Mac Mini for music production. Thoughts?

Chewie5150

Fractal Fanatic
I'm going to be upgrading my old trusty late 2009 iMac in the near future. I run cubase and don't do anything too intensive for my recordings in terms of tracks/plugins. Leaning towards the newer Mac minis. They have lots of flexibility for expansion and I can use my existing iMac as a display.

I know lots of memory and best processors available are king for DAW. The mini has great specs plus SSD vs the old SATA.

Only concern is lack of a good dedicated GPU inside the mini. I don't think this will be a serious concern for using cubase. Am I wrong here? Any considerations I should be aware of?
 
If I could use my iPads as external displays, I’d buy a Mini in a heartbeat. But alas.
 
From what I have researched my 2009 iMac can be used as an external display. I also have a second display that i can use HDMI with the mac mini. My display situation would be exact how it is now. I don't game on my mac so dont care as much about graphics. My iMac 27" isn't even 4K and it looks gorgeous enough to me.
 
yeah, you don't need gpu power, you need grunt and ram. i updated my old imac for the 6 core i7 mini with 8gb ram and put in 32gb myself (for half the cost of what apple are charging). got myself a nice ultrawide monitor as well. it flies. if you do want to edit video and you're using final cut, just turn background rendering off and you'll be fine.
 
Get a good 42" HDMI 4k TV as monitor. I love my Roku Sharp 42" as Logic/Ableton monitor hooked to a latest gen MacBookPro. You could use the MBP as a studio computer -- that's been the trend for the last five years due to Apple totally neglecting the pro desktop market or offering too expensive solutions.
 
yeah, you don't need gpu power, you need grunt and ram. i updated my old imac for the 6 core i7 mini with 8gb ram and put in 32gb myself (for half the cost of what apple are charging). got myself a nice ultrawide monitor as well. it flies. if you do want to edit video and you're using final cut, just turn background rendering off and you'll be fine.

I was just researching this. I can get 32 GB ram for about $350 vs the $720 upgrade through Apple. On the savings I’ll go for processor upgrade and jump to 512 GB SSD.
 
When it comes to working off project files/audio, do most of you use your internal HDD or an external? I'd imagine read/write speeds, esp with a SSD drive, would be advantageous in this regard...
 
When it comes to working off project files/audio, do most of you use your internal HDD or an external? I'd imagine read/write speeds, esp with a SSD drive, would be advantageous in this regard...
Internal only. I archive to an external drive.
 
The 2012 i7 2.3 or 2.6ghz mac mini's were decent once you max the ram and add an SSD, price wise they are in the $700 used market.
In my opinion the 2014 models are all dog shit slow. Now the 2018 Mac Mini models are beastly. The lowest end model is 3.6ghz i3 cpu but still scores pretty decent at multicore 13792 for $799. Next is the 3.0ghz i5 cpu that scores a whopping 20354 $1.099. Then the 3.2ghz i7 at 24059 $1,299. You can however upgrade the ram in the new model for $120 for 16gb, $230 for 32gb and $580 for 64gb. The price skyrockets when choosing an upgraded soldiered in SSD however the prices differ between the lower end model and higher end models. Low end model +$200 for 256gb, +$400 for 512gb, +$800 for 1tb, + $1,400 for 2tb. High end model + $200 for 512gb, + $600 for 1tb and + $1,200 for 2tb. Latest Mac Minis are killer but they do come with premium pricing to get the specs you want.

Personally I treat Mac's like used cars, let someone else drive it off the lot and pay the premium. I bought one brand new Mac back in 1998 every one since then has been refurbished or used. 2009 iMac is pretty long in the tooth in computer and dog years. Unless you have money to burn I would be looking for 2012 or newer 27" iMac with an i7 cpu and large SSD. Not a big fan of the whole Fusion drive thing. You can always add 32gb of ram later on those and save a bunch of money for stuff like FAS products cab packs strings hair care products whatever.

Just my 12 cents.
 
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