Looking to purchase a new (2018) Mac Mini. What would be a good configuration for light (nonprofessional) use of FCPX? Editing family and hobby videos mostly. Currently using an early 2015 Macbook Pro I7/16/512 with an external Thunderbolt drive which has worked well. Thanks!
Mac mini 2018 or later
I recently got Mac mini 2018, 6-core i7, 16GB, 1TB with LG Ultrafine 23.5" Thunderbolt 3 display. I also got OWC dual drive Thunderbolt 3 dock for archives to replace the old Firewire docks (they worked with adapters but the dual dock makes life easier).
I am happy with it (it runs FCP a lot faster than my old Mac mini late 2009 -- no need to optimize media anymore...).
I recently got Mac mini 2018, 6-core i7, 16GB, 1TB with LG Ultrafine 23.5" Thunderbolt 3 display. I also got OWC dual drive Thunderbolt 3 dock for archives to replace the old Firewire docks (they worked with adapters but the dual dock makes life easier).
I am happy with it (it runs FCP a lot faster than my old Mac mini late 2009 -- no need to optimize media anymore...).
Since the OWC drive dock is a Thunderbolt 2 unit, are you connecting it to your new Mini via an adapter cable? Is there better performance versus their USB 3.1 gen 2 drive doc? Or did you get the AkiTio T-2 drive box? Thanks!
A correction: it is the USB-C (USB3.1 gen2) Dual Drive Bay dock. I connect it to Mac mini's Thunderbolt USB-C connector (I try to study and use the correct USB-C / Thunderbolt nomeclature but it is still messy...). But I do like them because it has greatly reduced the rat's nest of wires under my desk.
I got the fastest CPU because I do photos and video and just to be future proof (I tend to buy expensive and use the gear for a long time).
I got 16 GB RAM because some reports suggested 8 GB might not be enough for smooth display. I have experience installing RAM and storage so I could have saved some money by installing cheaper RAM myself but some cheap suboptimal RAM might produce obscure errors so I didn't do it on such a new Mac, maybe later.
I got 1 TB HD because according to MacInTouch forum that is faster than smaller drives (*) and I do video work that needs HD space.
(*) Sequential write performance between the SSD sizes in the Mini:
128GB -> ~0.6 GB/s
256GB -> ~1.3 GB/s
512GB -> ~1.9 GB/s
1TB -> ~2.6 GB/s
Reads are all > 2 GB/s.
I also got 10 Gigabit Ethernet option although I might never need that. That might be useful when moving large video files between computers although currently I use HD docks for that.
Thanks! That's exactly the info I was looking for.
I of course meant AkiTio T-3 dock.
new mac mini for FCPX?
