Missing Core Solo Mac Minis at the Apple Store

sandausandau
Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
So I thought it would be nice to check out the 'solo' version of the Mini at the local Apple store. Nicely enough they had six (6) shiny new Minis on display...all Duos.



I asked the nice man with the apple shirt on where the Solos were and after checking with those in charge, he said "We aren't going to display any of them."



I then asked him how I was supposed to try one to test it for purchase and his reply was "imagine half the speed of a duo, will that work for you?" bah. I already have an iMac (intel)...I need to see how the solo handles 1080p video streams...this isn't going to work for me!



Nice. Reminds me of my first trip in trying to find a powerbook with stock ram to see how it performed...none in sight!!



Thanks Apple Biltmore (Phoenix).
«1

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    19841984 Posts: 955member
    It sounds like the 1.5 GHz core solo version is a bit of a dog. I would like to see someone really test it but so far it looks like it just barely does 720p and 1080p is simply beyond its capabilities. Maybe when Intel drops the chip prices Apple will upgrade it to a 1.5 GHz core duo.
  • Reply 2 of 22
    ensign pulverensign pulver Posts: 1,193member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sandau

    So I thought it would be nice to check out the 'solo' version of the Mini at the local Apple store. Nicely enough they had six (6) shiny new Minis on display...all Duos.



    I bet they all had 1GB of RAM too...
  • Reply 3 of 22
    sandausandau Posts: 1,230member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Ensign Pulver

    I bet they all had 1GB of RAM too...



    I actually found one that had 512mb and it seemed to run ok.
  • Reply 4 of 22
    ongnoiongnoi Posts: 2member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by 1984

    It sounds like the 1.5 GHz core solo version is a bit of a dog. I would like to see someone really test it but so far it looks like it just barely does 720p and 1080p is simply beyond its capabilities. Maybe when Intel drops the chip prices Apple will upgrade it to a 1.5 GHz core duo.



    I picked a Mac Mini Core Solo up yesterday. Here's the xbenchmark

    http://db.xbench.com/merge.xhtml?doc1=159011



    I'm quite excited that it wasn't half as fast as a Core Duo from what the Apple saleperson mentioned, and certainly much faster than a G4 Mac Mini. 720p can be played fullscreen flawlessly, 1080p is another story though. Boot time is in the league with other Mac Intel, I clocked it at 26 seconds.
  • Reply 5 of 22
    sandausandau Posts: 1,230member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by ongnoi

    I picked a Mac Mini Core Solo up yesterday. Here's the xbenchmark

    http://db.xbench.com/merge.xhtml?doc1=159011



    I'm quite excited that it wasn't half as fast as a Core Duo from what the Apple saleperson mentioned, and certainly much faster than a G4 Mac Mini. 720p can be played fullscreen flawlessly, 1080p is another story though. Boot time is in the league with other Mac Intel, I clocked it at 26 seconds.



    I wonder if more ram will help that. I'm very curious about this 'black sheep' of the Mac family that Apple seems reluctant to display. Makes me wonder, isn't it 'good' enough for them?



    Thanks for the response and benchmark. I'm sure its a good machine and I really enjoyed my G4 Mini, thought it was terrific. Its just Apple's reluctance to show it that irks me. I think Fry's Electronics has them up today so I might check one out there. (today's ad shows the core solo with 'depending on delivery')
  • Reply 6 of 22
    ongnoiongnoi Posts: 2member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sandau

    I wonder if more ram will help that. I'm very curious about this 'black sheep' of the Mac family that Apple seems reluctant to display. Makes me wonder, isn't it 'good' enough for them?



    Thanks for the response and benchmark. I'm sure its a good machine and I really enjoyed my G4 Mini, thought it was terrific. Its just Apple's reluctance to show it that irks me. I think Fry's Electronics has them up today so I might check one out there. (today's ad shows the core solo with 'depending on delivery')



    512MB of is not enough. I check the Activity Monitor once in a while and barely seeing green in the pie. I had the 1.25GHz G4 Mac Mini with 1GB RAM for a year (managed to sell it just before Macworld) and by judging the responsiveness of the new mini, I can definately tell a big difference. You know, I worry more about the hard drive performance of the new model much more than the CPU. So far SATA hard drive hasn't shown much improvement. With $200 I saved from buying the Core Duo, here comes the 7200RPM hard drive and 1GB memory upgrades.
  • Reply 7 of 22
    m01etym01ety Posts: 278member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by 1984

    It sounds like the 1.5 GHz core solo version is a bit of a dog. I would like to see someone really test it but so far it looks like it just barely does 720p and 1080p is simply beyond its capabilities. Maybe when Intel drops the chip prices Apple will upgrade it to a 1.5 GHz core duo.



    Actually, the integrated Intel graphics chip, if specifications are to be believed, plays back two 1080 streams side-by-side with no problems.
  • Reply 8 of 22
    sandausandau Posts: 1,230member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by m01ety

    Actually, the integrated Intel graphics chip, if specifications are to be believed, plays back two 1080 streams side-by-side with no problems.



    That's EXACTLY what I went to the Apple store to find out. The duo did play a 1080p stream just fine...



    but Apple doesn't have any Solos for me to try and refused to show them. That's what this thread is about.
  • Reply 9 of 22
    the cool gutthe cool gut Posts: 1,714member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sandau

    That's EXACTLY what I went to the Apple store to find out. The duo did play a 1080p stream just fine...



    but Apple doesn't have any Solos for me to try and refused to show them. That's what this thread is about.



