buying advice for MacMini

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Level 1

23 points

buying advice for MacMini

I will be buying a new Intel Mac soon and cant work out between iMac, Macbook or Mini and looking for advice.

I am currently using a Mac Power PC tower, 7 years old for design work. It has a top end NVIDIA graphics card installed and maximum RAM used with an expensive Dell 24" Ultra display.

Use is for Photoshop, some video using FCP X, email and web.

Don't need portability it can be the size of a truck

need good performance, I will use plenty extra RAM

I don't understand too much about hardware and trying to decide on what spec I need, specifically the difference between

1- low cost Intel 4000 or the better NVIDEA graphics card

2- i5 (low cost) or i7 (expensive) processor

from reading magazines and Apple discussions the consensus appears to be:

Mac Mini

good reliability, appeals for price and would connect to an existing 24" monitor

unsure about the spec of graphics, the Intel 4000 sounds very poor against the NVIDIA electronics

iMac

has good spec but is expensive for what it is, appears to be unreliable with numerous screen problems discussed in forums. Unsure about using a computer that is built in to a screen.

Macbook

don't need portability but has good reliability and good spec but again uses low end Intel graphics except on the most expensive model. There is a bewildering range in choice of spec.

thanks for reading

Posted on Apr 8, 2013 10:23 AM

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Answer 1

BDAqua

Level 10

238,985 points

Apr 8, 2013 12:01 PM in response to Aurora345

Hello, you have it covered pretty well, I'll just add...

Mac Mini

Not that the HD4000 is that slow, but myriad problems, mostly HDMI output, but several using TB port also. I'd never consider a computer with Intel Graphics.

iMac

Besides what you mentioned, the 21.5" is not serviceable even to upgrade RAM. Unacceptable in my eyes.

Macbook

Hmmm, reliability??? Don't they have permanently glued in Batteries that only Apple can Replce, & likely won't even be available 3-5 years from now? Is the Hard drive replaceable?

Both the iMacs & MBs seem like disposable computers to me, but if you can afford to replace them every 3 years I guess that wouldn't matter.

Not that I can afford anything, but If I had to replace my Mac right now, I'd only consider an older used, all be it slower iMac.

http://www.powermax.com/preowned_macs

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Answer 2

tbirdvet

Level 6

13,623 points

Apr 8, 2013 3:05 PM in response to Aurora345

I have new mac Mini I7 with TB display and works great. I do a lot of video editing and no issues. I like the Mini because I can upgrade the internal parts very easily (for me anyway)

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Answer 3

Apr 9, 2013 3:47 AM in response to Aurora345

27" iMac would give you an exceptional graphics workstation

and unlike the 21.5", RAM is upgradable up to 32 gig (buy base

RAM config and upgrade yourself, a whole lot cheaper). It would

both the grahpics and CPU horsepower to handle pretty much

anything thrown at it.

15" Macbook Pros (non-Retina) have switchable integrated and discrete

graphics and can be user upgraded with RAM (16 gig) and drives.

The 13" have only HD4000 graphics and the Retina Pros lock you

into a config at purchase, not good but unfortunately it seems

that the laptop market in general is moving in that direction.

The Mini, a maxed out Mini is what I call a number crunching monster

but a graphics weakling. The optional quad core i7 model is certainly

a number crunching beast. But the HD4000 graphics could be disappointing

if you do any heavy duty video or Photoshop use. Personally, I have a

previous gen 2011 Mini Server with TB display, and works quite well

for me with Photoshop. However, my use has mostly been cleaning

up photos and don't use it much for a lot of special effects, gazillion layers,

etc.

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