New iMac or Mac Mini

I presently own two iMacs and one was purchased in 2007 and the other 2011. The 2011 is my work computer and it's working fine.

The 2007 is starting to show signs of getting sluggish and all we use it for is our pictures, video and music mainly. With it being a 250GB hard drive we fill it up quickly with pictures, video and music.

Should I sell this iMac and purchase a new one or would a Mac mini help this machine out? I don't know how a Mac mini works so any help would be appreciated.

jonas111 said:

I presently own two iMacs and one was purchased in 2007 and the other 2011. The 2011 is my work computer and it's working fine.

The 2007 is starting to show signs of getting sluggish and all we use it for is our pictures, video and music mainly. With it being a 250GB hard drive we fill it up quickly with pictures, video and music.

Should I sell this iMac and purchase a new one or would a Mac mini help this machine out? I don't know how a Mac mini works so any help would be appreciated.

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Hello,

The Mac Mini was originally conceived as an entry level device for those on a budget wishing to switch to Mac without the expense. You plugged your own accessories and bingo you were an up and running Mac user. The current product is in 500gb and 700gb options so I'm not sure if this is even right for you if you are going to fill 250gb easily. There is also no optical drive with the current model.

If it's just storage you are after then you may get more bang for your buck with an external HD. Perhaps look at a Time Capsule as an option ?

jonas111 said:

The 2007 is starting to show signs of getting sluggish and all we use it for is our pictures, video and music mainly. With it being a 250GB hard drive we fill it up quickly with pictures, video and music.

Click to expand...

I have an old Mini that is my entertainment machine and still runs Leopard just fine. I don't create on it, only consume so there is no need to upgrade. The internal hard drive only holds the OS and the apps - Plex and iTunes mainly - and is mostly empty. Everything else is on raw SCSI drives that I plug into a USB convenience box. (60 or 80 bucks, as I remember). If I need more space for multimedia, I just get another raw 2TB drive for another 100 dollars and go for it.

You could use desktop USB drives if you don't mind them taking up all the space.

So...
If your Mini has had the horsepower to run what you need in the past, and it still runs it, why pay for another box? Music won't sound any better, photos won't look any better, and movies won't be any sharper. If you are running out of space, plug in a USB drive.

Now, if you have upgraded to some massive multimedia package that takes more horsepower, or you need HDMI output, then that is a different story.