Mac mini or mac studio

Jungli

Jungli

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Team I need advice...

I use lr alot for my photos and so I would love your input which one.

Budget 2k already have monitors and so forth.

Currently have a macbook pro late 2014 15".

Apologies if this has been answered already.

Thanks
 
I have a Mac Mini at work with 16G of RAM, basically as fast as it will go. I still get the beachballs now and again.

So I would opt for the Studio for more future proofing, also for more ports, it's nice to have ports on the front and SD card slot built in, otherwise you will need to get a dongle or one of those dock thing.
 
That's good feedback thanks Ray.

I wonder if a mac mini 2022 version will be on its way.
 
Jungli said:
That's good feedback thanks Ray.

I wonder if a mac mini 2022 version will be on its way.
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I expect there will be an M2 chip then M2 Max and Ultra etc

They said they have only 1 product left for the Apple Silicon transition and that is the Mac Pro so don’t expect a new Mac Mini this year. The M1 will be it for this generation and this year. Their upgrade path for the Mac Mini for users is the base Studio for £2k which looks to be fair to good value.
 
Raymond Lin said:
I have a Mac Mini at work with 16G of RAM, basically as fast as it will go. I still get the beachballs now and again.

So I would opt for the Studio for more future proofing, also for more ports, it's nice to have ports on the front and SD card slot built in, otherwise you will need to get a dongle or one of those dock thing.
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Yours is an M1?
 

£1999​

gets you a Mac Studio with​

10-Core CPU
24-Core GPU
16-Core Neural Engine​

  • 32GB unified memory
  • 512GB SSD storage

£1099​

gets you a Mac mini with​

8‑Core CPU​

8‑Core GPU​

16-Core Neural Engine​

  • 16GB unified memory
  • 512GB SSD storage
so the extra £900 is giving you extra cores and a more advanced chip (Studio is a M1 Max, Mini is just 1st Gen M1)

an extra 16gig memory which is not available on the mini as the maximum you can spec is 16gig, if you could get 32gig then apple would charge an extra £400

plus you get the extra ports on front and rear and a nicer designed case

In the end only you can decide which is best, if I was you and had the cash I would go for the Studio all day as it gives you more oomph for your money.
Unfortunately I don't have the cash so will have to stick with what I have :rolleyes: although my current setup does all that I need at the moment.
 
My son is using a Mac Mini with M1 chip to handle FCPX. so I think it would be fine for Lightroom ( In fact my 7 year old MacBook pro handle lightroom fine as well). However if you really want to future proof yourself the Mac Studio would be the one to go for I would suggest. I have a late 2015 iMac that I spec'd the the hilt and it is going strong.. So spending some extra money now could save you some in the long term.
 
In November I finally got around to upgrading my 2012 iMac (been looking at options for up to 2 years prior). I went with a 14 inch MacBook Pro M1 pro chip with 16GB RAM as it was within my price range and best spec I could find. If I was buying now the studio would probably be the one I’d go with over the MacBook as it would’ve better future proofed (I had my iMac for 9 years so I’m not looking at upgrading that often). For me even the MacBook has benefits from not being tied to one desk the spec of that studio is quite enticing. The studio has everything I had really wanted in a replacement. The 32GB ram and M1 max chip should really futureproof you. The extra ports and SD card are really bonuses. The Mac mini is quite limited in those departments.

The Mac mini may do what you need now but in 2-3 years time you may be looking at upgrading due to the needs of future software. The studio will likely last more than double that time. If you have the money I’d go for the studio if you can afford it. With apple you’re always buying for what you need in the future rather than what you need now as it’s usually impossible to upgrade it yourself in the future.
 
M1 mini is more than enough for your projected use. Save the extra £1200, yes £1200 and buy yourself a new lens. Top tip, buy external storage as opposed to apple's built in, further savings and should the worst happen, you can just swap it out. I use mine for photos, and 4k video edits and never have trouble with it. Made my old 2015 iMac look like a spectrum 16k.
 
