Which mini?

Posted on January 25, 2005
Filed Under Computing |

I’ve been looking at building a PVR. I planned on using an Hauppauge card, in an AMD based system, running Linux and MythTV, in a nice small and quiet Shuttle XPC.

But with Apple’s release of the Mac mini (Mm), there is a smaller, quieter, cooler, and cheaper option. Adding a Plextor ConvertX PVR, that comes with Elgato’s EyeTV PVR software. So the decision is an easy one to make. Ditch the XPC plan for the Mm.

So after pricing out the 2 variations, the difference between a 1.25 GHz G4 and 1.42GHz G4, both with 80GB HDD, 512MB RAM, Wi-Fi & Bluetooth is $68. So that is a $68 premium for 170 MHz (+13.6% CPU for +6% $$)… Is it worth it?

Update: Apple updated the the SuperDrive to a 8x DVD+-RW, and slashed the prices on the RAM, HDD, WiFi+BT. So the systems are both $40 cheaper, but still $68 apart.

Comments

6 Responses to “Which mini?”

  1. Ness on January 26th, 2005 0:43

    The apple is nice and all, but you are pretty much locked into writing/buying software for the PVR. What are you going to do for a remote control? Does that software you mentioned come with something to control the system with?

    80Gb Hard drive. That’s it! Doesn’t that seem small to anyone else? You know you are going to be storing video on this machine right?

    I wanted to build a PVR earlier this year, but my ATI capture card isn’t supported by MythTV. My dream system is a 1GHz Via low power, fanless chip, lots of RAM and two large HD’s. One for video on demand and another to store recordings on - be sure to use a file system with low latency for large files, aka not ext3.

    All the other components the Mac comes with - like bluetooth and DVD-burner - are wasted. Though a DVD reader may be nice if you don’t already have one in your home entertainment system.

    The best kicker of the Mac is how silly it would look having your USB tuner card larger than the CPU. ;)

    Without the candy interface of the Apple can the hardware stand up on it’s own? Personally I would go for generic hardware which is easily swapable on failure. But I guess you’ll find out.

  2. John Kopanas on January 26th, 2005 1:25







    Are you really going to get a Mac mini? I would love one but I can’t justify it. It would be better if I get a 23″ display or when the PowerBook G5s come out sell this one and get a 17″ PB. :-)

  3. mhp on January 26th, 2005 10:26

    If you reread the post: Excellent PVR software comes with the Plextor capture device, see the Elgato link above. It doesn’t come with a remote but is $200 cheaper than the Elgato EyeTV 200, and i’m planning to get the Bluetooth KB+M, so it will be my remote :) … And if you read the MythTV mailing lists, you’ll see how many problems there are getting the setup to work… On the Mm, it just works!

    Yes the Plextor capture device is 1inch longer than the Mac mini, so it will have to be hidden behind things.

    Say OS, apps, and music take up 10GB, that leaves me with about 60GB, or 30 hours of highest quality recordings. An additional 250GB via USB is available for $225. I’m thinking save the $$$ on the 170MHz and get this for sure.

    I don’t understand why ATI won’t open up their interfaces, they just don’t get it.
    You’ll want to use XFS for your filesystem.

    I don’t know what you mean by stand up on its own…. just ask anyone that has ever owned an Apple device, they are well engineered and well made. What can you swap in the future… if you ever want to upgrade a CPU, you’ll likely have to change the MB and maybe RAM as well… and maybe even the case. Hardware in the PC world is changing too fast now that upgrades are as costly as replacements. One of the impending reasons to the demise of Moore’s Law!

  4. Ness on January 26th, 2005 15:26

    You may kick yourself when you have to pay for your first upgrade of either the OS, the PVR software or both. But you are right, the cost of the software my outweigh the cost of setting up a MythTV box. But I like to play with computers so it’s fun time with the right hardware.

    As for the apple hardware, what does it cost to replace an internal hard drive? I would expect that to be the first piece of hardware to fail on this machine. Can you open an apple w/o voiding the warrenty?

    I know you’re going to get the apple. I know you’ve talked yourself into it and that’s fine. I would not buy it for this application. I would stay with cheap generic hardware.

  5. mhp on January 27th, 2005 19:58

    I too enjoy playing with computers, but I no longer have fun trying to get something to work for hours and hours…. only to find out that it is a “known issue” that is “pending”. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had this problem with a driver or a feature for some program. That is one of the problems FLOSS, nobody _wants_ to do the mundane and I don’t know about you… but I don’t have the time to.

  6. Ness on January 28th, 2005 20:37

    I agree. I don’t want to do the mundane, because I don’t have the time or the experience.

    But I can build a good PVR system by reading the mailing list of MythTV and seeing which products work well and which do not. If you are building it you have an advantage. If you already have the hardware and are trying to jam a square peg in a smaller round socket it just doesn’t work.

    In other news, I just bought a 200G HD for $140 (Western Digital). Wow. It has one of those mail in rebates though. I hate mail in rebates.

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