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Current version by Taylor Arnicar, Marc Zych, rj713, oldturkey03, and pollytintop (vote details),

Title:

Clean layout; should set an example for web design; and one question..

Text:

Beautiful layout! As per your observation that there is room in the mini for a second hard drive (assuming this "emptiness" is not actually for airflow and heat dissipation), and without SPECIFIC knowledge, can you foresee a way to add a second hard drive, even without the presence of a second SATA cable? (This looks like a job for...OWC!)

Oh--and is it SATA III or II?

And, if this were to be a "go," is a hardware Zero Striped RAID utterly out of the question? In countless benchmarks, Zero Striped RAIDs have shown a 90 - 100% increase in read/write bandwidth over single drives, and hard drives are the "weakest link" in feeding RAM to in turn feed the CPU (which is tapping its foot waiting).

I know there are software RAIDs, but parity calculations are performed by the CPU, and I don't know what kind of overall system performance hit this exacts. Do software RAIDs increase performance AT ALL? (Good RAID cards have high clock speed on-board I/O processors that takes care of all of this.)

The benchmarks that are coming out show that the "Server" mini is the fastest (like 33% faster than the best configured dual-core mini). For a little more, the server model gives you two 500GB hard drives and a quad-core i7 with 6MB L3 cache.

But it accomplishes this impressive speed while equipped with only the effete Intel integrated graphics (which suggests to me that Grand Central Dispatch and libdispatch have advanced far more than OpenCL and any other GPGPU considerations -- as the AMD/ATI discrete graphics doesn't seem to be helping much over the Server mini's Intel integrated graphics, no?).

Finally (I lied. I've asked more than one question, but at the outset, I had only one -- I SWEAR!), what's with IR?

Why not Bluetooth for remote control? In my living room, when someone is relaxing in the recliner near the TV, I have to stand up, raise the remote over my head every time I want to change channels, operate the DVD player, or DVR. I see no excuse to sort of "deprecate" IR on computers, TVs and all other consumer electronics in favor of Bluetooth.

Finally (I mean it this time) what's with "Near Field Communications"? Again, why not Bluetooth?

Thanks and sorry,

Michael Donahue

Device:

Mac Mini Mid 2011

Tags:

flames

Status:

open

Accepted Answer:

58624

Edit by AccountCancelled,

Title:

Clean layout; should set an example for web design; and one question..

Text:

Beautiful layout! As per your observation that there is room in the mini for a second hard drive (assuming this "emptiness" is not actually for airflow and heat dissipation), and without SPECIFIC knowledge, can you foresee a way to add a second hard drive, even without the presence of a second SATA cable? (This looks like a job for...OWC!)

Oh--and is it SATA III or II?

And, if this were to be a "go," is a hardware Zero Striped RAID utterly out of the question? In countless benchmarks, Zero Striped RAIDs have shown a 90 - 100% increase in read/write bandwidth over single drives, and hard drives are the "weakest link" in feeding RAM to in turn feed the CPU (which is tapping its foot waiting).

I know there are software RAIDs, but parity calculations are performed by the CPU, and I don't know what kind of overall system performance hit this exacts. Do software RAIDs increase performance AT ALL? (Good RAID cards have high clock speed on-board I/O processors that takes care of all of this.)

The benchmarks that are coming out show that the "Server" mini is the fastest (like 33% faster than the best configured dual-core mini). For a little more, the server model gives you two 500GB hard drives and a quad-core i7 with 6MB L3 cache.

But it accomplishes this impressive speed while equipped with only the effete Intel integrated graphics (which suggests to me that Grand Central Dispatch and libdispatch have advanced far more than OpenCL and any other GPGPU considerations -- as the AMD/ATI discrete graphics doesn't seem to be helping much over the Server mini's Intel integrated graphics, no?).

Finally (I lied. I've asked more than one question, but at the outset, I had only one -- I SWEAR!), what's with IR?

Why not Bluetooth for remote control? In my living room, when someone is relaxing in the recliner near the TV, I have to stand up, raise the remote over my head every time I want to change channels, operate the DVD player, or DVR. I see no excuse to sort of "deprecate" IR on computers, TVs and all other consumer electronics in favor of Bluetooth.

Finally (I mean it this time) what's with "Near Field Communications"? Again, why not Bluetooth?

Thanks and sorry,

Michael Donahue

Device:

Mac Mini Mid 2011

Tags:

flames

Status:

open

Edit by AccountCancelled,

Title:

Clean layout; should set an example for web design; and one question..

Text:

Beautiful layout! As per your observation that there is room in the mini for a second hard drive (assuming this "emptiness" is not actually for airflow and heat dissipation), and without SPECIFIC knowledge, can you foresee a way to add a second hard drive, even without the presence of a second SATA cable? (This looks like a job for...OWC!)

Oh--and is it SATA III or II?

And, if this were to be a "go," is a hardware Zero Striped RAID utterly out of the question? In countless benchmarks, Zero Striped RAIDs have shown a 90 - 100% increase in read/write bandwidth over single drives, and hard drives are the "weakest link" in feeding RAM to in turn feed the CPU (which is tapping its foot waiting).

I know there are software RAIDs, but parity calculations are performed by the CPU, and I don't know what kind of overall system performance hit this exacts. Do software RAIDs increase performance AT ALL? (Good RAID cards have high clock speed on-board I/O processors that takes care of all of this.)

The benchmarks that are coming out show that the "Server" mini is the fastest (like 33% faster than the best configured dual-core mini). For a little more, the server model gives you two 500GB hard drives and a quad-core i7 with 6MB L3 cache.

But it accomplishes this impressive speed while equipped with only the effete Intel integrated graphics (which suggests to me that Grand Central Dispatch and libdispatch have advanced far more than OpenCL and any other GPGPU considerations -- as the AMD/ATI discrete graphics doesn't seem to be helping much over the Server mini's Intel integrated graphics, no?).

