Upgrade to new mini or imac

I currently have a 13" 2.2GHZ macbook with X3100 graphics(white polycarbonate version prior to unibodies) which was bought around 3 years ago. I use it with a 24" monitor and external keyboard and it very seldom leaves my desk. Predominately used for web etc, aperture and a little imovie & iwork.

I am thinking of upgrading to the new mac mini (and upgrade ram later) to use with my existing monitor and keyboard or get a refurbished 3.06GHZ 27" imac.

Will I notice much difference between both as the cost is approx 350-500 euro less for the mini?

Buying the new mini would make better use of the nice 24" display, keyboard, and mouse you already own...and the new Mac-mini looks like a very capable computer.

- Nick

I agree with PIGOO3. The Mini is a better use of the LCD and Keyboard you already have. The Mini will do all that you listed with ease. Mine works great. The Mini is a great computer.

This is what I have been thinking as I could sell the monitor but get very little for it. I will be importing RAW files into Aperture and editing them. Do you do that with the mini and is there any lag?
What did you use before the mini and is there much improvement?
The main thing holding me back is will I regret not having the extra power and super 27" screen of the imac.

richieg said:

The main thing holding me back is will I regret not having the extra power and super 27" screen of the imac.

Click to expand...

Unless you can afford to purchase the most powerful computer Apple sells...you will always wonder if the next more powerful computer would have been better.

The rule when buying a computer is...buy as much as you can afford.

- Nick

I suppose to be more correct is will I see much of an improvement over my curreent macbook which i find a little slow at times. The main differences are a slightly quicker processer and better graphics card. Am i missing anything ?

Running Aperture will be faster, but Internet and E-mail will be about the same. I don't notice any difference in speed between the three (Macs I own) doing that. To be honest I don't notice that much difference in speed between the iMac and Mini when using Aperture. The larger LCD is great. That is the main attraction to the iMac for me.

richieg said:

I suppose to be more correct is will I see much of an improvement over my curreent macbook which i find a little slow at times. The main differences are a slightly quicker processer and better graphics card. Am i missing anything ?

Click to expand...

Yeah...I was going to mention this. Going from a 2.2ghz core 2 duo to a 2.4ghz Mac-mini isn't going to be like "night/day". The graphics on the Mac-mini should be better when doing graphics intensive activities.

If you're looking for a substantial performance increase over your current laptop (cpu and gpu)...then maybe the iMac would be a better choice.

But since you said these are your main activities:

"Predominately used for web etc, aperture and a little imovie & iwork."

It would really depend on how much you do the more cpu/gpu intensive tasks. If you're mostly doing web & e-mail (like "jetmech1" said)...you're not going to see a tremendous increase.

HTH,

- Nick

p.s. Your current laptop is a very good computer. Yeah the graphics could be better...but is spending around $1500 for an iMac worth it. Hmmm.