Media Mac Mini Revisited (or why i sold the Mini for an iMac)

I have written about the MacBook Air a few times before but I have not written about my total setup for a while. I have been running a Mac Mini under the TV as a media centre for a number of years.

However, with the recent move this had to change a little. I needed a computer to do my freelance work on. While I have the Air it’s important for me that I keep it for only personal stuff, not work. For me being unable to work on the Air is a feature. This left the Mac Mini under the TV for my work.

I moved the Mac Mini out from under the TV and hooked it up to a cheap 24” screen and decided to work from there. I put an Apple TV under the TV as a replacement. The Apple TV does a much better job than the FrontRow application, with the added bonus of having easy access to YouTube and Vimeo.

While this setup was fast enough it had a few limitations and frustrations; mostly with the cheap screen I had purchased. While the screen was very nice I never found a way to get it set up right. The colours were always wrong and the reflective bezel (reflecting the screen inside the inset) was extremely distracting.

Looking at my options I could see two choices, sell the screen on and replace it with a better quality screen, or swap to an iMac. I had decided against another laptop early as even a 17” screen would be to small and still require an external display.

The iMac was an appealing choice, the Mini caries a price premium for its size. Under the TV the small size was important, but on the desk its no longer an advantage. A quick look at 2nd hand 27” iMac prices meant that the cost to replace the Mac Mini and Screen with a 27” iMac was around £200. This compared well with purchasing a decent 24” screen, but was much less than buying an equivelent screen to what the iMac offers.

So I found a new home for the Mac Mini (thanks Gumtree!) and screen (thanks Jack!) and purchased a 2nd hand 2010 model 27” iMac. The iMac is a much more capable machine as both a media centre and a work station.

Another advantage to the iMac, is that the it can be used as a screen for my MacBook Air and my work issued MacBook Pro. This has proved useful a number of times already; it allows me to have both portability and power with my home setup. It also means when I am working from home, I can still enjoy a large display.

I am a long time fan of the Mac Mini, but I no longer consider it worth the time investment as a media centre under the TV. FrontRow has been neglected by Apple (indeed, removed from OSX Lion entirely) and the experience is poor. Frontrow is buggy and does not work smoothly with my large media library. Using it as a computer plugged into the TV is difficult and not condutive to productive work. For my TV experience, the maintenance free and power sipping Apple TV wins outright.

I did consider other options such as Boxee and Plex. These systems feel overly complex and they wont playback my iTunes protected media properly, which is a deal breaker.

The final use for the Mac Mini was as a TV recorder. In the end we used this rarely but the new iMac is capable of taking over this role. What’s more the iMac can do a much better job of decoding HD content and exporting shows for later.

The Mini did have a number of advantages over the iMac. The biggest being power consumption. The Mini when idle draws around 10w of power. The iMac when idle (with the screen off) uses around 30w. This is annoying but it’s the cost of higher performance. Both the Mac Mini and the iMac spend most of their time sleeping (where they both use around 2w) so its not too bad in reality.

As an aside, when playing back media thought the Apple TV I have observed the iMac waking, transfering the video file then returning to sleep. Whereas the Mac Mini was required to run the entire time when plugged directly into the TV.

As a media server the iMac is great, we use it to stream our iTunes library to a number of devices (AppleTV, iPad). Its also a great workstation. The iMac (quad core, with 8gb of RAM) is much faster than the Mac Mini for iPhone Development with compiling being 3-4 time faster. Whats more, when compiling the system does not get bogged down. Its far smoother handling large complex files in Fireworks and juggling multiple applications.

Finally, the iMac is somewhat expandable. It supports four times as much RAM as is currently installed and it even has a spare SSD bay which can be filled later.

Effectively, for the same cost as buying a nice screen I have doubled my computing power, got a gorgeous display for use with other machines and future proofed my setup for years to come. Bargain!

Published: 20 December 2011 | Categories: Opinion , Apple Permalink

Living with the MacBook Air, 8 months on.

