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mnorth · Jan 2, 2006, 03:58 PM

Hello,
I planning to buy a Mac mini combo drive for graphic design (freehand & photoshop), i'm going to max the ram to 1gb, but how good is the overall performance. I'm shorto of cash right now, so i'ts the best deal.

Also how good chance do i have to get the 1.5 upgrade model from amazon?

Thank you

mduell · Jan 2, 2006, 04:23 PM

For an idea of the performance, look at the PowerMac Photoshop benchmarks from 3 years ago.
There is a thread on where people got their 1.5s in this forums... read it.

mnorth · Jan 2, 2006, 04:34 PM

thank's

osxrules · Jan 4, 2006, 02:16 AM

Originally Posted by mnorth

Hello,
I planning to buy a Mac mini combo drive for graphic design (freehand & photoshop), i'm going to max the ram to 1gb, but how good is the overall performance. I'm shorto of cash right now, so i'ts the best deal.

Also how good chance do i have to get the 1.5 upgrade model from amazon?

Thank you

I doubt you'd get the 1.5 from Amamzon but you never know. I'd say the Mini performance could be better especially in the graphics card and hard drive. Apps like Photoshop use the hard drive quite a lot and the Mini only has a 5400 laptop drive. You can solve this by buying a 7200 drive but 2.5" drives are more expensive and you won't be able to install it yourself because Apple sealed up the Mini pretty well. You'd have to take out the optical drive anyway so it's probably best they did that. Another alternative would be to get a 7200 external firewire drive and use it as a scratch disk.

The 1GB Ram is an absolute must. I'd say overall, the Mini is adequate and I use Photoshop CS on mine but if you're doing serious professional work with huge images, I'd probably look more towards an entry level G5. The bus bandwidth on a G5 is just so much higher. In the imac G5, you get a 533-600MHz bus compared to 133MHz on a G4. G5 towers have 1GHz buses.

The bus bandwidth is what a lot of people say killed off SGI because the G5 was one of the few desktop machines that could do real-time 2k colour correction and at desktop prices as opposed to workstation prices.

The thing I like about the Mini is the fact I can use a CRT, which IMO is necessary for accurate colour work. I hate LCD in this area. Future SED displays should fix this but for now I'd go for something that gave me the option of CRT. If the imac G5 has the option for an external display then it would be ok.

If Apple had made a Mini with the power of the imac G5, that would have been ideal. Perhaps this year's new Minis will offer something along those lines.

If budget is the main concern then the Mini is still a worthwhile purchase. Weighing up price and performance, I am very pleased with it. It's reliable, quiet and adequately powerful, even portable to an extent. One of Apple's best ever products IMO.

mnorth · Jan 4, 2006, 12:54 PM

thank's for the good info osxrules,
Right now have two work stations, one powermac g5 (Single 1.8/1.25GB RAM) and iBook G3/600mhz/640RAM; I'm a freelance graphic designer, but sometimes a have huge projects, so I need help. the mac mini it's the machine for the designer I hire.

Most of the work for the mac mini involves image correction/photo edition and vector graphics, wich I used to do in my iBook G3 (my first mac pruchase) so I think the mac mini would work fine.

I ordered the mac mini yesterday, it arrives this friday, let's hope it's an 1.5 mac mini, I'm going to post the result as soon a get it.

I used to work in a powermac G4 450mhz, 384ram, (an advertising agency, long ago) and it was stable and fast, but i haven' use any G4 lately.

Let's see how it's going to macht alongside the G3 and G5.

Cheers.

P · Jan 4, 2006, 01:41 PM

Macintouch reports getting a 1.5 GHz from Amazon, so chances are you'll get one as well.

Chinasaur · Jan 4, 2006, 11:31 PM

The mini is not "sealed pretty well". Anyone with a putty knife and a copy of the freely available video can open the thing up in short order. After that, just follow instructions (also freely available on the net) about replacing HD's, RAM, etc. Although for HD you are better served just plugging in a Firewire drive rather than replacing the internal. RAM is dead simple.

Always do your own research.

osxrules · Jan 5, 2006, 04:42 AM

Originally Posted by Chinasaur

The mini is not "sealed pretty well". Anyone with a putty knife and a copy of the freely available video can open the thing up in short order. After that, just follow instructions (also freely available on the net) about replacing HD's, RAM, etc. Although for HD you are better served just plugging in a Firewire drive rather than replacing the internal. RAM is dead simple.

Always do your own research.

It's sealed enough that opening it isn't easy. Using a putty knife is not the safest thing to do and you can crack the casing. As one article about opening the Mini yourself says:

"Was it difficult? Not really difficult, but it's not risk-free either, especially if you like your Mac stuff to stay in an esthetically pristine condition. When done properly, this procedure should not cause any scratches or cause the plastic clips to break. But, for someone who has never done anything similar the procedure is difficult and I wouldn't recommend them to try it, especially since there is no way to describe the amount of force used to separate Mac mini's bottom from the top."

mnorth · Jan 5, 2006, 01:00 PM

I checked the movie, and it's looks easy, I already download the pdf with the info. I already added ram to a Powermac and iBook and I didn't need any special tool, but I think you have to be extra carefull when openning the mac mini.

