Mac Mini i5 vs i7

[radowit]

I am thinking to buy a new Mac Mini 2020 for music production. I am just struggling with the choice between i5 and i7 processors. I will take the 8GB RAM (and upgrade it by myself later), and a faster 512GB SSD. With a few midi controllers I would like to connect it with 24'' LED monitor and 50'' TV. I need this setup as a home studio, don't need to be mobile. I was reading that usually the new Minis with i7 are working in the higher temperature, causing heat and noise. With many of hours of daily mixing and preparing tracks the CPU will be costantly loaded. I'm not expecting the i5 to be much faster. I would like it to be a cooler than the i7 and would like the fans to spin up a little less. I would like to have this machine always on and ready to work. Does anyone working on these machines and can confirm?

Is there any difference between i5 (3.0 GHz) and i7 (3.2 GHz) in framerate for watching 4K 60Hz movies on YouTube and VLC ( .mkv / .mp4 files ) ?

As far I know i7 is stable at 3.6 to 3.7ghz under load, i5 is stable at 3.9ghz. That's the examples of temperatures and frequencies, I got it at another forum:

I7 Utilization - Temperatur - Frequency

99.50 - 97.00 - 3.70
66.10 - 96.70 - 3.80
49.50 - 97.80 - 4.00
33.10 - 98.50 - 4.30
3.0 - 44.80 - 1.40

I5 Utilization - Temperature - Frequency

99.00 - 95.50 - 3.60
66.70 - 92.90 - 3.90
50.00 - 89.60 - 3.90
33.30 - 88.90 - 3.96
1.00 - 44.00 - 1.46

I will appreciate any informations from you guys!

 

[kidchop3]

I bought my Mac mini for music production. You would be better off getting the i7 for the hyper threading. 6 cores double up to 12 cores and it can cope with a lot of channels and VST.

It would be a worthwhile investment and would have better returns over an i5 and buying the ram separately. My ram usage is always 6gb to 7gb when on a track with many channels. It still has overhead for Dropbox and Chrome etc.

My Mac Mini never gets hot or makes too much noise. I use Ableton and upgraded from an MacBook Pro 2017. When the CPU usage got to 25% it got sluggish with the fans going crazy. My Mac Mini shows no slow down or doesn’t heat up. This is not to say the i5 would be any different, but with the hyper threading cores, it has more scope to handle all that processing.

 

[radowit]

Thank you for your message. How about the framerate for watching 4K movies on YouTube and VLC?

 

[gusping]

Thank you for your message. How about the framerate for watching 4K movies on YouTube and VLC?

A modern i5/i7 can easily watch a 4K movie, don't worry. Just remember 4K YouTube doesn't work in Safari.