Finally (I lied. I've asked more than one question, but at the outset, I had only one -- I SWEAR!), what's with IR?

Why not Bluetooth for remote control? In my living room, when someone is relaxing in the recliner near the TV, I have to stand up, raise the remote over my head every time I want to change channels, operate the DVD player, or DVR. I see no excuse to sort of "deprecate" IR on computers, TVs and all other consumer electronics in favor of Bluetooth.

Finally (I mean it this time) what's with "Near Field Communications"? Again, why not Bluetooth?

Thanks and sorry,

Michael Donahue

Device:

Mac Mini Mid 2011

Tags:

mac mini lion api hfs+ raid zero stripe ir bluetooth remote quad dual core integrated graphics discrete grand central dispatch gcd libdispatch opencl gpgpu l3 cache i7 i5 intel optical drive hard thunderbolt usb

Status:

open

Edit by Taylor Arnicar,

Title:

Clean layout; should set an example for web design; and one question..

Text:

Beautiful layout! As per your observation that there is room in the mini for a second hard drive (assuming this "emptiness" is not actually for airflow and heat dissipation), and without SPECIFIC knowledge, can you foresee a way to add a second hard drive, even without the presence of a second SATA cable? (This looks like a job for...OWC!)
Oh--and is it SATA III or II?
And, if this were to be a "go," is a hardware Zero Striped RAID utterly out of the question? In countless benchmarks, Zero Striped RAIDs have shown a 90 - 100% increase in read/write bandwidth over single drives, and hard drives are the "weakest link" in feeding RAM to in turn feed the CPU (which is tapping its foot waiting).
I know there are software RAIDs, but parity calculations are performed by the CPU, and I don't know what kind of overall system performance hit this exacts. Do software RAIDs increase performance AT ALL? (Good RAID cards have high clock speed on-board I/O processors that takes care of all of this.)
The benchmarks that are coming out show that the "Server" mini is the fastest (like 33% faster than the best configured dual-core mini). For a little more, the server model gives you two 500GB hard drives and a quad-core i7 with 6MB L3 cache.
But it accomplishes this impressive speed while equipped with only the effete Intel integrated graphics (which suggests to me that Grand Central Dispatch and libdispatch have advanced far more than OpenCL and any other GPGPU considerations -- as the AMD/ATI discrete graphics doesn't seem to be helping much over the Server mini's Intel integrated graphics, no?).
Finally (I lied. I've asked more than one question, but at the outset, I had only one -- I SWEAR!), what's with IR?
Why not Bluetooth for remote control? In my living room, when someone is relaxing in the recliner near the TV, I have to stand up, raise the remote over my head every time I want to change channels, operate the DVD player, or DVR. I see no excuse to sort of "deprecate" IR on computers, TVs and all other consumer electronics in favor of Bluetooth.
Finally (I mean it this time) what's with "Near Field Communications"? Again, why not Bluetooth?
Thanks and sorry,
Michael Donahue
mikedonahue@mac.com

Device:

Mac Mini Mid 2011

Tags:

mac mini lion api hfs+ raid zero stripe ir bluetooth remote quad dual core integrated graphics discrete grand central dispatch gcd libdispatch opencl gpgpu l3 cache i7 i5 intel optical drive hard thunderbolt usb

Status:

open

Original post by AccountCancelled,

Title:

Clean layout; should set an example for web design; and one question..

Text:

Beautiful layout! As per your observation that there is room in the mini for a second hard drive (assuming this "emptiness" is not actually for airflow and heat dissipation), and without SPECIFIC knowledge, can you foresee a way to add a second hard drive, even without the presence of a second SATA cable? (This looks like a job for...OWC!)

Oh--and is it SATA III or II?

And, if this were to be a "go," is a hardware Zero Striped RAID utterly out of the question? In countless benchmarks, Zero Striped RAIDs have shown a 90 - 100% increase in read/write bandwidth over single drives, and hard drives are the "weakest link" in feeding RAM to in turn feed the CPU (which is tapping its foot waiting).

I know there are software RAIDs, but parity calculations are performed by the CPU, and I don't know what kind of overall system performance hit this exacts. Do software RAIDs increase performance AT ALL? (Good RAID cards have high clock speed on-board I/O processors that takes care of all of this.)

The benchmarks that are coming out show that the "Server" mini is the fastest (like 33% faster than the best configured dual-core mini). For a little more, the server model gives you two 500GB hard drives and a quad-core i7 with 6MB L3 cache.

But it accomplishes this impressive speed while equipped with only the effete Intel integrated graphics (which suggests to me that Grand Central Dispatch and libdispatch have advanced far more than OpenCL and any other GPGPU considerations -- as the AMD/ATI discrete graphics doesn't seem to be helping much over the Server mini's Intel integrated graphics, no?).

Finally (I lied. I've asked more than one question, but at the outset, I had only one -- I SWEAR!), what's with IR?

Why not Bluetooth for remote control? In my living room, when someone is relaxing in the recliner near the TV, I have to stand up, raise the remote over my head every time I want to change channels, operate the DVD player, or DVR. I see no excuse to sort of "deprecate" IR on computers, TVs and all other consumer electronics in favor of Bluetooth.

Finally (I mean it this time) what's with "Near Field Communications"? Again, why not Bluetooth?

Thanks and sorry,

Michael Donahue

mikedonahue@mac.com

Device:

Mac Mini Mid 2011

Tags:

mac mini lion api hfs+ raid zero stripe ir bluetooth remote quad dual core integrated graphics discrete grand central dispatch gcd libdispatch opencl gpgpu l3 cache i7 i5 intel optical drive hard thunderbolt usb

Status:

open