The new Apple Mac Mini, updated with Intel's
third-generation Core CPUs and a new Fusion hybrid hard-drive option,
brings improved value and welcome speediness to the most affordable Mac.
The Core i7 chip and 1TB standard hard drive in our review model are
both useful upgrades over the previous-generation Mac Mini, and the $250
Fusion Drive, while turning our $799 review unit into a $1,049
purchase, offers a mostly noticeable performance improvement.
The
Fusion option puts the Mac Mini outside its familiar sub-$1,000
territory, making it either an indulgence, or an appropriate upgrade for
those with serious storage needs. Without the drive, the stock $799
model offers a newly invigorated Mac Mini that finally gives Apple a
serious competitor to Windows PCs in the same sub-$1,000 price range.
Three versions, plus customized options
The current edition of the Mac Mini is available in three versions:
$599 Mac Mini: 2.5GHz Core i5 CPU; 4GB RAM; 500GB, 5,400 rpm hard drive.
$799 Mac Mini: 2.3GHz Core i7 CPU; 4GB RAM; 1TB 5,400 rpm hard drive.
$999 Mac Mini with OS X Server: 2.3GHz Core i7 CPU; 4GB RAM; two 1TB 5,400 rpm hard drives, OS X Server and OS X Mountain Lion installed.
As
mentioned above, we reviewed the $799 with the optional, $250 Fusion
Drive upgrade. Unless you need the server version, CNET recommends the
$799 model, with or without the Fusion Drive.
The 2012 Mac Mini: What's new
No visual element of the new Mac Mini has changed from the 2011 model, which itself was almost identical to
the 2010 version.
The only real difference on the outside of the new Mac Mini is that it
now has four USB 3.0 ports, where the previous version used USB 2.0.
Perhaps
more interesting than the USB upgrade, Apple has preserved the FireWire
800 port and separate audio-out and audio-in jacks on the new Mac Mini.
Having purged FireWire 800 from
the new iMac,
and reduced the audio-outs to a single combined port, the Mac Mini may
attract those who need an OS X system with those specific jacks.
The new, FireWire 800-free iMac.
(Credit:
Rich Brown/CNET)
And while the Mac Mini's new CPU options provide some welcome
performance gains, the Fusion Drive is the bigger story here. Apple has
rolled out its Fusion option across its new Mac Minis and iMacs, and
this review gives us our first chance to test Apple's take on hybrid
storage.
Fusion is really composed of two hard drives in the Mac
Mini, a traditional 1TB 5,400rpm mechanical hard drive, and a 128GB
flash-memory-based solid-state drive (SSD), but there's more going on
here under the hood than just a simple RAID configuration. The idea with
Fusion is that it allows the Mac to dynamically move data that you
access most frequently over to the solid-state drive to improve access
time. The old-school hard drive is there mostly to provide cheap mass
data storage.
The basics of this idea aren't unique to Apple.
Intel has similar functionality for Windows PCs with its Smart Response
Technology (SRT) that debuted in 2011 with its Sandy Bridge CPUs. And
although Apple does use an Intel chipset in the Mac Mini, it says Fusion
is different from SRT in part because it can use large 128GB SSDs.
SRT-based solid-state storage tends to be small 32GB or 64GB volumes,
which aren't well suited for hosting both the entire operating system
and also dynamically allocated data.
Apple has also designed
Fusion to appear seamless. You only see a single 1.2TB drive volume when
you look at the Mac Mini's hard drive, and any data transfer between
the two drives happens with no user intervention. When you first start
installing applications and loading data onto the Mac Mini, everything
you store on the system goes to the solid-state drive automatically.
It's only after you fill up that 128GB of solid-state storage that your
data goes to the slower mechanical drive.
Apple introduces Fusion at its most recent product launch event.
