New Mac Mini w/ 2.66 320M vs iMac 27 Core i7 HD4850

[wirelessness]

I know the Core i7 has much higher benchmarks than the C2D but I am wondering if the improved GPU on the New Mini helps make up for this in other areas like gaming?

I've been lurking for a long time and want to pull the trigger on a new Mac very soon. I'm torn between liking the iMac form factor and whether or not I could get by with the Mini. I already have a nice 24" 1900x1600 display that would compliment the Mini very well. But I really like the iMac 27 and how everything is integrated.

Just trying to determine how the two compare performance wise. Thanks!!!

 

[flopticalcube]

go to notebookcheck.net and compare them. 4850 appears to be about 4X as fast in most games, maybe a bit less given the larger resolution of the 27".

 

[Sun Baked]

http://www.barefeats.com/mbpp18.html

http://www.barefeats.com/mbpp21.html

The Mac Mini should be close to the machine with the C2D and the 9600 ... of course I don't know if you will experience a significant drop in FPS with the 1900x1600 or only if you push to 2560x1600.

 

[i7QuadCoreMania]

I've had my i7 iMac since Dec and can honestly say it blows away any other mac on the market exception of course the higher end Mac Pros.

I have upgraded the HDD to an Intel X25-M and screams, boot up is around 15seconds from cold boot. I have done a bit of HD video encoding and it's great in that arena as well.

As for the MacMini, I picked up a 2010 server a few days ago. Picked the server version over the regular due to the fact it comes with the 2.66 proc, 4gb ram and most importantly, the 2 500gb SATA drives. At the moment I didn't want to spend $$$ on SSDs for this one, so the RAID would be ideal.

currently I have my Mini Server running client OSX on RAID0 as a HTPC, but does get a TAD warm.

 

[SmilesLots]

Does that iMac have more than one sata port for hard drives? I'd love to install two of the Intel X25-M SSD's in a raid0 config for 160 gig.

 

[i7QuadCoreMania]

Does that iMac have more than one sata port for hard drives? I'd love to install two of the Intel X25-M SSD's in a raid0 config for 160 gig.

yes, if you remove the superdrive, there is a casing to install a 2.5" hdd in place of the superdrive.

 

[SmilesLots]

yes, if you remove the superdrive, there is a casing to install a 2.5" hdd in place of the superdrive.

Well that iMac may be just the ticket instead of a new MacPro. Got one Pro now. I like the 27 in iMac with the i7's. Looks like all I need instead of $4k or more on a new Mac Pro. My new mini ships tomorrow. That and an i7 iMac and I think we have it covered. Thanks.