OldMike I also have the same problem to decide whether to buy an
iMac 27“ i5 3.0 GHz 32 GB (with external TB3 SSD) or a new
Mac mini i3 or i7 with 32 GB,
eGPU and external TB3 SSD.
First some simple questions, maybe you can answer them?
Questions:
– Do you have any issues with your external TB3 SSD like the spontaneously disconnects reported by OWC when bus powered thunderbolt drives are connected directly to the Mac mini?
– Do you have any problems with Wi-Fi/bluetooth and connected USB devices?
– Do you know the power consumption of the eGPU at different tasks like idle, Safari, watching movies, gaming (at maxed out settings)?
– Is the eGPU noisy?
Now my thoughts about the Mac mini and the iMac. It might be a long read, but I am thinking about it since weeks. So far without coming to a final result. Maybe someone of you have some ideas to share which makes my decision a little easier.
Requirements and thoughts:
I want to use the machine with Unity (all day), Maya (often), PS, Substance Painter and Pro Tools (sometimes) so the load on the GPU will be always comparable high which is one of the reasons why I fear the thermal stress to the GPU in the small iMac case could be a problem.
I don’t like the concept of an all-in-one too! When one part fails the entire setup is unusable and there is no way to exchange this part quickly. Also I don’t like glossy screens. But the iMac is really can look like a better deal unless I would go with the mini i3. The i3 might be much slower but I come from a 2.6 GHz Mac mini 2014 with only 8 GB RAM, so even the i3 would be much more powerful.
Options:
Cheapest prices I have found here in Germany for the machines. Upgraded to 32 GB (RAM is more expensive for the Mac minis because of the fee (roughly 120 EUR) I have to pay to the authorized apple service technicians to exchange the RAM without losing the warranty):
– iMac 27“ 3.0 GHz, 32 GB RAM, 1TB FusionDrive, Pro 570X, Samsung X5 512 GB SSD:
2168 EUR
– Mac mini i7 3.2 GHz, 32 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Razer Core X, RX 580, Samsung X5 512 GB SSD:
2140 EUR
– Mac mini i5 3.0 GHz, 32 GB RAM, 256 GB SSD, Razer Core X, RX 580, Samsung X5 512 GB SSD:
2070 EUR
– Mac mini i3 3.6 GHz, 32 GB RAM, 128 GB SSD, Razer Core X, RX 580, Samsung X5 512 GB SSD:
1775 EUR
So price wise (with the prices I found) it makes almost no sense to get the i5 so it is best to go with the i7. But the i3 is really much cheaper than the i7 (The i7 costs roughly 50% more than what the cheapest base price of the i3 is, which is 749 EUR here). Is the higher performance of the i7 really worth it? Especially when a lot of the burden on the system will be GPU bound? Also when the i3 ever fails I can replace it at a lower cost (I am usually low on budget).
For the price of the i7 I could get the iMac with its nice screen and a keyboard and mouse as a gift – this makes the price difference to the i3 look more attractive than the i7. On top of that I can be certain that the iMac will work perfectly without any issues with apps like Substance Painter, while an eGPU might make some minor problems (which hopefully will be fixed within the next months and years).
Then there are all those reports of issues with TB3 drives and the issues with USB3 and BT/WLAN. This makes the iMac look like a better decision. But as an all-in-one I should buy at least AppleCare to secure the investment because if it fails it would be a total loss due to the all-in-one concept.
AppleCare for the iMac is available for 180 EUR (iMac price with AppleCare:
2348 EUR), for the Mac mini i7 it is much cheaper. It just costs 60 EUR (i7 plus AppleCare:
2200 EUR). The difference in price of the Mac mini i7 and the iMac grews to 148 EUR when taking AppleCare into account. The price of the iMac still seems to be OK for me unless compared to the price of the i3 (+ AppleCare
1835 EUR) which is now a difference of 513 EUR. (68% of the price of the base model i3).
I want to use the new Mac for at least 5 years. Two of my Macs died a few weeks after the 3 years of AppleCare were over, so a 5 year warranty would be a good idea because. There is a huge company which offers an (great) on-site 5 year warranty for just 225 EUR here in Germany, unfortunately their prices for the iMac are much more expensive. The price including warranty would raise to
2629 EUR – that’s 794 EUR higher than the cost of the entire setup of the Mac mini i3 including AppleCare (794 EUR would be equal to 106% of the price of a Mac mini i3 base model). The price difference to the Mac mini i7 setup (with 3 years Apple Care) would be then 429 EUR so it looks the Mac mini i7 is back in play.
Time to do some simple math:
Cost per month over guaranteed life time:
– i3: 50.97 EUR (3 years warranty)
– i7: 61.11 EUR (3 years warranty)
– iMac: 65.22 EUR (3 years warranty)
– iMac: 43.81 EUR (5 years warranty)
Cost per month over desired service life of 5 years:
– i3: 30.58 EUR (3 years warranty)
– i7: 36.66 EUR (3 years warranty)
– iMac: 37.13 EUR (3 years warranty)
– iMac: 43.81 EUR (5 years warranty)
When I want to be certain, that the Mac will have warranty over its expected useful life then the most expensive deal is actually the best deal.
