Considering a MacMini, switching from PC

[JupTurnsWood]

G'day gang, first time poster, long time PC user, and seriously considering the jump to Mac.

My current setup:
PC connected to a smart TV (HDMI)
Logitech wireless keyboard and mouse (Single USB dongle)
External 5Tb HDD (USB2.0)
Runs 24/7/365 and only reboots when required.

Current Uses:
(Aside from the usual browsing, youtube, facebook, email)
File serving (torrent - legally!)
Accounting (Small business)
Video editing (10 minutes 1080p stereo)
Kerbal Space Program (no other games)

Budget is a consideration, and I need to keep it under AU$2,000
Noise is also a factor as it is my media server in our living room.

Right now I'm looking at the Mac Mini as it appears to allow me to keep all of my peripherals.
Is that the case?

I also want to start using my 2x iPhone6 to record my wood turning, edit them (with PIP and sound), and serve them over torrent. I'm not interested in youtube content creation)

Would I regret purchasing the i3 base model?
(I'd rather the 3.6GHz, and don't need the extra cores)

What, if any, upgrades would you consider "must haves" considering my budget?

TIA

 

[a2jack]

Mini fan here. Had the "Big Macs" Like the little ones better. The learning curve form Windows to Mac was steep for me, but I am old. LOL.

Go for highest tech you can afford. Under buying can be a mistake. You not regret an overbuy.

Go with SSD's, buy at least 8 gig ram, upgrade yourself to 16-32 gig asap.

Do not buy any machine with soldered in ram, or spinning HDD, don't even think of buying a 2014. a2

 

[Dave Braine]

Right now I'm looking at the Mac Mini as it appears to allow me to keep all of my peripherals.
Is that the case?

Yes, that is correct. Depending what's on your external drive, you may want to reformat it to a Mac file system.

 

[jtara]

Get a bigger SSD than you need. It will extend the life of the SSD. And in most cases it will be faster.

I have a 2012 i7 Mac Mini, and it's now on it's second replacement SSD. I originally bought it with a 1TB Fusion Drive, and replaced that with a 1TB SSD when the hard drive started dying. I had to recently replace the SSD when it failed.

I got a 2TB even though I have no need for 2TB. SSDs have a limited number of write cycles per cell. If you double the size of the SSD, you will double it's lifetime.

This is particularly important for those doing software development (as I do), video/audio editing, etc. where large amounts of data are constantly written and re-written.

I have experimented with using a RAMDisk - something you don't hear much about any more - particularly on Mac. On my old 2012 Mini it's a tough call. It significantly speeds up software build time, but uses some percentage of my precious 16GB (max for my model) of RAM. As well as will help extend the life of the SSD. The key is to identify directories that are used as scratchpad by whatever software you are using that does a lot of writes of temporary data.

I believe on the current Minis the SSD is soldered?

 

[MRrainer]

I believe on the current Minis the SSD is soldered?

Not only that. They have their own controller-chip (T2). You can't just solder in a different SSD, even if you had one (e.g. from an otherwise dead surplus 2018 Mini).

Choose your SSD size wisely ;-)

 

[hobowankenobi]

The current minis have tiny, non-replaceable storage. It's small, silent, fast, power-efficient and reliable.

But you would have to swap logic boards (see step 8) to change storage.

The good news is, an external Thunderbolt drive would be just as fast as most internal SSDs. Even an USB 3 external SSD would be substantially faster than a good internal HD.

 

[JupTurnsWood]

Thank you for all the replies!

I had considered the write limit on SSDs, and I think an extra external drive would be wise - set it to manage all the temp files, not just large volume storage.

Right now, I'm of a mind to go with the i3 with 16gb RAM and 500Gb SSD

Even on my PC I've never used more than 3-400Gb and I've been told that Mac uses less disk space than Windows.

It pushes the budget a little, but it sounds like the right way to go.
Damn SSD is expensive! (and not just because of the Appletax)
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Yes, that is correct. Depending what's on your external drive, you may want to reformat it to a Mac file system.

I think I'll probably have to invest in a Thunderbolt(?) drive and find a way to transfer the files over - all of my music, photos and videos.
Torrenting them to myself if needs be.

 

[jtara]

Torrenting them to myself if needs be.

Huh?

Just connect a network cable. Enable file sharing on the PC. You can connect to the PC through Finder.

What's in your PC? Processor chip/memory.

 

[hobowankenobi]

If you want to move all the user data, you can use the migration assistant over the network. Easy Peasy.

 

[theluggage]

I think I'll probably have to invest in a Thunderbolt(?) drive and find a way to transfer the files over - all of my music, photos and videos.

For storing music/photos/video, Thunderbolt is usually a waste of money - plain old USB 3 is cheaper, and faster than any single mechanical drive. Look to thunderbolt if you want to use an external NVMe SSD as a system drive or a substantial RAID array for serious video editing etc.

By all means set up network file sharing to exchange files between Mac and PC if you're going to keep using both, but if its just a one-off copy to a new drive then all you need to do is plug both drives directly into the Mac and copy them across - the Mac will read PC format drives just fine, it just won't write to them if they're formatted in NTFS (use FAT or ExFAT if you want a disc that both Mac and PC can write to).

Before you jump, you might want to double check that there's a Mac version of whatever accounting software you use/need (hard to call since it depends on where you live) - you can always use Parallels/Fusion/VirtualBox to run Windows, but if so you'll have to buy, at least, a copy of Windows.

 

[JupTurnsWood]

Thanks again for the advice on file transporting. I have no idea what Mac is capable of, so the idea that I can simply plug my 5TB External USB drive in to the Mini and at least be able to read files is comforting.
Although I'd still need to purchase a second drive (Mac formatted) to copy over to, then I'd wipe the 5TB and format for Mac anyway - No harm in having more storage lol.

Before you jump, you might want to double check that there's a Mac version of whatever accounting software you use/need (hard to call since it depends on where you live) - you can always use Parallels/Fusion/VirtualBox to run Windows, but if so you'll have to buy, at least, a copy of Windows.

I'm in Australia, so synchronising with banks is basically out of the question.

I run Microsoft Money 2007, and I'm yet to find any alternative that I like using.
For some reason, nothing else seems to handle simple tasks as elegantly, such as:

A basic register, with income/expense/running total fields
Automatically enter scheduled transactions in to the register 28 days in advance
Cash flow forecast 6 months in advance

Many say that they do this, and more, but I can't find one that doesn't feel clunky and difficult to navigate, or require subscription.
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What's in your PC? Processor chip/memory.

i7-4790 @3.6Gh
16gb RAM
nVidia GTX 1050ti 4Gb

 

[Reflej0]

i7-4790 @3.6Gh
16gb RAM
nVidia GTX 1050ti 4Gb

With regard to the processor, here is the specific comparison, you could tell in broad strokes that you will not notice a difference, although I recommend going at least for the model with i5.
The 8GB of ram for normal use in OS X is going well, although 16GB is better in the future.
With the GPU you will notice difference only if you want to play (example: CSGO) I don't know exactly how to edit programs as it will influence, at least the UHD 630 allows you to watch videos at 4K 60fps.
If you could go for the intermediate model with i5 256gb 8gb ram it would be fine, and if you have additional money and are thinking of updating something think about the processor, the ram is upgradeable and the disk can use an external one.