Buying a MAC Mini for photography: 2012 i7 with upgrades or 2014 loaded?

[Gdourado]

Hello, how are you?

I need your help here.
I want to buy a mini.
I currently have two options:
Option 1 is buy a 2012 2.3 i7 Mini and upgrade the RAM and install a SSD.
This would be:
- 2012 i7 2.3 Mini
- Kingston HyperX Impact 16gb CL9 1600MHZ RAM Kit
- Samsung 840 EVO 500GB

This would set me back around 1000 Euros for the full kit.

Option 2 is to buy a 2014 with the following specs:
- 2.6 Dual core i5
- 16gb of ram
- 256GB PCIe SSD

This would set me back around 900.

So, to get the 2012 with upgrades it would cost 100 more.
I would get a quad-core that scores around 11000 in geek bench and a bigger SSD, although it would be SATA 3.

The 2014 comes with a dual core that only scores around 6500 in geek bench. Big difference... But it comes with PCI SSD and faster graphics. The Iris is supposed to be a big step up from the ageing HD4000...

All in all, I don't know what to do...
I would use the machine for general web-browsing, email, some iWork and then some photography, with lightroom and photoshop.
I work with 16mpx raw files from my fuji X camera.

I already own a monitor, magic mouse and apple keyboard.

I guess what I am mostly asking is if the i7 quad of the 2012 is that much better outside the geek bench aspect and if it is worth it for me?

Thanks for helping out.

Cheers!

[ShadowCaptain]

SNIP

 

Is there a reason you have to go for a mac?

 

I would never spend 1000 on a mac mini, they are not that great (and I am an apple lover)

[MrSuperb]

Mac Mini's overheat and run slow, build a small Hacktintosh if you need Mac OS X.

bullshit.

[Kivuli64]

Mac Mini's overheat and run slow, build a small Hacktintosh if you need Mac OS X.

I agree with what gFrenken97 said.

[Kivuli64]

A small hackintosh will probably cost you less and you can water cool it if you feel like it.

[MrSuperb]

I would use the machine for general web-browsing, email, some iWork and then some photography, with lightroom and photoshop.

other than photoshop, none of those programs really take advantage of quad core cpus.

Lightroom is mainly single threaded.

[Sauron]

If you have 1000$ don't even think about a mac mini you can get an x99 desktop for that price. Both options you have there are literally terrible.

 

8-core x99 build for 1080$:

 

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Xeon E5-2630 V3 2.4GHz 8-Core Processor  ($649.99 @ SuperBiiz) 

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO 82.9 CFM Sleeve Bearing CPU Cooler  ($28.75 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: ASRock X99 Extreme3 ATX LGA2011-3 Motherboard  ($186.78 @ Newegg) 

Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR4-2400 Memory  ($99.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Crucial M550 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 

Video Card: PowerColor Radeon HD 5450 1GB Video Card  ($17.98 @ Newegg) 

Case: Thermaltake VL80001W2Z ATX Mid Tower Case  ($24.99 @ Micro Center) 

Power Supply: Corsair Builder 430W 80+ Bronze Certified ATX Power Supply  ($19.99 @ Newegg) 

Total: $1078.46

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-07 06:14 EST-0500

 

This is orders of magnitude faster than any mac mini ever made. If you want to spare some money on it, swap out the xeon with a core i7 5820k (it's a 6-core, however it's clocked higher and is significantly cheaper).

 

if form factor matters:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

 

CPU: Intel Core i7-4790 3.6GHz Quad-Core Processor  ($289.88 @ OutletPC) 

Motherboard: Asus H81T/CSM Thin Mini ITX LGA1150 Motherboard  ($84.99 @ Amazon) 

Memory: Team 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory  ($65.99 @ Newegg) 

Storage: Crucial M550 128GB 2.5" Solid State Drive  ($49.99 @ Amazon) 

Case: Apevia X-FIT-100 Mini ITX Tower Case w/250W Power Supply  ($40.98 @ Newegg) 

Total: $531.83

Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available

Generated by PCPartPicker 2015-01-07 06:20 EST-0500

 

still destroys any mac mini at literally half the price you proposed.

 

Hope I helped

[Gdourado]

Hello, thank you for your replies!

Here's an update on my part.

 

To try out the waters, I took my gaming PC and did a quick hackintosh install.

Here's what I did:

 

With VMWare workstation I used an OS X 10.8 image to create a Yosemite install drive with the Clover Bootloader. Used clover to get full UEFI boot.

 

Took out my windows install SSD and installed an old 2.5 inch hdd I had laying around.

Took out my data drives and both the GTX 970's.

Plugged the monitor to the onboard display port and fired away the machine.

 

Accessed the BIOS and tweaked it around.

Think god for Asrock bios profiles. Have my Windows config saved.