(Credit:
James Martin/CNET)
Once the mechanical drive does start receiving data,
Apple's Fusion software kicks in to determine which blocks you might be
accessing more often (efficiently, Fusion can move individual blocks of
data, as opposed to entire files). It makes that call after you've
accessed a data block twice. After that second ping, as long as you're
within the same user session and you've allowed the system to idle for
20 seconds or so, Apple's Fusion software will automatically move the
data over to the solid-state drive, replacing a less active block. From
that point on, accessing that particular block of data should be faster.
The
extent to which you notice the benefits of Fusion depends on how much
data you have on the Mac Mini, as well as the application you're using.
Remember, until you write more than 128GB of data to the Mac Mini,
everything you install or write to the disk goes straight to the SSD.
Until you overwhelm the SSD, everything feels fast. Once you surpass
that 128GB, the benefits of Fusion vary depending on what you're doing.
One
thing Fusion does exceptionally well is accelerate data writing. The
reason is that even after you've loaded more than 128GB to the Mac Mini,
Fusion keeps a permanent 4GB chunk of space available on the SSD for
writes. That means your day-to-day write activities, like saving
different versions of files and moving folders around, will usually end
up on the SSD even if you already have a lot of data on the Mac Mini.
It's only when you want to write more than 4GB at a time that you'll
notice a slowdown.
I was able to measure Fusion write speeds
pretty clearly, in fact. To overrun the solid-state drive, I loaded the
system with about 150GB of data (via two 75GB backup system image
files). Then with my stopwatch, I timed how long it took to copy a
single 3.54GB file from one folder to another. It took just under 19
seconds.
I then created another folder with two copies of the
3.54GB file, putting the total folder size at 7.08GB. Copying that
7.08GB folder into yet another folder took about 70 seconds. I repeated
the test two times after that and found the same results.
Fusion write speed test (in seconds)(Shorter bars indicate faster performance)
If the larger file write had occurred at the same transfer
speed as the smaller file, you would expect that it would take exactly
twice as long. Instead, the larger write started out very fast for the
first 4GB according to the progress bar, but for the rest of the
transfer it slowed down considerably, ultimately taking more than 3.5
times as long to write as the smaller file. The conclusion is that while
fast, the 3.54GB file write landed on SSD's 4GB write space reserve,
and the larger folder write spanned across both the fast SSD and the
comparably slower mechanical hard drive.
All of this is to say
that once the solid-state drive is full, your file writes should be
superfast as long as you stay within that 4GB limit. Go beyond that, and
your larger writes slow down.
Mostly this is great. The downside
is that Apple gives you no ability to manually manage file locations.
If you have a large write incoming and you already have 300GB of data on
the Mac Mini, short of moving a large amount of data from the system
entirely, there's nothing you can do to preemptively clear out room for
the large write on the SSD.
Tracking down Fusion's effect on file
reads was harder. The idea here was to see how much faster a file loads
after it's been moved over to the solid-state drive. I tried a few
strategies, but was never able to find a definitive speed improvement.
That doesn't mean there isn't one.
My first idea was to launch a
demanding application like Photoshop. The problem is that it launched
almost instantly on the first attempt, making it pointless to keep
launching it in order to find a speed boost.
With the help of
Lori Grunin, our digital imaging editor, I then tried timing how long it
took Photoshop to load a multilayered 1.8GB PSD file built from 16-bit
raw images from the
Nikon D800.
This seemed promising at first, since the initial load into Photoshop
took about 30 seconds, but subsequent loads were all over the place
timewise, going as high as 49 seconds, and then back down to the low
30s.
We concluded (and Apple did not disagree) that Photoshop has
too much of its own file and memory management activity going on in the
background, effectively superseding Fusion.
I found a different
issue with Civilization V. I tried a few things here -- timing how long
it took to get to the main menu, timing a saved game load -- but the
times never changed, even after four or five tries (15 seconds to the
main menu, 27 seconds to load a "Huge" saved game, every time). 3D game
performance depends largely on CPU and graphics horsepower, but I didn't
anticipate that even loading levels and initial game menus would be so
entirely CPU-bound.
