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Apple Assembling the worlds fastest DualCore i7 Mac Mini 2011/2012

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by AT0MAC, 15 Mar 2012.

  1. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

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    Inspired by a guy known to the Internets as MKBHD I have started to build the worlds apparently fastest Mac Mini computer.

    This is my 3rd Mac Mini I'm upgrading to the max so am no novice in that department.

    If interested to see what "the opponent" have done, check out his videos:
    Worlds Fastest Mac Mini Part1

    What he have done to now claim to have the fastest Mac Mini is to get the build-to-order Intel Core i7 2.7GHz Mac Mini 2011, upgrade it with 2x8 GB OWC DDR1333 RAM and throwing in a OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS Edition SSD drive.

    Is that enough? Not if you ask me....


    SPOILER ALERT:
    There will not be any modding or actual building, but more like a step by step plan to chose the right components and how it goes after assembling the thing. Sprinkled with a bunch of benchmarks.
     
    Last edited: 21 Mar 2012
  2. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

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    The old machine

    I will benchmark it and compare to both my former Mac but also compare it to the bench MKBHD have put on his Google+ and YouTube.


    The machine I'm upgrading from is a Mac Mini 2010 server unibody (model ID 4.1) with specs as follow:

    2.66 GHz Intel Core2Duo
    nVidia GeForce 320M 256MB graphics
    2x 4 GB Corsair DDR1066 RAM
    2x Seagata Momentus XT 7.200RPM 500GB HDD / 4GB SSD in RAID0
    OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server

    The opponent have:

    Mac Mini 5.2 2011
    2.7 GHz Intel DualCore i7
    AMD Radeon HD6630m 256MB graphics
    2x 8 GB OWC DDR1333 RAM
    OCZ Vertex 3 MAX IOPS Edition SSD (I think it's 240GB)
    OS X 10.7 Lion

    I have just received the new Mac Mini, in standart it is:

    Mac Mini 5.2 2011
    2.7 GHz Intel DualCore i7
    AMD Radeon HD6630m 256MB graphics
    2x 2 GB DDR1333 RAM
    5.400 RPM 500GB HDD
    OS X 10.7 Lion

    But the main event is the build:

    Mac Mini 5.2 2011
    2.7 GHz Intel DualCore i7
    AMD Radeon HD6630m 256MB graphics
    2x 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR1600 auto-overclocking RAM
    2x Intel Series 520 240 GB SSD in RAID0
    OS X 10.7 Lion

    :clap:
     
  3. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    I wonder if you can drop in a QX or at least a 2630Q and a HD 6700/6800 series in there to make it faster still (depends on power supply and thermals though). I bet all his updates don't make a lick of difference to benchmarks. Having tons of memory or a MAX IOPs drive in a very basic PC or notebook doesn't make it 'faster' really, it just allows you to do more. A MAX IOPS drive benefits if you've got a basic server and a dozen people wanting files at once.

    There's no such thing as auto-overclocking memory. Memory is a dumb animal - the memory controller and BIOS must support it. Mac Mini's probably don't allow RAID either I expect.
     
  4. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

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    It uses the 2620m, mobile DualCore i7 soldered to the MB so no-can-do with swapping it for anything else.

    You sound like a guy who never touched a Mac Mini, it's a real beast of a mini PC, mini in size BIG in performance. Definitely not a very basic PC and how do you even dare compare it to a notebook... :jawdrop:

    Ok I guess our definitions of what faster means is not clear, when I say faster I mean shorter boot time, shorter app launching time, shorter rendering time for photo editing, shorter compression time for music and video, quicker load times for games and so the list goes on...
    But you are right, it also makes me do more, right now I am maxing out the 4GB RAM all the time because I'm having tons of tabs open in Chrome browser + loading a few streaming videos on the side.

    About memory, the Intel i series have to my understanding a build in memory controller that makes them more independent to RAM speeds, not limited to what BIOS say.
    Also, a Mac dont have the good old BIOS system, here we go EFI all the way, software BIOS if you will and according to my research it should at least support either 16GB DDR1333 or 8GB DDR1600, so I'm trying out here to see if not also DDR1600 16GB would run.

    Again, you just confirm you don't know what you talk about when you expect that a Mac Mini don't support RAID, look at my earlier post, my old 2010 model even had RAID.
    Yes it is software RAID, but it does give a huge speed difference compared to not running RAID.
     
  5. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

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  6. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

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    Mac Mini 4.1 Server / Snow Leopard Server OS

    Info:
    [​IMG]

    Geekbench:
    [​IMG]

    DiskSpeed:
    [​IMG]

    NovaBench:
    [​IMG]

    XBench:
    [​IMG]

    CineBench OpenGL:
    [​IMG]

    CineBench CPU:
    [​IMG]
     
  7. Guest-16

    Guest-16 Guest

    Shame they don't offer a 2640M or can squeeze in a 45W Q model, but there you go.

