oh crap! another first world problem!

[Godfrey]

Thanks for sharing your experience.

I am about to replace my 2009 iMac and Zi am thinking hard about the same Mac Mini system. Is your internal drive the Fusion model?

I can see how going to all SSD could be a good move. My wife's MacBook Air flies with the SSD.

I bought the standard 1T drive, as I intend to update the mini to an SSD by the end of the year. Much as I applaud the Fusion drive idea, it's still new technology that I've not seen much experience with in the field yet. When it comes to my computer systems, I'm rarely a bleeding edge adopter of technologies... 🙂

G

 

[btgc]

doesn't Mac have some tune-up utilities or at least analyzer which points out to issue areas? I know Mac is supposed to be used not tuned but still, HW & SW are all similar, over some good years freshly installed OS (if it's not too new for old mill) is what helps.

 

[lynnb]

The Macmini max memory is about 8gb, while the iMacs should be 16mb.
The ability to really expand on the Macmini is medocre, you'll want to replace it in 2-3 years.

I'd say look for 2011-12 era iMac 22" i5 or i7. Should easily be under grand these days too.

Current Mac Minis will take 16Mb RAM, unlike earlier versions like mine.

I'd always opt for higher-specced models so you get more years out of them before future versions of Adobe products gobble up resources and slow them down.

The main drawback of Minis as I see it is they don't have a separate graphics card. iMacs and Macbooks with graphics cards will be able to render stuff in CS quicker - but then they cost more.

I've always bought Macs new with AppleCare, just for the peace of mind of 3yrs warranty. Of the 5 Macs our family has owned over about 8yrs (a G5 iMac which died after about 5yrs, 2 MacBooks, a MBP and my Mini), I've had warranty problems with 2 of them - my Mini had bad RAM which had to be replaced, and my daughter's Macbook had the bottom of the case buckle. Both problems occurred after the purchases were over 12mths old. That might be just bad luck - Macs seem to be pretty reliable and second hand and refurbished prices can be very tempting.

Edit - I hadn't refreshed my screen for some time when I wrote the above. Godfrey's Mini sounds great.

 

[--]

Noise level

Noise level

+1

The current MacMini is an incredible machine, especially when upgraded with at least one SSD (preferably two).

How is the noise level of the Mac Mini? Is it comparable to a laptop or more to a desktop / tower machine?

thanks,
Xpanded

 

[lynnb]

Noise level? Mine (no SSD, just the regular HDD) is very close to totally silent. Sometimes just the faintest whisper of fan noise, like a notebook.

 

[--]

Thanks Lynn, that sounds [or not as it were] very interesting. Maybe a better solution than an iMac for me.

Cheers,
Xpanded

 

[robert blu]

it seems me that the new i.mac 27 with large RAM (up to 32) and additional external hd for backups is an interesting machine. The only problem is the glossy screen specially if you have a window in your working room, as I have really at my back 🙁 but colors are reasonably accurate.
Just for your info read this comment by Kirk Tuck and this.
robert

PS: I agree with all who say so much RAM as possible, when I bought 6 years ago my actual i.mac it seemed 3 G RAM to be excessive, but now with the updated softwares and larger files...

 

[lynnb]

If you already have a quality standalone monitor then in my view a Mini or Macbook make more sense than an iMac. My Mini was a replacement for a large traditional tower PC. We already had Macbooks in the family so I didn't need another laptop. The Mini continues to do everything I want and the low cost means I can upgrade every 3-4 years without breaking the bank.

Edit: I use two displays off my Mini - a Sony Trinitron G-series CRT (still going strong and still calibrating perfectly) as main display for colour critical work, and a cheap widescreen LCD HDTV where all the PS tools, Finder etc live. I think all Macs will run a two-display setup, and it works really well. All the menu and tools clutter sits on the secondary display.

 

[dasuess]

I totally agree with getting a new Mac. I just got a Retina MBP and love it, but I was in the same boat as Joe. Macbook was slowing down, even with 8G of memory. Computers do not just slow down becasue they get old. Macs are Unix under the hood and need swap space based on the amount of RAM installed. My image masters stored kn internal drive had eaten the space to the point where the mcabook was just thrashing - slowing down. Cleaning up files freed the space so the thrashing stopped. Speedy computer again...

And thanks Joe, for fixing my email address issue !!!

 

[Godfrey]

Noise level? Mine (no SSD, just the regular HDD) is very close to totally silent. Sometimes just the faintest whisper of fan noise, like a notebook.

Indeed. If it didn't have the signal light on the front telling me it was on, I'd barely know it. My external drives are far noisier when they spin up.

G

 

[Godfrey]

doesn't Mac have some tune-up utilities or at least analyzer which points out to issue areas? I know Mac is supposed to be used not tuned but still, HW & SW are all similar, over some good years freshly installed OS (if it's not too new for old mill) is what helps.

There are plenty of apps on the market designed to help a user manage and administer their OS X system. I've never used any of them as they are mostly unnecessary. The basic principles are very easy:

- Keep 25% (or at least 100G) of free space on the system startup drive
- Put large data files (like video, music, and photo repositories) on external drives when needed to keep enough free space on the main drive.
- Leave the system plugged in and running, asleep, overnight a couple of times a month. OS X has some background cleanup tasks designed to minimize fragmentation, etc. These tend to start up and run in the wee hours of the morning when it is expected that users are not using their system.

