Is the 1.4ghz enough for my needs? Or should I go for 2.6 ghz

xsquid · May 29, 2015

Mencelus said:
You're saying better what I was trying to say. For some of us, the price point is a big deal (I've a wife, a child, and a small business to fund; can't just go tossing cash around willy-nilly). Even things like upgrading an HD to an SSD cost money, and that may be money the OP doesn't have on tap at the moment, but it sounds like they do need a new machine.

.

This is exactly why I am recommending the 2012 base over the new one and some cannot grasp. For under. 600.00 maxed out memory and samsung 850 256 ssd. With the 2014 with maxing the memory it's 800.00 and another hyndred for the ssd. Huge difference for basically the same spec'd machine. Of. Course if one never expects to upgde memory or ssd then its a wash. With the 2012 it's the option of maxing it out for 100.00 at any point and selling the memory inside. Memory prices also drop. With the 2014 its either 300. more on the spot or always at 4gb.

The problems with spinners, as it is now, started with yosemite. It's being optimized for ssd's. Does anyone think apple will optimize again for spinners in the next os? I think just the opposite. I think spinners are still there as a push for upgrade and it will get worse next os.

xsquid · May 29, 2015

Meister said:
But: An ssd does make a massive difference when starting and switching between apps.
If I'd buy a new mac, I'd always go with an ssd.

If you are getting spinning beach balls then it makes a massive difference there, I went almost constantly to none whatsoever. OS Startup is much faster, just a few seconds. Apps are much quicker in use, for example, pixelmater, lightroom, etc. No beach balls at all.

You won't think it would be as much until/if you change it.

Celerondon · May 29, 2015

Maximum Speed and Maximum RAM or Nothing!

xsquid said:
This is exactly why I am recommending the 2012 base over the new one and some cannot grasp. For under. 600.00 maxed out memory and samsung 850 256 ssd. With the 2014 with maxing the memory it's 800.00 and another hyndred for the ssd. Huge difference for basically the same spec'd machine. Of. Course if one never expects to upgde memory or ssd then its a wash. With the 2012 it's the option of maxing it out for 100.00 at any point and selling the memory inside. Memory prices also drop. With the 2014 its either 300. more on the spot or always at 4gb.

The problems with spinners, as it is now, started with yosemite. It's being optimized for ssd's. Does anyone think apple will optimize again for spinners in the next os? I think just the opposite. I think spinners are still there as a push for upgrade and it will get worse next os.

Is this true? So 8Gb for less money is not an option for the lowly 2014 mini.

xsquid · May 29, 2015

Celerondon said:
Is this true? So 8Gb for less money is not an option for the lowly 2014 mini.

I didn't say there wasn't an 8gb option, if you read the post I was talking about upping models to the max, 16gb. You left out that part in the highlight. It's either 300.00 to max it or you are stuck. You can certainly go with 8gb for 100.00 more which brings the price to 600.00. That's 100.00 for 4gb of memory by the way. Budget? Lol. The point is you can max out the 2012, with the same specs essentially, to 16gb for the same 100.00. 16gb of memory for 100.00. Plus if you go 8 that's where you are stuck with the 2014. A 4gb stick added to the 2012 costs about 30.00 (less than one third) plus you can upgrade more later on if wanted and sell the stuff you take out.

I don't care what anyone buys, but I though the idea of the thread was budget. That's my whole point, apple has made the new version where if you need above base it's no longer budget.

I have worked on computers for many years and can tell you memory CAN go bad and apple uses the same generic memory everyone else does. When that happens with soldered in stuff you just say "you are out of luck". Will it absolutely happen? Of course not. Can it happen? Absolutely. It's not possible to avoid soldered in for most apple stuff but in this case I can and will avoid it for a computer without it and the same specs basically.

Micky Do · May 29, 2015

xsquid said:
I don't care what anyone buys, but I though the idea of the thread was budget. That's my whole point, apple has made the new version where if you need above base it's no longer budget.

This is what the thread is about.

ipos said:
Is the 1.4ghz enough for my needs? Or should I go for 2.6 ghz

mainly Internet, watching movies , Microsoft office and occasional photoshop

It is not about tossing insults, put downs, and blustering oneupmanship.

Great that you have a 2012 Mac Mini that you spent money on and mucked around with to satisfy your requirement / desire for speed. However, having bragging rights to the hottest Mac Mini around isn't what everyone wants.

xsquid said:
Obviously since thats what your original post was blathering about "its about opening apps when I clearly stated otherwise. smarmy putdowns indeed.