    It uses notebook hardware. It's the same thing just without the battery and display. Just because it looks different doesn't make it a quantum computer of magical potential.

    You don't need a MAX IOPS drive for that, you just need a fast SSD (at least the SATA ports are 6Gbps!). Lots of memory does certainly give more breathing space, but you'll still be limited by the same dual core others can buy when you're CPU limited. If you could tweak the base clock you could edge ahead in the benchmarks...

    No. the IMC controls the memory speed and all Intel mobile CPUs apart from the Extreme series run at 1333MHz. Putting in any faster memory is a waste as it will run it at the default speed. The only thing you COULD do is use faster memory at 1333 to tighten the memory timings to CL8/7/6, reducing latency, but Apple doesn't bother to code that either as it would require EFI access. EFI itself is just a graphical replacement for the BIOS but it still performs the same function, it just looks nicer as Apple hides it entirely from view. If you can't get into the EFI functions (boot devices etc) you can't change the SATA settings from ACHI to RAID either, not the HM65 supports it mind (http://ark.intel.com/products/52808/Intel-BD82HM65-PCH)

    I've never setup Mac OS. I was referring to motherboard level RAID. So let's be technically correct: you run a RAID array on the Mac Mini, but your Mac Mini doesn't have RAID. The OS supports RAID (I wonder whether at the cost of more CPU cycles than chipset RAID) and your Mac Mini supplies the two 2.5" HDD spaces.
     
    Last edited by a moderator: 15 Mar 2012
  8. AT0MAC

    AT0MAC Pirate Captain

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    We don't come anywhere by throwing mud after each other...
    About the statement you have in this quote, how would you then explain this guy who have the exact same machine as me, just a different configuration (server grade quad core cpu and another gpu) - he runs his ram at 1600MHz as stated by GeekBench:

    http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/577252
     
  9. Byron C

    Byron C Multimodder

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    It's not really wise to challenge Bindi and claim that he doesn't know what he's talking about...! ;)

    Does that mean that it's actually running at 1600MHz? CPU-Z reports my processor specification as "Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU E5200 @ 2.50GHz", even though I've overclocked it to 3.75GHz.

    Intel's own spec page for that chip reports the supported memory speeds as 1066/1333MHz.
     
  10. modd1uk

    modd1uk Multimodder

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    Whats the point in 16gb of ram in a mini ?
     
  11. fdbh96

    fdbh96 What's a Dremel?

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    "the worlds fastest mac mini" :D
     
  12. javaman

    javaman May irritate Eyes

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    Watching this one to hear bindi's response =D
     
  13. docodine

    docodine killed a guy once

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    WHY!?!?!?

    What's the point of a high performance Mac Mini!?!? It's just a Macbook Pro - keyboard, battery, and display...

    If you actually wanted high performance at that size you should build a mini-ITX based hackintosh or something.

    E-peen competitions are ridiculous.
     
    Last edited: 15 Mar 2012
  14. modd1uk

    modd1uk Multimodder

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    But having a high end " Mac mini" is like saying i have the worlds brownest turd.

    Not hating on the macs, it just seems like a bit of a pointless goal to me.
     
  15. loftie

    loftie Multimodder

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    How many tabs do you have open?! I currently have 29 webpages open across 2 different browsers with a 1080P trailer loading, while running steam, JetAudio and Teamspeak and I'm not even at 3GB on W7 64bit
     
  16. KayinBlack

    KayinBlack Unrepentant Savage

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    Some things are worth more to some people than others.

    I wanna see you desolder that CPU and replace it!
     
  17. Byron C

    Byron C Multimodder

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    Before too many people start bashing Macs and asking "what's the point", I would ask: what's the point in having such a powerful PC? Horses for courses... though I think I might be trying to close the stable doors after the horse has bolted! ;)
     
  18. KayinBlack

    KayinBlack Unrepentant Savage

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    I design things. I'm also moving into video editing and special effects. And you?
     
  19. longweight

    longweight Possibly Longbeard.

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    Mac's LOVE RAM! My macbook eats the stuff up!
     
  20. S1W1

    S1W1 Minimodder

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    Oh dear I wouldn't go there... over 30,000 posts and you know he's going to have a pretty strong mud throwing arm :D

    It's a shame there's no way to overclock the processor or improve that weak graphics chip :) Those are the weakest points in that machine and will bottleneck your RAM and SSD upgrades such that they barely have an effect.
    I think your best bet would be a custom ITX build with a Hackintosh and a heavily modded case.
     
    Last edited: 15 Mar 2012

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