But what about the differences in performance?
CPU Performance (Mac mini 2,6 GHz 2014 = 100%):
Single core:
– i3: 4686 137%
– i7: 5666 165%
– iMac: 5254 153%
Multi core:
– i3: 215%
– i7: 374%
– iMac: 321%
So what if we put this somehow in relation? To get a cost of performance:
Cost per month over guaranteed life time / performance
Single core
– i3: 37.20 (3 years warranty)
– i7: 37.03 (3 years warranty)
– iMac: 42.62 (3 years warranty)
– iMac: 28.63 (5 years warranty)
Multi core
– i3: 23.70 (3 years warranty)
– i7: 16.33 (3 years warranty)
– iMac: 20.31 (3 years warranty)
– iMac: 13,64 (5 years warranty)
Result: iMac with 5 years of warranty wins this one. Mac mini i7 comes close.
Cost per month over desired service life of 5 years / performance
Single core
– i3: 22.32 (3 years warranty)
– i7: 22.21 (3 years warranty)
– iMac: 24.26 (3 years warranty)
– iMac: 28.63 (5 years warranty)
Multi core
– i3: 14.22 (3 years warranty)
– i7: 9.80 (3 years warranty)
– iMac: 11.56 (3 years warranty)
– iMac: 13.64 (5 years warranty)
Result: Mac mini i7 wins it.
So when it comes to cost of CPU-Power the i3 is really the worst choice. This makes the decision even harder.
GPU Performance:
This is actually hard to tell. OldMike’s benchmarks of the RX 580 show an OpenCL score of 121,158. The Pro 570x is tested with 89,388. So the RX 580 is at least 35% faster. But due to the limitations of Thunderbolt some testers showed that sometimes the Pro 580 in an iMac is clearly faster than a Vega 64 as eGPU, but this is mostly the case when it comes to off-screen work only like rendering videos.
I’m a developer of video games so on-screen-performance is more important for me. I can upgrade the graphics card anytime for a comparable cheap price. I would say the eGPU is the winner here. Although the GPU of the iMac might be better for my power bill. (we pay roughly 30 cents per kilowatt here).
Anyway both options are lightyears ahead of my intel integrated graphics so the difference is marginal.
Noise:
I can only guess it, but I think the Mac mini with eGPU will be a much louder setup than the iMac?
At the end the iMac might be even more expensive than I thought (subjective needs and wishes):
I already have a really good screen. A Dell U2515H. This is not a retina display but my customers will play computer games usually in HD resolution anyway, so it makes no sense to work with a better resolution. Also my eyes are too old to really benefit from the retina resolution. I don’t like glossy, I fear it could be annoying to use it all day. The Dell has a drawback too, it has a higher ppi than usual which makes text smaller and harder to read (it uses a 27“ resolution at 25“ – It would be nice to work on 27“ instead). Retina displays are a huge waste of GPU power when it comes to 3D. I possibly would switch to 2560x1440 which might look a bit blurry.
I always wanted a UltraWide screen. A multi monitor setup might be OK too. If I buy the iMac then i would certainly use the Dell Display as a 2nd screen with it. Space on my desktop is limited. I have a 2nd Mac with a Cinema Display on it. All three screens together would be more than 160 cm wide, the desktop is 180 cm wide and I also have the Harman Kardon SoundSticks on the desk so space is very limited. Usually there is also my tomcat (which never leaves my side) laying on the desk. He often suddenly wakes up from a nightmare jumping scared to random directions, several times he almost kicked the Cinema Display from the desk. If he kicks the iMac from the table then the warranty would not help me (except the more expensive AppleCare plus which might be a solution). I would never risk to place my 2629 EUR iMac in front of a crazy cat without securing it. So I need a VESA Mount Adapter to save the iMac from the cat and to optimize the usage of space on the desktop. This makes the iMac a BTO Machine which might need several week to get delivered. :-( And it would cost an extra 49 EUR (2678 EUR), of course I would need a VESA arm which can take the heavy weight of the iMac, this would be another 100-150 EUR. In this case I would buy a VESA arm for the Dell too to get an ergonomic setup with both screens. I don’t like that the iMac stand has a fixed height anyway and I want to buy a height-adjustable desktop too so the idea of having two screens on VESA arms sounds great to me and it will be good for my health.
So add another 50-100 EUR for the Dell arm. Lets say that are 200 EUR so the cost of buying the iMac would raise to
2878 EUR.
This is the moment, when I start thinking of the Mac mini i3 again which would be 1043 EUR cheaper (
1835 EUR) which sounds like s steal now. The price of the i7 setup is also looks attractive (
2200 EUR) in comparison and it will offer the best performance. Overall the Mac mini with eGPU will be cheaper, more future proof (if the mini survives after 3 years) and in case of the i7 more powerful but there are still all those issues I have heard of. The iMac setup will be more luxurious, ergonomically, just work and the extended warranty will secure my investment over the entire lifetime of 5 years.
I have no idea what I should buy.
I wish they would have announced a cheaper Mac Pro with i7.
