mac mini and PS CS3

[tiggle]

Is there anyone using PS CS3 on a mac mini? I don't like the new i mac screen and don't like the cost of the mac pro. My main work involves PS. Is the mini up to it?

[chaosbunny]

I'm using the complete CS3 standard suite on a powerbook G4, which is way slower than the current mini, and it works just fine. I guess you won't have any troubles with a mini.

[AlexisV]

No problem at all. Make sure you get a gig of RAM though.

[Blue Velvet]

Once again, this question is unanswerable without knowing the scale and scope of your Photoshop work, and the nature of the deadlines that you work within. Web stuff; fine. Large-scale billion-layered CMYK files at press and higher resolution; probably not.

Personally, my MBP 2.33 with Photoshop and the rest of the Creative Suite 3 was tediously slow and unresponsive until moving up from 2gb RAM to 3gb. Dealing with large scratch and OS swap files on a slow 5400rpm drive are immensely frustrating for a professional when time is money.

[tersono]

The problem with the mini (as with laptops) is the speed of the hard drive - the solution to that is to max out the RAM.

Provided you have a decent amount of RAM (I'd recommend 2gb), then you'll be ok even for fairly heavyweight use - provided you're not working on billboard-sized images. I'll confess I'd still go for the iMac and add a secondary cinema display (which is the combo I use at work), but provided a single screen works for you, the Mini will do the job just fine.

[tiggle]

Thanks for the replies. Very helpful. The photoshop work I need to do is for publicity brochures and web. Sometimes it is blown up to large banner size (20ft plus), but as no one has ever come to me about resizing, I guess someone else does that. I am not really technically accomplished at PS, it is just a part of my job to do some of the publicity stuff. My current project is to produce photos for a CD we are putting out. The advice I have recieved about the mini from two professional designers I know is mixed. One thinks it will be fine, the other thinks the better option is the i mac. I almost decide to get an i mac and use a separate screen, but he waver and wonder again. Anyway, thanks for the suggestions.

[Ke^in]

I have a mini I use CS3 on with Leopard that I do anything from vector logos, to phone book ads, to elementary school books. Never had a slowdown problem, and I have 2g of RAM installed.

I was actually using a 1.25ghz G4 before this with teh same setup basically with no problem. The mini of course faster so I'd not worry about it.

minis are great.