Worth upgrading to mac mini 2018? About to pull trigger, need your thoughts!

[Combat squirrel]

As title, im a full time photo/video guy, currently using a ryzen 7 PC - which works ok, but I'm getting sick of windows 10! - I use apple for everything else, also this Ryzen feels abit sluggish now - its got a gtx1070 in.

I currently also have a macbook pro 2016 but its just no where near as nippy as the ryzen- my main software I use is LR and Final Cut - I do have a Vega 56 EGPU on a Razer already at here as well.

Approx geekbench scores:

Macbook pro 2016 - single core 4112 multi 14500

Ryzen PC: Single core 4075 multi 21800

Mac Mini 2018: Single core 5700 Multi 24500

I do need an always at home always on PC as well as its backing up to backblaze, so while I also need an on the road PC - it would be handy to have a mac mini as well.

I'm on the fence as is it enough to justify spending £1400 ??? Id get:

Mac mini i7
8GB (upgrade to 32gb after)
512GB SSD

I would then plug in my vega 56 EGPU and use that to power 2x 4k screens - id then also probably buy a 2TB Thunberbolt drive to edit off and just use a few 8tb USB drives for data backup.

Geekbench looks like a hell of a jump in single core speed and a nice little bump in multi, worth it for what I use? (I know LR apparently likes single core power?)

 

[Feek]

If you pick the base model and upgrade the CPU to the i7, it'll cost you £1069. That's only a 128Gb SSD but then buy a 1Tb external SSD and an enclosure. Don't even bother formatting the internal drive and just use the external device. That'll be a decent saving.

/edit - Or use the internal drive for the OS but go with a large external drive for all your data as you suggested.

 

[Journey]

Or just drop in a new Ryzen 3xxx CPU in your current system??

 

[Combat squirrel]

Or just drop in a new Ryzen 3xxx CPU in your current system??

Yeahhh but I really dislike windows 10 and I use apple everything else.............. literally the only reason I'm on windows is Light Room because its a lot lot nipper than my macbook pro 2016 - not sure if its core count (as the MBP 2016 benches a little higher on single core performance of my ryzen) or the Nvidia graphics card (1070) and cuda - the MBP uses a Vega 56 on EGPU and metal/open CL. - either way the ryzen is incredibly more snappy, even if I edit photos off the MBP internal very fast drive - I can only assume its the core count on the ryzen? What do you think ?

Anyways if i can get LR running fast and snappy on Mac OS somehow - on a 4k external screen, id totally dump windows

 

[Journey]

Yeahhh but I really dislike windows 10 and I use apple everything else.............. literally the only reason I'm on windows is Light Room because its a lot lot nipper than my macbook pro 2016 - not sure if its core count (as the MBP 2016 benches a little higher on single core performance of my ryzen) or the Nvidia graphics card (1070) and cuda - the MBP uses a Vega 56 on EGPU and metal/open CL. - either way the ryzen is incredibly more snappy, even if I edit photos off the MBP internal very fast drive - I can only assume its the core count on the ryzen? What do you think ?

Anyways if i can get LR running fast and snappy on Mac OS somehow - on a 4k external screen, id totally dump windows

If your willing to spend the money, you can achieve almost anything. If you dislike Windows so much then get your wallet out.

 

[Combat squirrel]

If your willing to spend the money, you can achieve almost anything. If you dislike Windows so much then get your wallet out.

Haha well, yes, but I don't want to spend pointlessly

Im thinking the price/performance/eco system/features

 

[Journey]

Haha well, yes, but I don't want to spend pointlessly

Im thinking the price/performance/eco system/features

It is your own definition of pointless that is the deciding factor though, correct?

I'd consider it like this, if you literally only use your Ryzen based Windows 10 machine for Lightroom, then what is annoying you about the OS? Are you not just sat in Lightroom, and doing your stuff in there? Why do you need to do anything with the O/S other than configure it for shared drives, and the odd update (every other day) etc.

If I was going to spend £1400 on something for one program, then I'd make damn sure that one program is going to either change my life on the new system, or earn me the money back in less stress or actual hard currency.

Only you can decide if you really want to do it, and if it is worthwhile.

 

[Feek]

Haha well, yes, but I don't want to spend pointlessly

Hence why I gave you an option to save a few quid in post #2.

 

[MacRS4]

You can see my run through of the 2018 unit here, same unit with an eGPU, and then an update I've used it a while. Currently been up for 36 days and still running just sparky - I'm really impressed by it.

My use is stuff I want to leave running and forget about - so video conversions, VMs etc. I don't often 'use' it as a machine, it's usually doing secondary things. When I have though it's been properly impressive.

 

[Combat squirrel]

Hence why I gave you an option to save a few quid in post #2.

Indeed, I'm just not sure how id cope with 128gb ssd - I plan to dual boot with windows also and have a little local space for apps, some project files, icloud etc (have an icloud 2tb subscription - I take it there isn't a way to store icloud files on an external drive?)

Also on occasion Id like to take it in my campervan for on site editing thats much more powerful than anything I have now. my 512gb SSD in the MBP is just about ok for me right now I find.

You can see my run through of the 2018 unit here, same unit with an eGPU, and then an update I've used it a while. Currently been up for 36 days and still running just sparky - I'm really impressed by it.

My use is stuff I want to leave running and forget about - so video conversions, VMs etc. I don't often 'use' it as a machine, it's usually doing secondary things. When I have though it's been properly impressive.

