Apple's New 1.25GHz Mac mini--How Fast Is It?
While those in Saturday morning's line at the Fashion Valley Apple Store were mostly looking for an iPod shuffle, there were many Mac mini buyers as well. Apple will be happy to know that every Mac mini buyer in line close to us, all well under the age of 30, intended to buy a Mac mini to replace their Windows PC. We got a few questions of concern from them about the Mac mini's speed and RAM compliment. Most planned to buy the $599 1.42 GHz model--the MHz myth lives on. Of course, we think the Mac mini (either model) is plenty fast for the normal computing jobs that they planned to tackle. We also advised them not worry about the base 256MB RAM. It is likely that they will find that 256MB works just fine based on our test of last week.
Our 1.25GHz Mac mini came in the now famous small box with a gray handle along with a small white plastic power brick and a DVI to VGA video adapter. Also included was a small gray box with a system restore/bundled software/hardware test DVD, a Mac OS 9 install DVD, an iLife '05 DVD, a 105-page user guide and the usual white Apple logo stickers, software proof-of-purchase coupons, software license and one-year limited warranty.
We hooked it up to our ethernet network and 17" display with a DVI to ADC adapter and then plugged it into the power brick. We plugged our D-Link Bluetooth module and USB mouse into USB ports on the display and pushed the power button. The only setup glitch we encountered was that our Bluetooth Apple Wireless Keyboard was not recognized initially so we had to use a wired USB keyboard for setup. After the setup it worked fine.
We had to install iLife '05 and Mac OS 9 from their DVDs. We also had to download and install a number of recent software updates. While we didn't mind all this extra "work" it is probably not the best experience for a switcher. Finally, we installed Apple Remote Desktop Client, M$ Office 2004 and our test suite applications.
So how fast is it? We subjected our 1.25GHz Mac mini to most of our usual speed tests. We compared the results with those from our original 2000-vintage 450MHz Power Mac G4 Cube, stock except for the 704MB of RAM, and our 2004-vintage dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5--all running Mac OS X 10.3.7. Here are the specifications of the three computers:
|
Feature
|
$499 Mac mini
|
Stock G4 Cube
|
Power Mac G5
|
|
CPU Speed
|
1.25GHz
|
450MHz
|
Dual 2.5GHz
|
|
L2 Cache
|
512KB
|
1MB
|
2x512KB
|
|
System Bus
|
167Hz
|
100Hz
|
1.25GHz
|
| RAM |
256MB
|
704MB
|
1.5GB
|
|
Graphics
|
Radeon 9200, 32MB
|
Radeon 128 Pro, 16MB
|
Nvidia 6800U, 256MB
|
|
Hard Disk
|
40GB, 4200RPM
|
20GB, 5400RPM
|
160GB, 7200
|
Our speed tests consist of several canned benchmark applications and several so-called "real world" tests. They are all easy to do on your own computer--see our Speed FAQ for details. Here are the results:
| Test | Mac mini |
G4 Cube
|
PM G5
|
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmarks: | |||
| Altivec Fractal 1.1.3 (GFLOPS) |
4.5
|
1.5
|
12.7
|
|
Cinebench 2003 - Rendering
|
113
|
49
|
644
|
|
- OpenGL Hardware Lighting
|
441
|
91
|
1579
|
| Let1kWindowsBloom 1.0 (sec) |
34
|
53
|
11
|
| Xbench 1.1.3 - CPU |
152
|
54
|
243
|
| - Threading |
111
|
42
|
260
|
| - Memory |
129
|
76
|
335
|
| - Quartz Graphics |
161
|
73
|
342
|
| - OpenGL Graphics |
111
|
81
|
178
|
| - User Interface Graphics |
208
|
104
|
410
|
| - Hard Disk |
57
|
52
|
108
|
| "Real World" Tests: | |||
| Startup (sec) |
50
|
54
|
38
|
| Shutdown (sec) |
19
|
15
|
9
|
| Launch Classic Mode (sec) |
13
|
26
|
9
|
| Dup. 700 MB Folder 3600 Files (sec) |
94
|
153
|
56
|
| Scroll 142p Acrobat Reader File (sec) |
25
|
55
|
12
|
| Encode MP3 in iTunes 4.7 (sec) |
53
|
119
|
54
|
| Export QT Movie in iMovie 4.0.1 (sec) |
46
|
34
|
19
|
| Quake III Arena 1.32 (frames/sec) |
89
|
34
|
407
|
*Faster = higher scores and lower seconds.
