[Matthew Attoe]

Hi,

I'm toying with the idea of grabbing one of the new Mac Minis to sort of replace / complement an original MacBook Pro Core Duo 2.0Ghz.

Is there much of a performance difference between the new C2D 2.0Ghz in the new Minis vs what I already have in the MBP? Enough to be noticed?

As always, many thanks,

Matthew

[Matthew Attoe]

Just seen over at appleinsider that Primate Labs have done a test on the new Mini at it shows a 12-13% increase in performance over my MBP.

Maybe I'll consider the 2.26Ghz Mini option, but I'm also going to have to have a think about whether the cost is worth the performance upgrade.

Thanks for looking anyway,

Matthew

[Simon]

The 2.0 GHz Penryn in the Mac mini is definitely going to be faster than the 2.0 GHz Yonah in your MBP. I can't tell you exactly how the 9400M will stack up against your X1600 in real life. Of course if you don't do things like Aperture, Motion or 3D games this won't be an issue anyway.

[Matthew Attoe]

Hi,

I wondered about the video card also.

Does the 9400M also support on-chip 1080P HD decoding? Or am I thinking about something else?

Cheers,

Matthew

[Simon]

Yes, the MCP79 chipset (the Mac mini's chipset with the 9400M) has PureVideo HD so it supports HD decoding.

[Matthew Attoe]

Hi Simon,

Thanks for the replies.

One last question (for now!) - would the new Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB 7200RPM drive be suitable in the new Mini? Or would it draw too much extra power or generate too much extra heat?

Thanks again,

Matthew

[Inappropriate Zen]

IF you can find one of those drives I don't think it would cause any problems (besides installing the sucker)...I went with a Western Digital Scorpio 320 GB 7200 RPM because I couldn't find the Momentus in stock anywhere.

Originally Posted by Matthew Attoe 

would the new Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB 7200RPM drive be suitable in the new Mini? Or would it draw too much extra power or generate too much extra heat?

[Simon]

Originally Posted by Matthew Attoe 

One last question (for now!) - would the new Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500GB 7200RPM drive be suitable in the new Mini? Or would it draw too much extra power or generate too much extra heat?

The Momentus 7200.4 would be an excellent drive for your new Mac mini. Personally I'm a big fan of the Momentus 7200.x line. The 7200.4 fits the Mac mini and neither heat nor power should be an issue at all. Good choice!

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Simon 

The 2.0 GHz Penryn in the Mac mini is definitely going to be faster than the 2.0 GHz Yonah in your MBP. I can't tell you exactly how the 9400M will stack up against your X1600 in real life.

They're about the same performance.

Originally Posted by Matthew Attoe 

I wondered about the video card also.

Does the 9400M also support on-chip 1080P HD decoding? Or am I thinking about something else?

Originally Posted by Simon 

Yes, the MCP79 chipset (the Mac mini's chipset with the 9400M) has PureVideo HD so it supports HD decoding.

Does OS X support GPU-accelerated video decoding yet?

[Simon]

Originally Posted by mduell 

Does OS X support GPU-accelerated video decoding yet?

Ever since the first MCP79 board came out.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by Simon 

Ever since the first MCP79 board came out.

Sorry I was dragging the thread a bit off-topic and I meant across the entire platform, not just for the few MCP79 models. Every Intel Mac with nVidia graphics has the hardware support for PureVideo HD, but OS X doesn't use it except for a couple recent models. I guess we'll have to wait for Snow Leopard and pay up for it.

[Simon]

PureVideo HD support in Leopard is definitely an MCP79 thing. My older MBP's 8600 has it, so does my UB MBP's 9600. But only the latter sees the acceleration. This also holds when booting the older one off the newer one's disk so it's not just a simple kext issue.

SL's GC might change this, not certain how though. I guess in principle GPU accelerated HD encoding could be done in GC without hinging on PureVideo HD.