2012 Mac Mini

Ant84

Ant84

Ant84

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Joined
20 Feb 2007
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1,094
So my self built PC has served me very well over the years but I find myself hankering for a new Mac Mini today. Upgraded to Lightroom 4 to do some hobbyist level photo editing, nothing too extreme, and I'm finding my PC is suffering from some major slowdown. I don't know whether that's down to ageing CPU or lack of RAM (running 4gb).

I love OSX and quite fancy making the switch, but I'm a bit torn between the options available. Brief reading suggests the middle spec Mini is the pick of the bunch in terms of performance and value, but I'm wondering if it'll be overkill for what I need. I don't play games, nor do I edit videos. The most intensive application for me will be Lightroom 4.

I expect the Ivy i5 will give me a massive bump over my overclocked i3 530, but will it be enough of an improvement to justify the upgrade or do I need the Ivy i7?
 
I think I'll go for the middle spec i7 2.3 quad. Almost double the CPU benchmark of the base spec i5 2.5 dual, so a little more future proof. I guess I've always got the 14 day return period in the unlikely event I'm not happy with it.

My one concern is the speed of the 5,400rpm hard drive. I know it's possible to fit an SSD, but I'm not sure how difficult that is.
 
Just picked up the middle spec i7 from my local Apple store with a Bluetooth keyboard and wireless trackpad.

The keyboard is annoying me already as it doesn't sit flat on my desk like my Logitech one does.
 
Well the good news is that Lightroom usage is greatly improved and is showing near enough realtime adjustments to the image, whereas my i3 530 was taking around 4-5 seconds at time to show the change in the preview window.

The bad news. I'm already suffering from the wireless drop out that appears to have plagued many Apple devices since 10.7 Lion. After an hour or so without problem it disappeared and took over an hour before I got it back stable again. The network sometimes didn't even appear at all in the list and even when it did, I got a connection timeout. Had a mess about with the settings and it seems okay again, but if it happens again during the initial 14 day money back period it'll be returned.
 
I really don't know. Something was definitely at fault though and this Mini is much, much quicker with the edits with the same amount of RAM so I'm guessing it must be the CPU slowing it down.

These are 20mp images that are 25MB in size, so I don't know whether that's the issue or not.

As far as the wireless is concerned, I'm a little bit baffled why my iPad and Galaxy SII picked up the signal easily but the Mini didn't even display it in the available networks, despite being on the same desk. Strange.
 
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The wireless issue is something I'm hoping will become less of a problem as I plan to buy some TP Link gigabit powerlines and run the Mini via ethernet.

I'm quite impressed with the performance of the machine and can only imagine it will be much, much better with an SSD installed. Is there any other way to fit one than buying the iFixit kit?
 
Just bought the gigabit TP Link powerlines and it's maxed out my 60mb connection, so hopefully never need to use wi-fi again with the Mini.

I'd like an SSD and I'm mulling over upping the RAM to 16gb. I know it's likely overkill for what I need (in terms of RAM) but is it worth doing anyway since it's relatively cheap and it can never hurt to have too much RAM?
 
My monitor is connected via DVI with the adapter and I'm having the same blackout issues.

Doesn't particularly bother me as it only lasts a second when it does happen.
 
I'll give that a try next time I'm in store, thanks.

My keyboard doesn't sit flush against the desk either and taps against the wood every time I press a key. Highly annoying when I'm not wearing my headphones.
 
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