Mac mini 2011 or old Mac Pro ?

[Ieziebie]

Heya,

I just sold my Macbook Pro 2010, as I basically used it attached to my 24" LED Cinema Display and was kinda starting to feel a bit slow.

Now I'm looking for an upgrade. I'm stuck between a new Mac Mini or a second hand Mac Pro of the older generation.

I'm using the Mac as overaal computer: music, movies, office, programming, some graphics, etc....

What would you go for? The Mac Pro can be upgraded (more HD, more memory, 5770 video card) while the Mac Mini is cute and has the newer generation CPUs...

Thanks...

 

[philipma1957]

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC721LL/A?mco=MjIzNjAzMzY


this can run snow or lion

 

[Ieziebie]

Nice, but not an option as I live in Europe.... no refurbs here.

 

[philipma1957]

too bad. that 2011 macbook pro is a nice machine as it runs both osx at full speed. how much price is the mini vs the mac pro for you. I have a 2010 base mac pro that I boosted to a 3.2 hex now you can boost a 2010 mac pro to a 3.33 hex.

here is the thread on how to.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1122551/


I have been running my 3.2 hex mac pro for 6 months it is solid.

the 2010 quad 2.8 with the 3.33 chip upgrade and a 5870 gpu is a pretty good machine.

it spanks the new quad mini. the mini will max at 9800 for geekbench the 3.33 hex mac pro maxes at 16500 or so. and the gpu is far better. if you go for a mac pro I may be able to locate a hex 3.33 chip for you

 

[Ieziebie]

too bad. that 2011 macbook pro is a nice machine as it runs both osx at full speed. how much price is the mini vs the mac pro for you. I have a 2010 base mac pro that I boosted to a 3.2 hex now you can boost a 2010 mac pro to a 3.33 hex.

here is the thread on how to.

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1122551/


I have been running my 3.2 hex mac pro for 6 months it is solid.

Mac Pro 2006 can be found for around 850 euros around here. That would be the first model.

 

[igouroum]

Go with the Pro!
You can upgrade video card from a 7300gt to a 5870!
you can stick in 6 SSDS, not 4, 6 (because of the extra ports for the optical drive), 16 gigs of ram, usb 3 cards and even upgrade the two dual core 2.66ghz to two 3.0ghz quads to get an ocotocore machine

 

[DustinT]

The midrange Mini with an 8g ram upgrade is enough machine for most people. It's got plenty of power, the price is very reasonable and its NOT going to draw a couple of hundred watts of power from your electrical socket.

I think one thing a lot of people fail to consider is that any Mac Pro is going to use 5-10 x more power than a Mini. Now, it offers at least 5-10x the expansion options, more power, etc... but if you don't need those things, grab a Mini, save the planet and your wallet.

 

[Ieziebie]

Good point on the power bill..... I'm also starting to consider a 2011 Imac 21,5. I can attach my led display as second screen and will have all the power I need. Hmm, choices...

 

[penguy]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A334 Safari/7534.48.3)

As much as I've wanted a Mac pro, the older models required special memory chips which are still quite expensive. I think you would have to spend much more money to get to 8gb and 1.5TB storage.

 

[LeandrodaFL]

MacMini, its all the computer power you need, its on a very nice small form factor, and its a brand new pc, not a refurb