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Old 05-31-2015, 12:09 AM
Gohanto Gohanto is offline
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Default PT on Mac Mini Limitations

I'm looking at the 2.8 GHz Mac Mini for a new PT 12 studio setup, with 2 external HD's (1 for scratch disk, 1 for storage). Debating if the Mac Mini will have enough horsepower or not. My driving factor for the Mac Mini is that I prefer the rack-mounted form factor, and for a dual monitor setup the iMac is hard to match for the 2nd monitor with anything except the Apple Thunderbolt Display. Looking at the Mac Pro as well with the Sonnet Tech rack mount, but part of me thinks that's overkill since it's a relatively small studio (~240 SF) and there won't be any video to deal with.

I'm pretty sure my limiting factor from the Mac Mini will be the number of live plug-ins that can be run, but is there anyway to estimate that before buying a computer?
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Old 05-31-2015, 01:02 AM
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JFreak JFreak is offline
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Mac Mini has been proved to be really good PT computer, but I don't have numbers at hand right now. Word is, the older discontinued model was even better, but as long as you have one with i7 CPU it should be great. AFAIK it has two internal drive bays so you could take advantage of that too.
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Old 05-31-2015, 02:54 AM
Phil Ogden Phil Ogden is offline
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I am running a model as Janne describes. In my case, a 2.0 quad i7. Partnered with an Apollo Twin, the set-up provides enough processing power to do fairly sizeable projects. Say, 40-60 tracks, a good number of plugs and some VI's.

You can buy rackmount enclosures for the Mini if that's important to you.

Geekbench provides scores for the various Macs which, whilst rudimentary, does allow you to compare models.
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Old 05-31-2015, 04:16 AM
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www.everymac.com has good information and benchmarks.

Just that you know, the current model only has dual-core i7 (imagine how many were pissed when Apple released the new specs) so for PT it would be better to find a 2012 model which is quad-core.
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Old 05-31-2015, 07:17 AM
Bookerv12 Bookerv12 is offline
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We set a machine up on the 2012 quad i7 mini and it was great.
We tried a couple with the Dual core i7 and it didn't work too well.
I guess the quad was too similar to the mac pro in the horse power dept.

Having been through this 4 times now, I would encourage the OP to purchase a new or used Mac pro trashcan. Everything works really well out of the box.
The cheaper option is to find a used quad mini. They are out there.

You are going to end up getting one anyway after being let down by the lack of horse power of the dual core. (Why pay for it)
There just really isn't an inexpensive computer route right now, unless, you go with a Hack or PC.....
And a nice machine is still going to cost about the same as a decked out mini, which already starts out kind of hobbled, with lack of ports, heating issues, etc.

Just a thought.
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Old 06-01-2015, 12:29 AM
VRW VRW is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JFreak View Post
Mac Mini has been proved to be really good PT computer, but I don't have numbers at hand right now. Word is, the older discontinued model was even better
+1

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookerv12 View Post
We set a machine up on the 2012 quad i7 mini and it was great.
+1

Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookerv12 View Post
We tried a couple with the Dual core i7 and it didn't work too well.
+1

If you are looking for a Mini just find one of the 2012 i7 Quad Core series. Skip the new ones.

I had a 2012 i7 Quad Core 2,3GHz model for 3 years with Pro Tools 11 and it was a hell of a
machine for this price range. I would recommend it to everyone looking for a lower priced Pro
Tools computer.

But you will have to invest a bit of money to make it Pro Tools ready like replacing at least one
memory bar of the original ones with an 8GB Ram bar (which will provide you 10GB finally),
better would be to replace both with 2x 8GB Ram to gain 16GB Ram as a whole.
Further you would have to replace the originally built in OS drive as it is too slow for the use
with Pro Tools.
And finally it is a very good idea to take advantage of the option to build in another, 2nd drive
in the Mini instead of using an external audio drive.
This second built in drive will be faster and more reliable than any external drive solution and
even more affordable at the end of the day.

