PC or Mac Mini

My PC just died, well, the PS and HD died. My local tech guy highly recommends building around what is left of it, which will cost me $800 or so. I'm also looking at brand new units, either off the shelf or customized. So confused. SSD? Do I really need 16GB of RAM? Should I upgrade my old video card for $250? I just can't discern what matters the most for my needs, and I really can't get a clear view on it despite spending many hours on various web sites.

I'd like a general purpose machine that will not bog down running LR or editing HD video. Not talking hours and hours of work, maybe 30 minutes of video a week, and usually a light load of pics in LR. I'm not a pro; just for fun stuff.

I'd really like to just spend $1000 on a Mac Mini and be done with it. But I'm wondering if that is a stupid move?

something like this: Apple Apple Mac mini quad-core Intel Core i7 2.3GHz, 4GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive, Intel HD Graphics 4000, OS X Mountain Lion (Z0NP-23GHZ4GB1TBFD)

Or, for $1240: Apple Apple Mac mini quad-core Intel Core i7 2.6GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive, Intel HD Graphics 4000, OS X Mountain Lion.

I would really appreciate the simplicity of the Mini. But if I am only getting a fraction of the performance for similar dollars then I suppose I'll keep banging my head against the wall, err, I mean stick with a PC.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. If you care to recommend an off-the-shelf PC that would be welcome as well.

Thanks!

If your PS and HD died in your PC the big question is how old is it? Reason I say that is if it's an older machine throwing $800 into it may not make sense.

On the SSD point they make a huge difference in speed when loading RAW files or editing HD video etc as the write/read speeds are through the roof. Do you need 16GB of RAM? the answer to that lies in how much multitasking you do. If you're going to be batch processing a bunch of photos at once and editing an HD video at the same time RAM and the SSD would certainly help.

With that said honestly for the $1000 I'd stick with PC. You're getting a huge step down if you go with a mac mini and the other issue is the config you buy is essentially what you're stuck with. Upgrading Mac minis is a huge PITA.

Thanks for the quick reply.

I bought the PC used. It is 2+ years old.

Specs:
- MSI P55-CD53 motherboard
- Intel Core i7 860 running at 2.80Ghz (using the factory heat sink)
- 4gb Corsair RAM DDR3
- 500w Cool Master PSU
- GeForce 7800gt OC

I don't do much multi-tasking, unless you count wasting time on POTN while something is processing.

I definitely get what you are saying about the Mini. But if it got me through 4 years (or even 3) it would probably be worth it.

What software do you use to edit video?

If your using Premier Pro, and will continue to use it, then forget about the Mini.
If your happy to switch to Final Cut Pro X and can also afford a thunderbolt drive for external storage then the Mini will be fine.

I just purchased a Mac Mini i7 2.3 to replace an aging Core2Quad Hackintosh.

I'd personally get the mini, pull the drives out of the old machine, and stick them in enclosures so you can access the files. The mini is a pretty zippy little machine and made a bit faster with ram (16gb for $120 or less) and if you're adventurous a SSD drive.

I'm using Final Cut Pro X and it ran okay with the 4 gigs of ram and was much better with 16 gigs when rendering in the background. Lightroom is much better than my old machine but honestly I find LR just a bit slow in general no matter what the machine. Photoshop CS6 runs okay on 4 gigs of ram as well.

Mac mini: simple, reliable.

PC: probably cheaper, probably faster. i5, built in graphics or a low end video card, 16GB RAM for video I think, good quality PSU and case. A good PSU will last a few builds.

mpix345 wrote in post #15790387
Or, for $1240: Apple Apple Mac mini quad-core Intel Core i7 2.6GHz, 8GB RAM, 1TB Fusion Drive, Intel HD Graphics 4000, OS X Mountain Lion.

This is what I did, except I bought it with the base 4 gb of RAM and the 1 TB hard drive. I then installed a 240 GB SSD in the second bay and initialized it and the 1 TB hard drive as a 1.24 TB Fusion drive and put 16 GB of RAM in. Total cost was about $1100. If I were to do it again, I'd go with a 256 GB Samsung 840 SSD Pro series.

ram doesn't make a computer faster.

chrisa wrote in post #15798061
ram doesn't make a computer faster.

Extra RAM can make a computer faster if you're doing things that make it run out of memory and swap things to disk. It also means things are cached in memory, rather than retrieved from disk.

So if you have enough RAM it won't make it faster to add more, moving from say 4GB to 16GB will definitely make a computer feel faster.

chrisa wrote in post #15798061
ram doesn't make a computer faster.

Maybe not in terms of per application performance, no. But if you have multiple applications open RAM makes a huge difference. My 8-core Mac Pro came with 6 GB of RAM and if I had Lightroom and PS open it would be kinda slow to make other open applications active. Now I have 24 GB in there and everything opens immediately without delays. The whole thing flies now.

Exactly, the ram stops it from slowing down. That's not the same as making it faster.

chrisa wrote in post #15798103
Exactly, the ram stops it from slowing down. That's not the same as making it faster.

Don't confuse clock speed and mhz with how fast a computer is.
It's a much more complex system than that, and it will only ever be as fast as the next bottle neck, which can vary depending on what your asking it to do.

For $1000 - 1200 you could put together a decent PC that will kick the mac mini around for fun.

Home build and overclock - you will be amazed at what you can achieve with that budget - you should be able to get the i7 860 that you have to run at 3.8Ghz

If you only need really casual use, then the Mac Mini is a fine little rig. However there are limits, obviously. You are limited in how many drives you can easily attach, and what style of drives you can use. No optical drive bays and the like to securely mount useful things like CF card readers or dvd burners.

They are much harder to work inside those cramped cases for things like swapping out drives or upgrading ram.

The mini we have in my office is by far the least reliable system and most prone to "spinning beachball of doom" issues. (Seriously, I've locked the thing up for a good half hour trying to launch pico in a terminal...) it is a model 5.1, and the older iMacs and Macbooks we have run circles around it for the most part.


If you are technical and are able to work with computers (Really not that hard, and I've seen Lego kits that were more complex to put together than a modern PC.) then I would suggest rebuilding your PC. You will get far more bang per buck by putting something together yourself than a mac mini could ever hope to offer. It will however mean more work for you, take up more space on your desk, etc.

Luckless wrote in post #15803495
If you only need really casual use, then the Mac Mini is a fine little rig. However there are limits, obviously.

But for photo work it's perfectly fine, especially with Aperture and Pixelmator.

I don't understand this. I have two firewire drives connected to mine and it was very easy to do. Just plug in the cable in daisy chain.

Can't tell you the last time I used a DVD or CD. I still use my USB CF adapter and it's just fine. Of course, the mini also has a built-in SD slot.

I don't think they're harder, they just require more patience and a little more time. I installed an SSD in bay 2 of my 2012 Mini and it took all of 10 minutes to do.

You have an issue of some kind. I've had Core Duo, Core 2 Duo, 2011 i5 and 2012 i7 models and only the Core Duo had this kind of issue and it was always related to insufficient RAM (2 gb limit). I suggest you add or replace your RAM sticks and do Disk Repair and verify that you don't have some USB hardware that is causing the problem.

I went from a 2.9 gHz Lynnfield i7 quad core with an ATI Radeon 5870/2GB vRAM with 3 internal drives, 8 gb of RAM and a DVD/Blu-Ray drive. The 2012 Mini with its Fusion drive scored better on GeekBench and it is completely silent. I now have that Lynnfield in my office at work and I hear the fans. Always. Very annoying.

The 2012 Mini is a superb computer for photo work. I have no interest in big, ugly, noisy, eyesore desktops ever again.