Help me choose

[MrCatMan]

I have a 2009 iMac that has 4mb of RAM and a 2.66 processor (I think).

I have upgrade to Lion and have started to see the spinning ball an awful lot recently.

I think I have to upgrade, not least as I no longer have room for the iMac as we have recently had twins and need the space in the front room and was thinking of connecting a mac mini to my large screen tv.

I am currently thinking of getting a mini with 2.7GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7 with 8 gb of RAM and a 500 gb h/d.

All my content is on a drobo with 4tb of storage.

I have seen the new iMacs have core4 processors. Is it worth waiting or can would I benefit from having a look at Lion Server which has core4. What could I do with Lion Server?

I have a macbook Air and Apple TV2 so would there be any benefits to having the server? Not really sure I understand.

Thank you wise forum.

Another question would HDMI from the mac mini into my TV amp/receiver transfer the sound and the picture?

 

[philipma1957]

I have a 2009 iMac that has 4mb of RAM and a 2.66 processor (I think).

I have upgrade to Lion and have started to see the spinning ball an awful lot recently.

I think I have to upgrade, not least as I no longer have room for the iMac as we have recently had twins and need the space in the front room and was thinking of connecting a mac mini to my large screen tv.

I am currently thinking of getting a mini with 2.7GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i7 with 8 gb of RAM and a 500 gb h/d.

All my content is on a drobo with 4tb of storage.

I have seen the new iMacs have core4 processors. Is it worth waiting or can would I benefit from having a look at Lion Server which has core4. What could I do with Lion Server?

I have a macbook Air and Apple TV2 so would there be any benefits to having the server? Not really sure I understand.

Thank you wise forum.

Another question would HDMI from the mac mini into my TV amp/receiver transfer the sound and the picture?

if you are use based the server is at apple online as a refurbished unit full 1 year warranty.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC936LL/A


price is 850 if you have a discover card and use it via the discover site and link to the apple site you get 5% off that is 42 bucks.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231342


good quality ram at this site is 45 bucks.


so you can get a server with a one year warranty for about 900.. most people buying server buy the item for the fast
cpu and the two hard drives. you don't need to use the server program. hdmi should pass the sound and picture it does on my sony

 

[MrCatMan]

Thanks for the feedback.

I ended up ordering the quad core server edition with 8gb of ram and a 256gb SSD with 750 gB hard drive. Delivery in a few days

Pretty sure I won't use the server app just plug into my Sony and plug in my Drobo. Fingers crossed.

 

[deafgoose]

I had the base model with 8GB RAM, SSD. The mini server with 8GB RAM, SSD and now the mid level 2.5Ghz i5 with 8GB RAM, SSD.

With the SSD and RAM, it does not matter what model you get, they all feel the same. I could score 9500 points in geekbench with the mini server but it never did feel any faster than my base model.

I ended up with the mid level mini because I needed a more powerful graphics card to power two 27" thunderbolt displays.