Hello All,
I decided to start a new thread to address a bunch of questions I've received over IM. Seems like there are a lot of photographers in this forum and a lot of people want to know how my setup works for what I do. Obviously this is not a one size fits all scenario but hopefully it will give you some decent perspective.
1. What kind of photography do you do and how well does your mac mini setup work to support that?
I'm a part-time wedding/event photographer based on of Chicago. I shoot around 5 events/month and generate around 16GB/event and 100GB of RAW data per month. After culling, I get down to around 10GB/event. Here's the thread I started on my Mac Mini 2012 BTO and Benchmarks. This is by far the fastest computer I have owned and works really well with my workflow. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1552293/. I shoot Nikon D600 and D3s so between 12 to 25mb files.
2. What are your thoughts on the lack of discrete graphics and the HD4000?
I do 95% of my editing in lightroom 4 and so discrete graphics does absolutely 0 for me. When I do go to Photoshop, it's usually to clean up portraits or basic coloring work and I rarely go past 5 layers deep. From what I understand if you are a graphic artist, compositor, or heavy rendering user, having a discrete GPU is beneficial. However, for the rest of us, you will never even notice.
3. Why did you not get RAM/Fusion Drive/SSD direct from Apple?
Consumerism has always been about being informed, savvy, and well off. What do I mean by this? The more money you have the less you want to be inconvenienced and companies know this. For every savvy tech person who DIY, there is an equally unsavvy person who doesn't know a cup holder from a cd drive. Apple charges a premium for that convenience as do most manufacturers so you will always pay a premium for upgrades. Most would argue that you are already paying a premium for Apple products. Anyways, the short answer is that it's cheaper to DIY. I can buy more RAM, Faster SSD, make my own fusion drive for less than what apple charges.
4. I'm scared to take my Mac Mini apart and void the warranty but I don't want to get ripped off. What should I do?
Honest answer? Grow a pair. OWC has tons of videos that show you step by step how to upgrade your own machine. If you're really nervous, pay your neighborhood tech high school geek $20 bucks and get them to do it. Always buy your tech gear with credit cards that offer extended warranties and buyer protection. That way, worst case you can always claim through your CC.
5. What LCD do you use and why?
Over the years, I've been a Dell and HP fan. Dell's UltraSharp line has been top notch and color gamut has been second none. However, I use an Apple 27inch ACD that I got two years ago and short of it burning out, I don't see myself switching anytime soon. Here's why:
A. 27inch is the right size for me. I don't need multimonitor and with the low Delta E score, the ACD has great color reproduction.
B. SRGB is the standard display color on the web and having a higher color gamut doesn't get me anything.
C. It looks so damn good
6. Do you color calibrate your monitor?
Yes, I do but only because I print. If you don't, I wouldn't bother. Here's why. 99% of people who aren't photographers don't calibrate their monitors. It means that colors that look right to you now no longer longer look right to everyone else. Truth.
7. Do you feel like your setup is future proof?
Nothing in the tech world is future proof. Some people are caught in the performance upgrade cycle and never break free. I remember when GHZ was the key performance indicator and the first computer to break 3GHZ was AMAZEBALLS...and then Intel realized that they could lower clock speed but increase the # of cores, decrease die size, and a gazillion other non clock speed related tweaks to make performance better. I expect this setup to last me at least two years and if you're savvy you should too. Sell your old stuff and buy new stuff and you won't be throwing money out the door. If you're running a business like me you can't keep shelling out money for better gear unless it means you can make more money.
8. What's your backup strategy?
To keep things nice and speedy I keep a working folder on my SSD and all primary editing is done there. Once a set is ready to be archived, I move it to the 1TB hitachi that is also on the computer. From there, I have a 4TB NAS that backs up my Mac and is mirrored. At any given moment in time, all my pictures exists in three separate locations. I subscribe to the fool me once mentally. Fool me three times I deserve to lose it all.
9. If you move stuff over to the hitachi, why don't you just use a fusion drive?
I like to have control over what is on the SSD and what isn't.
10. Is the 2.6 I7 worth it or do you think I can get by with the I5 or 2.3 I7?
I say if you have the money then go for it. Resale value will be higher and at a minimum you know that performance will be higher. My buddy has the same setup as me except he got the 2.3 and I got a 2.6. On my render test of 100 pics, I beat him by 10 seconds on average out of 3 tests. On the export test, we were tied and he beat me 1/3 tries.
Sometimes, $100 bucks just buys you a better overall feeling and that's ok. From my perspective that's one weekend that I don't go out but I can feel good about my computer every day.
Long post but I hope it helps some of you yall.
