MAC mini for some editing?

[vim147]

Am looking around on eBay for a used MAC mini. I will be using it for browsing, email, downloading, document's, watching movies avi & YouTube. Am assuming the mini will be more the sufficient for that. I like the compact size of it and will be connecting it to my flat screen tv.

The only other thing is that I have 30gig (3hrs) of hd video that I want to edit and burn onto DVD. It's recorded at avchd format.

All I want to do is edit it then make space on my hdd. Won't be doing any editing after that as I don't have a camcorder anymore.

So am thinking can I get away with editing on the mini using a simple editing software adding text etc ?

I don't mind converting the files into standard format first to make the editing more workable as long as I don't lose too much quality. Also don't mind leaving it on over night to let it render.

The editing will be a one off which I've been putting off for 3 yrs.

What is your thoughts on this?

[paulrbeers]

Really, any Mac Mini would probably do just fine for what you want. Probably best to stay with the 2009's or better due to better graphic chips than the early Intel Macs (I assume you are planning on playing videos off of your mac mini since you are hooking it to your tv). For video editing, it isn't really a matter of whether it can do it, but how quickly it can complete it's task. Any Mac Mini can do video editing (especially if it has at least 4GB of RAM), but an older one will just take longer to complete the final converting compared to a new one.

[vim147]

Is there a site that tells me the full specs of all the past-present minis that were made?

I had a dell xps 1330 laptop with 2 ghz core2duo 2gb ram, 256 nivdia graphics which worked fine for me. Didn't try editing on there.

Am also now using a 2004 HP refurb desktop pc with p4 2.8 1gb ram and 32mb graphics. It's ok for everyday use.

Am assuming the mini would be on par or better then my dell laptop was ?

[vastoholic]

Originally Posted by vim147

Is there a site that tells me the full specs of all the past-present minis that were made?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Mini

[firestarter]

Get a Core 2 Duo or later Mini. Also get 2GB memory or better.

The original Core Duo mini won't run Lion (which will limit you if you want to use newer stuff like iCloud at some point).

[vim147]

Should I get one with dedicated graphics card or will integrated graphics do? Want to be able to watch 1080p videos aswell if possible.

----------

Originally Posted by firestarter

Get a Core 2 Duo or later Mini. Also get 2GB memory or better.

The original Core Duo mini won't run Lion (which will limit you if you want to use newer stuff like iCloud at some point).

Should I get one with dedicated graphics card or will integrated graphics do? Want to be able to watch 1080p videos aswell if possible.

[lilsoccakid74]

Originally Posted by vim147

Should I get one with dedicated graphics card or will integrated graphics do? Want to be able to watch 1080p videos aswell if possible.

Both will play 1080p videos. Obviously, the dedicated graphics will always perform better than integrated but neither should miss a beat with your needs. (If your referring to the 2011 mini's)

[vim147]

Originally Posted by lilsoccakid74

Both will play 1080p videos. Obviously, the dedicated graphics will always perform better than integrated but neither should miss a beat with your needs. (If your referring to the 2011 mini's)

I think with my budget, the 2010 looks more realistic. Would that be sufficient ?

[dolphin842]

Originally Posted by vim147

I think with my budget, the 2010 looks more realistic. Would that be sufficient ?

Yup. The dedicated graphics also means you can run Final Cut Pro X and Motion should you go down that route (though Motion won't be entirely snappy).

[vim147]

Am looking at either the 2009 or 2010 mini as the 2011 is out of my budget at the moment. But which has the dedicated graphics card?

I've checked on wikipedia for the previous minis spec and 2009 and 2010 both have integrated graphics ??

[lilsoccakid74]

Originally Posted by vim147

Am looking at either the 2009 or 2010 mini as the 2011 is out of my budget at the moment. But which has the dedicated graphics card?

I've checked on wikipedia for the previous minis spec and 2009 and 2010 both have integrated graphics ??

I think another user misspoke, the 2011 mini is the first with a dedicated graphics option. The 2010 mini has nvidia 320m integrated graphics (about 2-3x the performance of the early and late 2009 models with nvidia's 9400m). The 320m has proven to be slightly stronger than the new base mini's hd3000 in some uses, and slightly worse in others.

[philipma1957]

vim147

it is all about what you can spend and if you are usa based. amazon has the new base 2011 mini for 568 8gb ram is 40 totals 610 for an 8gb machine


http://www.amazon.com/Apple-MC815LL-...3392042&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Corsair-1333mh...3392096&sr=1-2



this is a good setup for you is it too much coin?


usa apple has these two

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC815LL/A 519 plus tax you need ram

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC816LL/A 699 plus tax you may not need ram






http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC270LL/A


469 plus tax needs ram and is sold out but comes back 1 or 2 times a weeks really sells fast has dvd player..


this unit sells like mad on ebay . I buy a few each month add 8gb ram and sell for 609 on ebay. I make about 30 to 40 bucks.

[brendan_biele]

Originally Posted by vim147

Is there a site that tells me the full specs of all the past-present minis that were made?

?

Check out this resource;

http://www.everymac.com
http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl...x-macmini.html

There are also iOS and OSX apps from these guys;

http://mactracker.ca/

Cheers!

[shortcut3d]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; CPU iPhone OS 5_0_1 like Mac OS X) AppleWebKit/534.46 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.1 Mobile/9A405 Safari/7534.48.3)

Either 2011 Mac Mini will meet your needs. The question is gaming capability. The mid-range with AMD 6630M is good for casual gaming.

I suggest searching for a refurb on Apples site or Amazon deal. You could get a Server model (same as entry level but with dual faster hard drives and a beast of a processor) for the price of a mid-range Mac Mini.

[disconap]

Originally Posted by vim147

I think with my budget, the 2010 looks more realistic. Would that be sufficient ?

Yes, but editing the HD video may be a little slow if you're working at or above 1080. Still probably the best cost vs. performance choice.

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Originally Posted by brendan_biele

Check out this resource;

http://www.everymac.com
http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl...x-macmini.html

There are also iOS and OSX apps from these guys;

http://mactracker.ca/

Cheers!

Don't forget http://lowendmac.com.