Anyone know if there is any reason why i shouldnt buy an Imac mini?
They look nice, and pretty cheap too, but i like to use blender a lot, and worry that it may not be quite up to scratch.
Im no computer expert but here are some tech specs from the Mac website;
2.0GHz or 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
3MB on-chip shared L2 cache running 1:1 with processor speed
1066MHz frontside bus
1GB (one 1GB SO-DIMM) or 2GB (two 1GB SO-DIMMs) of 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM; two SO-DIMMs support up to 4GB
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics processor with 128MB or 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory2
Extended desktop and video mirroring: Simultaneously supports up to 1920 by 1200 pixels on a DVI or VGA display; up to 2560 by 1600 pixels on a dual-link DVI display using Mini DisplayPort to Dual-Link DVI Adapter (sold separately)
Mini-DVI port
DVI output using Mini-DVI to DVI Adapter (included)
VGA output using Mini-DVI to VGA Adapter (sold separately)
Mini DisplayPort output
120GB, 250GB, or 320GB 5400-rpm Serial ATA hard disk drive4
Slot-loading SuperDrive with double-layer support (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW): Writes DVD+R DL and DVD-R DL discs at up to 6x speed, writes DVD-R and DVD+R discs at up to 8x speed, writes DVD-RW discs at up to 6x speed, writes DVD+RW discs at up to 8x speed, reads DVDs at up to 8x speed, writes CD-R and CD-RW discs at up to 24x speed, reads CDs at up to 24x speed
because graphics on the latest OSX is buggy as hell…
it’s been a year since i reported my bug and nothing’s been fixed yet… some blender users run windows on a virtual machine just to be able to use blender…
but this mac machine has an Nvidia card on it. users of nvidia cards report they hadn’t had any problems…
if you have a chance to try and run blender on it before you buy it, do it and see if it goes laggy or buggy after a few seconds…
search these forums for “OSX leopard” for more info…
I run Blender on a PowerBook Pro with similar specs as the faster Mac Mini. And I have had no problems what so ever. Just slap as much ram in there as you can, extra ram is ALWA
YS a good idea.
Yeah the new video “card” is much better in the new mini’s. But you can still build a PC for much cheaper that’s much faster. Quad Core 4GB ram 750GB Harddrive etc for the price of the mini. :\ I run OSX on my old AMD PC. It’s possible to make a hackintosh if you really just want OSX. But if you want simple and aren’t computer savvy go with the new Mini. A decent computer, just about $200 overpriced at least in my opinion.
