Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Will I see an upgrade or a downgrade if I do this?

Whackintosh

Whackintosh

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Mar 8, 2009
435
14
Montreal, Quebec
Hey everyone,

I'm about to make the jump away from PC desktop land and am seriously considering a mini. Was going to get an Imac but I'm in love with my current Apple Cinema Display and I really don't want to get saddled with an inferior Imac screen.

The big question: I'm currently using an HP desktop that's 2.13 GHz with 2 gigs of ram. If I went with a 2 GHz mini with 4 gigs of ram, would I be seeing a slower computing experience as a result of having a slower processor in spite of the ddr3 ram? Mainly using my system for Photoshop, writing, browsing and light video editing work.

Also, I'd be going from a dedicated GPU that's close to three years old (GE Force 7350 LE with 128 mb of dedicated video memory) to the integrated 9400.

I'd hate to get a better OS but have a step-down in speed and functionality. Am I worrying for nothing?
 
Whackintosh said:
Hey everyone,

I'm about to make the jump away from PC desktop land and am seriously considering a mini. Was going to get an Imac but I'm in love with my current Apple Cinema Display and I really don't want to get saddled with an inferior Imac screen.

The big question: I'm currently using an HP desktop that's 2.13 GHz with 2 gigs of ram. If I went with a 2 GHz mini with 4 gigs of ram, would I be seeing a slower computing experience as a result of having a slower processor in spite of the ddr3 ram? Mainly using my system for Photoshop, writing, browsing and light video editing work.

Also, I'd be going from a dedicated GPU that's close to three years old (GE Force 7350 LE with 128 mb of dedicated video memory) to the integrated 9400.

I'd hate to get a better OS but have a step-down in speed and functionality. Am I worrying for nothing?
Click to expand...

I doubt you'll see a slowdown.

What is the 2.13Ghz CPU? If it's an older model, it may be slower than the 2Ghz in the Mini. Even if they were the same processor, it's a pretty minor difference which I doubt would be noticeable in most situations.

The 4 gig of DDR3 should more than compensate for any speed difference between the two CPUs.

I can't seem to find benchmarks for the GeForce 7350 LE, but being three years old and 128MB, I doubt it's any faster than the 9400m, and most likely it's slower. Unless you're gaming, the 9400m is a good card... and it can even do some decent gaming if you don't mind bringing the details down a bit.

The only thing I'd say would be any slower would be the hard drive. Again, not a huge difference, but you may notice that loading/saving large files in Photoshop or video work work would be slower.

Of course... the Mini has a FW800 port so you could get a very fast external drive if you so wished.

I think if you're looking to make the jump to a Mac, already have a good monitor, and aren't concerned with high end gaming or very intensive computing (and it sounds like you're not)... the Mini is a good choice.
 
Even if they had the same processors, the Mac mini would be faster simply because OS X is faster and more stable than Windows.

Overall, everything should be faster.
 
If you have a slowdown, it will be because of the hard drive. the mac mini uses a laptop hard drive, at 5400 rpm. you can upgrade that, and it should make a big performance difference.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back