Mac Mini for design work?

I think it would be plenty sufficient, personally.

I had a 2.0Ghz Macbook with 3GB of ram that ran CS3 with little trouble. I use a 2.16/3GB Macbook setup at work everyday as well (at a digital design company).

In fact, I've been thinking about picking up the same Mini setup to replace the Macbook I sold (possibly along with a MBA) but I've been holding off to see if anything happens with a new Mini or possibly an aluminum Macbook before making a decision.

when i use Photoshop CS3 on my MBP (specs in sig) the fans start to rev up and it gets pretty hot. you may wont to consider an iMac instead of the Mini which has a faster and better (for the moment) CPU and a dedicated graphics card. this is just my opinion though.

richthomas said:

when i use Photoshop CS3 on my MBP (specs in sig) the fans start to rev up and it gets pretty hot. you may wont to consider an iMac instead of the Mini which has a faster and better (for the moment) CPU and a dedicated graphics card. this is just my opinion though.

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I'd actually vouch for this. I too do Web Development (as a uni student) and use photoshop quite a bit. My current MBP gets very hot and loud while doing photoshop stuff with relatively small files....one of the reasons I'm looking into a Mac Pro

Jammy1254 said:

I'm going to be starting a Web Design degree in September and wondered whether a Mac Mini with the following specification(2GHz, 3.3GB RAM, 160HDD)would be alright for use with applications such as Flash, Dreamweaver, Fireworks, Photoshop etc...

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I have a friend who runs his very successful design business on an old single-core Mini. Flash, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, M$ Office, and he runs Parallels to check his web designs in Windows flavors of all the browsers. He has had no problems with his machine at all.

richthomas said:

when i use Photoshop CS3 on my MBP (specs in sig) the fans start to rev up and it gets pretty hot. you may wont to consider an iMac instead of the Mini which has a faster and better (for the moment) CPU and a dedicated graphics card. this is just my opinion though.

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At the moment, PS doesn't utilize much of the graphics card. They're moving toward more usage in CS4, but for the moment, it shouldn't make much difference.

Ideally, I'd love to see the Mini get bumped to Penryn soon so I can slap 4GB in it.

It can be done on a mini, but it might be "friendlier" on an iMac.

munckee said:

richthomas said:

you may wont to consider an iMac instead of the Mini which has a faster and better (for the moment) CPU and a dedicated graphics card.

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At the moment, PS doesn't utilize much of the graphics card. They're moving toward more usage in CS4, but for the moment, it shouldn't make much difference.

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Indeed, the biggest issue about the iMac, and its Achilles heel, is the glossy screen, which makes critical image work difficult. As PSCS3 does not leverage the gpu for 99% of its abilities, the Mini with a nice matte display would probably be the better route.

hi

imo the issue is ram not cpu speed - a c2d 2ghz with 4mb cache rates 2594 on http://www.primatelabs.ca/geekbench/ a g5 2.7 rates 2244, photoshop/illustrator/indesign/etc gobble ram, really you need 4gb min

a refurb 2ghz imac alum (128mb vram) is about the same price (maybe a little more) and youve got dedicated graphics, mini dvi out - for a proper screen, fw800, 3.5" hard drive, also consider a refurb macbook - also 4gb ram, better on board graphics than the mini

or wait for the next mini - its gotta be soon

Cave Man said:

Indeed, the biggest issue about the iMac, and its Achilles heel, is the glossy screen, which makes critical image work difficult. As PSCS3 does not leverage the gpu for 99% of its abilities, the Mini with a nice matte display would probably be the better route.

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For uni i need to use photoshop often, and my MacBook handles it fine (C2D 2.0GHz, 3.3GB RAM). A similar spec Mac Mini with a BIG display will be perfect for you as far as pricing goes.

But I, like the rest of MacRumors, would advise you wait for the new one...along with me, and the rest of MacRumors.........

GAH! Why won't they release Mac Mini. A FASTER, CHEAPER one...GAH! How can they leave it unupdated (processor bump doesn't count) in soooo long. /end RANT

Genghis Khan said:

GAH! Why won't they release Mac Mini. A FASTER, CHEAPER one...GAH! How can they leave it unupdated (processor bump doesn't count) in soooo long. /end RANT

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I tired of waiting, thus I went the hackintosh route (3.2 ghz quad core mid-tower, 256 mb 8600GT, 2x750 gig HD, 4 gb RAM, 3x eSATA, 6x USB2, semifunctional FW400, retail copy of 10.5.2) for US$1,000. Geekbench score of 6157.