If you do those things, and keep the operating system and apps up to date on revisions, your system should always operate well and should never "slow down" simply due to age.

There are, of course, other strategies for data organization and application use that can optimize system operation, and, of course again, a particular system can only perform as quickly and with the capabilities that the specific hardware configuration allows at the limit.

When I buy, I try to buy everything a system can manage at the beginning on the basis that this way I get the most performance and the most use (value) for the longest time with a given system. When newer models outperform what I've already got by enough of a step that it's worth it to buy a new one, having a max'ed out system of whatever type that isn't too too old to still have some life left has greater resale value than either a system that's too old to have any future or a minimum system that has a little life left. My experience shows that this upgrade with Apple gear seems to be about a 2-3 year cycle, so if I bought the extended warranty, my systems are always covered by warranty AND there is additional warranty to transfer to the new owner if I upgrade in the third year ... another improvement on resale return.

Na, I didn't think this out with foresight, but hindsight is pretty clear. ;-)

G

 

[back alley]

likely i should remove all the music off my macbook...i currently have 2 external drives...one has everything backed up from the macbook...all my music and my images...the other has all my images and most of the music...i can't seem to recall how to move the rest of the music over to one of the external drives, the other is done automatically and is complete.
it sounds like if/when i remove all the music files the machine will perk up again.
the big problem with my macbook is the beachball of death pops up more frequently than ever before.

 

[Godfrey]

likely i should remove all the music off my macbook...i currently have 2 external drives...one has everything backed up from the macbook...all my music and my images...the other has all my images and most of the music...i can't seem to recall how to move the rest of the music over to one of the external drives, the other is done automatically and is complete.
it sounds like if/when i remove all the music files the machine will perk up again.
the big problem with my macbook is the beachball of death pops up more frequently than ever before.

It's not whether your music files are on the startup disk or not. The issue is whether the startup disk has enough free space for the OS and your apps to operate as smoothly and quickly as possible. When you have less than 100G of free space on the drive, my experience is that things start to slow down as the file system routines have to work harder to find working space for cache and temporary files as the apps and OS work.

(All of my media files that are actively accessible by iTunes are stored on my startup drive. And all of my working photographic repositories {originals and finished, output'ed files} are on external drives, but I keep my Lightroom catalogs on the startup drive for best performance. But as I said, I have more than half of the startup drive open as free space so they do not impact system performance.)

Moving the music/media files off the startup drive helps by freeing up space. This means

Presuming you store your music and other media files (video, books, etc) with iTunes, in iTunes use the iTunes Help command from the Help menu. Click on "Manage your iTunes library", then on "Manage your media files". There are instructions there for changing where files are stored, using multiple iTunes libraries, etc.

When in doubt, make an appointment at an Apple Retail Store near you, if possible, and have someone show you how to achieve what you want to do.

G

 

[zauhar]

This thread was a jinx - Yesterday my MacBook Pro went belly up. Graphics card is clearly shot (checkerboard patterns on the screen), kernel panics, won't boot from media.

The sad thing - this was MY business laptop, but my kids slowly took it over and basically had use of it for the last four years. We finally gave our eldest her own machine for college, and I took this one back! Just in time...

ARGHH! Good thing I did not get too excited by the half-price GXR discussed elsewhere.

I would chime in that the mac mini is an excellent choice (I have one in my lab), and as some of you pointed out it will now hold 16GB, more than the lowend laptops).

Regarding beachball of death, while a full disk can cause all manner of weird behavior, the basic need for big applications like PS is a lot of RAM.

Randy

 

[back alley]

still thinking about something new...i find that my simple post processing of jpegs in pse has really started to be slow...and sites like facebook and flickr are generating the beach ball of death more often than not.

 

[Stephen G]

Go for the i7.
The big difference is dual core vs quad core.
You have about double the computing capacity with the i7 for an extra $200.
You'll really feel the difference in being able to run multiple apps at once.
Adobe apps are pretty good at utilizing multiple cores at once as well.

The i7 model, plus self-upgrading the RAM to 16GB ($100ish) is a great setup.

Its a great value proposition if you already have monitor/accessories you are happy with

 

[back alley]

i have pretty much decided that i will go fo a mac mini...maybe a refurb as they often come up at the mac online store...
but i'm staying with the macbook as long as it lasts or until i get a job...whichever comes first.

 

[robert blu]

I spoke yesterday with an Apple technician (my i.mac need to replace the HD) and took opportunity to discuss with him about which mac should I buy mainly for photo purpose: he suggested the mini (with 16 G RAM) instead of the i.mac. Eventually the server version with two HDs. In his opinion the i.mac is more performing but if a file opens in 0.8 sec instead of 1.0 sec the difference is high in terms of %, but as operator we do not notice it. Later I met a friend of mine, passionate amateur photographer: he told me having bought a few month ago an i.mac 27 and to be very satisfied with it!
Hmmm, decisions, decisions, decisions...
robert

 

[Al Patterson]

i have pretty much decided that i will go fo a mac mini...maybe a refurb as they often come up at the mac online store...
but i'm staying with the macbook as long as it lasts or until i get a job...whichever comes first.

I was out of work for quite a while, and now that I'm working I am still using the same old computer until it dies. If you are unlucky enough to be out of work too long, you will begin to see the world differently.

I'd go with the mini when the macbook dies...

 

[Out to Lunch]

Apple stock is down by 40 percent. The competition is doing pretty good. If I were you, I'd look not at the past but at the future.