On Wednesday 25 May 2005 10:14 pm, Adam Bower wrote:
Hmmn, interesting tradeoff, the mini-itx kit will have a slower cpu compared to the Mac but will allow you cheaper upgrades to the disk etc. and has a working pci slot (2 slots if you get the right case with a riser card)+ an extra ethernet port (again motherboard dependant) Of course you could just get an external firewire drive caddy for the Mac-mini with a stupidly fast disk in it which would improve things drastically (probably, seeing how I have never seen or used a Mac-mini, it would be an interesting comparison though).
Yes that's an interesting point Adam,
I have never seen a unbiased benchmark comparasion of Linux running on x86 vs PPC. The PPC is supposed to compare clock for clock against X86 quite favourably isn't it ?
The Mac also has a faster memory interface in it's favour (unless you count the new Via 1.3Ghz offering) So you should see (hard disk aside) better performance from the Mac, assuming the hardware is all supported by Linux in an optimum way. I know last time I checked a few things didn't work on the Mini.
That said, Mac Mini + Firewire enclosure + Hard Drive is probably going to work out more expensive than a miniITX built up with the necessary components to make it a server. Also with miniITX you can play the "let's put it in a stupid case" game....my last one was built inside a 70's table top battery radio made appropriately by an old British company called "Hacker"...I left the badges on :-)
From the top of my head, I would think it was possible to build a 1.2Ghz miniITX system with 512MB RAM, a DVD drive and 120GB HDD for circa £250 +VAT ...that's assuming a cheap case and tollerating a tiny bit of running noise.