I have a Blue/white G3 at home and I need to upgrade, but can't afford to get what I would really like (a G5). I have 21" apple monitor, keyboard and mouse. And, I use all the graphics software: Quark, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. Does anyone think this the lowest model of the mini macs is a good purchase for a couple of years? I know it will be out of date quicker than some of my other options. But, my monitor is really good, so I think I shouldn't go the emac or imac route. Any suggestions or thoughts out there? I appreciate it.
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Mac Mini? Good or Bad for Graphics Use?
- Thread starter cmckee@therober
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cmckee@therober said:
I have a Mini, and I love it. I am not a graphics guy, and can't attest to the Mini's power at photoshop, but I do push the Mini to it's limits from time to time. I would sugest going to the Apple store and using one to see if it works for you. I'm not sure what the specs are for your G3 Video card, but this is the only Achiles heal to the Mini. It sounds like the new units are shipping (soon, if not now), and I think they have upgraded video cards. This might be just what you need (until you can save $$ for a PM). If you buy the Mini, beef up the RAM- it makes such a difference in performance.
Compared to the G3 it will be a rocket.
The mini is certainly good value for its price.
Make sure you max out the RAM.
The mini is certainly good value for its price.
Make sure you max out the RAM.
How long is a piece of string?
The Mini with adequate RAM will run all of those programs and is good value for the money if you already have a good monitor.
Is it going to be fast enough for your particular working environment? We can't tell.
The Mini with adequate RAM will run all of those programs and is good value for the money if you already have a good monitor.
Is it going to be fast enough for your particular working environment? We can't tell.
I' spent most of the weekend editing 16-bit 6MP images in Photoshop CS on my mini, and while it was a little slow when saving and duplicating layers it was still more than adequate. I've got the 1.42GHz mini with 1GB of RAM.
I agree a PM is more suitable and reckon I'll buy one within 12 months but as a cheaper alternative the Mini makes a great stop-gap.
I agree a PM is more suitable and reckon I'll buy one within 12 months but as a cheaper alternative the Mini makes a great stop-gap.
leachy said:
You don't have to go straight from a mini to a PM. What about an iMac if you need more power?
I was in a similar situation several months ago. Difference being I had to replace my Tibook as it got a bit dinged up as I defended myself withit in a mugging attempt. While the mugger got away with a beating my powerbook sadly died while saving me and my ipod. Left with no computer and short on funds, I picked up a mac mini. Since I do video editing as well as 3d work with blender several people repeatedly told me that it wouldn't be enough for what I was asking from it. Well I have to report that while certain tasks do take longer, it still has done everything I have asked of it. It wasn't too long ago that we were running these tasks on much slower g4's and g3's. So the question you ask yourself isn't will I abe able to do xxx with a mini, the answer is yes. Rather the question should be in this case, will the mini be able to do it at least as well as the kit I am replacing. At least that is how I look at things. Sure A dual g5 will be better suited for what I want to do, but if I had the dosh for it I would have bought it and not had a question about it being able to replace my g3.