iMac or Mac mini?

[Frank of Denmark]

EDIT: see the last post. Would love to hear thoughts on a new custom build mac 6.1 I'm buying.


I've been running PT12 on my macbook pro with UA apollo 8. Since I use a lot of NI Kontakt, my CPU is not well.

I'm thinking about syncing two macs, so I can dedicate one to NI kontakt, and the other to protools. My Macbook pro and iMac or Mac mini.

What are your opinion? Would a Mac mini be sufficient, or should I go for the more expensive iMac?

Advice appreciated.

Cheers from Copenhagen

[Samanthas Dream]

I bought the mid level Mac Mini a few days ago for my kids to use. I was shocked at how bad the computer is. It’s unbelievably slow, like crazy slow!!!

[TVPostSound]

Originally Posted by Samanthas Dream

I bought the mid level Mac Mini a few days ago for my kids to use. I was shocked at how bad the computer is. It’s unbelievably slow, like crazy slow!!!

Late 2012 Mac Minis are faster than the latest ones.

[Sardi]

As above, the latest models are slower than the older models.

Having said that, those things crawl on the stock RAM. I got one for my folks who literally do nothing but surf the net and it ran so slow due to modern web browsers eating so much RAM. Boosted the RAM to 10GB and eventually added an SSD and it was much snappier.

With that in mind, I still wouldn’t recommend it for audio. My 2012 i7 model runs rings around it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Frank of Denmark]

Thank you all. Good thing I asked.

Anyone with iMac experience then? Or is it only the Mac pro thats usable these days. I have my studio go-to-guy, who is trying to convince me to switch to Windows 10 pro on this Cyberstations they've built. https://www.cyberfarm.dk/computer-audio/computer

But I've always been a mac man, so it's hard, but thats maybe just me being stupid.

[Bookerv12]

Hi,
Long time Mac guy here.

The mini's are no good.
The 2012 models are much better.

The iMacs are good, but by the time you configure them for DAW use, they are pretty expensive.

Your friend is correct about the new windows machines.

If you prefer Mac OS10 over Windows, (as I do), you could build a Hackintosh and get all the power you want for 1/2 the cost of a Mac.

[noah330]

I have the 2012 Mac Mini server and it works great.

[JFreak]

Why not grab a 2nd hand trashcan Mac Pro from eBay?

[Eric Seaberg]

Originally Posted by Frank of Denmark

Thank you all. Good thing I asked.

Anyone with iMac experience then? Or is it only the Mac pro thats usable these days. I have my studio go-to-guy, who is trying to convince me to switch to Windows 10 pro on this Cyberstations they've built. https://www.cyberfarm.dk/computer-audio/computer

But I've always been a mac man, so it's hard, but thats maybe just me being stupid.

I've got a late 2012 MINI 2.6GHz i7 with 16GB RAM and 250GB SSD and it screams... I had it custom built to run ProTools but have a 2011 27" iMac i7 that I'm using instead. Currently using the MINI as my music server/backup system with 20TB of attached storage. If you'd be interested in it, I'd consider a sale since I don't need the horsepower it has.

Just a thought...

[Frank of Denmark]

Thank you for your offer, Eric.

I searched a little more, and I actually found a company here where I live (Denmark/Europe) that custom builds Mac 5.1 and 6.1. So I'm buying this one tomorrow:

Mac Pro 6.1
• 10 core 3Ghz Intel Xeon
• 32 GB 1600Mhz ECC RAM
• 500GB Pcie Flash SSD
• 6 thunderbolt 2 ports
• 4 USB3 ports
• 2 x AMD FirePro D300 with 2GB VRAM each

It will cost me 4000 USD. Anyone have any thoughts on this one?

Cheers,
Frank