    Hmmmm - well, my guess it two possible reasons - 1. Solo version won't be around long, just like with the Powermac, and as soon as the price drops on the chips, they will be all duos. 2. When people come into the store, they want to offer the best OSX experience possible, and of course want to upsell to the duos.
  • Reply 10 of 22
    webmailwebmail Posts: 639member
    I can tell you first hand, the SOLO will not play 1080p smoothly. Even with 2gb of ram it only gets like 15fps. It's pretty terrible. Spend the extra $200 it's worth the investment if you have an HDTV



    Quote:

    Originally posted by sandau

    That's EXACTLY what I went to the Apple store to find out. The duo did play a 1080p stream just fine...



    but Apple doesn't have any Solos for me to try and refused to show them. That's what this thread is about.



  • Reply 11 of 22
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    Somebody should just use the Processor preference pane to disable one of the cores. At least I think you should be able to do it. I know you can for true dual processor systems, but not sure about the multi-core machines.



    Anyhow, a core duo system with one core disabled should perform like a core solo.
  • Reply 12 of 22
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by m01ety

    Actually, the integrated Intel graphics chip, if specifications are to be believed, plays back two 1080 streams side-by-side with no problems.



    For this to work, the machine needs the appropriate drivers. Does Apple provide them?



    Same story with the X1600 in the iMac. It has the capability to decode h.264, but for the time being the decoding happens on the CPU.
  • Reply 13 of 22
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Xool

    Somebody should just use the Processor preference pane to disable one of the cores. At least I think you should be able to do it. I know you can for true dual processor systems, but not sure about the multi-core machines.





    I don't see why this would not work. It would require different programming in the OS level to make this possible, but that's Apple's job. Developers need that and I would be really surprised to find out that it does not work in dual core machines.
  • Reply 14 of 22
    tubgirltubgirl Posts: 177member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by m01ety

    Actually, the integrated Intel graphics chip, if specifications are to be believed, plays back two 1080 streams side-by-side with no problems.



    streams compressed with which codec? (i tried to find out myself, but the intel 'info' page wasnt very helpful...)



    everyone here seems to be (and should be) most interested in h.264 playback, that has to be done on the cpu afaik.



    btw, is it really true apple limits the igp memory allocation to 64mb, or is that just some kind of bogus look-it-twice-as-much-as-the-old-mini pr?

    it would be really silly of apple to cripple the one good aspect of uma...
  • Reply 15 of 22
    tubgirltubgirl Posts: 177member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Xool

    Somebody should just use the Processor preference pane to disable one of the cores. At least I think you should be able to do it. I know you can for true dual processor systems, but not sure about the multi-core machines.



    Anyhow, a core duo system with one core disabled should perform like a core solo.



    i've seen benchmarks of the imac running as a 'solo' so i guess it can be done some way or the other...
  • Reply 16 of 22
    19841984 Posts: 955member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by m01ety

    Actually, the integrated Intel graphics chip, if specifications are to be believed, plays back two 1080 streams side-by-side with no problems.



    Only for MPEG2. For MPEG4 such as H.264 Quicktime the Intel Graphics does jack. It's up to the Core CPU to do all the work.
  • Reply 17 of 22
    19841984 Posts: 955member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sandau

    That's EXACTLY what I went to the Apple store to find out. The duo did play a 1080p stream just fine...



    but Apple doesn't have any Solos for me to try and refused to show them. That's what this thread is about.



    Someone needs to test this with some 1080p Quicktime clips and post the results!



    There have been a few posts over at MacNN but no details were given which makes any comparisons moot.



    We need to know whether a core solo or duo is being used, the amount of memory installed, what size and resolution monitor is attached, whether the clip is being played full screen or in a window, the average framerate, etc.
  • Reply 18 of 22
    sandausandau Posts: 1,230member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by 1984

    Someone needs to test this with some 1080p Quicktime clips and post the results!



    There have been a few posts over at MacNN but no details were given which makes any comparisons moot.



    We need to know whether a core solo or duo is being used, the amount of memory installed, what size and resolution monitor is attached, whether the clip is being played full screen or in a window, the average framerate, etc.



    ah, i found a good review on Ars Technica of the Core Solo with 512mb ram (get more specs from article)...let me sum it up by quoting them:



    "The 1080p version was simply unplayable. There were frequent skips and jumps in the video playback and the actual frame rate hovered somewhere around 10-13 fps."



    http://arstechnica.com/reviews/hardware/macmini.ars
  • Reply 19 of 22
    pbpb Posts: 4,255member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sandau



    "The 1080p version was simply unplayable. There were frequent skips and jumps in the video playback and the actual frame rate hovered somewhere around 10-13 fps."





    This is something to be expected. The Core Solo is essentially a P-M at 1.5 GHz with some improvements. My wife's Dell with a 1.6 GHz P-M behaves just the same with 1080p video. There is just not enough power for that.
  • Reply 20 of 22
    tubgirltubgirl Posts: 177member
    Quote:



    interesting to see the mini core solo out-perform the macbook pro in some of the xbench/cinebench tests.



    crappy drivers for the ati x1600?

    single vs dual channel memory?
Sign In or Register to comment.