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Next purchase advice please

C

charlien

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 3, 2006
266
53
I currently have an early 2010 MBP 15" and an iPad 2. Both are starting to get old and I'm thinking of getting a MBA 11 or 13" to replace both. The problem I struggle with is I run a few Windows programs in Fusion and also use FCP X on the MBP. Both of these take up a lot of disk space.

So here is an idea... What if I also purchased a last generation mac mini and ran it headless and remotely connect to it for my Windows needs and FCP X. I know that I can easily remote to the Windows sessions but don't know how I'd connect to the mini for my FCP needs. Is there a way to get excellent video and audio from the mini to my MBA? This will all be done over a LAN.

Thanks in advance.
 
M

martinm0

macrumors 6502a
Feb 27, 2010
568
25
If the only issue is disk space with the MBA, I'd simply just recommend grabbing a Thunderbolt or USB 3.0 SSD on the side for the extra space. Keep in mind the Mac Mini's use the HD4000 GPU, which is probably ok for your needs, but the MBA will have the updated HD5000.

Otherwise, you could easily connect the Mac Mini to the MBA via Target Disk mode when you need to access the files on the MBA. The headless option is easy as well (though you'll need a monitor to setup the sharing features on the Mini to begin with).
 
talmy

talmy

macrumors 601
Oct 26, 2009
4,726
332
Oregon
There is noticeable lag in writing the screen when running headless using Screen Sharing (Apple's VNC). I do this all the time for my mini that acts primarily as a file server, but I'd go nuts running FCPX on it!
 
C

charlien

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 3, 2006
266
53
talmy said:
There is noticeable lag in writing the screen when running headless using Screen Sharing (Apple's VNC). I do this all the time for my mini that acts primarily as a file server, but I'd go nuts running FCPX on it!
Click to expand...

I'd like to find something that runs as smoothly as Windows RDP. It's the only thing about Windows I miss.
 
Altemose

Altemose

macrumors G3
Mar 26, 2013
9,189
487
Elkton, Maryland
I would do a 13" Air with a large storage option or a 13" rMBP if you can afford it. Doing anything like that is a bit iffy, especially on a home LAN. Now if you were in a large corporate LAN and ran a server different story!
 
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