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Is that a good time go get a mini?

S

shaki29

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Title says it all.
I know that it will be powerful enough for my needs (Photoshop, Xcode). The question is if it worth the wait for the refresh (by knowing Apple, probably in 2 months). Is Haswell give much better performance than the current gen CPUs?
 
shaki29 said:
Title says it all.
I know that it will be powerful enough for my needs (Photoshop, Xcode). The question is if it worth the wait for the refresh (by knowing Apple, probably in 2 months). Is Haswell give much better performance than the current gen CPUs?
Click to expand...

Does Apple ever give you that much of a bump?
I hate when people says this but this question is asked every day. Scan some of the old post you will find all the estimations. If you can wait, wait, buy March - April it'll be outdated with the next shinny feature coming down road.
 
shaki29 said:
Title says it all.
I know that it will be powerful enough for my needs (Photoshop, Xcode). The question is if it worth the wait for the refresh (by knowing Apple, probably in 2 months). Is Haswell give much better performance than the current gen CPUs?
Click to expand...

Remember that the main advantage to Haswell is better battery life, which is a moot point on a desktop. The CPU performance will be marginally better, ad the GPU will be better, but that's about it.

If you buy now, buy a refurbished model.
 
Buy now if you need it now

If you can wait, then wait..... if you need a computer now, then buy now. Simple really.
 
shaki29 said:
Title says it all.
I know that it will be powerful enough for my needs (Photoshop, Xcode). The question is if it worth the wait for the refresh (by knowing Apple, probably in 2 months). Is Haswell give much better performance than the current gen CPUs?
Click to expand...
Since the Mac mini is currently using integrated graphics, you not only get a small CPU performance boost, you get a decent GPU boost. And if you're going for a fusion drive or Apple SSD, that's likely to be PCIe based and faster. And if you care about WiFi the next mini should have 802.11ac as well.

Taken together if you can wait, do so, otherwise get a 2012 with USB 3.
 
shaki29 said:
Title says it all.
I know that it will be powerful enough for my needs (Photoshop, Xcode). The question is if it worth the wait for the refresh (by knowing Apple, probably in 2 months). Is Haswell give much better performance than the current gen CPUs?
Click to expand...

I don't think the bump will be that significant.

If it were something like when USB 3 was imminent or a major refresh I'd be more inclined to wait.

If you have a computer you can use for the next few months and won't be struggling with, I'd wait. Otherwise I'd just buy now.
 
shaki29 said:
Title says it all.
I know that it will be powerful enough for my needs (Photoshop, Xcode). The question is if it worth the wait for the refresh (by knowing Apple, probably in 2 months). Is Haswell give much better performance than the current gen CPUs?
Click to expand...

Haswell is about two things - power savings and improved integrated graphics - neither make any difference in Photoshop and Xcode.
 
I struggeld with this a bit myself, but ended up buying a mini on Saturday.

I wanted to edit video and my old macbook wasn't up to par. What made me leap was the fact that it really had everything I needed on it. Sure there will be a GPU boost and maybe better wifi on the next model, but I'm still on 802.11G at home and N at work. The GPU would be nice but I doubt whatever it is will really give me a significant gain in video editing. But I also feared that Apple may remove the firewire jack on the next model and I need a firewire jack to capture my old DV tapes. My macbook didn't have one.

The only other thing the new mini may have is more stock ram. But with the cost of ram going up, that may not happen either. Plus I plan to put 16GB in this machine anyway. So even if they bumped it to 8GB, that would still be 8GB of ram just sitting in my closet collecting dust.

Plus buying now meant getting the mini for $50 off since many retailers have it on sale now.

But it also depends where you are coming from. I was coming for a 2008 macbook with a 9400M in it and C2D chip. So no matter what, this new mini is an upgrade for me all around.
 
tibas92013 said:
Which Mac Mini did you buy? Last Friday I bought a Refurbished i5 Mac Mini from the Apple Store.
Click to expand...

