Mac Mini for Design?
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- ukit0
Why does he need a "proper" laptop when the Mini has the same specs? The laptop is essentially a Mini with a screen grafted on it:D
- that's what I'm saying: mini is a total ripoff, a laptop without keyboard, screen, battery and touchpadraf
- Why would you say that when there's a Mini on the same refurb page for £689.00?ukit
- It's not the MB 13" screen is all that great.ukit
- You get portability, and it's a proper DJ machine. This mini won't work as a home media server in future: no CD.raf
- I mean, I pondered this myself, have been only using my laptop with external monitor for years. Mini was temptingraf
- I see the point he;s making. He's suggesting a low price laptop alternative, the 13", and not the 15".Josev
- kpl0
@raf I was messing around newegg the other day trying to see if I could build a small but decently powered PC... Core i3, 4GB, decent graphics, smallish drive. Price came out to around $700. A Mac Mini is $689.
- Josev0
I kindof agree with raf. There are 13" refurbs that are just a little more than the mini. The original request was for something more portable. I love the minis, the form, power, etc. but if you're really looking for portability (and he'll probably want to take the machine home more often than he realizes) the MBP is not much more.
13.3 Inch MBP with 23" monitor: $1249.00
Macbook Pro 2.26 GHz Core2duo: $929 refurb on Apple's site
NEC EA231WMI (IPS Panel): $320.00Mini with 23" monitor: $1069.00
Mini 2.53GHz Core2duo: $749 refurb on Apple's site
NEC EA231WMI (IPS Panel): $320.00Both are good options. Btw, the last two Apple refurbs I bought shipped with maxed out RAM even though I didn't order or pay for it. There's no guarantee that will happen but you never know.
- hiten0
I used a Mac Mini to design print and interactive material for the last 5yrs...only reason I replaced it was because I needed to save space and get rid of my computer desk. It worked great...no complaints.
(I didn't read any of the previous posts...so I might have replicated something)
- I love the design of the mini. I'd still be working on it if I didnt travel so much.Josev
- ukit0
Yeah point taken raf and Josev, out of the box a laptop offers much easier portability. I guess I was just pointing out in terms of what he asked about performance, the bigger gap is going to be between the Mini/ lower end MBP and your Mac Pro or iMac.
The question is, how much processing power is necessary? For motion graphics or 3D artists, obviously its quite important, but as someone who does interactive and the occasional print work I don't think I've ever run into a situation on my MBP (w 2GB RAM) or Mini (4GB) where it "ground to a halt" because I threw too much stuff at it.
If there's extra money left over, I would put it into the monitor. A $200 monitor is going to be somewhat poor for design work.
- erikjonsson0
wow if some freelancer came in with her/his own monitor.
- vaxorcist0
would you have to untangle the spaghetti or wires every night and take it all home?