Mac Mini M-Box Dave C tests

[Sugarcuts]

I got 20 tracks, with a 1.42 and a gig of ram on a lacie firewire drive.

[tele_player]

Excellent, I'm glad somebody has tried the Mbox/mini combination. The number is a bit lower (3-4 tracks) than I got with the 002, but what's important is - how stable was it? Aside from running out of steam, did everything you tried behave as it should? Any crashes? Hangs? Spinning beach balls?

Even at this level of performance, I'd think an Mbox and mini would work well for a lot of users. It's not a G5, but it's a wonderful little computer.

[Eric Klinger]

Killer, guys. Sounds like the Mini is a good score!

[·[-_-]· Richon]

so...this would be the MAX that could the MiniMAc+M-box combination????... would it handle with how much Dverbs..or waves?????

[Slim Shady]

Those are the results using the Dave C test, which includes lots of plug-ins. He got 20 tracks loaded with plug-ins that the test requires, I'm sure it would run 32 tracks with less plug-ins just fine. If you're not familiar with the Dave C test, search this or the windows forum, or even Google. The Mac Mini is pretty similar to a Powerbook of comparable speed in it's construction, so if you're looking for speed/performance numbers, you can also search for Powerbook info.

I've been chasing you all over the DUC today, what exactly are you asking/looking for? Do you have a mac Mini and it isn't working? Thinking about ordering one? If you provide more info with your questions, it won't take 3 replies on 3 different threads to get to what you're looking for.

[lwilliam]

I used to run 32 tracks and 5-15 plugins on an 001 with a lowly G4/400, so it SHOULD be able to run more.

[·[-_-]· Richon]

Thanks SLIM.... well...let me tell you... in from CHILE (yeah Sudamerica!!!!) and as we all know... almoust 97% of computers in my country are PC.... so i have always worked with PC's... therefore i bought a M-box to have my first aproach at Homestudio. I've builded a Athlon64 alla Allenstein... and a AthlonXP alla Allenstein (a guy from PC forum who helped a lot of PCprotoolers)... but both of them experienced clicks and pops during recording....very strange.... SOOOOOO..... i had it with PC's.... and i'm considering a MAC (please don't hate me for saying MAC!!)... but they are here way overpriced... almoust 50% more than buying one in USA...(REALLY)... but i need it to work...and MAC's work always... i'm between buying a IbookG4 12"...PowerBookG4 12"...or a MiniMAc...... so there is my story

[Slim Shady]

Gotcha. I used to work for Apple, so I know how expensive they are outside of the states - we would get tons of non-americans in the store buying computers before they went back home because they were so much cheaper here.

I'd definitely go for the Mac Mini in your situation. There are known issues with the current iBooks and the Mbox, and the Powerbook is about 3x as expensive as the Mini and barely any faster. I would imagine you've already got a keyboard, mouse and monitor from your PC experiments, so all you would need is to upgrade the RAM in the Mini (1gb would be best) and get a firewire drive for your sessions - both of which you'd have to do with the laptops anyway.

The Mini isn't officially approved yet though (actually, neither are the iBook or Powerbook) but digi said that they started the testing this month, so hopefully it'll be "official" soon - that being said, a few folks have already tried it and been just fine, but I don't want to give a recommendation without pointing out the facts first.

[Ducky]

I got 20 tracks, with a 1.42 and a gig of ram on a lacie firewire drive.

Now lets see if the Mini is consistent with other users and the same setup. Please keep posting the Mini~DaveC~MBox results. btw... 1.42? PTLE version?

[Slim Shady]

1.42??

1.42ghz Mac Mini (there are 2 models)