I was lucky enough to pick up one of the new Mac Mini Intel Core Solo machines to replace my G4 Mac Mini. It ships with a 1.5 GHz Intel Core Solo CPU, 512MB PC2-5300 SODIMMs, Seagate 60GB SATA drive, Combo Drive, Wireless, Bluetooth, Digital Audio and the Integrated Intel Graphics that everyone loves. The About This Mac dialog box displayed a 1.5 GHz Intel Core Duo. After looking into the Apple System Profiler, it does say Intel Core Solo. It comes with almost the same software the previous generation Mac Mini shipped with, but just more up-to-date versions: iLife ‘06, Quicken 2006, Office Trial, and a few games. I have it connected to my Samsung DLP TV in my living room.

When I purchased the machine I looked into the integrated graphics, and most forums stated how they hated that solution, it was a step backwards for Apple, etc. I really don’t find myself playing too many games on my Macs. I use my machines for Front Row features, music, videos, basic Photoshop work, and PHP/MySQL programming. For the most part integrated graphics works very well for me. One thing I was hoping the new chip would fix is the overscan issue on my DLP HDTV. I keep my fingers crossed that it would eliminate the problem, but I still have the same issues I did on the old Mac Mini. In my old G4 Mac Mini, I had upgraded my RAM to 1GB, but in the new machine stuck with the stock 512MB. Even with less RAM, I noticed a huge speed increase in the machine. Of course, this isn’t solely due to the graphics engine.

All of Apple’s software that ships with the machine is now Universal as well as Apache, PHP, and MySQL that I use to run the web server you are reading this page from. Since the bulk of my applications have been converted over, I can see a much greater performance boost from the new processor. Even with less RAM, a little speedier hard drive makes the machine run much smoother. When booting from my OWC external hard drive, which is filled with Seagate 7200.9 drives, the machine performs even faster. I’m not one to create benchmarks to determine speed. I rather give a real world analysis, meaning does it actually feel faster when I?m using the machine.

With PowerPC applications running on Rosetta, I notice a performance hit. Firefox for example takes much longer to open, but once it?s opened its quite usable. I downloaded the Universal version and the machine was much more responsive. Even my light Photoshop work took a performance hit, but it is still usable. For the meantime, I will continue using my Powerbook G4 to take care of my Photoshop needs.

One problem I found with the machine is the Airport Wireless Reception is very poor. Using a Powerbook G4 in the same area I get full reception. Using the Mac Mini Intel Core Solo, I get almost no reception. I alternatively don?t use the internal wireless and use a wireless bridge in my home entertainment unit for Internet access.

Overall, I didn’t mind paying $599 for the Mac Mini Intel Core Solo. I find that it is well worth the price. The improvements in Front Row make it well worth the upgrade. It now makes it much easier to stream music and video from my other machines. If you are interested in running the LAMP stack only on Mac OS X instead of Linux, I found that performance is much better over the old G4 processor even with less RAM. When all of my software is completely Universal it will be an even better upgrade for me, until then the machine is very usable. People that use their machines for every day tasks such as email, web browsing, and word processing will find the machine more than adequate.