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Which would you rather have?
- Thread starter crazeazn
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That's a difficult question, but I will say aside from lack of future software support, the latest WiFi technology and USB3 or Thunderbolt support, that 2008 MacPro is still a 'beast', and will probably outperform the current i7 base Mini, however other than for the most processor-intensive tasks, a maxed-out 2013 27" iMac will run circles around that 2008 'octo' Pro, but that's of course not really a fair comparison, and perhaps also more than you're willing to spend.
I'd say wait till after WWDC to see if anything is announced re the MacMini, or what's in its future.
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2008. You can still get cheap-ish RAM. Bought 8GB for my 2006 for $26!
Also GPU's are very important to me, and the mini doesn't excel in that department.
Also you can upgrade to 3.2GHz 8 Cores for about $120
Also GPU's are very important to me, and the mini doesn't excel in that department.
Also you can upgrade to 3.2GHz 8 Cores for about $120
For Lightroom and Photoshop both the 2008 Mac Pro or the Mac Mini will be adequate. I've used those apps in various machines. It will depend on your workflow needs and setup. I like to have lots of internal HDs plus the option to upgrade the video card so I would stick to the Mac Pro.
I currently have the 08' and was considering a trade... thats all..
with both having SSDs just wondering which would be faster at getting work done.
In your OP, you were comparing the '08 Pro against a "current i7 mac mini base", which comes with a 1TB 5400rpm Serial ATA Drive. Putting SSDs in the mix for the Mini, changes things somewhat.
For multi-threaded apps both should perform the roughly the same in terms of CPU.
The Radeon HD 5870 will kill the Intel HD4000 iGPU in the Mini.
Since you're talking about Lightroom and Photoshop then either one will do just fine with those. Question is, are you willing to give up the GPU in the MP to get Thunderbolt and save some energy?
The Radeon HD 5870 will kill the Intel HD4000 iGPU in the Mini.
Since you're talking about Lightroom and Photoshop then either one will do just fine with those. Question is, are you willing to give up the GPU in the MP to get Thunderbolt and save some energy?
When I still have my 2008 Mac Pro, it was adequate in running Photoshop and Lightroom. I just set up PSD to have a separate scratch in another physical HD and continued to perform maintenance on the Mac Pro like fixing the directory with disk warrior and reformatting my boot drive. If I recall, Photoshop quickly launches in about less than 3 seconds in the 2008 Mac Pro using a mechanical HD. It was acceptable for me considering the age of the machine. The apps were running smoothly without any beach balls. Though it's up to you if you prefer the Mac Mini if it jives better with your workflow.
Bumping my old thread because I never had a chance to really option out everything and I got a newer camera and put a 840EVO SSD in the Mac Pro as a temporary measure since then. I know the iMac is the best option but I already have my own monitors so it puts me in a pickle.
Here is dilemma: When I'm using Lightroom, my 36 megapixel Sony A7R (effectively same as Nikon D800) raw files rendering 1:1 previews take about 5-6 seconds to load. Doing any kind of editing is a nightmare. Originally, it had the same problem with my Velociraptor with my Canon 5DII...
option 1: get 32 gigs of ram ($160), new 3.2 cpus ($120, wow prices havent changed in a year), run raid with new 2 samsung 850 evos
option 2: sell mac pro, get used mac mini i7 2012 w/ 16 gigs of ram, run raid with new 2 samsung 850 evos
I kind of wish I could get more than 35fps on counterstrike go too! OR is this a video card issue?
I'm super impressed that my Mac Pro has lasted me this long, but my camera habit kind of ruined things!
