Getting the lesser n elements of a list in Python

def mins(items, n):
    mins = [float('inf')]*n
    for item in items:
        for i, min in enumerate(mins):
	        if item < min:
		        mins.insert(i, item)
		        mins.pop()
		        break
    return mins

from random import randint, random
import time

test_data = [randint(10, 50) + random() for i in range(20000)]

init = time.time()
mins = mins(test_data, 8)
print 'mins(items, n):', time.time() - init

init = time.time()
mins = sorted(test_data)[:8]
print 'sorted(items)[:n]:', time.time() - init

mins(items, n): 0.0632939338684
sorted(items)[:n]: 0.0231449604034

mins = items[:n]
mins.sort()
for i in items[n:]:
    if i < mins[-1]:
        mins.append(i)
        mins.sort()
        mins= mins[:n]

mins(items, n): 0.297000169754
sorted(items)[:n]: 0.109999895096
mins2(items)[:n]: 0.0309998989105

import heapq

nlesser_items = heapq.nsmallest(n, items)

from bisect    import insort
from itertools import islice

def nsmallest_slott_bisect(n, iterable, insort=insort):
    it   = iter(iterable)
    mins = sorted(islice(it, n))
    for el in it:
        if el <= mins[-1]: #NOTE: equal sign is to preserve duplicates
            insort(mins, el)
            mins.pop()

    return mins

$ python -mtimeit -s "import marshal; from nsmallest import nsmallest$label as nsmallest; items = marshal.load(open('items.marshal','rb')); n = 10"
 "nsmallest(n, items)"

nsmallest_slott_bisect

import bisect

def mins(items, n):
    mins = [float('inf')]*n
    for item in items:
        bisect.insort(mins, item)
        mins.pop()
    return mins

mins(items, n): 0.0892250537872
sorted(items)[:n]: 0.0990262031555

import bisect
import psyco
psyco.full()

def mins(items, n):
    mins = [float('inf')]*n
    for item in items:
        bisect.insort(mins, item)
        mins.pop()
    return mins

mins(items, n): 0.0431621074677
sorted(items)[:n]: 0.0859830379486