iMac 2012 Vs Mac Mini 2012

[McGiord]

Not the OP, but I bought the iMac.

I love the iMac, it is beautiful, fast, sleek and sexy.

But in hindsight, I should probably have purchased the Mac Mini. I'm not using the iMac to its full potential and the Mini could easily have lived a second life in a cabinet or home theater setup whereas the iMac will always have to live on a (very large) desk. Its fairly minor, and I'm still very happy with the iMac, but I acknowledge that the Mac Mini would have been just fine.

Thanks for the reply.
Yes, the Mini have a second life like a Home Entertainment Mac, that is very appealing.

Does the iMac might be usable as a Monitor for another Mac? Does the Thunderbolt connection allows that?

If you were to buy a Mini today, what monitor will you get?

I was at Best Buy today and spend some time with the 27" iMac and it is gorgeous, tempting and generates the impulsive urge to get one, the screen is great.

 

[zipur]

This is one of the greatest threads I have read. Very good info. I have a new question here is what I am looking at with an $1800 budget. I can add the 16 G myself on the Mini.


But now you have tossed in the 27in as the one to get.
My needs are mostly for personal, small project editing and some work at home write ups. I run VM Fussion for some windows things and fool around with virtual labs, a few games. However i'm on the 10 year plan I expect I will keep my Mac that long. I currently have a rMBP15 and quickly found out that my base rMBP didn't give me the room/specs needed for my projects. Plus my son is off to College so he gets the rMBP. So which would you advise assuming the calculus of the Haswell delima is not added to the equation.


This would be my dream machine.

 

[zipur]

Not the OP, but I bought the iMac.

I love the iMac, it is beautiful, fast, sleek and sexy.

But in hindsight, I should probably have purchased the Mac Mini. I'm not using the iMac to its full potential and the Mini could easily have lived a second life in a cabinet or home theater setup whereas the iMac will always have to live on a (very large) desk. Its fairly minor, and I'm still very happy with the iMac, but I acknowledge that the Mac Mini would have been just fine.

the 2nd life as a HT System is a really cool thought and adds alot of value to the MINI!

 

[JohnDory]

I bought the iMac 27' with fusion, 24G ram and the top graphic card. It is better than my 2006 mini(!), but it lacks the quantum leap in performance I was expecting.

The performance issues I'm having appear to be more software than hardware based, so it would make no difference having lower spec.ed hardware. Perhaps this would be different if using a pro movie / photo suite, but iMovie and iPhoto seem to be the rate limiting step in my environment.

For the money saved, an upped mini would have been a better deal. For a ten year plan - one mini now, and another in 5 years time.

 

[Acorn]

my imac is quiet when doing heavy tasks compared to a mini. the mini turns into a hair dryer when pushed.

I dont know ive always enjoyed the mac air like silence of my imac. if you push it you can hear it but it does not compare to the mac mini that sounds like the thing is going to blast off.

 

[zipur]

So the last two post point in opposite directions but no answers.
1. Get a Mini now and then anther when you want/need. or
2. You'll love the Imac's silence. But in my example you can get a fully loaded Imac for just $300.00 more than a fully loaded Mini and you get a new display out of the deal. So the Imac hands down; right?

I don't mean to hijack the post I just have the same question with a different delta.
So here was the original specs.

"(1) Quad-core mini (i7 standard), base $799
dyi do-able SSD upgrade Corsair 256SSD + $250
dyi easy ram upgrade to 16MB + $114
Asus ML239H 23' monitor (well reviewed) + 170
Total: $1350


(2) iMac (i5 standard)

• 1TB 5600 (slow HD)
• 4MB non-upgradable ram
• 21' monitor

Total: $1300"

 

[JohnDory]

I would agree with Zipur, but you'd have to realise that the iMac in that configuration would be quite a bit slower than a maxed up mini, and for ten years...

A good monitor and sound system is important, and you'll find little (or nothing) to compete with the spec.s of an iMac or Thunderbolt display. That was what ultimately swung the decision for me.

If you don't mind a 21' monitor, you could get Zipur's set up initially, and then upgrade to a mac mini in 5 years, keeping the iMac as a monitor! You'd still coming under the price of a 27'.

(that issue of the noise is 'blown' out of proportion in the above post - go to a store and check it out. There are dud machines, but this is not a general issue)

 

[dollystereo]

Get a pair of good studio monitors, the thunderbolt display sound is no way better than that.
Monitors with sound included sux anyway.
You can get a DELL Ultrasharp IPS
http://www.amazon.com/Dell-UltraSha..._2?ie=UTF8&qid=1375281465&sr=8-2&keywords=ips

and a pair of M-Audio monitors way cheaper than apple thunderbolt
http://www.amazon.com/M-Audio-Activ...id=1375281497&sr=8-2&keywords=m+audio+monitor

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I would agree with Zipur, but you'd have to realise that the iMac in that configuration would be quite a bit slower than a maxed up mini, and for ten years...

A good monitor and sound system is important, and you'll find little (or nothing) to compete with the spec.s of an iMac or Thunderbolt display. That was what ultimately swung the decision for me.

If you don't mind a 21' monitor, you could get Zipur's set up initially, and then upgrade to a mac mini in 5 years, keeping the iMac as a monitor! You'd still coming under the price of a 27'.

(that issue of the noise is 'blown' out of proportion in the above post - go to a store and check it out. There are dud machines, but this is not a general issue)

I dont understand, you said that you had a budget around 1300 and you get a top of the line imac....