#286476 - 07/09/2006 04:36
Intel Mac Mini questions
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enthusiast
Registered: 06/08/2002
Posts: 333
Loc: The Pilbara, Western Australia
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With the speed bump for the Mac Mini, I am looking at getting one, but I have a few questions first:
Can I use (legally) the same copy of Windows XP under both Bootcamp and Parallels?
I assume XP needs activating under Bootcamp but what about in Parallels? If it needs activating twice, will that cause problems? (see above question).
Does OSX Tiger have backup software that will backup to the superdrive?
I will up the RAM to 1GB anyway, but will I see much difference in performance if I max it out to 2GB if I am only web browsing, checking email and using the iLife suite and Office (for Mac) and occasionally ripping CDs/encoding MP3s?
Will the speed difference between the two processors be noticeable given the usage profile above?
Thanks!
_________________________
Peter.
"I spent 90% of my money on women, drink and fast cars. The rest I wasted." - George Best
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#286477 - 07/09/2006 05:19
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: pedrohoon]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
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Quote:
Does OSX Tiger have backup software that will backup to the superdrive?
No. But watch the WWDC keynote on apple's web site to see what Apple has in store for backing up. AFAIK it still won't work with the superdrive.
Quote:
I will up the RAM to 1GB anyway, but will I see much difference in performance if I max it out to 2GB...
If you're going to run Parallels, buy as much memory as you can afford.
Quote:
Will the speed difference between the two processors be noticeable given the usage profile above?
I doubt it would make a huge difference. It's certainly an incremental difference, not huge like the solo/duo difference. Of course, IIRC you can't get the super drive without getting the upgraded processor.
Matthew
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#286478 - 07/09/2006 06:27
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: pedrohoon]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Quote:
I assume XP needs activating under Bootcamp but what about in Parallels? If it needs activating twice, will that cause problems? (see above question).
Don't try it. Windows won't like the fact that the entire hardware platform seems to have changed everytime you switch between the two. You'll also need to reactivate it each time because you'd exceed the number of hardware changes allowed.
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#286479 - 07/09/2006 07:24
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: tman]
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old hand
Registered: 07/01/2005
Posts: 893
Loc: Sector ZZ9pZa
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The early Parallels beta that I have installed could not boot a real partition on the hard drive. This means that the same copy of Windows was not available to both Boot Camp and Parallels, so you would be looking at two seperate installations. I don't know whether this has changed in the latest version, but there are no clues on the Parallels website.
How this would work in terms of licensing I am not sure since they are actually on the same computer.
It wouldn't be convenient having to look after two seperate instances of Windows for sure.
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#286480 - 07/09/2006 07:36
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: sein]
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old hand
Registered: 07/01/2005
Posts: 893
Loc: Sector ZZ9pZa
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I also want to add that there is little reason to use Boot Camp if you have Parallels in my opinion. Unless of course you want to play games, in which case a Mac Mini is not a good choice anyway.
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#286481 - 07/09/2006 07:37
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: sein]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 24/12/2001
Posts: 5528
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Quote:
The early Parallels beta that I have installed could not boot a real partition on the hard drive. This means that the same copy of Windows was not available to both Boot Camp and Parallels, so you would be looking at two seperate installations. I don't know whether this has changed in the latest version, but there are no clues on the Parallels website.
Ahh okay. In that case, activiating two copies of Windows will be a problem. The first activation will go through with no problems but the second will fail.
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#286482 - 07/09/2006 09:58
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: sein]
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enthusiast
Registered: 06/08/2002
Posts: 333
Loc: The Pilbara, Western Australia
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Quote:
I also want to add that there is little reason to use Boot Camp if you have Parallels in my opinion. Unless of course you want to play games, in which case a Mac Mini is not a good choice anyway.
True, for the few occasions I need Windows, Parallels would be much more convenient.
As far as gaming goes, I realise the integrated graphics on the mini are crap, but the only games I have are older games like Heretic and Blood - would they run under Parallels? Would they run better under Bootcamp or would even these old games be too much for integrated graphics?
_________________________
Peter.
"I spent 90% of my money on women, drink and fast cars. The rest I wasted." - George Best
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#286484 - 07/09/2006 11:11
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: pedrohoon]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5682
Loc: London, UK
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Quote:
older games like Heretic and Blood
Try DOSBox running under OSX. I'm not sure if it's good enough for Heretic, but it worked fine for C&C, which is a similar vintage. It'll save you from running Windows at all.
_________________________
-- roger
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#286485 - 07/09/2006 12:40
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: Roger]
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enthusiast
Registered: 06/08/2002
Posts: 333
Loc: The Pilbara, Western Australia
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Well I have a few apps other than those games that I need Windows for, so it looks like Parallels is the way to go.
Edited by pedrohoon (07/09/2006 12:41)
_________________________
Peter.