 

Installed Yosemite, did the post install (Took around 1 hour).

 

Then booted OS X 10.10.1.

 

It worked with some minor issues, like:

- Onboard sound doesn't work. I guess it is because my board has the SoundCore 3D chip. I disabled onboard audio in the Bios and my Fiio E17 USB works great.

- Sleep doesn't work. I put the computer to sleep, it goes down, comes back up immediately and the screen stays black.

 

Other than that from my quick tour, everything else seems to work.

- The computer does not freeze or hang.

- I can use the App Store (downloaded some of my old purchases)

- I am typing this post from Yosemite

- With my Trust Bluetooth USB dongle, the Apple Keyboard and Magic Mouse work.

- Ethernet works. I loaded a KEXT I found for the Killer Network adapter in Clover. The Intel adapter is disabled in the Bios.

 

Ran geek bench in trial 32 bit mode and got this:

 

Pretty sweet.

And this is with a very old, very slow 2.5 inch 5400 rpm Hard Drive.

With an SSD, it should improve I guess...

 

Guess if I want to pursue this, I should get a recommended mackintosh Gigabyte board. 

I haven't found any mackintosh builds with my Asrock Z97 Fatality Professional.

 

Any thoughts on this?

 

Cheers!

[Gdourado]

My parents have a Mac mini, it's beyond crap and totally not worth the price.

 

Out of curiosity, why do you say that?

 

Cheers!

[SammyG145]

Hello, thank you for your replies!

Here's an update on my part.

 

To try out the waters, I took my gaming PC and did a quick hackintosh install.

Here's what I did:

 

With VMWare workstation I used an OS X 10.8 image to create a Yosemite install drive with the Clover Bootloader. Used clover to get full UEFI boot.

 

Took out my windows install SSD and installed an old 2.5 inch hdd I had laying around.

Took out my data drives and both the GTX 970's.

Plugged the monitor to the onboard display port and fired away the machine.

 

Accessed the BIOS and tweaked it around.

Think god for Asrock bios profiles. Have my Windows config saved.

 

Installed Yosemite, did the post install (Took around 1 hour).

 

Then booted OS X 10.10.1.

 

It worked with some minor issues, like:

- Onboard sound doesn't work. I guess it is because my board has the SoundCore 3D chip. I disabled onboard audio in the Bios and my Fiio E17 USB works great.

- Sleep doesn't work. I put the computer to sleep, it goes down, comes back up immediately and the screen stays black.

 

Other than that from my quick tour, everything else seems to work.

- The computer does not freeze or hang.

- I can use the App Store (downloaded some of my old purchases)

- I am typing this post from Yosemite

- With my Trust Bluetooth USB dongle, the Apple Keyboard and Magic Mouse work.

- Ethernet works. I loaded a KEXT I found for the Killer Network adapter in Clover. The Intel adapter is disabled in the Bios.

 

Ran geek bench in trial 32 bit mode and got this:

 

Pretty sweet.

And this is with a very old, very slow 2.5 inch 5400 rpm Hard Drive.

With an SSD, it should improve I guess...

 

Guess if I want to pursue this, I should get a recommended mackintosh Gigabyte board. 

I haven't found any mackintosh builds with my Asrock Z97 Fatality Professional.

 

Any thoughts on this?

 

Cheers!

 

Well apart from the sleep issue that if I remember was always hit and miss. And audio it seems you ahve a work around for do you really need to spend money on a new motherboard? 

 

If I was you I would use it for a while and if it becomes such an annoyance then swap it out. 

[Gdourado]

Well apart from the sleep issue that if I remember was always hit and miss. And audio it seems you ahve a work around for do you really need to spend money on a new motherboard?

If I was you I would use it for a while and if it becomes such an annoyance then swap it out.

I was reading online about some hackintosh builds using gigabyte boards that have sound, sleep, wake from Bluetooth keyboard and power States working.

That's why I was looking at another board.

Cheers

[SammyG145]

I was reading online about some hackintosh builds using gigabyte boards that have sound, sleep, wake from Bluetooth keyboard and power States working.

That's why I was looking at another board.

Cheers

Really? Wow really been a while since I've been out of the hackintosh seen then. Nothing seemed to work on anything when I built my Core 2 duo hackintosh. Ignore everything I said then!

 

Have you started doing any actual work on the system yet? Like heavy loads or anything? Would like to know what kind of performance you get day to day.

[Gdourado]

Just an update.

I installed an SSD on the hackintosh. Used Clover to enable native TRIM. No issues.

I have solved the sleep issues. The computer goes to sleep and correctly wakes from sleep with the wireless Apple Keyboard.

And CPU power states are working out of the box.

 

Will start doing some work to test the stability and performance.

 

Cheers!