For the most part the Mac mini's performance falls comfortably in between that of the older G4 Cube and the latest Power Mac G5. The hard drive is on the slow side as expected since it is a PowerBook hard drive and the Mac mini's time to shutdown and to export a QuickTime movie in Full Quality DV are longer than expected. Each of the three trials of those two tests were consistent so we have no explanation. The good news is that the graphics results, including those for the 3D game Quake III Arena, are surprisingly better than we expected.
RAM. What about the 256MB of RAM? Curiously, ours came with a PC3200 DDR 400MHz RAM module rather than the slower 333MHz PC2700 DDR RAM which is the Mac mini's specification. Last week we tested whether 256MB RAM was sufficient for most uses with Mac OS X 10.3.7 in an upgraded G4 Cube. Basically, we ran Xbench with no other applications open except it and Activity Monitor and then we re-ran Xbench after opening five RAM-sucking applications: Safari, Apple Mail, iTunes, M$ Word and M$ Excel. Opening the applications resulted in a minor performance hit but increasing RAM to 512MB and 1GB did not ameliorate the performance hit by much at best.
We re-ran the tests with and without apps on our Mac mini. The first table below shows that opening the five additional applications uses up all of the free RAM except for 7MB.
|
256MB
|
||
|
RAM Allocation
|
No Apps
|
Apps
|
|
Wired
|
37
|
42
|
|
Active
|
97
|
138
|
|
Inactive
|
48
|
69
|
|
Subtotal Used
|
183
|
249
|
|
Free
|
73
|
7
|
|
Total
|
256
|
256
|
The second table below shows the results without the applications open and with them open. We also included the results from a 1.42 GHz Mac mini posted on this web page.
|
$499 Mac mini
|
$599 Mac mini
|
||
|
Test
|
No Apps
|
Apps
|
No Apps
|
|
CPU
|
152
|
142
|
171
|
|
Thread
|
111
|
104
|
126
|
|
Memory
|
129
|
123
|
139
|
|
Quartz Graphics
|
161
|
157
|
145
|
|
OpenGL Graphics
|
111
|
103
|
122
|
|
User Interface
|
208
|
191
|
201
|
|
Disk
|
57
|
56
|
55
|
| Print Time (sec) |
31
|
31
|
n/a
|
Like in our upgraded G4 Cube test, opening the five applications to use up almost all of the available free RAM caused a minor performance hit, no greater than 8 per cent and mostly less. We did not have PC2700 DDR RAM modules in 512MB or 1GB sizes to confirm our G4 Cube results on the Mac mini but we are confident that they would. Besides an amelioration of a minor effect would also be minor. In addition, we tried printing a 5-page document (yellow row in the table above) and there was no difference in time to print the document. Our view is that Mac OS X's excellent RAM management capabilities will provide acceptable performance with Mac mini's base 256MB RAM for the uses that most people will make of their computers. The RAM myth should be buried with the MHz myth.
Upgrading. If you are not too faint of heart, the Mac mini's case can be opened with a very thin 1.5" putty knife, Apple's official tool--believe it or not. A QuickTime video clip showing the use of a putty knife to crack open the Mac mini's case is available from Smash's web site. In addition, he posted access to what appears to be an Apple PDF file of the Mac mini service manual that confirms the putty knife is Apple's official opener tool. It also shows that a user can not easily add AirPort Extreme or Bluetooth since the so-called mezzanine board and antennas are not in the Mac mini.
We opened our Mac mini with a 4" putty knife because that appeared to be the width needed to press simultaneously all of the clips on one side. Still, it was not as easy as it looks. We suggest sliding the end of a small wooden dowel in the space between the top case and the ports block to hold the first side up while working on the second side. That way the edges of the aluminum top won't get scarred. We have an extra AirPort Extreme card and had hoped to install it. We confirmed that there is no mezzanine board or antenna inside a base Mac mini. So, if you want AirPort Extreme, be sure to order it CTO from the online Apple Store. It can be installed later by an Apple authorized service tech but it will include the Bluetooth module as well and cost more than $129. An alternative is to use a non-Apple USB Wi-Fi product. More RAM can be added easily after purchase if you open the case. Bluetooth capability can be added inexpensively as an external USB module.
Summary. The Mac mini is an outstanding entry level computer. Even in base form, it certainly performs well enough to do all of the usual tasks done by most people on a computer and then some. It's design is also oustanding from industrial and artistic perspectives. In the "then some" category, our Mac mini sits on top of our large screen TV but that is for another article. [Bill Fox]
Saw something? Send a tip
The archive ran on reader tips. What did you see, where, and do you want the credit?