Here is my question. I currently have mid 2011 Mac mini w/16GB RAM and factory 500G HDD. Is it worth installing 2 1TB ssd' to speed it up or go with new Mac mini and 2TB FD? I do a lot of photo manipulation in Lightroom. Your thoughts are appreciated.
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Upgrade mid 2011 Mac mini or new?
- Thread starter prk60091
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I have a Refurbished i5 MM(Late 2012), 2.5 GHz, 16GB Ram, 500GB HD; the 16GB of Ram cost me around $250 in January, 2015 here in the Country of Costa Rica, so, I will be spending another $250 to upgrade to a 256 Internal SSD in the very near future.
My thinking on this is for another $250 I will have a almost brand new MM which should serve me for a couple of more years. I am a light Mac user; surfing the internet, "burning" DVD's, etc.
My thinking on this is for another $250 I will have a almost brand new MM which should serve me for a couple of more years. I am a light Mac user; surfing the internet, "burning" DVD's, etc.
If you can afford it, I'd go with the new one. Better graphics, USB3.
Just be sure you get either the mid-range or upper-end model (along with the fusion drive), and enough RAM.
Just be sure you get either the mid-range or upper-end model (along with the fusion drive), and enough RAM.
Would have to agree with Fishrrman. 2TB of data will take along time to populate with USB2 and there are much better monitor options available with the 2014 model.
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I changed out the stock 500GB hard drive on my 2011 mini to a 500GB SDD a few months ago. The SSD (Crucial) was around $140. It made a huge difference; it's like a whole new machine.
My initial plan was to get a 2014 mini with the 16GB RAM and 256GB SDD upgrades, but for a fraction of the cost, the SSD upgrade in my 2011 will hopefully keep me satisfied till the next mini revision.
My initial plan was to get a 2014 mini with the 16GB RAM and 256GB SDD upgrades, but for a fraction of the cost, the SSD upgrade in my 2011 will hopefully keep me satisfied till the next mini revision.
Well there you have it prk60091! You have a choice to make and reasons to go either way.
As a photographer, USB 3.0 could be the deciding factor. Tibas92013 and s933 are correct. There is no doubt that your 2011 would be fine machine with SSD storage. But as usual, Fisherman has identified the critical factors. The thing about USB 3.0 is that it is fast and inexpensive. This ubiquitous interface approaches the speed of Thunderbolt and the hardware is dirt cheap!
Have you decided yet?
As a photographer, USB 3.0 could be the deciding factor. Tibas92013 and s933 are correct. There is no doubt that your 2011 would be fine machine with SSD storage. But as usual, Fisherman has identified the critical factors. The thing about USB 3.0 is that it is fast and inexpensive. This ubiquitous interface approaches the speed of Thunderbolt and the hardware is dirt cheap!
Have you decided yet?
I'll step outside convention and suggest upgrading to a 2012 quad-core, for the following reasons:
Now, all that being said, we are due for a refreshed model. If you are able to wait a few months, you might wait and see what's offered. Perhaps quads will make a comeback. Or perhaps the newer Intel dual cores offered will finally outperform older quads. Or maybe there will be something else you like, such as USB-C connectors with Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1 support.
- 2012 model is the last year with expandable/upgradeable memory.
- 2012 has USB 3.0, as suggested by others to improve the speed of importing photos.
- 2012 can accept your two 1TB SSDs.
- Adobe says that Lightroom can make good use of multicore processors (up to six cores). The 2012 is the only Mini available with 4 cores, and it's multicore performance is superior to that of the current model, which is limited to only 2 cores:
Now, all that being said, we are due for a refreshed model. If you are able to wait a few months, you might wait and see what's offered. Perhaps quads will make a comeback. Or perhaps the newer Intel dual cores offered will finally outperform older quads. Or maybe there will be something else you like, such as USB-C connectors with Thunderbolt 3 and USB 3.1 support.
This ^.
I have the same machine and it's great. Upgrade the RAM and install and SSD and it will handle any productivity task you throw at it for years to come.
As for transfer speeds, it has thunderbolt so there's nothing stopping you getting a Kanex TB to USB/eSATA adapter for the occasions when you need to do large, sustained file transfers. My Mini doubles as an iTunes server with a 3TB USB3.0 external drive. When I initially populated the drive, I used a Thunderbolt adapter, but for 99% of the time now I just use it to read and perform occasional writes and for that USB 2.0 is more than adequate, even for HD content.
Welcome in the club! We should create a dedicated thread for all owners of this amazing version of the machine: it is the last Mac Mini which really deserves to be called a Mac. Unfortunately the future looks darker... After 5 years still no news at the front :/
I have the 2011 i5 Mini with the shared Intel 3000 graphics, and I really wish I would've gotten one with the dedicated AMD 6630 graphics card instead. I probably pushed the machine too hard and it now shows (occasional screen black outs & garbled pixelation that require shutdown / rest / reboot). I occasionally have 100+ tabs open across 3 browsers and mea culpa for ignoring the 100% cpu utilization and full-blast fan noise for too long (those stupid flash and other moving graphics on sites seemed to take the biggest toll).