2011 Mac mini questions.

[David&karen]

Hi everyone! Me(David) and my wife(Karen) decided to join to ask some questions about the new(2011) Mac mini. We have been using a 24" imac bought in March 2008 with 1/2TB, 3.06 core2 Duo processor and 6GB of ram. That Mac blew it's mother board 3 days ago and I am going to extract the HDD and then turn it in for recycling. What I have been doing on it was semi-pro image editing for photography(a book I am working on, weddings, etc.) and watching TV on occasion. I use Aperture 3 under snow Leopard almost exclusively, and DXO labs for conversion of my RAW images to JPG's(around 20mb for each JPG) and using a 1.5TB external drive for time machine and external backup. I do not print anymore, but send the JPG's out to Adorama in new york. And I am using Xrite Color Munki for the color adjustment. That's the history. I need a better monitor that the Imac had as it could not be adjusted to be completly accurate(I think I will be getting a HP2475W IPS monitor) and I really would like to avoid using 2 monitors this time. The main questions about the new mini is 1. Will the 2.5ghz i5 model be at least as fast as my old imac? And will the i5 processor in the mini hyperthread to allow for 4 virtual cores? And with Aperture using the GPU as much as it can do I need the upgraded video for the mini, and do I need the i7 upgrade as well(IF the i5 does hyperthread, the i7 upgrade may be less needed. OR can I get the Mini server for it's quad core i7 which would allow 8 virtual cores, but it has the Intel graphics onlly. I do not game, so that is not an issue, but I did read a test of the 2011 mini server that said the GPU in it made Aperture too slow. So it's 2 cores with better GPU or 4 Cores with slower GPU. Aperture makes things a little tough. I cannot afford the Mac pro, and I like how the mini can be moved around easily, but comments about the new imacs are welcome also. Thanks for reading and bearing with the long post, and all are welcome to comment!!

David

 

[RavingMac]

Here is a review on the latest iteration of Mac Mini.
New Mac minis deliver serious performance Review | Macworld

I have also seen a write up recently about a build-to-order Mac Mini that was tested using the i7 and 256GB SSD that really bumped the performance up (at almost double the price) but I so far have not been able to find it since I'm not certain where I read it.
If I find the article, will update this post.

I have a 2009 vs Mac Mini that I use for Photo Editing (Aperture 3.2 and Adobe PSE 8.0) but my usage is enthusiast rather than professional.

And, welcome to the forum BTW

EDIT: I found the article, link below.

http://www.macworld.com/article/161...i7_mac_mini_offers_imac_like_performance.html

 

[Chemadian]

I have the 2.5ghz i5 mac mini and although i don't use the photo editing programs you mentioned i do use some fairly heavy programs such as filemaker, dreamweaver, etc. To be honest i found the mini to be a bit sluggish with these programs at first but when upgraded to 8GB ram it really seemed to help.

So in my case the i5 has sufficient processing power it just needed a little boost in ram in order to run faster. Of course there are other ways to get increased performance but for the relatively cheap price of upgrading ram it seemed like a good place to start.

cheers

 

[Jon B]

Pm

Sent you a PM )

 

[David&karen]

Hi everyone! Well I decided to try a Mac mini server: first because I found a refurbished one at the Apple store for $849 and because I could return it in 14 days if it was too slow. Well, that thing is faster than my early 2008 24" imac with the 3.06gz core 2 duo processor! And I don't mean a little faster, it's a whole LOT faster. I put in 8g of ram, and Aperture usually loads with just 1 bounce of the dock icon, and every edit I tried was very smooth and fast, much better than the imac(it had a 500g hdd, 6g of ram, and snow leopard). The video plays smoothly and quickly on my 24" Dell U2410 monitor. Strangely, the profile shows that 512mb is being used for the video, even though the official apple specs say 386mb only. In total, I am completely satisfied and like it much better than the imac for it's speed, size, and ability to use any monitor I need - and the Dell monitor is perfect for graphics.

David

 

[RavingMac]

Hi everyone! Well I decided to try a Mac mini server: first because I found a refurbished one at the Apple store for $849 and because I could return it in 14 days if it was too slow. Well, that thing is faster than my early 2008 24" imac with the 3.06gz core 2 duo processor! And I don't mean a little faster, it's a whole LOT faster. I put in 8g of ram, and Aperture usually loads with just 1 bounce of the dock icon, and every edit I tried was very smooth and fast, much better than the imac(it had a 500g hdd, 6g of ram, and snow leopard). The video plays smoothly and quickly on my 24" Dell U2410 monitor. Strangely, the profile shows that 512mb is being used for the video, even though the official apple specs say 386mb only. In total, I am completely satisfied and like it much better than the imac for it's speed, size, and ability to use any monitor I need - and the Dell monitor is perfect for graphics.

David

Glad to hear about that.
I have been promising myself a Mac Pro, but wondered if going with the Mac Mini server would be better. Nice to know the integrated graphics work well.