Best
I decided to start a new thread to address a bunch of questions I've received over IM. Seems like there are a lot of photographers in this forum and a lot of people want to know how my setup works for what I do. Obviously this is not a one size fits all scenario but hopefully it will give you some decent perspective.
1. What kind of photography do you do and how well does your mac mini setup work to support that?
I'm a part-time wedding/event photographer based on of Chicago. I shoot around 5 events/month and generate around 16GB/event and 100GB of RAW data per month. After culling, I get down to around 10GB/event. Here's the thread I started on my Mac Mini 2012 BTO and Benchmarks. This is by far the fastest computer I have owned and works really well with my workflow. https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1552293/. I shoot Nikon D600 and D3s so between 12 to 25mb files.
2. What are your thoughts on the lack of discrete graphics and the HD4000?
I do 95% of my editing in lightroom 4 and so discrete graphics does absolutely 0 for me. When I do go to Photoshop, it's usually to clean up portraits or basic coloring work and I rarely go past 5 layers deep. From what I understand if you are a graphic artist, compositor, or heavy rendering user, having a discrete GPU is beneficial. However, for the rest of us, you will never even notice.
3. Why did you not get RAM/Fusion Drive/SSD direct from Apple?
Consumerism has always been about being informed, savvy, and well off. What do I mean by this? The more money you have the less you want to be inconvenienced and companies know this. For every savvy tech person who DIY, there is an equally unsavvy person who doesn't know a cup holder from a cd drive. Apple charges a premium for that convenience as do most manufacturers so you will always pay a premium for upgrades. Most would argue that you are already paying a premium for Apple products. Anyways, the short answer is that it's cheaper to DIY. I can buy more RAM, Faster SSD, make my own fusion drive for less than what apple charges.
4. I'm scared to take my Mac Mini apart and void the warranty but I don't want to get ripped off. What should I do?
Honest answer? Grow a pair. OWC has tons of videos that show you step by step how to upgrade your own machine. If you're really nervous, pay your neighborhood tech high school geek $20 bucks and get them to do it. Always buy your tech gear with credit cards that offer extended warranties and buyer protection. That way, worst case you can always claim through your CC.
5. What LCD do you use and why?
Over the years, I've been a Dell and HP fan. Dell's UltraSharp line has been top notch and color gamut has been second none. However, I use an Apple 27inch ACD that I got two years ago and short of it burning out, I don't see myself switching anytime soon. Here's why:
A. 27inch is the right size for me. I don't need multimonitor and with the low Delta E score, the ACD has great color reproduction.
B. SRGB is the standard display color on the web and having a higher color gamut doesn't get me anything.
C. It looks so damn good
6. Do you color calibrate your monitor?
Yes, I do but only because I print. If you don't, I wouldn't bother. Here's why. 99% of people who aren't photographers don't calibrate their monitors. It means that colors that look right to you now no longer longer look right to everyone else. Truth.
7. Do you feel like your setup is future proof?
Nothing in the tech world is future proof. Some people are caught in the performance upgrade cycle and never break free. I remember when GHZ was the key performance indicator and the first computer to break 3GHZ was AMAZEBALLS...and then Intel realized that they could lower clock speed but increase the # of cores, decrease die size, and a gazillion other non clock speed related tweaks to make performance better. I expect this setup to last me at least two years and if you're savvy you should too. Sell your old stuff and buy new stuff and you won't be throwing money out the door. If you're running a business like me you can't keep shelling out money for better gear unless it means you can make more money.
8. What's your backup strategy?
To keep things nice and speedy I keep a working folder on my SSD and all primary editing is done there. Once a set is ready to be archived, I move it to the 1TB hitachi that is also on the computer. From there, I have a 4TB NAS that backs up my Mac and is mirrored. At any given moment in time, all my pictures exists in three separate locations. I subscribe to the fool me once mentally. Fool me three times I deserve to lose it all.
9. If you move stuff over to the hitachi, why don't you just use a fusion drive?
I like to have control over what is on the SSD and what isn't.
10. Is the 2.6 I7 worth it or do you think I can get by with the I5 or 2.3 I7?
I say if you have the money then go for it. Resale value will be higher and at a minimum you know that performance will be higher. My buddy has the same setup as me except he got the 2.3 and I got a 2.6. On my render test of 100 pics, I beat him by 10 seconds on average out of 3 tests. On the export test, we were tied and he beat me 1/3 tries.
Sometimes, $100 bucks just buys you a better overall feeling and that's ok. From my perspective that's one weekend that I don't go out but I can feel good about my computer every day.
Long post but I hope it helps some of you yall.
Best
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