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Mac mini for film scoring

Wow. That kinda blows me aways and says it all. I was planning on 64gb ram, but sounds like 32gb would be fine. I could get this mini + cheap monitor + keys and trackpad for $1650!

hmmmmm

You simply could not run my HO Diamond template on an Max mini i5 with 32 GB. Even my Gold template would struggle I think.
 
If you use VSL SE it would def be enough. Probably even beyond...I used to run a decent sized VSL + EWQLSO plat (pre HO) template on my 2012 quad core i7 so I can't imagine how it'd struggle on a 6-core.

That said, I bought an 8-core laptop for under 1k...would def lean that way unless you're glued to logic or something.
 
You simply could not run my HO Diamond template on an Max mini i5 with 32 GB. Even my Gold template would struggle I think.

Is HO Diamond more demanding in the ram department? At least more so than whatever Wanye is running (although again, he says 130 tracks of Kontakt/Spitfire - which I’d be totally fine with!)
 
FYI those considering a Mini and DO NOT have a screen/mouse/keyboard already (like me):

Expercom Pricing (coupon codes get you cheaper prices vs Apple):

Mini i7 512gb/64gb - $1600
keys/mouse/27" screen(amazon/ebay) - $400
Total - $2000

iMac 27" i7 512gb/64gb
Total - $2425

So the Mini is within $425 of an iMac. The iMac is 8 cores, dedicated GPU, beautiful screen, and can go all the way up to 128gb of ram in the long haul. Less peripherals, less wall outlets, etc. Without a doubt, a more powerful machine. Obviously the above is an example spec, but bumping in either direction maintains about the same difference in price.

Some things to note however:

- Obviously, screen needs will vary per user and you can buy keys/mice at all kinds of prices. And if you already have these things, thats another $400 savings against the iMac.

- Expercom pre-installs their own ram, which ends up costing about $75 more (Mini only) than getting it from OWC, but you'd have to install it yourself (moderately involved on the Mini).

FYI - shipping times (to my part of the US anyways) are 1 month out for the iMac, vs 1 week for the Mini. This is the same from either Expercom or Apple.

Just food for thought.
 
Is HO Diamond more demanding in the ram department? At least more so than whatever Wanye is running (although again, he says 130 tracks of Kontakt/Spitfire - which I’d be totally fine with!)


Yes, it is.
Is HO Diamond more demanding in the ram department? At least more so than whatever Wanye is running (although again, he says 130 tracks of Kontakt/Spitfire - which I’d be totally fine with!)

With more than one mic position, which is the point of choosing Diamond over Gold, yes.
 
FYI those considering a Mini and DO NOT have a screen/mouse/keyboard already (like me):

Expercom Pricing (coupon codes get you cheaper prices vs Apple):

Mini i7 512gb/64gb - $1600
keys/mouse/27" screen(amazon/ebay) - $400
Total - $2000

iMac 27" i7 512gb/64gb
Total - $2425

So the Mini is within $425 of an iMac. The iMac is 8 cores, dedicated GPU, beautiful screen, and can go all the way up to 128gb of ram in the long haul. Less peripherals, less wall outlets, etc. Without a doubt, a more powerful machine. Obviously the above is an example spec, but bumping in either direction maintains about the same difference in price.

Some things to note however:

- Obviously, screen needs will vary per user and you can buy keys/mice at all kinds of prices. And if you already have these things, thats another $400 savings against the iMac.

- Expercom pre-installs their own ram, which ends up costing about $75 more (Mini only) than getting it from OWC, but you'd have to install it yourself (moderately involved on the Mini).

FYI - shipping times (to my part of the US anyways) are 1 month out for the iMac, vs 1 week for the Mini. This is the same from either Expercom or Apple.

Just food for thought.
if you buy the iMac thru Apple's Education Store you save another $100 too, anyone can you can just be a student of life as no one will ask you anything online. The iMac is way more powerful, you get a beautiful display and keyboard/mouse or trackpad and the ability to add an extra 64GB of ram is a big deal.
 
if you buy the iMac thru Apple's Education Store you save another $100 too, anyone can you can just be a student of life as no one will ask you anything online. The iMac is way more powerful, you get a beautiful display and keyboard/mouse or trackpad and the ability to add an extra 64GB of ram is a big deal.

All true, but in my case, I already had a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. So I bought the Mac mini 6 core i7 on e-bay for $1075, bought 64 GB of RAM from OWC for $310 and paid $90 to have it professionally installed, added a webcam for $60.

So all told I spent around $1600. For that money, the best I maybe could have done was buy a 2015 iMac quad core i7.
 
if you buy the iMac thru Apple's Education Store you save another $100 too, anyone can you can just be a student of life as no one will ask you anything online. The iMac is way more powerful, you get a beautiful display and keyboard/mouse or trackpad and the ability to add an extra 64GB of ram is a big deal.

true. That’show I got my mini.
plus using the Apple Card is another 3%off.
 
The mini is great. And you can probably get a used pc with 128gb with an older cpu that can be used as a streaming/vep for a decent price.
 
Another option at the moment - OWC has new, sealed i3/i5 Mac minis for good prices, as long as you can live with 256GB internal storage. An i5 with 64GB (box opened just to install the RAM) is $1229. I bought an i3 8GB/128GB to replace my aging 2014 Mac mini as my backup/media server for $649.
 
All true, but in my case, I already had a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. So I bought the Mac mini 6 core i7 on e-bay for $1075, bought 64 GB of RAM from OWC for $310 and paid $90 to have it professionally installed, added a webcam for $60.

So all told I spent around $1600. For that money, the best I maybe could have done was buy a 2015 iMac quad core i7.

Nice! Thats a pretty good deal for the Mini
 
I understand that graphics is the biggest weakness of the Intel Mac mini. How does it fare when syncing to picture while scoring?

Best,

Geoff
 
I understand that graphics is the biggest weakness of the Intel Mac mini. How does it fare when syncing to picture while scoring?

Best,

Geoff

I have not had problems with that in Logic. The only problem I have is that when using Zoom, I see a lag while the person on the other end watching me does not.
 
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