since the older desktop went home with XP on it, it sounds like you could have kept the XP machine and solved some (most, or all) of your driver incompatibility issues.