I been reading many posts about ram upgrading the mac mini, and most of them say it's easy, let's hope thats true, mine haven't arrived yet, so I haven't try.

Most of th user reviews I read about the mac mini say it's capable for graphic work (photoshop, ilustrator, flash, ..), but I been thinking, How's the performance of the mac mini 1.5 vs. Powerbook 1.5, are they similar or what?, any experience?

babble · Jan 5, 2006, 01:16 PM

I just openned a mini last week at work to install more ram, I had no putty knife and was able to do it with 8 butter knives at the same time (don't even ask). Even with this setup I was able to open it for the first time and only made a small scratch in the bottom plastic piece of the mini.

So if you've got the right tool (a really slim putty knife, check when you buy, it should be thinner than a metal ruller), you shouldn't have any problems.

babble · Jan 5, 2006, 01:19 PM

As for your first question. The mini will be just fine for graphic design. That's what we use them for at work (in a graphic design studio). But put the maximum RAM you can put in.

It's increadible who you can get for 500$ a mini and have it stand it's ground with all the other G4 PowerMac we have in the office...

mnorth · Jan 5, 2006, 02:12 PM

Yep babble, that's the idea when I order the mac mini, it's a good investment because I can recover my money fast, I think that's the spirit when buying equipment for your own business.

I haven't see any benchmarks for the mac mini 1.5, any clue?

osxrules · Jan 5, 2006, 07:13 PM

Originally Posted by mnorth

Most of th user reviews I read about the mac mini say it's capable for graphic work (photoshop, ilustrator, flash, ..), but I been thinking, How's the performance of the mac mini 1.5 vs. Powerbook 1.5, are they similar or what?, any experience?

I have a 1.25GHz Mini for home use with 1GB Ram and a 1.5GHz powerbook with 512MB for taking to work.

The powerbook is faster. The biggest difference is the interface speed. Resizing windows on the Mini jitters but it's pretty smooth on the powerbook. The powerbook has a card which has 64MB VRam and is coreImage compatible. My Mini has a 32MB card which isn't coreImage compatible. If you get the 1.5GHz Mini, it should come with 64MB VRam so it might be on par but I'm sure the powerbook card is still faster.

However the powerbook is nearly 3 times the price. Although with a Ram upgrade + monitor for the Mini, it may only come out as double. But still, if you don't need the benefits of a laptop, the Mini is the better option. I really think you'd need an external display with the laptop for Photoshop work anyway. I don't think you could do any serious work on such a washed-out display. The colour even gets darker towards the top of the screen and when you move your head, all the brightness levels change.

I think Apple's laptop displays really need some better technology. Next to a Sony Vaio with x-black or whatever, it looks awful. The pricing is way off the competition too. I was in a store today and they were selling a 15" 1.6GHz pentium-m with a 533MHz fsb and other better stuff than the PB for just £599. The entry level 12" 1.5GHz PB with a 167MHz fsb is £1099.

Chinasaur · Jan 6, 2006, 09:24 PM

Originally Posted by osxrules

"Was it difficult? Not really difficult, but it's not risk-free either, especially if you like your Mac stuff to stay in an esthetically pristine condition. When done properly, this procedure should not cause any scratches or cause the plastic clips to break. But, for someone who has never done anything similar the procedure is difficult and I wouldn't recommend them to try it, especially since there is no way to describe the amount of force used to separate Mac mini's bottom from the top."

Must have been a PC user doing the review/operating. As long as you don't go at it like you are killing snakes, it's as easy as installing RAM.

mnorth · Jan 7, 2006, 01:23 PM

Well, the new mac mini arrived, and It's a upgraded 1.5 Mac mini !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to admit that I wasn't so confident to get an upgraded model from amazon, but the price ($25dlls.rebate plus -$50dlls.) was important, ohh and for the records it's a combo drive.

Right now, I'm installing the software I need to work, so I haven't now how fast it is.

mnorth · Jan 7, 2006, 01:34 PM

I think, right now, you have more chances to get an upgraded mac mini, Macworld it's a few hours away, so if you need or wan't and ppc mac mini, well, time to buy, cause maybe this monday apple launch's the so talked "mac mini/intel".

I use a lot of professional software for my work (photoshop, freehand, flash...) so i'm going to stick with ppc mac's until revB's (I hope).

Agent69 · Jan 8, 2006, 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by mnorth

Well, the new mac mini arrived, and It's a upgraded 1.5 Mac mini !!!!!!!!!!!!!

I had to admit that I wasn't so confident to get an upgraded model from amazon, but the price ($25dlls.rebate plus -$50dlls.) was important, ohh and for the records it's a combo drive.

Right now, I'm installing the software I need to work, so I haven't now how fast it is.

That's a good deal, especially if you don't have to pay shipping/taxes.