MacMini – just say No.

Computing

Horribly overpriced.

Let me preface this piece by saying that I own the previous generation MacMini with the Core2Duo CPU. It does service as a movie file server and has attached to it, using USB, 10 tB of HDDs containing movies. It’s small, quiet and fits in easily with the other electronics required for decent pictures and sound with a modern TV, though the poorly engineered slot loading DVD drive needs constant cleaning. However, as a stock computer for photo processing I can’t think of a worse choice. (OK, I can, but this writer does not use Windows).

This piece was prompted by a friend who asked whether the MacMini is a good choice for photo and video processing. The short answer? Not remotely.

The Mini fails on many fronts. The heat management is awful. The very last thing I would ever do with mine is use it to rip DVDs or compress movies using Handbrake for the iPad, having tried it just once. Try it on a Mini or any iMac, for that matter. Fire up the (free) Temperature Monitor from Bresink Software, invoke the history chart window and watch the CPU temperature go ballistic from some 105F (ambient) to 160F+ when ripping or compressing. That’s very close to the temperature limit of the CPU used. Even to get the ambient down to 105F I use a fan utility to spool up the pathetic single fan – there’s no room in the box for more – over the inadequately low stock setting.

Try and add more memory (easier in the latest Mini) or a larger HDD, and I have done both, and you have to be pretty smart with tools not to damage something when you crack the case open. It’s obviously the last thing Apple wants you to do given their default ‘form over function’ design philosophy.

The latest Mini addresses only the ease of RAM replacement (now easy, through a cover in the base) and use with SDHC cards. It has a reader, albeit inaccessibly placed in the rear. It now uses an Intel Core i5 (or i7 for another $100) CPU but both are significantly detuned, likely owing to heat management problems. The Mini’s i5 runs at 2.5gHz (3.3gHz is stock if you buy the CPU in a box) and the i7 manages a poor 2.7gHz (3.6gHz stock). The stock, boxed CPUs can be overclocked to 3.6gHz and 3.8gHz without voiding the warranty, if you buy the ‘K’ unlocked models for a $20 premium.

Not that you even need to overclock the i5/i7 if you make a Hackintosh. The i3 built for me by buddy FU Steve runs as fast as the i5 in the Mini.

Short of buying a MacPro ($$$$$) your only choice for robustness, ease of maintenance, proper cooling and reliability is a DIY Hackintosh. The iMac is not an alternative. It comes with a glossy screen which cannot be properly profiled for photographic use, owing to the restricted gamut. Both features help the machine pop when displayed in the Apple Store but neither does anything for photo processing veracity. Further, the iMac is every bit as heat challenged as the Mini (I have lost three iMacs from overheated GPUs so it’s not like I am making this up). But unless your time is worth so much that you don’t care (in which case you should buy a MacPro) just compare prices.

Here’s the Mini with 8gB of RAM and a 500gB HDD. You need the external DVD drive as the new Mini has none – go figure. You need the DVI adapter to actually make a regular monitor work.

That’s a whopping $1,105 and you still have to add a mouse.

Now compare that to my HP10 Hackintosh. This runs an i3 CPU (as fast as the de-clocked i5 in the Mini), comes with a way superior dual-DVI Nvidia 430 graphics card (compared with the poor integrated one used in the Mini which shares its space and heat output with the CPU with which it is integrated) and has enough cooling for a small block V8:

  • Intel i3 CPU – $124
  • Coolermaster 212 Plus CPU cooler – $28
  • Gigabyte H67M-D2-B3 motherboard – $100
  • 8gB Corsair 1333mHz DDR3 RAM (same spec as the Mini) – $60
  • EVGA Nvidia GT430 graphics card with discrete fan – $64
  • Coolermaster 371 case with case fan – $40
  • Thermaltake 430 watt power supply – $41
  • Kensington wired keyboard – $38
  • 500gB 7200rpm 6gb/s HDD – $40
  • Sony DVD reader/writer – $40 (two @ $20)
  • IOGear Bluetooth dongle – $12
  • Broadcomm wireless card and PCIe-MiniPCIe adapter – $40
  • OS Pussy, err Lion – $30
  • SDHC card reader – free with many SDHC cards -$0

Total for that little lot? $657.

Expandability – any number of internal SSDs or HDDs can be added in minutes. The i5 or i7 CPU is a drop in replacement for the i3 used. The graphics card supports two DVI-D single link or dual link monitors (meaning you can use two 27″ or 30″ whoppers with any dual-link DVI cable). Heat rise when ripping or compressing a DVD? From 84F ambient to 115F – compare that to the 160F+ in a Mini or iMac.

Assembly time – 1 hour. 2 hours if this is your first Hackintosh. Lion installation – 1-2 hrs with the free modern tools now broadly available and easy to use. And this will not only last you, if anything breaks a replacement is 24hrs away by mail order, with no part costing over $124.

Impossible to cool properly under stress. The latest MacMini, dismantled by iFixit.

Here, by contrast, is a CPU temperature chart from my i3 Hackintosh, ripping and compressing a full length DVD – a real stress test:

Stress test – Coolermaster 212+ CPU radiator used.

If you want to save $28 and use the stock Intel CPU fan shipped with the i3 CPU, your CPU temperature will rise to 149F, which has to be a false economy. $28 for the large and efficient Coolermaster 212+ radiator to keep it really cool? I can’t think of a better way to buy reliability and longevity.

The Mini is the worst possible choice for a hard working photographer who stresses his gear. Buy a MacPro or build your own. And if you need to do heavy movie compression, this is the machine for the job. Yes, the Hackintosh comes in a big box, enough to hold many Minis, but why would you care? Do you want looks or function?

If you really want to try and spend as much as Apple will charge you for its compromised MacMini, you will end up with a rig sporting an overclocked i7 CPU, a better motherboard (the one I use above does not support overclocking), a sexier box and performance 50% better. But you will fail on the spending front as you will still have $200 left over. Hey, it’s your money.

What is your time worth? The true comparison is between the $657 Hackintosh here and a like-spec’d MacPro which runs $2,973. Assuming it takes four hours to build the Hackintosh for a saving of $2,316, that figures to $579/hr, or an annual income of $1.2mm. So if you are making $1.2mm or more annually from your labor after tax, buy a MacPro as your time is worth too much to waste it on computer building. And congratulations – you are in the top 1% of US plutocrats who control 50% of the country’s wealth – a statistic last reached in 1929 ….

What use is the Mini? For light processing, web surfing and the like, it’s fine. None of these stress the Mini’s poor thermal dynamics. For use as a movie server or for accessing services like Amazon VOD which are not available on the AppleTV, it’s fine, especially as the latest model adds an HDMI socket, making connection to a big screen TV easy. But as a desktop, even for light use, it’s a poor choice. By the time you add a half decent display and a DVD player to the $600 base model you are getting close to the $1,000 base iMac in price, with inferior performance.