"I spent 90% of my money on women, drink and fast cars. The rest I wasted." - George Best
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#286486 - 07/09/2006 19:27
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: tman]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14485
Loc: Canada
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Quote:
activiating two copies of Windows will be a problem. The first activation will go through with no problems but the second will fail.
I doubt there would be any problem activating the copy only twice -- I think they allow for a few auto-activations before it gets suspicious and stops working for a while.
But the WGA add-ons would definitely mess up with two activations, so avoid installing the WGA updates.
Cheers
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#286488 - 08/09/2006 02:42
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: pedrohoon]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
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Well, you could always throw a $50 DVDR drive in a $30 IDE enclosure. Of course, it's not as nice as having it built in.
Matthew
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#286490 - 08/09/2006 12:49
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: pedrohoon]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 29/08/2000
Posts: 14485
Loc: Canada
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Quote:
so far the external firewire DVD DL burners I have found online are all over $200,
Like Matthew suggested, a top-notch DVD-DL burner is less than $50, and a suitable firewire/usb2 box for it is only another $30-$40 or so. Assembly is very simple.
Cheers
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#286491 - 08/09/2006 19:05
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: pedrohoon]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
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Quote:
Incidentally, how would either of the core duo processors in the Mac Mini compare to a P4C 2.4GHz speed wise?
The Mini doing the same tasks as the P4 2.4 will seem faster by a noticeable bit. The 2.4 was top of the line around August 2002, and while the mini didn't use an absolute top of the line chip, the Core Duo is a great jump over the P4 line. I've been meaning to benchmark my Core Duo 2.0 against my dual Xeon 3.2 system at work on compile speed. The 2.0 just seems zippier to me somehow.
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#286492 - 09/09/2006 11:31
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: mlord]
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enthusiast
Registered: 06/08/2002
Posts: 333
Loc: The Pilbara, Western Australia
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Quote:
Like Matthew suggested, a top-notch DVD-DL burner is less than $50, and a suitable firewire/usb2 box for it is only another $30-$40 or so.
Cheers
Yes that is still an option, although here the external 5.25" enclosures seem hard to find, this one is normally close to $100 and a DL burner to go in it is $80 so not a huge saving over a ready made one.
_________________________
Peter.
"I spent 90% of my money on women, drink and fast cars. The rest I wasted." - George Best
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#286494 - 09/09/2006 12:12
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: pedrohoon]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 12/01/2002
Posts: 2009
Loc: Brisbane, Australia
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Quote:
Quote:
Like Matthew suggested, a top-notch DVD-DL burner is less than $50, and a suitable firewire/usb2 box for it is only another $30-$40 or so.
Cheers
Yes that is still an option, although here the external 5.25" enclosures seem hard to find, this one is normally close to $100 and a DL burner to go in it is $80 so not a huge saving over a ready made one.
You should be able to do better than that:
Heaps of DVD DL burners for $49 here (not sure how you define top notch for a burner though):
http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&bid=2&id2=20
Don't have as much in enclosures at this one place:
http://www.umart.com.au/pro/products_listnew.phtml?id=10&bid=2&id2=93
You're then talking about $100. For that much I'd go the all in one solution.
_________________________
Christian
#40104192 120Gb (no longer in my E36 M3, won't fit the E46 M3)
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#286495 - 10/09/2006 19:42
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: sein]
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carpal tunnel
Registered: 13/07/2000
Posts: 4174
Loc: Cambridge, England
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Quote:
I also want to add that there is little reason to use Boot Camp if you have Parallels in my opinion. Unless of course you want to play games, in which case a Mac Mini is not a good choice anyway.
Do bear in mind that if you have more than one core (Core Duo mini, or Mac Pro) Parallels only emulates a single-core machine. So you only get half the performance inside Parallels, but all of it with Boot Camp.
Peter
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#286496 - 10/09/2006 21:22
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: peter]
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pooh-bah
Registered: 12/02/2002
Posts: 2298
Loc: Berkeley, California
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Quote:
(Core Duo mini, or Mac Pro) Parallels only emulates a single-core machine. So you only get half the performance inside Parallels
Or a quarter of the performance, to be accurate.
Matthew
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#286497 - 11/09/2006 14:23
Re: Intel Mac Mini questions
[Re: matthew_k]
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enthusiast
Registered: 06/08/2002
Posts: 333
Loc: The Pilbara, Western Australia
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Anybody know if this poster knows what he is talking about? Quote:
Also, the cheaper Mac Mini uses the T2300E. It's a low voltage variant and uses about half the power of the T2400 under load, so it makes for an excellent HTPC.
He doesn't know that the T2300E is not a low voltage design, it is a version without Intel's VT enabled which may have an effect on how well Parallels runs, but is he correct in saying that the T2300E is the processor used in the lower end mini?
_________________________
Peter.
"I spent 90% of my money on women, drink and fast cars. The rest I wasted." - George Best
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- so far the external firewire DVD DL burners I have found online are all over $200, plus it means having another box on the desk and another 'wall wart' on the power strip, although the external burners are faster.
) so the less boxes on the desk the better.
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