I purchased my 11” MacBook Air back in January after a period of consideration. I brought it primarily too be my personal machine. For my university work and for my personal computing needs such as managing my photos, chatting online and using social media. I thought after 8 months of hard use i would report in on how the Air is to live with day to day.

SSDs are fast, but you get use to it.

When i first wrote about the MacBook Air one of my first take away points was that the Air is an extremely fast machine. While its CPU (a 1.4ghz Core 2 Duo) is not to quick the SSD makes it snappy for most tasks i use it for. This too largely still holds true, except that over time i have gotten use to the speed of the SSD and now everything else feels slow.

Over time i have gotten use to the speed and this has taken the edge of off the amazement. I am now use to the speed and expect it from every machine i use.

RAM trumps hard drive space.

When i brought the Air i was torn between the 64gb SSD + 4gb RAM model, or the 128gb SSD + 2gb RAM model. My worry was based around how much space i use for storing my personal photo collection. With the macbook being a mostly sealed system i wanted to ensure that i did not run out of space.

In the end, i went for the larger SSD at the expense of the RAM. The model with the higher RAM was not available and this should have been a hint to me that more RAM going forward would be worth the expense.

My worries about space have so far proved unfounded, in the 8months since i purchased the Air i have only used 41gb of disk space. However, the Air is low on RAM and will get into difficulty when running multiple heavy applications (iPhoto + iTunes + Safari with 15 tabs etc). As the RAM is soldered to the logic board it cannot be upgraded, the SSD can.

Avoid beta software unless your brave & willing to accept issues

I am an OSX & iOS developer so i had early access to the OSX Lion beta. The Air was only non production machine i could install it on so i installed it a few months before lion was eventually released. On the whole Lion is extremely smooth on the Air but there are a few limitations which cause me much frustration. For example, broken screen zooming (requiring a restart to resolve) and patchy WiFi issues. I understood what i was letting myself in for when i installed the Lion beta, but in hindsight it would have been better if i had not. As my personal machine, i want a machine that works, installing and fiddling with beta software is too close to work for me.

With me all the time, use every day.

Although my uses have changed since i purchased the machine, one thing which has held the machine in good stead is its portability. Originally i was expecting to use the machine for 2 years more of university, in the end i took and early exit from university and took a job. However, the Air comes into work with me everyday. I use it at lunchtime and for managing my social life. Its become the computer i take most places. So much so, that i am writing this on a train back from a training event! Which leads on to my final point.

Better than the iPad.

While i do love the iPad, the Air, for me is simply better as the one item i carry with me all the time. The iPad mostly stays at home and is used to consume media / web browsing. However, when mobile i vastly prefer having a proper keyboard and mouse and using the touch screen interface for writing is a miserable experience!

The Air is so far my favorite computer i have ever owned, its very portable, fast enough to be useful, and after 8 months of use continues to impress me daily.

Published: 18 September 2011 | Categories: Reviews , Mac Permalink

Thoughts on the MacBook Air & why i have a non work computer.

I grew up in the 90s and computers have been part of my life since a young age. We had a family computer since when i was in primary school and i used it for homework and researching things (such as lego instructions!). Since then i have always had a computer for work use but a few months back i brought myself a MacBook Air to be my “non-work” computer. This article looks a little at how the MacBook Air is for day to day use and looks a little at why i could never go back to having only a work computer.

What makes a home computer?

Before going into to much detail, i thought i should answer the question about how i define what is a home computer. For me, my home computer is the computer which i am unable to work on. I don’t have my software tools to to work installed at all. My home computer is what i use once i get home to check on twitter, facebook etc. I use it to manage my media collections such as photos and music. I also use my ‘home’ computer for non work projects, such as study or researching lego parts.

Why did i choose an 11” MacBook Air?