A failed attempt at an education, your struggling to read, is not my problem. My post is plenty coherent to one that can read and if you are on a mac forum and do not know what beach balls you are truly out of it. 2015 model? No. Made in 2015, just as bad.

Mucked around mini, lol. If you open your eyes many here are recommending an ssd in Any mac's with a spinner because of the way they run. Lol, run your spinner and never know real speeds.

I posted txactly that, with the exseption on the 2014 being 5% slower running dual core, more proof you do not read before posting.

Proof your math skills are also lacking, also more proof you do not read before posting. I posted this, it cost 100.00 to max out the 2014 and you can sell what came in it it. it costs 300.00 to max out the 2014 ant that's on top of what apple is charging in the price of the mini. Seriously? Not really much difference? The 2014 adds *60%* to the price of the mini. It's impossible to take anything you post seriously.

Lol, the 2012 ran all of those drives and it's yosemite. It asked me if I wanted to create a fusion when I added the ssd. Mavericks didn't have this problem. Optimized for spinners, bwahahaha. Apple is optimizing for ssd's not going backwards an the mini itself being optimized for spinneres is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard of and as I said it's the os not the mini itself.

Sure, but the point is that if they want to max out the memory, as you stated, it will cost 300.00 more raising a 500.00 box to 800.00. I paid just over 400.00 new, maxing out the memory is 100.00 and selling what it came with keeps it under 500.00. Not remotely the same price range.

Not to mention the mini is not the most cost effective way to get into osx. Macbook air. Add monitor, keyboard and trackpad and it's at least the same price range if you get a crappy monitor. Plud the mini is made with laptop parts, the only difference is portability.

Not everyone wants a cute, delicate little MacBook Air with a pokey little screen to tote from home, work or class, to cafe, beach or park. I, for one, want something I can set up with my choice of decent sized monitor and other peripherals……. That I can occasionally throw in a bag to use with an LCD projector at work….. But mostly that I can leave behind so that when I leave my desk, I am off-line; I don't even carry a mobile phone.

For many of us, for a variety of reasons, a lower end Mac Mini is a cost effective way to get OS X.

xsquid · May 29, 2015

Micky Do said:
This is what the thread is about.

It is not about tossing insults, put downs, and blustering oneupmanship.

Great that you have a 2012 Mac Mini that you spent money on and mucked around with to satisfy your requirement / desire for speed. However, having bragging rights to the hottest Mac Mini around isn't what everyone wants.

To improve your writing coherence, may I suggest:

- Cut the slangy jargon and abbreviations…. and the personal put downs.

- Use shorter sentences with fewer conjunctions.

- Think about your use of punctuation and capital letters.

- Use a spelling and grammar checker.

Not everyone wants a cute, delicate little MacBook Air with a pokey little screen to tote from home, work or class, to cafe, beach or park. I, for one, want something I can set up with my choice of decent sized monitor and other peripherals……. That I can occasionally throw in a bag to use with an LCD projector at work….. But mostly that I can leave behind so that when I leave my desk, I am off-line; I don't even carry a mobile phone.

For many of us, for a variety of reasons, a lower end Mac Mini is a cost effective way to get OS X.

A lot of hypocritical blather in this post. The fact is that you started in on the 1.4 first. Second, you also started the condescending drivel without reading the thread with:

So, it's all about booting and opening apps, is it?

You are still not reading the posts. Bragging rights has nothing to do with it, I have less than 600.00 in mine and it runs perfect not to mention maxed out. A bare 1.4 is only 100.00 less, if you start adding memory to it it goes much higher so I guess it's you that wants bragging rights on spending the most money.

Here we go, spewing on about the macbook air. Changing the goalposts. You mentioned entry level way to get into apple/os. You said nothing about what type, so suck it up and try to stay focused.

The last line I agree with. I got mine new, added maxed out memory and added ssd for less than 500.00. Less than anyone buying the 1.4 with just the 8gb memory upgrade. So your statements about price and bottom line are obviously false.

xsquid · May 29, 2015

Here's something really funny. You mentioned "dinky air's". This is going to kill you. You Have figured out that the mini is actually laptop's in a box, right. The 2012's were the same as the 13" macbook pro's, the mid and upper versions of the 2014 models are now. The base model was the base macbook air, 1.4 processor except now the airs have been refreshed to 1.6 and the mini has not. It's below the base macbook air plus minus the ssd. It's below the dinky air's. LoL

I have no problem with the air, then again i didn't call them dinky. It's funny he has last version base air in a box minus monitor, keyboard and ssd. They can't make movies as funny as real life.

