2009-01-07, 00:54
Ok I'm sure this question has been asked before but I just want to make perfectly clear before I make a purchase. I originally started with XBMC on ATV... after seeing the potential of XBMC and being so impressed with it and the skins it's pretty much changed the whole way I think about digital media at home... in lieu of how well or really not well ATV handled HD content that didn't stream from iTunes I decided to take it back and had planned on getting a Mac Mini... in the interim though I had a perfectly good Vista box just sitting around with 500GB of space, 3.5 dual core processor, 2GB of RAM and a nVidia 8800 GTX video card... it's working like a charm no matter what I throw at it... however there are some issues... 1. It's a full tower and huge, 2. It's LOUD.
So I still plan on getting a Mac Mini... my only thought now though is since I've gotten accustomed to using XBMC I've really beefed up my HD content and almost have replaced all my SD content... I really don't want to be disappointed with the performance of a Mac mini after using my Vista Machine.
Will a Mac Mini be able to handle 720P and 1080P content as well as 5.1 audio and a really demanding skin (AEON, HORIZON, MEDIASTREAM etc...) without a hiccup? What would be the limiting factor in it's performance? RAM?
This will directly affect whether or not I use this money to buy a Mac Mini or build a small form factor Vista Box. I like the Mini because it looks nice sitting under my TV and is small and I like OS X in general... Most of the content will be on external hard drives using either firewire or eSATA but some will be streamed from my Mac Pro Box from shares I have setup. Anyhow what do you guys think?
So I still plan on getting a Mac Mini... my only thought now though is since I've gotten accustomed to using XBMC I've really beefed up my HD content and almost have replaced all my SD content... I really don't want to be disappointed with the performance of a Mac mini after using my Vista Machine.
Will a Mac Mini be able to handle 720P and 1080P content as well as 5.1 audio and a really demanding skin (AEON, HORIZON, MEDIASTREAM etc...) without a hiccup? What would be the limiting factor in it's performance? RAM?
This will directly affect whether or not I use this money to buy a Mac Mini or build a small form factor Vista Box. I like the Mini because it looks nice sitting under my TV and is small and I like OS X in general... Most of the content will be on external hard drives using either firewire or eSATA but some will be streamed from my Mac Pro Box from shares I have setup. Anyhow what do you guys think?