Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

mac mini late 2014 vs imac 2013?

A

abley22

macrumors member
Original poster
Feb 17, 2013
59
1
Hi.

I really need help to take a choice now.
Going to go for one of this two setup:

Mac mini late 2014 8gb ram, 1tb fusion drive with thunderbolt display.
Imac 27" late 2013 me088 7200 hdd, 1gb nvidia and 8gb ram.

I think the late 2013 iMac have better display and it looks good to have all in one screen.
The thing that make me unsure is that it not have ssd but a 7200 rpm disk.
It have 4 prosessors and a video card, but maby the disk is a speed breaker on the iMac since its not a ssd?

And if i got a issue then i need to send it back for repair, I don't want to open the glass display to change hdd or something.

The mac mini have fusion drive and that is a fast disk, but only 2 prosessors and i think this apple thunderbolt display from 2011 is old technology, looks a bit grey if you look at it from the side.

Someone with little more experience than me that could help me to take a choice? The price is almost the same, the mac mini with thunderbolt cost about 200 dollars more.

I need to buy a stock mac and at this price range :)

Thanks if you have time to help me :)
 
abley22 said:
Hi.

I really need help to take a choice now.
Going to go for one of this two setup:

Mac mini late 2014 8gb ram, 1tb fusion drive with thunderbolt display.
Imac 27" late 2013 me088 7200 hdd, 1gb nvidia and 8gb ram.

I think the late 2013 iMac have better display and it looks good to have all in one screen.
The thing that make me unsure is that it not have ssd but a 7200 rpm disk.
It have 4 prosessors and a video card, but maby the disk is a speed breaker on the iMac since its not a ssd?

And if i got a issue then i need to send it back for repair, I don't want to open the glass display to change hdd or something.

The mac mini have fusion drive and that is a fast disk, but only 2 prosessors and i think this apple thunderbolt display from 2011 is old technology, looks a bit grey if you look at it from the side.

Someone with little more experience than me that could help me to take a choice? The price is almost the same, the mac mini with thunderbolt cost about 200 dollars more.

I need to buy a stock mac and at this price range :)

Thanks if you have time to help me :)
Click to expand...
The iMac is obviously the superior choice and seeing as mac mini + thunderbolt is 200$ more just use the 200$ to upgrade to fusion drive
 
Ok, but is it still a better choice if i buy the stock model with 7200rpm disk?

The dealers around here is sold out for iMac with fusion drive and they only have the 7200 disk models left in the store.

Im going to use it for surfing,music, and movie playing.. No program that need a lot but i want it to be fast, if the 7200 disk is a big break for the rest of the hardware in the iMac 2013 then i need to maby wait a bit and get it with fusion drive.
 
abley22 said:
Hi.

I really need help to take a choice now.
Going to go for one of this two setup:

Mac mini late 2014 8gb ram, 1tb fusion drive with thunderbolt display.
Imac 27" late 2013 me088 7200 hdd, 1gb nvidia and 8gb ram.

I think the late 2013 iMac have better display and it looks good to have all in one screen.
The thing that make me unsure is that it not have ssd but a 7200 rpm disk.
It have 4 prosessors and a video card, but maby the disk is a speed breaker on the iMac since its not a ssd?

And if i got a issue then i need to send it back for repair, I don't want to open the glass display to change hdd or something.

The mac mini have fusion drive and that is a fast disk, but only 2 prosessors and i think this apple thunderbolt display from 2011 is old technology, looks a bit grey if you look at it from the side.

Someone with little more experience than me that could help me to take a choice? The price is almost the same, the mac mini with thunderbolt cost about 200 dollars more.

I need to buy a stock mac and at this price range :)

Thanks if you have time to help me :)
Click to expand...

Don't know how to upgrade a 27" iMac HDD, but you can buy an external SSD in a thunderbolt enclosure and boot your system from there. It's a more conservative approach which usually works. You can leave the internal HDD OSX installation untouched, but you could still use the free space for storing media.
 
abley22 said:
Ok, but is it still a better choice if i buy the stock model with 7200rpm disk?

The dealers around here is sold out for iMac with fusion drive and they only have the 7200 disk models left in the store.

Im going to use it for surfing,music, and movie playing.. No program that need a lot but i want it to be fast, if the 7200 disk is a big break for the rest of the hardware in the iMac 2013 then i need to maby wait a bit and get it with fusion drive.
Click to expand...

I stream movies of a mini 2009/FW800 DroboPro withe 7200RPM HDD in it. Movie playback will be fine as will music and web browsing.

It may just take a few seconds longer to load the movie before starts playing but playback will be fine.

Fusion will make your OS quicker to start etc but unless the Movie is cached then will be getting from the HDD anyway.

Any reason NEED the Thunderbolt Display, there are better monitors out there for less money.
 
Thanks for reply.
I dosn't know that i could use a external ssd and boot from it :) Good to know.

The only reason i maby want the thunderbolt screen is that made by Apple, aluminium and solid design with glossy glass screen front. The other quadhd screens that i had look at in the store is made by plastic and they are very easily tilt from side to side, the speekers is often realy bad.

I also think the thunderbolt is a bit overpriced and old, the iMac 2013 screen looks better even is the same resolution.
 
I didn't like the glossy displays due to the glare I got on the old iMac screen, so grabbing the mini and a new 27" matte display was a better choice for me than the iMac.

Also didn't worry about the fusion drive since I'd drive over to Fry's for a external SSD boot drive if I needed more speed.

Just passed by a Post Office on the way to Best Buy for a coupon to drop about $147 off the purchase of a monitor, cable, and mid level Mac Mini.

So $940 including tax for a complete 27" inch system versus the prices for the iMac 21" or 27" system.

Though the speakers on the monitor do suck ... and the aluminum on the monitor is a shade off the Mac Mini, I'll deal with it.
 
Sun Baked said:
I didn't like the glossy displays due to the glare I got on the old iMac screen, so grabbing the mini and a new 27" matte display was a better choice for me than the iMac.
Click to expand...

What display did you purchase at Best Buy?
 
You'd be fine with the stock iMac, grab a ram upgrade and you're set.

If you're just surfing and watching movies, the SSD is not even necessary.
it may launch the applications faster, but its not going to benefit a moving playing or the internet browse quicker


Mac mini's benefit is if a new Apple display comes out, 4k/5k you can just swap it in ...the iMac is what it is (which is a still an amazing machine).
 
abley22 said:
Hi.

I really need help to take a choice now.
Going to go for one of this two setup:

Mac mini late 2014 8gb ram, 1tb fusion drive with thunderbolt display.
Imac 27" late 2013 me088 7200 hdd, 1gb nvidia and 8gb ram.

I think the late 2013 iMac have better display and it looks good to have all in one screen.
The thing that make me unsure is that it not have ssd but a 7200 rpm disk.
It have 4 prosessors and a video card, but maby the disk is a speed breaker on the iMac since its not a ssd?

And if i got a issue then i need to send it back for repair, I don't want to open the glass display to change hdd or something.

The mac mini have fusion drive and that is a fast disk, but only 2 prosessors and i think this apple thunderbolt display from 2011 is old technology, looks a bit grey if you look at it from the side.

Someone with little more experience than me that could help me to take a choice? The price is almost the same, the mac mini with thunderbolt cost about 200 dollars more.

I need to buy a stock mac and at this price range :)

Thanks if you have time to help me :)
Click to expand...

iMac is better deal for value.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back