Indeed, I have followed your channel a while now sir! I greatly appreciate your views and reviews, and have seen ALL your mac related videos.

As your running so many VM's I'm guessing theres slim chance you'd review it from a 'power users' POV - what us togs/editors really want to see is video screen grabs of it in use editing photos, video etc - seeing how fast the user can edit photos, how much lag is there etc, I personally edit far faster than my MBP 2016 can keep up with - my Ryzen JUST about keeps up, just, its a lot snappier for sure.

Benches are great, its whats giving me hope a single core score of 4075 vs 5700 would actually be a big jump - but my MBP scores over 4100 single core - yet LR is dog slow - unless adobe HAVE made LR much more multi threaded these days ? But I thought it really wasnt apart from exporting ? (which im not bothered about, take as long as it wants)

 

[MacRS4]

Thanks Should give that channel a bit more love, surprised me a bit the attention the tech gets, but then I think I get my hands on stuff that people are interested in! I don't really 'use' the mini in the way you're talking about - that's why I was so surprised when an eGPU turned up at my house! Turns out it had been sent to the office, nobody knew what to do with it, so assumed it was mine.

When I have used it though the performance has been properly impressive. The only time I've noticed it struggle a bit is when it was plugged in to the LG 5k - seemed to get a bit....latent in screen response?

EDITed to add - I've always found Adobe products to be somewhat lacking MacOS. I used to use Premiere for example, and it's horribly slow on MacOS, yet flies in Windows. That's why I switched to FCPX (well that and realising how cheap it is as a dirty student).

On the SSD by the way - it can work out cheaper to buy a small X5, buy a bigger NVMe SSD and put it in the X5 case...and eBay the old one! You have to accept the risk of borking the X5 though of course. Really isn't difficult, case comes apart quite easily.

 

[Combat squirrel]

Thanks Should give that channel a bit more love, surprised me a bit the attention the tech gets, but then I think I get my hands on stuff that people are interested in! I don't really 'use' the mini in the way you're talking about - that's why I was so surprised when an eGPU turned up at my house! Turns out it had been sent to the office, nobody knew what to do with it, so assumed it was mine.

When I have used it though the performance has been properly impressive. The only time I've noticed it struggle a bit is when it was plugged in to the LG 5k - seemed to get a bit....latent in screen response?

EDITed to add - I've always found Adobe products to be somewhat lacking MacOS. I used to use Premiere for example, and it's horribly slow on MacOS, yet flies in Windows. That's why I switched to FCPX (well that and realising how cheap it is as a dirty student).

On the SSD by the way - it can work out cheaper to buy a small X5, buy a bigger NVMe SSD and put it in the X5 case...and eBay the old one! You have to accept the risk of borking the X5 though of course. Really isn't difficult, case comes apart quite easily.

Great info thanks! - yes that latent screen response is exactly what I found with LR on my MBP 2016 with EGPU - was that latent screen you mention with you EGPU or built in graphics ? - I had my EGPU direct into my monitor as well.

Yeah nice plan on the X5, smallest I can find is 500gb though at £200 - Iv seen some TB3 NVME caddies for £140 - and made to let you change the drive, not sure if its worth just getting that instead? not sure how much a 500gb ssd would sell for to make back the difference ?

 

[MacRS4]

I'm not sure tbh, I ruthlessly borrowed* mine from work. The eGPU fixed all the screen latency on the 5k to the point that if I used it that way I'd deffo have kept it. Didn't notice the same latency on the 4k Dell it's plugged in to now. I don't really do picture editing stuff but do have Photoshop and the like so if you want me to try some specific tests I can if you give me some directions?


*Citation needed

 

[Combat squirrel]

Hence why I gave you an option to save a few quid in post #2.

You've got me thinking now....if i got the internal 128gb ssd.....I could create a fusion drive with an external ssd, meaning the 128gb would be put to use and speed up my external 1tb USB 3 ssd disk

 

[NickK]

Just waiting for a i7 6core 8gb 256gb to be delivered this week.

 

[Combat squirrel]

Just waiting for a i7 6core 8gb 256gb to be delivered this week.

Ace, what's your intended use? Gonna egpu it?

 

[NickK]

Ace, what's your intended use? Gonna egpu it?

Intended as a replacement to do the domestic stuff, I want to upgrade the RAM to 32GB then look next year at a 16GB GPU for my own image processing applications and speeding up quantum computer simulations (MCMC annealing simulations) as part of a hackathon and upskilling research.

 

[NickK]

Important piece to note - eGPUs need system ram for shadowing textures. So if you fully use a 16GB GPU you will need 32 or 64 of system ram or face swapping and slow performance.

Oddly appletv is the only device that supports “temporary” gpu memory allocations this can cope with less system memory than gpu.

 

[Combat squirrel]

Important piece to note - eGPUs need system ram for shadowing textures. So if you fully use a 16GB GPU you will need 32 or 64 of system ram or face swapping and slow performance.

Oddly appletv is the only device that supports “temporary” gpu memory allocations this can cope with less system memory than gpu.

Interesting didn't know this

 

[Combat squirrel]

Intended as a replacement to do the domestic stuff, I want to upgrade the RAM to 32GB then look next year at a 16GB GPU for my own image processing applications and speeding up quantum computer simulations (MCMC annealing simulations) as part of a hackathon and upskilling research.

Got the mini yet sir ? how is it ?