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gremlin16 said:
M1 mini is more than enough for your projected use. Save the extra £1200, yes £1200 and buy yourself a new lens. Top tip, buy external storage as opposed to apple's built in, further savings and should the worst happen, you can just swap it out. I use mine for photos, and 4k video edits and never have trouble with it. Made my old 2015 iMac look like a spectrum 16k.
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Could you explain a bit more about your M1 mini specs for 4k video, i.e. how much ram are you using? I'm looking for a new laptop and torn between the base model Mac Air M1 with 8GB ram and the 14" MacBook pro. I've seen videos where the Air is used for 4k video edits without a hitch but I just have a nagging feeling that I should get more ram (at which point the Pro makes more sense). Cheers!
 
Andy Into The Wild said:
Could you explain a bit more about your M1 mini specs for 4k video, i.e. how much ram are you using? I'm looking for a new laptop and torn between the base model Mac Air M1 with 8GB ram and the 14" MacBook pro. I've seen videos where the Air is used for 4k video edits without a hitch but I just have a nagging feeling that I should get more ram (at which point the Pro makes more sense). Cheers!
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The screen on the pro is amazing btw. If you go to a store and see them side by side, the air on its own is impressive, but the pro is a step up in terms of build quality and screen too imo
 
toohuge said:
The screen on the pro is amazing btw. If you go to a store and see them side by side, the air on its own is impressive, but the pro is a step up in terms of build quality and screen too imo
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Yes good point - I also saw a review that said that the screen alone was worth the cost difference between the Pro and the Air.
 
Thanks for all the advice it's all appreciated. Studio is the way to go and I already have external storage.

My macbook pro runs lr OK, so long as I don't have loads of edits.

Thinking of selling it and using that towards studio - get a larger storage or memory.

I should get a good price for the mbp as it's still a good spec.

Good following everyone else's input and views gives me plenty to think about.
 
Was thinking of switching from Mini (2012) to an iMac (24”) but I have what I think is a perfectly good monitor (Dell U2515U). Would a Studio and my existing monitor be better? Cost would be similiar
 
Craig1912 said:
Was thinking of switching from Mini (2012) to an iMac (24”) but I have what I think is a perfectly good monitor (Dell U2515U). Would a Studio and my existing monitor be better? Cost would be similiar
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I get the Studio instead, it’s faster too. Simply direct replacement using the same monitor.
 
Craig1912 said:
Was thinking of switching from Mini (2012) to an iMac (24”) but I have what I think is a perfectly good monitor (Dell U2515U). Would a Studio and my existing monitor be better? Cost would be similiar
Click to expand...

Studio - keep the monitor and you can always upgrade to a high end screen later down the line.
 
Well I made a remark above in post no 5 and I have gone against it.
Just ordered a Studio from John Lewis and it should be with me on Friday :banana:

Just couldn't resist any longer after seeing all the vids and reading reviews.
 
Nikon f1.8 said:
Well I made a remark above in post no 5 and I have gone against it.
Just ordered a Studio from John Lewis and it should be with me on Friday :banana:

Just couldn't resist any longer after seeing all the vids and reading reviews.
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Do let US know how it goes. Besides like the clappers.
 
Jungli said:
@Nikon f1.8 ... how have you got on with the Apple Studio...
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Well, what can I say..... its bloody well marvellous.
Boots up in under 3 seconds, you just say see the loading bar under the Apple logo.
Applications load in about the same time, practically instantaneous.
The 512gig Ssd is about as fast as it gets see results :)
There are a couple of apps running in Rosetta that are not optimised for M1 yet but they are just as quick to open.
Capture One is fantastic, never seen a program so speedy

All in all its a great machine, well worth the money in my opinion, yeah, the Mac mini is a good buy but for that little bit extra you get a load more in your kit.
I have a thunderbolt external housing with a fast NVME drive in plugged in the back and that gives me extra storage over the 512gb internal storage.

Screenshot 2022-04-13 at 19.51.34 (2).png
 
Wow... going to have to sneak it past Mrs P...

The nvme is a good idea.
 
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