I asked Apple if any software vendors had
committed to optimizing their data handling for Fusion storage. I was
told that as long as the vendors don't code in any aggressive data
management techniques of their own, you should see a benefit. On Apple's
Web site, it points to its Aperture photo management software in
particular.
The problem with Aperture in this context is that it
mainly involves file importing. Again, though, you only trigger the
speed benefit of Fusion (when the SSD is already full) once you access a
file two times previously. Importing files is generally a task you only
do once.
Although I wasn't able to find an effective Fusion read
test, that doesn't mean Fusion provides no benefits to file reads.
Instead it seems situational. It won't help with every file read, but
there's no reason to think that it would not speed up the load times of
appropriately flagged large files when the application doesn't get in
the way.
| Price (at time of review) | $1,049 | $799 | $999 |
| Motherboard chipset | Intel HM77 | Intel P67 | Intel H77 |
| CPU | 2.3GHz Intel Core i7 3615QM | 2.5GHz Intel Core i5 2520M | 3.4GHz Intel Core i7 3770 |
| Memory | 4GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM | 4GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM | 8GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM |
| Graphics | Intel HD Graphics 4000 | 256MB AMD Radeon HD 6630M | 3GB Nvidia GT545M |
| Hard drives | Fusion drive (128GB SSD + 1TB 5,400rpm platter) | 500GB, 5,400 rpm | 2TB 7,200 rpm |
| Optical drive | N/A | N/A | Blu-ray/DVD burner combo |
| Operating system | Apple OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) | Apple OS X 10.7 (Lion) | Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit) |
I like Fusion well enough, but I also like
the core $799 Mac Mini. By moving to a Core i7 chip, and a 1TB hard
drive in that model, the Mac Mini is finally feature-competitive with
Windows PCs in the same price range. Yes, you might find a Blu-ray
drive, a faster Core i7, or a discrete budget graphics card for that
price during a particular sale weekend at Dell or HP. If you research
those vendors and others, though, you will find their offerings and
those of the $799 Mac Mini at relative parity.
Adding Fusion into
the mix complicates things. For a similar price, the Asus system listed
above brings a discrete graphics chip, a full 2TB of hard-drive
storage, and a Blu-ray drive. Would you rather have all of that or
faster file access? You can also get a decent, overclocked gaming PC for
the same price as the Mac Mini. The $999
Velocity Micro in our performance charts, for example, provides the Mac Mini with a real performance challenge.
Apple iTunes encoding test (in seconds)(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple Mac Mini (2.3GHz Core i7, fall 2012)
62
Adobe Photoshop CS5 image-processing test (in seconds)(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple Mac Mini (2.3GHz Core i7, fall 2012)
243
Multimedia multitasking: iTunes and QuickTime (in seconds)(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple Mac Mini (2.3GHz Core i7, fall 2012)
97
Multimedia multitasking: iTunes and Handbrake (in seconds)(Shorter bars indicate better performance)
Apple Mac Mini (2.3GHz Core i7, fall 2012)
195
Cinebench 11.5(Longer bars indicate better performance)
|
|
Rendering multiple CPUs | |
|
Rendering single CPU | |
Apple Mac Mini (2.3GHz Core i7, fall 2012)
6.16
1.3
* indicates a factory overclocked CPU
We've
introduced a new test in this review, a version of our multimedia
multitasking test (MMT) borrowed from our colleagues at CNET Australia
that incorporates both iTunes and Handbrake. This is in addition to our
previous version of MMT that used both iTunes and QuickTime. Eventually
we will phase out the QuickTime version, and we've only been using the
Handbrake version long enough to gather results for two of the systems
in this review. Our reason for making the switch is fairness and
relevance, and you can expect to see more Handbrake/iTunes results in
reviews going forward.
