Mac Mini (2018) for design and illustration?

[sigmadog]

I've been nursing along my 4,1 --> 5,1 Mac Pro for seven years and while it's still chugging along just fine, I've hit a wall in terms of upgrading. Specifically, the latest Adobe Creative Cloud updates are all incompatible with my hardware and system.

For certain hardware reasons, I can't / won't upgrade the system. And rather than play the hardware upgrade game on a 10 year old computer, I think it's time to retire my venerable cheese grater and purchase a new system.

I'm a small home-office graphic designer and illustrator. This is, off the top of my head, the breakdown of the work I do in order of importance:

1. Print design (logos, brochures, ads, etc.)
2. Illustration using Corel Painter on a Wacom Cintiq
3. Web (setting up and maintaining Wordpress sites for small businesses)
4. Occasional low-end promotional video of my illustration work for web (Youtube)
5. Social Media and blog marketing work
6. Every so often a minor 3D project (setting up a scene for painting reference)

Given that work scenario, I'm thinking a 6-core i7 Mac Mini (2018) with an eGPU (for my two monitors AND Wacom Cintiq), and an external TB3 boot SSD should be plenty of horsepower to replace my old Mac Pro.

So I'm asking the Mac design community if anyone is doing this kind of work on a Mac Mini, and if so, how's it holding up?

For the record, I'm not interested in an iMac or iMac Pro because I prefer my own monitors and calibrating them to my liking, and also I've been burned by Apple monitors in the past.

This post is a bit longer than I initially intended, but I wanted to lay out the full scenario. Thanks for reading, and please offer your thoughts!

-sigmadog

 

[weaztek]

It should have no problem with those tasks. I don't do as much design work as I used to as I've shifted to photography but the Mini has plenty of horsepower for that. I ditched Illustrator & InDesign for Affinity Designer and NeoOffice but your needs will vary.

I bought a 256GB internal SSD in my Mini and have a 512GB external TB3. My 256GB is enough for my system with about 140GB free for projects. If I was purchasing the system again, I'd get a 512GB internal or better. Personally, I don't see a good reason to run your system on an external SSD. I'd also get the minimum amount of RAM from Apple and would add in 2x16GB or 2x32GB chips myself.

I had some growing pains moving from a 27" iMac to my Mini but I'm loving it now. I was an early adopter of the 2018 Mini so that was the deal with that.

Stock Minis are lacking power/video cards for gaming and 4k video editing, and I don't know much about eGPUs. The current release of Catalina might have a few issues still. I'm on Mojave so I'm not 100% sure how polished it is. Do yourself a favor and get a USB-C to DisplayPort cable (I use Warrky brand) because HDMI is wonky on the Mini.
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[sigmadog]

It should have no problem with those tasks. I don't do as much design work as I used to as I've shifted to photography but the Mini has plenty of horsepower for that. I ditched Illustrator & InDesign for Affinity Designer and NeoOffice but your needs will vary.

I bought a 256GB internal SSD in my Mini and have a 512GB external TB3. My 256GB is enough for my system with about 140GB free for projects. If I was purchasing the system again, I'd get a 512GB internal or better. Personally, I don't see a good reason to run your system on an external SSD. I'd also get the minimum amount of RAM from Apple and would add in 2x16GB or 2x32GB chips myself.

I had some growing pains moving from a 27" iMac to my Mini but I'm loving it now. I was an early adopter of the 2018 Mini so that was the deal with that.

Stock Minis are lacking power/video cards for gaming and 4k video editing, and I don't know much about eGPUs. The current release of Catalina might have a few issues still. I'm on Mojave so I'm not 100% sure how polished it is. Do yourself a favor and get a USB-C to DisplayPort cable (I use Warrky brand) because HDMI is wonky on the Mini.
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Thanks for the detailed response.

Everything I've read so far indicates the Mini would do well for my workflow. It's nice getting corroboration from someone in the trade.

The reason I'm considering an external TB3 SSD is to keep everything modular and easily replaceable. With the Mini being new territory for me, I didn't want to be tied to an internal Flash drive if the computer crashed or didn't perform as expected and needed to be replaced.

I've been reading a lot about the eGPU situation, and think it's the way to go for my needs. Offloading the gpu work from the i7 should help improve performance a bit, from what I've read. Initially, I'll probably run it without the eGPU to test performance and confirm or refute the need for an external unit.

The great news is the cost of this system (eGPU included) is less than half that of a new Mac Pro. I'm accustomed to spending about $3k for a new system, and this fits right in.

Thanks again!

 

[weaztek]

The reason I'm considering an external TB3 SSD is to keep everything modular and easily replaceable. With the Mini being new territory for me, I didn't want to be tied to an internal Flash drive if the computer crashed or didn't perform as expected and needed to be replaced.

I have a bunch of external hard drives that I use in my workflow. I have one 3 TB that is my photo and document archive. And a few more that I use with Time Machine to create redundant backups. With TimeMachine reverting to a new Mac or going back to a system you were using a week ago is a snap. I have actually had to use it twice to get to a full backup. First when a Seagate HDD in my old iMac failed and second when Catalina v.1 became unusable on my Mini. The HDDs for TimeMachine don't even really need to be fast. Although USB 3 or better are cheap enough these days. TimeMachine happens in the background and you don't even notice it. But then if you need to roll back your machine you just pick the past time you need and let it do it's thing. Mine might take a few hours for a full backup restore, but chances are you'd never need that. Oh, and it would take a hour for the first initial backup but that's no big deal either, it's all in the background.

Initially, I'll probably run it without the eGPU to test performance and confirm or refute the need for an external unit.

That's a very good idea. I have a feeling you won't need the eGPU if you aren't a gamer or 4k video editor.