6r4ff3r · May 30, 2015

xsquid said:
Sure, but the point is that if they want to max out the memory, as you stated, it will cost 300.00 more raising a 500.00 box to 800.00. I paid just over 400.00 new, maxing out the memory is 100.00 and selling what it came with keeps it under 500.00. Not remotely the same price range.

Not to mention the mini is not the most cost effective way to get into osx. Macbook air. Add monitor, keyboard and trackpad and it's at least the same price range if you get a crappy monitor. Plud the mini is made with laptop parts, the only difference is portability.

Since u have a display (and you can own a 22" display for around 100 euros), a kboard and a mouse, you save 500 euros instead of going to base MBA 11"...although MBA 11" base has good resolution, excellent trackpad and keyboard with backlighting, SSD, nice weight and dimensions (aka portability), outstanding battery-life, HD6000,....

PS: In my country, 500 euros is almost the minimum wage salary....

xsquid · May 30, 2015

6r4ff3r said:
Since u have a display (and you can own a 22" display for around 100 euros), a kboard and a mouse, you save 500 euros instead of going to base MBA 11"...although MBA 11" base has good resolution, excellent trackpad and keyboard with backlighting, SSD, nice weight and dimensions (aka portability), outstanding battery-life, HD6000,....

PS: In my country, 500 euros is almost the minimum wage salary....

Yes, absolutely. Situations are different, mine there was based on buying everything for the mini. In the us best buy was just selling the model air this one was based on, the past model, for 800.00. The base mini is the exact same computer in a box without ssd, keyboard or screen. If you have to buy the monitor, keyboard, mouse, etc. then this would be the same computer as buying the mouse and keyboard alone takes the mini to 650.00 and you could always connect to a monitor later and have the portability also. If you already have the other stuff then of course it's cheaper than the air. I'm just saying this model as the others are based on the 13" macbook pro and that changes things. The new base air, for 900.00 is the next up model from the base mini, better graphics etc. but again depends on one's situation. My point to the person putting down the "dinky air" was that the base mini is below the "dinky air" that is out now.

I understand about the wages in other places, my inlaws are in a country where almost 50% make 100-200 us dollars a month. Something like 6% have apple products at all. I spent a lot of time in a lot of countries, 12 years usn, most of them poor. Loved them all.

6r4ff3r · May 30, 2015

The thing is Mini has flexibility for peripherals. But this late 2014 doesn't come with DVI cable for old monitors.

Personally i would buy an Air in promo to use OSX without problems and have nice portability.

xsquid · May 30, 2015

6r4ff3r said:
The thing is Mini has flexibility for peripherals. But this late 2014 doesn't come with DVI cable for old monitors.

Personally i would buy an Air in promo to use OSX without problems and have nice portability.

Bingo. The base mini, which has air internals, especially.

Cape Dave · Jun 7, 2015

The base mini is damn close to unusable as a computer today in 2015. SSD and 8GB RAM is the ONLY way to go. If you do not have the budget, wait until you do.

It should be illegal to sell such an underpowered computer as the base mini. Apple, you suck.

xsquid · Jun 7, 2015

Most people do not know the mini is based on laptops, which the ones based on the pro are fine for making a small desktop. Most do not know the base mini now is based on the past base air model and even at that the air does not ship with a spinner at all but the mini does. To me it would make more sense to to get the base air that includes ssd, monitor, keyboard and hook it to a monitor if you have one. The mid and upper models are based on the mac pro 13" so it's a different thing.

Really it's about up sell, it's the money.

I think the mid and upper model mini's are fine, too bad about a quad core but still decent machines. I would go air and hook it to a monitor over the current base mini. Included ssd and more plus 1.6 and upgraded graphics.

Apple sells things like this and the 2012 non retina pro because the flock will like up as they have the apple logo on them. 1100.00 is a lot for the 2012 macbook pro, especially since the 2012 mini base is the same thing and you could still find them new for less than 500.00. That's over 600.00 difference unlike the new base mini which is closer in cost to the base air.

Cape Dave said:
The base mini is damn close to unusable as a computer today in 2015. SSD and 8GB RAM is the ONLY way to go. If you do not have the budget, wait until you do.

