Which Mac to buy? Mini vs Old Mac pro

[devineandrew]

Hi there
Im currently barely running PT 12 (Native) with a command 8 on :
Mid 2010 Mac Mini
OSX Yosemite
4gb RAM
2.3 GHZ core duo processor
320gb HDD

As you can imagine, its barely working well, and I fear its time to upgrade as I need more grunt for audio and video editing, and USB 3 would be useful!
But my budget is £500
The options are:

1) Just upgrade my RAM to the max of 8gb (around £80 from Crucial)

2 )Get a refurbished Mac Mini (Around £450):
Apple Mac Mini i5-2415M 2.3 ghz/ 16GB Ram / 1TB HDD / 3000

3) Get an older Mac Pro from 2008 (around £500)
Mac Pro 3,1 (2008), dual quad core 2.8Ghz Xeons, 12GB ram, ATI HD5770, SSD

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mac-Pro-3-...YAAOSwlY1ZLEkL

Which option is best in the DUC world opinion?

[Drew Mazurek]

RAM has little to do with grunt. That's CPU cycles.

Geekbench scores, while certainly not perfect, are one way to measure one Mac against another.

Check them.

http://browser.geekbench.com/mac-benchmarks

[albee1952]

Don't go with a new Mini as they are only dual-core. Sadly, I think you need to budget more for PT12. A Mac Pro 5,1 8 core with 16GB of RAM would be my bottom end. Newer software and OS versions need more horsepower to run as they are much more capable than 10 years ago. A Mini with a quad i5 and 8GB of RAM would be barely adequate(an i7 quad would be much better).

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by devineandrew

Hi there
Im currently barely running PT 12 (Native) with a command 8 on :
Mid 2010 Mac Mini
OSX Yosemite
4gb RAM
2.3 GHZ core duo processor
320gb HDD

As you can imagine, its barely working well, and I fear its time to upgrade as I need more grunt for audio and video editing, and USB 3 would be useful!
But my budget is £500
The options are:

1) Just upgrade my RAM to the max of 8gb (around £80 from Crucial)

2 )Get a refurbished Mac Mini (Around £450):
Apple Mac Mini i5-2415M 2.3 ghz/ 16GB Ram / 1TB HDD / 3000

3) Get an older Mac Pro from 2008 (around £500)
Mac Pro 3,1 (2008), dual quad core 2.8Ghz Xeons, 12GB ram, ATI HD5770, SSD

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mac-Pro-3-...YAAOSwlY1ZLEkL

Which option is best in the DUC world opinion?

You sure that's a 2.3 GHz cpu? The one is use for Photoshop and web work is the same as yours but has the stock 2.4 GHz cpu. The alternate cpu is a 2.66 GHz chip. But that's kind of immaterial to a certain extent although it could be better.

One of the slowest things is that system drive is a very slow 5400 rpm spinner. Two things I'd do if I were you and the first is the cheapest - put in 8 gig of ram - you'll be glad you did. Second thing is swap out that spinner for an ssd. That should help things along a good bit.

Also if your SuperDrive optical drive has gone funky while you've got the machine open change that out for a second ssd.

[TVPostSound]

Originally Posted by devineandrew

Hi there
Im currently barely running PT 12 (Native) with a command 8 on :
Mid 2010 Mac Mini
OSX Yosemite
4gb RAM
2.3 GHZ core duo processor
320gb HDD

As you can imagine, its barely working well, and I fear its time to upgrade as I need more grunt for audio and video editing, and USB 3 would be useful!
But my budget is £500
The options are:

1) Just upgrade my RAM to the max of 8gb (around £80 from Crucial)

2 )Get a refurbished Mac Mini (Around £450):
Apple Mac Mini i5-2415M 2.3 ghz/ 16GB Ram / 1TB HDD / 3000

3) Get an older Mac Pro from 2008 (around £500)
Mac Pro 3,1 (2008), dual quad core 2.8Ghz Xeons, 12GB ram, ATI HD5770, SSD

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Mac-Pro-3-...YAAOSwlY1ZLEkL

Which option is best in the DUC world opinion?

Find a used Late 2012 Mac Mini 2.6 quad.

[VRW]

Originally Posted by devineandrew

Which option is best in the DUC world opinion?

None of your options, to be honest.

The best bet if you want to keep it low-cost yet Pro Tools-ready
will be a 2012 Mac Mini i7 Quad (2,3GHz or 2,6GHz) with 16GB Ram.
I have followed your Ebay-link and searched for such machines
and there are several interesting offers around £600-800.-, some incl.
even SSDs.

That´s the only low-cost solution that will make sense for the use
with Pro Tools 12 in the long run. You finally want that i7 Quad Core
processor to have a decent Pro Tools performance.

I had an 2011 i5 myself for a short time with PT back in the day and
even if it did work more or less, it was no good performance at all.
I then upgraded to the 2012 Mini i7 Quad, put in 16GB Ram, put in
one SSD first, another, second one later and this little machine was a
blast to use with Pro Tools. Not one single problem anymore, just flying.

I just sold it when I had to go "seriously mobile" and therefor replaced it
with a Macbook Pro but it was a super sweet, really fast, reliable Pro Tools
computer for relatively less money (compared to i7 Quad MBPs or Mac Pros).

You can replace and upgrade all the drives and the memory yourself (OWC
have got cool tutorial videos on their site or YT) and you can get all the parts
for relatively less money on Amazon for example.

Me had 2 Samsung 850 Pro SSDs in the Mini which were fantastic but even
850 Evos or other good quality SSD will do the job. And you want 16GB Ram!

Again, do yourself a favor and don´t go with any old i5 Mini etc. You will not get
happy with such a one in the long run.
Get an i7 Quad Core...whatever and you will have lots of fun with your machine
using Pro Tools (as for the computer at least). Ah, well, avoid Fusion drives!
Still no good idea with Pro Tools finally.
Just put in one or two 7200rpm HDDs if you are on a budget or one or two SSDs
if you can afford it and you will be good to go.

Anyway. Whatever route you decide to go, the best of success to you.


Cheers.

[JFreak]

Originally Posted by TVPostSound

Find a used Late 2012 Mac Mini 2.6 quad.

Sadly, this soon-5-year-old suggestion is one of the best

[noah330]

I also have the 5 year old i7 Mini. Machine is killer!!!

[Cacov]

Also got the Mac mini (late 2012) 2.3GHz i7 quad core w/16GB RAM and SSD, and it works pretty well, not great gfx though, but it works.

[devineandrew]

Amazing thanks guys, would it make Any difference if I said this was just for a personal rig. Not for mixing massive sessions...
My place of work has dustbins with s6 consoles etc. This is for me to do simple tracklay and mixes for YouTube in the comfort of home!