So, if you get such a 2012 i7 Quad Core Mini, put in 16GB Ram for example and add 2 high quality
SATA SSDs to it, you will have a real little powerhouse for the use with Pro Tools which will easily
handle even really large sessions with PT11 and PT12 as I can confirm from my personal experience.

This is what you would need.
1) A basic model of the 2012 i7 Quad Core Mini
http://www.amazon.com/Apple-Mini-MD3.../dp/B007477COO

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Mac-Mi...-/271886433189

http://www.ebay.com/itm/MD388LL-A-La...-/141681907309

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Late-2012-Ma...-/161721539898

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/mac-mini-i7

2) Depending on how much Ram would be in the Mini when you would buy it, at the least 1 single
memory bar with 8GB Ram (if it comes with 4GB=2x2GB you will get 10GB as a whole, if it comes
with 8GB=2x4GB you will get 12GB) or the best option (if it does not come with 16GB Ram already)
just 2 memory bars with 8GB Ram each which will give you 16GB Ram as whole which will be the max.
http://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Single...-12800%29+CL11

3) Depends on with which kind of drive the Mini would come. You would need 7200rpm HDDs at the
least for both, the OS drive as well as for the 2nd built in audio drive. The even better solution would
be 2 SATA SSDs of good quality.

This would be the best 7200rpm HDD for it.
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita...ct_top?ie=UTF8
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16822236873

If you would need more than 500GB for your 2nd audio drive, this will be the
same drive with more storage space but less cache. Still the best 2,5" HDD available and both types
are really affordable nowadays. Great solution if you are on a tight budget.
http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digita...al+Black+2%2C5
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...-561-_-Product

This would be the best SATA SSD for it (I had 2 of them built in my Mini and definitely can recommend it!).
http://www.amazon.com/Samsung-256GB-...amsung+850+Pro

To gain the most of it for the money would mean to get a 256GB Samsung 850 Pro for the OS drive and a
1TB Samsung 850 Pro for the 2nd audio drive.
So your OS drive would be large enough to house the OS incl. some sample libraries and the 2nd drive would
be large enough for all your audio/sessions for a long time or even to house additional samples as well.

However you also could use one 7200rpm HDD and one SSD or whichever combination/solution you would
prefer or you could afford.

4) This would be the right mounting kit for the 2nd internal drive incl. the right tools to get it done.
http://www.amazon.com/iFixit-Mini-Du...i+data+doubler

5) This finally is the tutorial video how to get the 2nd drive into the Mini.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63WL3Q7UujI

You only need to take yourself a little time, be careful, not forcing anything and you can get this done
quite easily. I´m no technician at all and got 2 Minis done by the help of this video and the right tools. It´s no
big deal finally.
On the other hand by doing this you would get a really powerful, very fast little i7 Quad Core Mac for far below $2000.-.
Depending on which drives you would decide to get it could be around $1300-1700.- which is a big bang for the buck.

Another cool thing with this particular generation of Minis (2012) is the broad range of connectivity options you get.
This thing lets you use older (but still professionally useable) Firewire drives/audio interfaces as well as all the new
USB 3 and Thunderbolt stuff. That´s pretty cool for audio/recording applications.

Again, I would not recommend the new Minis for the use with Pro Tools 11/12 as those are far behind when it comes
to Multicore Performance which is the crucial thing for Pro Tools.
http://barefeats.com/macmin14.html
http://www.primatelabs.com/blog/2014...i-performance/

Anyway.
It´s all up to you finally of course.
I have to say I only sold mine because I needed to down size my whole rig from 2 full setups (desktop+audio interface,
mobile/MBP+audio interface) to 1 single portable solution but I´m still impressed how this little Quad Core Mini used to
perform with it´s 2 Samsung 850 Pros inside for the price. Highly recommended for people on a budget.

The best of success to you, VRW

Last edited by VRW; 06-01-2015 at 12:47 AM.
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