Mac Mini and Photoshop CS3

I have a 1.83 C2D mini with 2.5gigs of ram and have no problem running bootcamp with Xp pro. I also run CS2 for windows in bootcamp with no issues, I dont have a mac version to test. I have not tried CS3 for either windows or mac so I cannot answer on that part.

willie45 said:

Hi

I have only recently started using macs but I have been quite enthused by the experience. So much so that one of my friends is considering purchasing a Mac Mini. He wants to run Photoshop on it and (like me) is about to buy CS3 basic. If he hates the mac adobe will apparently let him cross platforms back to windows for a small fee.
Also will he be able to run boot camp with XP fairly well or is the machine too small to allow this?

He will buy the beefier of the two and with 2gig of ram.

All advice gratefully received

Willie

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Why doesn't he just download the CS3 demo from Adobe for free and see if he likes it? Also why would Adobe allow for a customer to transfer the license over to Windows? Do you have to return the disc? I'm wondering why Adobe would trust the disc wouldn't get copied.

Adobe does offer sidegrades of their products. Generally, you only have to pay for shipping of the product AFAIK. You'll get a waiver in the mail stating you promise to destroy your old version, also I'd assume that they'd give you a new serial no.# that is platform specific, dunno for sure.

I contacted Adobe about switching from my Windows version of CS2 to the Mac version and they said no problem. An upgrade to CS3 would be $199, which I might do later on down the road.

I am also curious to hear more about how Photoshop runs on the Mac Mini. Has anyone tried the Mac version of CS2 on it?

The Mini will run Photoshop CS3 no problems whatsover, but you do need a gig of RAM.

Even CS2 with only 512megs under emulation will run reasonably on the older Core Duo.

To be honest, I'm confused why you should think a computer with a lightning fast Core2 processor and 2 gigs of RAM won't be able to run what is a 2D image manipulation program. It will run it in its sleep.

AlexisV said:

To be honest, I'm confused why you should think a computer with a lightning fast Core2 processor and 2 gigs of RAM won't be able to run what is a 2D image manipulation program. It will run it in its sleep.

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Fine, try working smoothly and creatively on an A3 350ppi CMYK image with tons of layers and masks on a Mini with only 2gbs of RAM.

See, there's using Photoshop and then there's using Photoshop.

I use Photoshop 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.

AlexisV said:

To be honest, I'm confused why you should think a computer with a lightning fast Core2 processor and 2 gigs of RAM won't be able to run what is a 2D image manipulation program. It will run it in its sleep.

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Filters like Liquify will gobble all your memory and when that's out it will dig right into your scratch drive (on a 5400RPM drive for the Mini, mind you). I have a P4 3.00GHz right now with 2GB of Ram and while it runs acceptably, it still lags and takes awhile to load larger images. These aren't gigantic photos either, but around 50 - 200MB.

And I don't know, the Mini's processor doesn't scream "lightening" fast in my opinion. Fast, sure, but not a gargantuan difference between it and my P4 3GHz.

Are you kidding? The Core2 wipes the floor with the Pentium 4.

Most computers will take a while to open a massive image however, even the iMac. The slower hard drive in the Mini will make things less fast, true, but it's Photoshop! The 733Mhz G4 we have at work runs CS2 no problems.

Incidently, most people only use a select few filters frequently e.g sharpness mask and gaussian blur. Gimmicky filters like liquify might take 20 seconds on an iMac, but 30 seconds on a Mini. So what?

I will take it that the mini will run CS3 at least to some extent.

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No, it will run CS3 very very easily.

AlexisV said:

Are you kidding? The Core2 wipes the floor with the Pentium 4.

Most computers will take a while to open a massive image however, even the iMac. The slower hard drive in the Mini will make things less fast, true, but it's Photoshop! The 733Mhz G4 we have at work runs CS2 no problems.

Incidently, most people only use a select few filters frequently e.g sharpness mask and gaussian blur. Gimmicky filters like liquify might take 20 seconds on an iMac, but 30 seconds on a Mini. So what?

