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2013-10-09, 21:15
(This post was last modified: 2013-10-09, 21:39 by Riderzzz.)
Hi all,
My HTPC died yesterday (6 years old laptop), fried motherboard and I wanna buy a new system now.
I'm gonna jump in the Mac mini experience, need a Mac OS environment at home.
I'm not gonna use it for games, just some normal desktop stuff and of course xbmc.
I would like all the xbmc features to run smoothly.
Which Mac mini do I have to choose with which ram/processor.
Mac mini 2,5 Ghz i5 (how many ram will be sufficient?)
Or The Mac mini i7 with 2,3 GHz or 2,5 GHz.
Last question is: should i wait for the Haswell update or should I just go for the current intel.
Hope you guys have some nice input for me :-)
And: go for boot camp with windows or is Mac OS good enough nowadays with xbmc?
Mike.
Edit: i see that the online configuration won't let me add a fusion drive or sad to the i5, what is kinda a must for me, noise and speed are just so much better.
Now I'm big time doubting, money/need.
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noggin
Posting Freak
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2013-10-10, 11:07
(This post was last modified: 2013-10-10, 11:08 by noggin.)
If you're someone who can spot frame drops/repeats, it might be worth waiting for Haswell? AIUI Haswell are the first Intel GPUs to finally crack 23.976Hz output.
I can spot them - but can live with them - so am OK with Ivy Bridge and Sandy Bridge builds - but YMMV.
I was seriously considering a Mac Mini, as it's a lovely machine, and when you price up a MiniITX self-build with similar components, or a NUC or a Brix, it's pretty cost effective. However I ended up going for a low powered Celeron 1007U Revo RL80 - as in the end it did everything I needed and was at a price I couldn't really turn down.
However this wasn't my main HTPC - it was a secondary machine. (My main HTPC is a Core i5 uATX self-build)
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Thanks for your answers, both of you.
The problem I have is that I don't have a htpcmachine at home and I would like to buy a new in a short time.
It's gonna be my main machine and even without HTPC I was thinking to buy a mini.
The money is the second thing. I can buy the machine from 600 to a whole lot more dollars. But when the new ones comes out my "old" one will loose a lot of value.
Waiting for the Haswell is the best option quality wise but then I prolly have to wait a few months?
Will let you know what I decided later on this week.
Thanks for the advise!
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Mac mini with WIN 7.. You cant go wrong with that. I use with with 8 Gigs of RAM and it works great.
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Hi ozkhan1,
Are you having the dual core i5 or quad i7?
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2013-10-10, 22:40
(This post was last modified: 2013-10-10, 22:43 by beemarp.)
Mac Mini 2011 i5 IntelHD3000 8GB ram user here...
It is stubborn, but once you get your settings right, it does pretty well. Frame drops can get annoying though IMO.
Passthrough audio seems flaky on these newer builds. I hear OSX is full of weird problems for developers.
I'm experimenting with Ubuntu right now. XBMC seems to run better with it.
Overall, I like my Mini...but be prepared for a lot of tinkering. If you're at all a perfectionist...
EDIT: I can't speak for other models. My problems may be specific to the IntelHD3000, not sure. But I have heard OSX Mountain Lion is full of weirdness.
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2013-10-13, 09:15
(This post was last modified: 2013-10-13, 09:17 by Riderzzz.)
I bought myself yesterday the i5 dual core with 4gb to start with.
At the moment I really have zero problems whatsoever with xbmc running on OS X.
I thought I needed to buy the extra ram, but xbmc itunes and dome additional programs on the background it just runs smoothly.
I don't have many HD sound files yet, just the DTS and Dolby. So I don't have any problems with sound in OS X too.
Fast loading thumbs, flawless playback, I mean just a prefect, fairly cheap easy HTPC for € 650,-
And yes beemark: I am a perfectionist :-)
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Sorry for jumping in here and this late but I am considering a Mac Mini as well, exclusively for XBMC use. To me, one of the most important things about XBMC is to have a properly functioning and completely quirk free remote experience.
I read somewhere that the Mac Mini has a built in IR receiver and will be able to receive IR from the Apple TV (2/3) remote. Does anyone know if that is correct?
If so - would that remote option also work if installing Windows 7 on the box?
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Two thumbs up for Mac Mini. I first tried XBMC 64bit on my 7 years old MacBook and it runs like butter. Then I did the same installation on my friends Mac Mini and she couldn't be happier.
I've tried many different Android TV Boxes and the Mac Mini that I'm actually going to spend some times to write a review between the two sytems.
Price: First of all price differences. The Mini goes for $599 starting and the Android goes anywhere between the $70 to $250. Even with the double price tag differences I still think the Mini is still the better investment choice.
Apps Ecosystem: Apple's OSX have a much better ecosystem then Android. The desktop type apps and build quality is far better then Android.
Support: Many of these Android TV boxes are created by small start up companies from China and Hong Kong. There's no real developers to backup their products. Google themselves doesn't even recognize these Android TV boxes either. With Apple products you know they will continue to support their product for a long time instead of sitting around and hoping these Android Tv boxes will get an upgrade soon and things might get better.
Hardware: Mac mini has a higher quality build with Intel chips and graphics. I found out these Android boxes are using the same chips from China that is not the same as apple iOS chips. They will call it the A9 or A7 chips to confuse people with Apple's iPhone and iPad chips.
The remote control that usually comes with these boxes are cheap and useless. Investing in a nice mouse and keyboard might help out a bit.
Software: The Mini's OSX was design to integrate with it's hardware and utilizes the communication between the HW and SW. Whereas these Android TV box took Google Android and slap it on a piece of hardware. The Android OS that came preinstalled on them were originally designed for phones and tablets. Google didn't designed them for TV so you will often have navigation problems glitches that only a touch screen was design for.
Quality: My brother bought an Android TV from the internet and his kept on crashing every few hours until it fried itself. He was able to use it for 1 month. I've experimented a few found in local tech stores but had to returned them immediately because of either wifi problems and TV flickering due to resolution incompatibilities.
XBMC: Sorry to bust your nuts guys but XBMC on these Android TV are extremely glitchy and I've encounter so many problems with XBMC that I officially redeem the app officially unusable. However, XBMC works great on my Samsung Android phone but uses up a lot of battery juices.
And next years hardware is always better on top. 