I got the 2.3GHz i7 quad. I'm cutting video so I needed something more powerful, but didn't want to go the extra mile for the 2.6GHz model. Most physical stores don't seem to carry the 2.6Ghz model from what I can tell.
 
roxics said:
I got the 2.3GHz i7 quad. I'm cutting video so I needed something more powerful, but didn't want to go the extra mile for the 2.6GHz model. Most physical stores don't seem to carry the 2.6Ghz model from what I can tell.
Click to expand...

i'm on the fence on waiting for the refresh or purchasing the 2012 i7 quad.

i edit videos/create gifs and my 2010 core 2 duo macbook is starting to show its age. how's your mini performing?
 
roxics said:
I got the 2.3GHz i7 quad. I'm cutting video so I needed something more powerful, but didn't want to go the extra mile for the 2.6GHz model. Most physical stores don't seem to carry the 2.6Ghz model from what I can tell.
Click to expand...

My 2.6 shipped directly to my house from overseas earlier this year.
 
corvus32 said:
Haswell is about two things - power savings and improved integrated graphics - neither make any difference in Photoshop and Xcode.
Click to expand...

Beat me to it, but agreed.


christopheralen said:
i'm on the fence on waiting for the refresh or purchasing the 2012 i7 quad.

i edit videos/create gifs and my 2010 core 2 duo macbook is starting to show its age. how's your mini performing?
Click to expand...

I'm the owner of a two month or so old dual 2.6ghz i7 Mini with the Fusion drive running Photoshop and Illustrator, doing web dev, and animating in Maya and it's been stellar, zero complaints. And I only have 4GB of RAM at this point.
 
christopheralen said:
i'm on the fence on waiting for the refresh or purchasing the 2012 i7 quad.

i edit videos/create gifs and my 2010 core 2 duo macbook is starting to show its age. how's your mini performing?
Click to expand...

I've only had it three full days so far. I've cut one 15 minute video on it which only involved one splice. It was a video blog. But I did apply some color curves and sync sound from an external recorder. It performed well. It took 1.5 hours to render that video to a 1080p h.264 file. Which at first I thought was slow, but I'm used to cutting client videos that are only 2-6 minutes on a similar spec'd PC at work. So the render time of this mini is typical. Confirmed also by a buddy who cuts video on an i7 PC desktop.

I had it at work yesterday and Monday, hooked up to my two 1080p monitors and used it all day as my main machine. I didn't have any editing to do yesterday, but for everything else the machine performed as expected.

It has some beachballing every so often, but not like it was on Sunday when it was running like garbage (see my other post). But I attribute what little is has to only 4GB of ram.

I plan to cut client videos on this machine. I do video/photography professionally. So if you're just doing video as a hobby, there is definitely enough power here for you.
 
OS update?

This question is probably answered elsewhere, but I can't find where. I want to buy a mini now because I need it in time for when school starts, but I'd be annoyed if I then had to pay to upgrade the OS once Maverick comes out a few months later.

What's the trend on Apple giving free OS upgrades to recently purchased computers? I found one example from the past that showed they gave free upgrades to computers bought after the date of the announcement of a new OS, but I saw no similar press release for OS Maverick. Anyone have an idea about this?
 
EvanTA said:
This question is probably answered elsewhere, but I can't find where. I want to buy a mini now because I need it in time for when school starts, but I'd be annoyed if I then had to pay to upgrade the OS once Maverick comes out a few months later.

What's the trend on Apple giving free OS upgrades to recently purchased computers? I found one example from the past that showed they gave free upgrades to computers bought after the date of the announcement of a new OS, but I saw no similar press release for OS Maverick. Anyone have an idea about this?
Click to expand...

That's because Mavericks doesn't even have an official release date yet. I bought my early-2011 15" MBP in late June, and that was after it was announced in early June that Lion would be released in July. So people who bought a mac after the release date was announced received a free voucher for Lion via the App Store, because I received Lion for free.

I would hold off if you want Mavericks for free, but you're really only saving like $20. Is the wait worth the $20? Probably not.
 
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