[MacTUG] Benchmarks/opinion regarding the two i7 minis.

[Steve Hellyer]

Hi Glen,

Depends what your use is.  If you using as a dedicated server then server model would be better as CPU speed plays a MUCH smaller roll and the dual drives allow you to mirror drives (RAID 1) to protect against possible failure. It also uses slight less power as being a server it would alway be on and likely set to never sleep.  Server version also come with Lion Server Software client does but you could add that to the "client" version if you wanted. Pair this up with a small UPS with USB signalling and it a great home server solution.

If you using to run as standard client then standard mini would be better as now you get faster CPU and faster video card (Something that Lion uses even more to accelerate performance). For data protect a Time capsule is suggested or external drive to backup using time machine.

You likely wouldn't notice the difference when running Word or Excel, but if you if your regulary run apps which can tap the extra performance then it would be noticeable.  Example might be when compressing a movie for H.264, running Apples Motion, or playing a game as examples.

If you want to do all of the above.  AKA Be a full time server, compress video's, play games etc… Then I would suggest getting the client version and adding on Lion server. If having fast bata backup location is important then ThunderBolt drives would be a good choice. http://www.lacie.com/ca/products/product.htm?id=10549

Hope this helps.

Steve

On 2011-07-27, at 9:42 AM, Glenn Anderson wrote:

> As I mentioned at the meeting, I am trying to figure out which of the two i7 mini would be the best configuration to recommend/get and why.
> 
> The first configuration would be the standard mini, with the 2.7Ghz dual i7 update, 8 GB of RAM and 750GB 7200 rpm drive for $1,193
> 
> The second configuration would be the server mini, with the 2.0Ghz quad i7, 8 GB of RAM and the 2x750GB 7200 rpm drives for $1,258
> 
> Price wise they are about the same, the additional $65 for the server gets one an additional 750GB drive so things work out.
> 
> ----------
> 
> I can't seem to find any benchmarks for the 2.7 Ghz i7 version of the mini to compare it to the 2.0Ghz server version.
> 
> I can find lots of discussion regarding 4 core vs 2 cores but nothing real world.
> 
> The other difference between these models is the video processor AMD HD 6630M vs Intel HD 3000, and once again I can't find much to guide me as to how much this matters, especially in the real world.
> 
> Has anyone seen such tests/comparisons?
> 
> ----------
> 
> PS. I liked the old mini configuration better, where the server version was definitely the "better" model to go with.
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