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We have differing opinions on what we consider efficient, but no matter how much we argue it's not going to change my mind since I've pretty much decided to go with the Mini with a 24" Dell anyway Unless something changes and I can afford a 24" iMac. I was trying to poke around to see if I can get an accurate feel of how well the Mini will run either CS3 and CS2, and the answer is: it's hard to say, it's apparently very subjective. Nonetheless, I can at least count on the Mini being faster than my P4, there's no question about that. How much so remains to be seen.

BTW it's Unsharp Mask, not Sharpness Mask

i have been running cs3 on a 2Ghz mini with 2GB of ram. It works well. I am not a super power user though. I don't think you'd have any problems.

BTW it's Unsharp Mask, not Sharpness Mask

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Blimey, I should know that!! LOL

I run a Core Duo mini with 2 gigs and PSCS3 (and Aperture) runs perfectly fine with it. Spend extra money on hard disk space (i.e., external firewire enclosure).

The one problem with the Mini for this is the HDD, as indicated above. You would want to add space anyway, and use a real drive. My Mini boots off my external 400GB drive. It can be noticeably faster than using the laptop drive inside when doing serious tasks in Photoshop or even just a large file copy.

HD upgrade is a MUST for Intel Mac Mini to run Photoshop smoothly, even just OSX will benefit from it. Mod it with a fast 3.5" external SATA drive or e-SATA RAID, max out the RAM.

ug.mac said:

HD upgrade is a MUST for Intel Mac Mini to run Photoshop smoothly, even just OSX will benefit from it. Mod it with a fast 3.5" external SATA drive or e-SATA RAID, max out the RAM.

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I have found that an external FW with a 7200 rpm drive is plenty fast enough. But 2 gigs RAM is certainly a must, IMHO.

ug.mac said:

Mod it with a fast 3.5" external SATA drive or e-SATA RAID, max out the RAM.

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Yep that's what we did with the Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 with perpendicular recording technology. Works incredibly well

My Duo Core 1.66ghz 1gb MacMini runs PSCS3 fine for photo editting (not weird filters for me!) Would advise 1gb Ram minimum, 2gb is ideal.

Dalapetus

To Willie 45

I bought a Mini a couple of years ago and wish I had got an iMac or a Book (pro) - biggest downside is no graphics card which basically means no games.
Ok that's the main bone of contention dealt with.
Secondly, although they are a great little system, in essence they're just as hard to transport - maybe even harder because there's more bits.
Don't get me wrong, I like the little thing but think carefully before you buy - you're buddy may want to look at something with a bit more oomph.

Happy Days!

jonkemerer said:

Filters like Liquify will gobble all your memory and when that's out it will dig right into your scratch drive (on a 5400RPM drive for the Mini, mind you). I have a P4 3.00GHz right now with 2GB of Ram and while it runs acceptably, it still lags and takes awhile to load larger images. These aren't gigantic photos either, but around 50 - 200MB.

And I don't know, the Mini's processor doesn't scream "lightening" fast in my opinion. Fast, sure, but not a gargantuan difference between it and my P4 3GHz.

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The difference between your P4 and the C2D of the Mini is simply huge.
With 4 Gb of ram Photoshop will run perfectly on the Mini.

CS3 should have no problems at all with the new Mac Mini, I can run CS3 just fine on my old eMac now that I've updated it with 1.5 GB of ram (it was brutally slow when I only had 512 MB)

Macs sure have come a long way since I started working with them at my job! I started using Macs and Photoshop at the same time, back in the spring of 1992. Back then it was Photoshop 2.0 and I was using a Mac IIfx! The simplest of functions like rotating an image or cropping it down used to take a couple of minutes, things that happen in a split second now! I bet you that old Mac probably didn't even have more than maybe one single megabite of ram back then! So when I hear people nowadays complaining about how slow their computers run Photoshop, I wish I could take them back in time and show them what I had to deal with on a daily basis at work back in the 90s! I still remember when the Quadra 900s came out and we thought those things were the fastest they could ever get!

Why was this thread bumped from two years ago?