New Mac Mini and Sage

[bhelmick]

Apple released a Mac Mini refresh today which I've been eagerly anticipating.

I am torn between the Mac Mini dual-core at $799 and springing for the Mac Mini Server at $999 which comes with a quad-core.

The reason I'm torn isn't the money as $200 for double the cores is pretty much a no-brainer. The reason I'm torn is the $799 model comes with an AMD Radeon HD 6630M, but the $999 server comes with just Intel HD Graphics 3000.

The functional difference between Server and Client are pretty much irrelevant so I'm not concerned about that, even if there was an issue I can easily switch to client.

So my faithful SageTV brothers and sisters. Which wins in SageTV performance? A 2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with 6MB cache and Intel HD 3000 Graphics or a 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with 3MB cache and an AMD Radeon HD 6630M?

Thanks for the help.

[gplasky]

The question I would ask is are you going to use it as a Sage PC client or a Sage server. If it was a Sage PC Client I would opt for the 2.5GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 with 3MB cache and an AMD Radeon HD 6630M. With this you have a better chance of getting great video playback. If you were only going to use it as a headless server and running something CPU intensive on it like Comskip I would go with 2.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 with 6MB cache and Intel HD 3000 Graphics. Now from what I have read the HD3000 also does a pretty good job at video playback so it may be a toss up. Also, are you looking at trying to run the native Mac SageTV stuff or are you somehow loading Windows? I think the Mac stuff limits you to Placeshifter which doesn't play DVD rips.

Gerry

[bhelmick]

The plan was to use it as a Sage client natively in OS X. I currently only use place shifter on a different Mac so I am used to only having TV.

I also have read that the Intel graphics have come a long way and are supposed to be pretty decent for video; but with that said I am still unsure how it will react with Sage.

Damn, I'm torn.

[bcjenkins]

Don't forget potential issues with Lion too

[sandor]

Originally Posted by bcjenkins

Don't forget potential issues with Lion too

yeah, Sage had (unresolved?) issues with 10.6, 10.7 may not make it better.

Until i recently switched back to a PC server, i had to stay on 10.5 for my Mac server.

[perf]

My Sage computer is a Mac Mini running Windows 7. Works great. The quietest PC that can be found. As the new mini is available with an SSD configuration, that should be even better.

(Can't tell about the graphics, since last year's model has Nvidia graphics.)

/Per

[flavius]

You are aware that there is no v7 Mac client?

[jnmfox]

I've though about getting a Mac Mini for our next family PC but was worried that I wouldn't be able to get Sage working right. From my understanding you can run Parallels for Sage v7 server. From what I've read it works with OTA tunners (HDHR) but not the HD-PVR.

Is this correct? Will Sage v7 server work running on Parallels with an HDHR and HD-300?

[gplasky]

I wouldn't run Sage on a family PC. This is s sure way to get recordings missed among other things. I would run Sage on a dedicated, hands-off server. And you could always just install Windows 7 on a Mac mini if you want all your tuners to work. A Sage PC client (if you have one) makes more sense on a family PC.

Gerry

[jnmfox]

Originally Posted by gplasky

I wouldn't run Sage on a family PC. This is s sure way to get recordings missed among other things. I would run Sage on a dedicated, hands-off server. And you could always just install Windows 7 on a Mac mini if you want all your tuners to work. A Sage PC client (if you have one) makes more sense on a family PC.

Gerry

I actually run our Sage server on our Win 7 family PC now. I figured since my wife leaves the PC on almost all day I might as well also run Sage on it and not have another PC running all the time. It has worked great, no issues (other than user issues ). I love the HD-300 as a client, it is one of the reasons I bought into Sage, should have purchased more...

I'm planning on getting a Mac mini or building a Mini ITX Win 7 PC, then turning my current Sage server PC into an UnRAID server.

[sandor]

Originally Posted by jnmfox

I've though about getting a Mac Mini for our next family PC but was worried that I wouldn't be able to get Sage working right. From my understanding you can run Parallels for Sage v7 server. From what I've read it works with OTA tunners (HDHR) but not the HD-PVR.

Is this correct? Will Sage v7 server work running on Parallels with an HDHR and HD-300?

yes. it should.

i had sage running via VMWare on a macbook (same innards as the mini). No issues, but i would max out ram (i have 6 GB)

But i couldn't get the new HD-PVRs i got to work (Windows recognized them, but the Hauppauge drivers just didn't want to work properly). So i went back to a PC.

[jnmfox]

Originally Posted by sandor

yes. it should.

i had sage running via VMWare on a macbook (same innards as the mini). No issues, but i would max out ram (i have 6 GB)

But i couldn't get the new HD-PVRs i got to work (Windows recognized them, but the Hauppauge drivers just didn't want to work properly). So i went back to a PC.

Good to know. Thanks for posting.

[osx-addict]

Hmm.. This is interesting.. I've got a pair of MacMini servers at home -- one a 2010 model (the first of the mac mini servers) and a new 2011 (current) model. The 2011 model runs great.. I had issues with the older model not having sufficient RAM to run scores of services (mail, postgres, web, ical server,etc) without it crawling.. However, since I can't find a new buyer for it for what I think is a decent amount of $$, perhaps I should switch the existing SageTV server over to the older Mac Mini server and load up Windows-7 (or even XP SP3) on it and run it that way.. I've got 1TB of storage built in and could expand to external chassis if needed.. My current server is an older HP desktop machine I found locally for $100 and added a large drive to (either 1 or 2Tb) as the internal storage is a single bay -- ugg.. Perhaps the older Mac will consume less power too..

If I were to go this route and make the older Mac Mini Server a dedicated SageTV server, I'm assuming it'd be better to just install Windows directly in lieu of using Parallel's or similar? I've got either Parallel's or VMware (don't recall -- never used it yet) so it's possible, but probably doesn't buy me anything over a direct install..

[flavius]

If you can avoid using a VM, I wouldn't use one.