Do I really gain any desktop performance going from latest Air to Mini?

[Sean Dempsey]

I have the latest Air, fully specced. 2ghz i7, 8gig ram, SSD. Intel Graphics 4000.

New Mini is 2.3 i7 4core, same intel 4000. I have 8 gigs of ram for it already sitting in a box, and then I can get a Fusion drive which I don't really care about. I don't need the storage though, my Air only uses about 120gigs.


I really want one for my home machine. I have a Thunderbolt display already. I just don't see any real gains over the Air as far as heavy design work. A bit more processor, but the same ****** graphics and screen tearing and bad redrawing as the Air. No SDD speed boost. No ram boost.

Is there something I am missing? Or is it really just not worth the cash for basically a $1200 i7 upgrade??????

Please weigh in.

[donlab]

16GB RAM and more storage with fusion

side note: have you looked at connecting a high end graphics card via thunderbolt port with sonnet echo express expansion bay and "red the rocket" card?

[Sean Dempsey]

Originally Posted by donlab

16GB RAM and more storage with fusion

side note: have you looked at connecting a high end graphics card via thunderbolt port with sonnet echo express expansion bay and "red the rocket" card?

The 16gb of ram would be the same in the mini. And I have no need for more storage than 256 SSD at all, which the Air has.

I have never heard of the expansion bays, but those look awesome. Probably not really in the budget though.

I think I am answering my own question here now that I am thinking about it. I need the iMac =/

[petsk]

Originally Posted by Sean Dempsey

I think I am answering my own question here now that I am thinking about it. I need the iMac =/

Mini use 4 cores (mobile cpu), iMac use 4 cores (desktop cpu). Plus that you get more ram compared to the MBA.

CPU benchmarks for the highend mini should be quite a bit higher compared to the MBA. The CPU in the iMac is somewhat faster than the Mini, but not much.

A iMac with the i7 would cost you quite a lot more than the Mini, wish you should take into account.

Question is rather, do you need GPU power + screen? If not choose the Mini if the budget is limited.

[cocacolakid]

If you already have the Thunderbolt display, it doesn't make any sense to buy an iMac. The 2.3 quad core mini's geekbench score is over 60% higher than the top of the line Air. There is a difference.

Buying the iMac is just spending the $1000 for the Thunderbolt display again.