It should be illegal to sell such an underpowered computer as the base mini. Apple, you suck.

LOL: https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/upgrade-2014-mini-to-ssd.1889019/#post-21415672

applelover4u said:
I just hooked up an external SSD via USB. It is 250gb. I bought from it and put all my apps on it along with a few other things.. Difference is night and day!

JaguarGod · Jun 10, 2015

OK, just my experience with my 1.4 Mac Mini with only 4GB ram. Please do not get upset at me for posting my experience with this Mac, it's just my opinion of what the poster is looking to do. No, I do not do any of my 3D modelling or rendering on it along with any of my game work as it is too underpowered, but I do a lot of internet browsing, email, photo editing with Affinity Photo beta and Affinity designer (not Photoshop though) and in my opinion it should be enough for what the OP is looking to perform. If it's a question of money, I think this is not a bad idea. If he finds that he needs more in the future he can upgrade to an SSD. But again, it depends on what you might want to spend. I think even with the 4GB included you might be happy. Just my opinion from my experience with the machine.

Edited: I was incorrect on the 4GB Upgrade for the 2014 which Meister pointed out! I was thinking about the 2012 I have in the office that was upgraded. I apologize for the misinformation and thank Meister for pointing it out.

Meister · Jun 10, 2015

JaguarGod said:
The 4GB ram included is not great but can be upgraded to 8GB in the future if you desire.

No, it can't.

Meister · Jun 10, 2015

Cape Dave said:
The base mini is damn close to unusable as a computer today in 2015. SSD and 8GB RAM is the ONLY way to go. If you do not have the budget, wait until you do.

It should be illegal to sell such an underpowered computer as the base mini. Apple, you suck.

What nonsense!

Meister · Jun 10, 2015

xsquid said:
Bingo. The base mini, which has air internals, especially.

No, it doesn't.

kilcher · Jun 10, 2015

I bought my first Mac about 2 months ago, the Mini w/ 2.6 / 8 / 1TB HD. I find it sufficient for what I use it for - surfing, managing iTunes, email - If I were doing anything more than that I think I'd probably be disappointed.

For the most part I've been pretty happy with it though.

JaguarGod · Jun 10, 2015

Meister said:
No, it can't.

Holy crap! You're exactly correct! I was thinking of the 2012 in the other office which I have upgraded. I didn't even think about it!!! And thank you for pointing that out. I do not want to give misinformation to anyone. Sometimes I forget which Macs are which when having so many between the house and the office.

xsquid · Jun 10, 2015

Meister said:
No, it doesn't.

Apart from a different shaped motherboard it does. Memory, graphics, processor. Not the current base air, the past one.

Meister · Jun 10, 2015

xsquid said:
Apart from a different shaped motherboard it does. Memory, graphics, processor.

Ssd

xsquid · Jun 10, 2015

Meister said:
Ssd

I clearly stated that in the post of mine before the one you quoted. Selective reading I guess.

The base mini is the exact same computer in a box without ssd, keyboard or screen.

Again.

Most people do not know the mini is based on laptops, which the ones based on the pro are fine for making a small desktop. Most do not know the base mini now is based on the past base air model and even at that the air does not ship with a spinner at all but the mini does. To me it would make more sense to to get the base air that includes ssd, monitor, keyboard and hook it to a monitor if you have one. The mid and upper models are based on the mac pro 13" so it's a different thing.

t's below the base macbook air plus minus the ssd.

Guess those didn't cover it good enough for you.

Altis · Jun 10, 2015

kilcher said:
I bought my first Mac about 2 months ago, the Mini w/ 2.6 / 8 / 1TB HD. I find it sufficient for what I use it for - surfing, managing iTunes, email - I think if I were doing anything more than that I think I'd probably be disappointed.

For the most part I've been pretty happy with it though.

I would sure hope that it would be able to do those really light tasks with ease.

Actually most computers in the past 5-8 years could probably do it equally well (given an SSD).

ActionableMango · Jun 11, 2015

ipos said:
mainly Internet, watching movies , Microsoft office and occasional photoshop

So what did you end up buying?

applelover4u · Jun 12, 2015

I was getting via black mahic disk speed test roughly 40MB to 100MB speeds

With my USB 3 SSD my speeds are around 400MB easily!

Is the 1.4ghz enough for my needs? Or should I go for 2.6 ghz

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