Mac Pro or Mac mini?

well im debating between mac pro or mac mini because they only apple desktops. i have a bad back and compute from my bed a lot. i plan to connect to my tv via hdmi. my question since i encode video and play wow and second life if i should get a mac mini or mac pro. since i have bad back its hard for me to sit at desks hence why im not considering a imac 27.

i appreciated any advice on this, GamerGirlAlice

The Mac Pro is way over the top for that, and since they are bringing out a new model sometime this year, you are buying an end of life product.

My Pro broke down (motherboard) and you can't get the Mac Pro in Europe now anyways. I went for a Mac Mini - the high end model with the quad core i7 processor. I also ordered 16 gig of ram from a separate company. I must say its a fast machine, especially with the RAM maxed out.

It's also quiet, comes with HDMI out built in and has USB 3 and thunderbolt - which is not in the old Mac Pros

My only criticism is that its so small - almost like its not a computer at all

As i mentioned a while ago in another thread, if you can afford the MacPro and there could even be some in the Apple Refurb store then go ahead and get the MacPro. You are really future proofing yourself and as Games get more CPU intensive the extra power won't go astray.
Now I'm not saying that the Mac Mini can't do the job, as the latest ones available can cut their own when it comes toy power, but if you have the $ i would go the MacPro way.
Have a look at these BenchMark test the MacMini ~ Mac mini "Core i7" 2.6 (Late 2012)11367/12807* - All Macmini6,2 against a MacPro ~ Mac Pro "Quad Core" 3.33 (2009/Nehalem)10304/11475* - All MacPro4,1 Link ~ All Apple Mac Benchmark Tests. And those marks show the same in GeekBench Tests.

After all this you could still get a iMac and use Bluetooth keyboard and hook it to your monitor ??

HTH

Cheers

GamerGirlAlice said:

well im debating between mac pro or mac mini because they only apple desktops. i have a bad back and compute from my bed a lot. i plan to connect to my tv via hdmi. my question since i encode video and play wow and second life if i should get a mac mini or mac pro. since i have bad back its hard for me to sit at desks hence why im not considering a imac 27.

i appreciated any advice on this, GamerGirlAlice

Click to expand...

I have the latest model mini, i7 quad and 16gb ram. It is indeed a speedy machine. The downfall is the graphics. The Intel 4000 graphics are pretty good, just not as good as a decent graphics card. If you need GPU, the mini will let you down.

I use mine everyday for my standard computing stuff, and my desktop ( which I can't talk about here) for work...I do advertising photography. The desktop has a high end gxt670 graphics card.

A real world test ( at least for me) process 75 Canon 5dII raw files in Capture One.

Workstation 1min 56 seconds.
Mini 7mins 45 seconds.

C1 makes good use of the CPU

That said if the Mini fits your needs its a great machine and cost effective too...I bought mine from the refurb store and upgraded the memory from OWC

I would agree with the graphics card, its the only limit on the mini.

So you decide, if you go with the Pro consider a second hand one or a refurb, you can save big bucks

I am looking at a new desktop Mac myself, and have decided, unless Apple offers something really fantastic in the promised Mac Pro refresh, to go with a 15in MBP and docking station. New MBPs have plenty of horsepower and the 15 inch models have a dedicated GPU.

its the video editing is why. and i was thinking i could use my 47" 1080p tv as my monitor. i used to build systems and my windows kept crupting and that one reasons im considering mac pro. i know a site u can get upgraded cards like the evga 680 mac edition. laptops are nice but non upgradeble on major components. i been with out a computer 6 months now and im going insane. my moms lap that i get on forums cant do much else, lol. the imac i rented did both the games i do play, but i admit windows has more game options. im waiting on the settlement which i hope wont be more than 3 months. and new haswell and ivybrige-e should be out. but i do a lot itunes, video editing which i know good programs on both platforms. mac is more but i like the plug in and work idea. where windows has been patchy for me and i have killed cpus with what i do on the windows platform. also i want to get a degree in digital media and they prefer u to use macs at home.