Help deciding on Mac Mini

[StratMan04]

Hello - I will be purchasing a Mac Mini quad core i7, 2.3 GHz. I will be using Pro Tools 11 on it for very simple recordings, mainly just simple backing tracks (bass and drum machine) to practice guitar. So I will not be into intensive recording at all. My question is whether I should go with a 1 TB 7200 RPM hard drive or a 256 GB solid state drive? I will be ordering with 16 GB of RAM also. I know the solid state drive will give better performance, but for my purposes, will I notice that much of a difference to justify the added expense?

[Darryl Ramm]

If you get the internal 7,200 rpm drive you really still need to get a dedicated audio/session drive. Do not record to the systems drive. Ideally I'd look at a Lacie SSD thunderbolt drive or a Thunderbolt dock with Samsung 840 Evo or Pro SSD in it.

If you get the internal SSD, you may be able to use it as a recording drive as well as boot/system drive. However it is still not recommended. And especially if you have lots of sample based VI plugins I'd put all those samples on the fast internal SSD and keep audio/session files on an external drive.

If mine, I'd be getting the internal SSD, much faster boot times, more reliable etc. (but 256 GB even as a boot drive is way too small for me... do you gave lots of other apps or plugin samples to install?) and adding an external SSD drive. Probably via a Sonnet Dock (http://www.sonnettech.com/product/ec...rboltdock.html) and Samsung 840 Evo or Pro SATA III drives.

Carefully work out the actual size of the boot drive you need (apps+plugins+samples) before doing anything else. And leave lots of spare space. (30%+).

I'd also not be buying a Mac Mini right now, I'd wait and see what the expected model updates bring.

[Drew Mazurek]

Wait.

Mac Mini is likely to be updated within weeks.

http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/#Mac_Mini

[Jay_uk]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

If you get the internal 7,200 rpm drive you really still need to get a dedicated audio/session drive. Do not record to the systems drive.

The mini comes with two drives….yes?

[Darryl Ramm]

Originally Posted by Jay_uk

The mini comes with two drives….yes?

Again the bottom line is it does not matter what they do now, these are old models and need to be /should be updated soon.

The current Mac Mini (non server) product comes with one drive, the servr comes with two, you can add third party kits to mount a second SATA drive in the standard model. You could also purchase the Fusion drive option when you configure the Mac Mini and then split apart the the HDD and SSD parts of the Fusion drive, but I don't think Apple has a 7,200 rpm version of Fusion in the Mac Mini so you'd be stuck with a 5,400 rpm drive that sucks at everything. And you don't want to use Fusion anything in any DAW system currently until Apple and others sort the seeming problems goign on with it. But as a trick to get a separate HDD + Small SSD ordering Fusion on 17" iMacs with 7,200 rpm HDDs may be OK. may be OK as well in the Mini if there is a 7,200 rpm HDD based Fusion option.

[Jay_uk]

Originally Posted by Darryl Ramm

Again the bottom line is it does not matter what they do now, these are old models and need to be /should be updated soon.

The current Mac Mini (non server) product comes with one drive, the servr comes with two, you can add third party kits to mount a second SATA drive in the standard model. You could also purchase the Fusion drive option when you configure the Mac Mini and then split apart the the HDD and SSD parts of the Fusion drive, but I don't think Apple has a 7,200 rpm version of Fusion in the Mac Mini so you'd be stuck with a 5,400 rpm drive that sucks at everything. And you don't want to use Fusion anything in any DAW system currently until Apple and others sort the seeming problems goign on with it. But as a trick to get a separate HDD + Small SSD ordering Fusion on 17" iMacs with 7,200 rpm HDDs may be OK. may be OK as well in the Mini if there is a 7,200 rpm HDD based Fusion option.

Great info Darryl.
but as you say its moot now that the new ones are coming out.
I,m glad i checked this thread, i was considering a new mini as a dedicated PT machine.

[VRW]

I got a Mini i7 2,3GHz last autumn which works flawlessly great with PT11/Logic X.
I also put 16GB into it and replaced the original OS drive with a Samsung 840Pro SSD.
As for the audio drives I use 2 FW800 7200rpm external drives. That was my way to make a compromise between costs and functionality.
Me for sure would love to use SSDs as audio drives too as well as having had the 2,6GHz model but you know...
What I want to say is that you may have a look on what´s important for your personal needs compared to the costs.

Only to me personally of course it not has to be the latest model at any cost (though I do all my stuff update regularly
and can´t help buying new plugs etc. etc.) as it is more important to meet the exact requirements for Pro Tools (processor type etc.)
and get all the exact connections I really need by still being able to afford it.

The i7 2,3GHz is definitely one of the recommended machines by Avid and if there is an opportunity to get it at a good price,
so why not buy it and spend more money on other stuff like drives, ram etc.?
I just guess the new ones won´t be as low in price as you can get the current Minis.

But that´s just my personal thoughts of course.

Well, there may be another thing, that if you have an older FW audio interface or older FW drives you might prefer to connect it
directly to a FW port as it probably will be working better than via the Thunderbolt to FW-adapter
and it´s only my guess that the new machines will miss any FW ports at all as it happened to the new MBPros).

Just finally let me say that the SSD OS drive has made a big difference in the overall performance here
as I previously had one 7200rpm for it (a good one!) and can tell about it.
IMO it is definitely worth the price and you don´t need much GBs on it either to keep it affordable
(got only 128GB on mine, but got all the Avid instrument stuff, plugin stuff like from MDSP Revolver e.g.
as well as the complete Logic Apple Loop stuff on it and there are still 40GBs left).
Only the really big ones as the extra Waves IRs, Sample Libraries etc. are on another 7200rpm drive
but I think it´s better to have that not on the OS drive anyway.

Whatsoever.
Wishing you good luck and lots of fun with the new gear actually!

Cheers, VRW





MacMini i7Quad, 16GB Ram, MacOS 10.9.1, Apogee Quartet, Genelec Active, Yamaha NS10, Pro Tools 11.1.2, Logic 10.0.6, Waves, MCDSP, Duende Native, Softube, HOFA, IK Multimedia etc.

[Tim R.]

Not sure why people still feel the need for fast audio drives. With Protools Cacheing audio doesn't that become a non-issue? I'm running a Mac Mini with all my audio/samples on two portable USB drives.

[musicman691]

Originally Posted by Tim R.

Not sure why people still feel the need for fast audio drives. With Protools Cacheing audio doesn't that become a non-issue? I'm running a Mac Mini with all my audio/samples on two portable USB drives.

Timeline cache only works with PT11HD

[feliponk]

Originally Posted by musicman691

Timeline cache only works with PT11HD

Disk Cache started with Pro Tools 10HD or CPTK