As i would be using the computer for studying i knew i wanted a Mac. All of my study notes have been produced using Pages.app and the Macs include the Voiceover screen reader which i am very comfortable using. I did consider and research Windows 7 based options, but i was unable to find anything compelling back in January (however, now i would take a close look at Samsung Series 9!). For my home computer i wanted to keep hassle to a minimum so, for me at least, Mac was the way.

Once i had decided i was going to have a Mac, i had to make the choice between a desktop or a notebook. I went for a notebook as i would need to be able to take it into university with me. Once i had decided on a notebook this led me to the MacBook range. It was a close run thing between the entry level white MacBook, or the MacBook Air.

In the end i went for the Air, while the standard MacBook was more powerful it was really overkill for my needs. My main use for the machine is a little bit of photo editing and writing. I valued portability over pretty much everything else (as i would be carrying it around at uni and for years to come) and the tiny little air suited the bill. Another aspect which was important to me was that i could use the MacBook Air comfortably without a desk. The small size and low weight of the Air means that its more comfortable to use when lounging on the sofa. No desk required!

I cannot talk about the Air without talking about the cost! As i went for the larger 128gb system it was not cheap coming in at over £1000. However, as with my original MacBook (now on its 6th year and 3rd owner and still going strong!) i expect to keep this machine for at least 3-5 years if not longer, so i do not mind making a large investment now. I find Macs do retain their value well so even if i do sell it before hand i will recoup the majority of the investment. The only part of the spec which is a bit stingy is the minimal RAM allocation. The 4GB RAM option was unavailable when i purchased mine, so i am stuck at 2gb forever now. The internal SSD can at least be replaced in the future if i so wish, with 480gb models coming down in price.

Pros and cons to using a MacBook Air as a home computer:

As with any trade off, there are both pros and cons to using the MacBook Air as a home computer. For me there are two big cons, and two bigs pluses. Lets get the bad news out of the way.

The Air is VERY light on ports, the two i miss most are the SD card slot, and an ethernet port. These two ports would make my life easier! The second con is that the hard drive space is limited. While i am still only just hitting the 69gb used mark, i do expect to hit the storage limit in a couple of years time.

The first big plus however is performance. As it has an SSD on board at a similar price point to the non SSD equipped 13” MacBook it feels far more responsive. For most of the things i use the MacBook Air for, this responsiveness is more important than pure grunt. Going from the Air back to my work MacBook Pro feels like quite a slow down!

The second big plus is again the portability! As the Air is so light and small, throwing it in my bag when i’m traveling or taking it into the office with me is easy.

Why have a home computer?

I have explained why i choose the Air for my home computer, but you may still be asking why have one in the first place? Surely the MacBook Pro i have for work can serve my needs while also keeping my backup routine simple?

While the MacBook Pro is a very capable machine, it is, foremost my work machine. As i am self employed it has become increasingly important to me to separate between home and work to prevent myself undue stress and worry. Its way to easy to go to check my email, or to edit some photos and end up doing client work or worrying about a long to do list.

The Air however, is a separate system entirely. I cannot work from it (though i can stay in touch with clients, an important balance!). This means that when i leave the MacBook Pro in the office i have no ability to work even if i feel i should. This helps to reduce my stress levels enormously and has helped me to relax.

Another benefit to having the Air is that it means that i am not so worried about its condition or its data. I consider the data on the Air somewhat expendable (i have multiple backups) and while i would be upset if the Air was damaged it would not have any wider financial implications. I feel happier leaving my essential work equipment in the office, rather than carting it around the country with me!

Although i am talking about the separation of home and work computing there is one interesting side benefit of having the Air. I have a greater understanding for the computing environment of the majority. I know most people don’t have Airs; but the setup and use i have for the air, mimics how most people use their computers. This mindset i have found to be a big change from the mindset when using work computers. It has provided me with some insight into how most peoples use computers.

So with all that said, what do you all think? Should i have gone for something different? Do you separate you work and home computing? Let me know what you think in the comments!.

Published: 28 June 2011 Permalink