new to mac minis help me figure out what is best for me

[Sossity]

I have used a macbook pro 2010 i7 with 4gb of ram snowleopard 10.6.8 with a dedicated graphics card.

what mac mini would be a rough equivalent to these specs?

I looked at some on amazon, it seems the server variety has a quad core cpu, but a shard video or graphics card.

& others with dual core have a dedicated graphics card.

right now, I have Adobe CS5 design premium, paralells desktop 5.0 with windows 7 & windows xp pro, with cd ripping & audio conversion software.

I do alot of photography, some graphics, like Adobe InDesign, & web coding, audio ripping & conversion from flac/lossless to mp3. Will also do video editing with imovie or final cut or other.

what mac mini would be best for me? one with a qud core cpu? or dual core cpu with a dedicated graphics card?

can I get a mini with both a quad core & a dedicated graphics card?

I would need this to last, be fast & reliable.

 

[dakhein]

can I get a mini with both a quad core & a dedicated graphics card?

No. The BTO i7 upgrade is only dual core so you were reading things right.

You can look at some benchmarks at barefeats for benchmarks on tests relevant to your workflow. Any particular reason why you want to do this on a Mini with heavy photography? While it may be capable, the HD 6630 has 256 MB of dedicated memory so if you want to drive it on a large monitor it may not live up to your standards.

 

[philipma1957]

my advice is get a refurbished macbook pro
the one below is the one I would get.


http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC723LL/A


I have a lot of reasons but the two biggest are.

you can run snow leopard or lion.

you have a very good gpu in this mac book pro.

As much as I am a fan of the mini no mini is as good as this macbook pro.

in cpu speed

in graphics and the ability to run snow leopard or lion.


this macbook pro would beat any mini. of course price is a problem it is 1650 plus tax. the high end mini is 900 plus tax.(add on a screen and a keyboard more like 1200)



this macbook pro also allows thunderbolt

 

[Sossity]

No. The BTO i7 upgrade is only dual core so you were reading things right.

You can look at some benchmarks at barefeats for benchmarks on tests relevant to your workflow. Any particular reason why you want to do this on a Mini with heavy photography? While it may be capable, the HD 6630 has 256 MB of dedicated memory so if you want to drive it on a large monitor it may not live up to your standards.

could you link me to some benchmark sites to find this info?

 

[warvanov]

Here are some benchmarks. Unfortunately this doesn't include the mini server option.

http://www.macworld.com/article/161414/2011/08/mac_mini_mid_2011_review.html