Mac Mini 2012

Spit

Spit

Spit

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Joined
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Hi Guys,

I have an iPhone 6S Plus and 12" MacBook and love OSX. Got a great PC start of the year after selling my iMac. Wanted to game again but just don't have the time at all. Windows is a frustration to me and I use my MacBook most of the time.

I spend most of my time doing work on my computer and have a few other work based projects coming up. Looking to sell my PC and get a Mac Mini with LG 34UC97 widescreen monitor and have the 12" MacBook for mobile use.

Seen a 2.6GHz Quad Core 2012 Mac Mini for £700 which seems plenty powerful enough for basic Photoshop, Lightroom, Office etc. Anyone running one of these with the HD4000 graphics on El Capitan with a high res monitor? Is it smooth in OSX?

Thinking one of these with 16Gb and 2x 240Gb SSD will be a lovely machine for productivity :)

Am I right?
 
I would think so yes, that hardware spec should have plenty of grunt for your list of uses.

It seems the 2012 machines with the QC I7 chips are getting pretty hard to find!
 
I didn't realise until I started my research that the 2012 quad was the most powerful mini produced. The 2.6 version is twice as powerful as the 2014 versions.
 
Spit said:
I didn't realise until I started my research that the 2012 quad was the most powerful mini produced. The 2.6 version is twice as powerful as the 2014 versions.
Click to expand...

Yep, indeed, I looked for one for ages and gave up. They were a proper little machine those ones, max it with 16gb like you say and an ssd and its a little cracker!

Shame about the new ones, they seem vastly underpowered. :confused:
 
eBay, guy had one at £700 buy it now or best offer. I submitted £650 and it was accepted. It has 8Gb and 1Tb HDD. I have just ordered 16Gb for £65 and plan to sell the 8Gb and 1Tb drive. I have 2 240Gb SSD's from my current system to put in.

The 2.3 quads are more available than the 2.6. Just type Mac Mini Quad into the bay and they come up.

Should be a beast once completed. I will then get my 34" LG Ultra Widescreen.
 
Nice one cheers, I might look into this for myself!
I might just go for the i5 version for my mum, as she doesn't need it for anything other than web browsing and printing.

It seems like the new Mac Mini's are pretty rubbish compared to the 2012 model specs?
 
i5 will be fine, there was a 2012 one on the members market last week for £300! I really wanted the fastest as it will be my desktop machine and I run a lot of programs.

Yes the 2014 ones are not great for the money. Worse thing is the 2014 ones are not upgradeable so you have to pay big Apple prices for 16Gb and SSD. 2012 ones are fully upgradeable and the quad version has 2 hard drive spaces. Dual core ones have 1 space.
 
Thanks mate, good to know. I really want an i7 now, and got a Wanted in the MM too. Apple must have realised how much they were giving away and cut them down massively.
 
Suppose the only thing you lose on is the integrated graphics. 2012 is HD4000 while the 2014 is Iris. With El Capitan this shouldn't be as much of an issue as they rewrote the graphics sub system and its much quicker now.
 
You have the same one as me! :cool:

Make sure you get the 2nd drive kit so you have have 2 SSD's in there as well, take about 20 mins to fit and makes it into a powerful little beast.

Mines been going strong since new and has gotten better will El Capitan
 
I've been running a 2012 2.6 with 16Gb and an SSD for over a year now with an LG 34UM95 and its a cracking setup.

No problems with El Capitan so far.

Runs very smoothly and is snappy with the SSD.
 
Brilliant, thanks for this. Thought it would be good as my 1.1Ghz MacBook is smooth with El Capitan :)
 
I've had my Mini 2.6 since it was released. They did have issues with the HD4000 but was sorted out after awhile. Added a 256GB Samsung 830 and 16GB ram. I have mine running with a Samsung 34er superwider, love it, also running the latest beta El Capitan with no real problems. Shame the new minis are pants.
 
Spit said:
Thanks. Is that the 3440x1440 Samsung? Bet the image quality is great.
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Yeah its the curved one, had to set my own profile which isnt too hard but great for most things, photoshop/movies for me.
I had the Dell 34er curved one for abit but it was rubbish with the bleeding backlight, the older 2913UW was better!
 
Excellent, does Lightroom and Photoshop work good with the 2.6?

All my kit is arriving tomorrow. Mac Mini and LG 34UC97.
 
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