As you can see, though, the new Mac Mini
does well in all of our benchmarks. It wins on the Apple app tests as I
expected it would, but it also competes well enough with the Asus and
the Velocity Micro systems, which is impressive given that the Mac Mini
uses a laptop Core i7, and the other two are full-blown desktop CPUs,
the Velocity Micro's overclocked. I don't want to speculate too much on
the performance without the Fusion Drive. I expect it would be slower,
but still respectable, especially up against a system closer to the $799
non-Fusion price point.
It looks the same as the old model, but the new Mac Mini has USB 3.0 ports.
(Credit:
Sarah Tew/CNET)
Beyond its core components, the appeal of the Mac Mini also
comes from its tidy array of ports on the rear panel. Here especially,
the Mac Mini is highly competitive compared with similarly priced
Windows PCs.
As mentioned, the new Mac Mini has moved to USB 3.0
across all four USB inputs. This is not unexpected given the third-gen
Core chips' native support for USB 3.0, but it happily gives the Mac
Mini a third option for fast external data transfers, along with its
Thunderbolt port and, less so, its FireWire 800 input. You also won't
find many sub-$1,000 Windows PCs with a Thunderbolt input.
The
Mac Mini's HDMI-out is no longer all that exotic, but that along with
the discrete digital audio output continues to make this an enticing
living-room PC. Photo and video enthusiasts will appreciate the Mac
Mini's SDXC card slot as usual.
Final notes: The new Mac Mini has
the same underside-accessible memory access as the previous models.
Simply spin off the large plastic disc and you get access. As usual,
Apple also offers two other core Mac Mini configurations, a $599
entry-level model with a Core i5 CPU, and a $999 server version with OS X
Server and OS X Mountain Lion installed on two 1TB platter hard drives.
Conclusion
Is Fusion worth $250? Because it hosts the operating system, Fusion's
impact extends across the Mac Mini's day-to-day functions. It also
dramatically speeds up on-system file transfers, and should improve file
load times, depending on the application.
I wish Apple also gave
you manual control of the file locations. That $250 is also a lot for a
standalone 128GB solid-state drive. NewEgg sells them for under $100.
Apple critics will chime in now with the usual overcharging accusations.
They have a point. On balance, Fusion doesn't dramatically improve the
Mac Mini experience so much that that it breaks out of luxury feature
territory for casual Mac users. It would, however, make a useful upgrade
for professionals or enthusiasts with serious data access demands.
While
Fusion does have its appeal, I'm more bullish about the new baseline
$799 Mac Mini and its update value proposition. Yes, it would lose some
of its pep without the Fusion drive, but this is still the most
competitively configured Mac Mini that Apple has ever sold. Apple says
it won't provide us with a non-Fusion $799 review unit. I will continue
to press the company for one, because I'm eager to see its performance.
Even without that data, I would recommend it on the strength of its
strong core components and versatile connectivity options.
Benchmark testing conducted by Joseph Kaminski. Find out more about
how we test desktop systems.
System configurations
Apple Mac Mini (2.3GHz Core i7, fall 2012)
Mac OS X 10.8; 2.3GHz Intel Core i7; 4GB 1,600MHz DDR3 SDRAM; Intel HD
4000 embedded graphics; 1TB 5,400rpm hard drive, 128GB solid-state hard
drive
Apple Mac Mini (2.5GHz Core i5, summer 2011)
Mac OS X 10.7; 2.5GHz Intel Core i5; 4GB 1,333MHz DDR3 SDRAM; 256MB AMD Radeon HD 6630M; 500GB, 5,400rpm hard drive
Asus Essentio CM6870
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit; 3.4GHz Intel Core i7-3770; 8GB 1,600MHz
DDR3 SDRAM; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 545M graphics card; 2TB 7,200rpm
Seagate hard drive
Velocity Micro Vector Campus Edition
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit; 4.3GHz Intel Core i5-3570K; 8GB 1,333MHz
DDR3 SDRAM; 1GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 560 SE graphics card; 1TB 7,200rpm
Seagate hard drive
