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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
iMac vs. Mac Mini
Nic Coury, Photographer
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Monterey | CA | | Posted: 10:09 PM on 12.06.09 |
->> Hey everyone,
I'm looking to buy a new desktop in the next few months.
I'm currently running a maxed out Macbook Pro, but would like a desktop as well.
I'm planning on running mirrored external harddrives for my archives, so I don't need a whole lot of space on the built-in drive, but would like it eventually run Final Cut express as I'm starting to do multimedia and other "high capacity" programs.
I'd like an iMac, but the size and price of Mac Minis are attractive, but I'm not sure that they'll be fast enough to run video editing or heavy photo editing, because we run a few Minis at our newsroom in Production, running all of CS3 with InDesign, Illustrator, etc and they sometimes are very slow.
Is anyone running PS, Lightroom, etc on a maxed out Mac Mini and it works well for them?
Thanks in advance,
~ nic |
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Delane B. Rouse, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Washington | DC | US | Posted: 11:05 PM on 12.06.09 |
->> The new iMac at $1999 is a GREAT value. The entire iMac line has value written all over it.
I can't speak for the "power" of the mini, but my iMac has been a great investment. |
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Michael Ip, Photographer
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New York | NY | USA | Posted: 1:44 AM on 12.07.09 |
| ->> For what it's worth, everyone I spoke to about the minis say that it's just not powerful enough to run FCP and CS4. If they're having trouble with CS3, just imagine how much worse CS4 will be. |
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Kevin M. Cox, Photographer, Assistant
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Galveston & Houston | TX | US | Posted: 3:10 AM on 12.07.09 |
->> Nic, which model MacBook Pro do you have? Compare it's specification against those of the Mini and you'll have a good estimate of how it will perform:
http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html
One advantage the new iMacs have is that you can get a quad-core processor on the 27 inch model. This likely won't make a difference for Photoshop (except maybe complex filters) but should noticeably speed up Photo Mechanic and some components of video editing. My understanding is the extra cores really shine when rendering video.
http://www.apple.com/imac/specs.html
You can also get a discrete video card on the iMac that doesn't share memory with the system. The Mini maxes out at 4 GB of RAM while the new iMacs can go to 16 GB. Frontside bus, RAM speed and cache are identical (except on the quad-core which gets extra cache). The iMac has a faster hard drive.
All that said, I have never edited on a Mini, but performance should be very similar to that of a MacBook Pro since they use identical internal components. |
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Vasiliy Baziuk, Photographer
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Rochester | NY | USA | Posted: 3:29 AM on 12.07.09 |
->> Nic
i had the same question and i was advised to go with an iMac vs. the Mini b/c the iMac would be cheaper and packs more power. iMac is all in one where as for the Mini you will have to buy a display.
before you buy consider this
http://buyersguide.macrumors.com |
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Nic Coury, Photographer
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Monterey | CA | | Posted: 4:02 AM on 12.07.09 |
->> Thanks everyone.
@Kevin: I have a 15" that was bought new in Dec '06, running OSX 10.4 and I maxed it out a few months ago.
@Vasilly: my Macbook pro is just slightly slower than the bottom-featured Mini, so I'd see a little improvement, but not rocketship speed.
Yeah, a 21" Mac screen all-in-one package would be super nice, so I'm thinking that's the route... |
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