Upgrade to M1 Mac Mini from Mac Pro 5,1 (need advice)

[Snake111]

I'm using Mac Pro 5,1, running Catalina (using DosDude patch, and for some reason can't update beyond 10.15.1).
Processor: 2 x 3.46 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon.
Memory: 48 GB 1066 MHz DDR3 (usually about 50% usage, maximum 65%)
Graphic card: Radeon RX 580

My current setup/use;

STORAGE:
- 1TB NVME for the system
- 2TB NVME (1TB RAIDx2) for work files.

- 2TB HDD (x2 RAID) for backup files)
- 4TB HDD for system backup + misc
- 4TB HDD for old archived files that I rarely use.

I/O:

• I’m using almost all the USB port plus 4 more via PCIE.
• Optical out to connect to my amplifier (with built-in DAC).
• Ethernet
• Didn't use/have USB-C port, but it'll be nice to have.

DISPLAYS:

• 30” Apple Cinema Display
• Cintiq 21UX
• 20” Apple Cinema Display (used occasionally)

If I’m going to upgrade to M1 Mac Mini, I wouldn’t be able to use the third display. And I’m not sure if I’ll be able to replicate the storage setup. BTW I can’t afford the 2019 Mac Pro.

I mainly use Photoshop for work. Had an issue working with a huge file (.PSB) early this year, slowed down the computer tremendously, which were part of the reason I’m looking for an upgrade.

I would appreciate any advice.


Thanks.

 

[vwguy60]

I have pretty much the exact same Mac Pro 5,1 with the exception of I have 96gb ram, two 27" 1440p monitors, and slightly less HD space. I am hoping the rumors are true about a M1X Mac mini. For your 3 monitors, as of now only 2 are supported.

As for the space, I had an idea but I need to research it more to see if it works. My thought is buy a Mac mini with a 10gb ethernet port and buy a 10gb ethernet card for the Mac Pro. I currently share the 2nd ethernet port on the Mac Pro to make a wired connection to my M1 MacBook Pro on occasion. So my idea is to buy a Mac mini and create a 10gb ethernet connection to the Mac Pro so I can access the drives with a good speed.

The M1 MacBook Pro seems only slightly faster than my Mac Pro for the things I use it for. I use mine for video encoding, a Minecraft server, and I play Minecraft on it because with the RX580 (8gb) the graphic speed it a little bit better.

As for advice, I would wait to see if the rumors are true about a more powerful Mac mini comes out. If you can connect it to your Mac Pro for drive speed, that would be a huge plus.

 

[pmiles]

IMHO, the Mac Pro was never an entry level machine. The machine you are considering to replace it with is. All the current M1 Macs are entry level machines.

What you want to know, and everyone wants to know, is how scalable the SoC design really is. If their prosumer line doesn't double the performance of their entry level machines, it says a lot about scalability. A lot of the performance boost on the M1 comes mostly from being an SoC... not so much being a faster CPU in and of itself. You put any CPU into an SoC design and you will see a performance increase over the same chip not in one.

The question is, once everything is an SoC... what will be the performance increases be like going forward when you are actually comparing apples to apples again? Far too much hoopla about these chips. People have given up expandability, ports, storage, et al all for the performance boost of an SoC that was inevitable with an SoC to begin with. Once everything is an SoC... they are going to want all that crap they gave up for an SoC back... will they get it?

For the record, some things really are going to take time on a computer... in animation, it can take hours to days for a job to finish rendering. It's the nature of the beast. You will always have those jobs that tax your system... that's when patience comes in.. because it does get done, just not microwave fast. Even on an M1, those sort of jobs are still going to take time... maybe a little less time... but not so much of a difference as to qualify giving your left kidney for one.

 

[mmkerc]

The biggest concern I would have is the memory requirements.

I did trade in my Mac Pro Quad Core Xeon 3.7GHz (Late 2013 trash can Mac Pro) with 16 GB Ram for an M1 Mac Mine with 16 GB ram and 1TB hard drive. I also purchased both Belkin's Thunderbolt 3, and OWC's Thunderbolt 3 docks to which I have connected 2 Dell 32" monitors, 5 - 4TB LaCie d2 external drives, a 2Tb Samsung T5 drive. I have multiple USB devices and have not had any issues. Although I was never a heavy Photoshop or Video Editing user I do "play" with both. Photoshop is noticeably quicker, and I have only worked on one small video and the rendering time was about 30% quicker. Given your Photoshop use I would suggest waiting until the new chips come out, or possibly renting an M1 to see if it will fit your needs.

 

[AfterglowMP]

I have pretty much the exact same Mac Pro 5,1 with the exception of I have 96gb ram, two 27" 1440p monitors, and slightly less HD space. I am hoping the rumors are true about a M1X Mac mini. For your 3 monitors, as of now only 2 are supported.

As for the space, I had an idea but I need to research it more to see if it works. My thought is buy a Mac mini with a 10gb ethernet port and buy a 10gb ethernet card for the Mac Pro. I currently share the 2nd ethernet port on the Mac Pro to make a wired connection to my M1 MacBook Pro on occasion. So my idea is to buy a Mac mini and create a 10gb ethernet connection to the Mac Pro so I can access the drives with a good speed.

The M1 MacBook Pro seems only slightly faster than my Mac Pro for the things I use it for. I use mine for video encoding, a Minecraft server, and I play Minecraft on it because with the RX580 (8gb) the graphic speed it a little bit better.

As for advice, I would wait to see if the rumors are true about a more powerful Mac mini comes out. If you can connect it to your Mac Pro for drive speed, that would be a huge plus.

Did you get your 10gb ethernet card and install it? I have a Mac Pro 5,1 stuffed with hard drives for video editing and have been considering similarly putting in a 10gb ethernet card to network with a M1 Mac Mini so that I can edit on the Mini with the MP operating mainly as hard drive enclosure.