Mac Mini or Air

[haoqfu]

Guys,
I'm looking to buy a mini or mba to replace my old mba 13 2010. I mainly use my mac for trading forex and web surfing, no video/photo editing. however, i noticed my mba 2010 was extremely hot and noisy after several hours.

I'm debating if mba's performance can catch up the mini. i had a mac mini 2010, it seems to be much robust than a mba after the ssd upgrading, i.e: quiet, more responsive when running parallel & flash content (can't use anything when running flash content on air, cpu usage goes up to 100%)

my question is, although the geek benchmarks seems pretty close for these two machines (both around 6400), in real world, does mac mini (with ssd) actually outperform the mba?

 

[TjeuV]

Guys,
I'm looking to buy a mini or mba to replace my old mba 13 2010. I mainly use my mac for trading forex and web surfing, no video/photo editing. however, i noticed my mba 2010 was extremely hot and noisy after several hours.

I'm debating if mba's performance can catch up the mini. i had a mac mini 2010, it seems to be much robust than a mba after the ssd upgrading, i.e: quiet, more responsive when running parallel & flash content (can't use anything when running flash content on air, cpu usage goes up to 100%)

my question is, although the geek benchmarks seems pretty close for these two machines (both around 6400), in real world, does mac mini (with ssd) actually outperform the mba?

Don't make it too difficult on yourself. Are you working mainly working at one desk? Or do you need portability. I'm having a great experience with my mac mini 2.5, to me, it's not worth it to upgrade it with an ssd but that's my personal opinion.

 

[haoqfu]

Don't make it too difficult on yourself. Are you working mainly working at one desk? Or do you need portability. I'm having a great experience with my mac mini 2.5, to me, it's not worth it to upgrade it with an ssd but that's my personal opinion.

I mainly work at one desk, but there are occasions that i need a laptop as well. That's why i'm considering a mba as well. No matter which one i will get, i will be connect it to a thunderbolt display at my desk.

 

[RocketRed]

I mainly work at one desk, but there are occasions that i need a laptop as well. That's why i'm considering a mba as well. No matter which one i will get, i will be connect it to a thunderbolt display at my desk.

I think the MBA would be a better choice.

+1 for portability.

 

[TjeuV]

I mainly work at one desk, but there are occasions that i need a laptop as well. That's why i'm considering a mba as well. No matter which one i will get, i will be connect it to a thunderbolt display at my desk.

And the occasions you need a laptop, could you replace it by an iPad?

 

[haoqfu]

And the occasions you need a laptop, could you replace it by an iPad?

I tried, but i couldn't get the same productivity on iPad as i do on a full functional mac. i use keyboard shortcuts a lot, can't do it on an iPad.

 

[Skoopman]

Get a MacBook Air, buy a stand, hook it up to a monitor and voila - the perfect all in one solution. That's what I'm trying to do, have to sell my MM first.

 

[haoqfu]

Get a MacBook Air, buy a stand, hook it up to a monitor and voila - the perfect all in one solution. That's what I'm trying to do, have to sell my MM first.

yeah, that's what i m thinking about. but what about the performance and noise. my old mba is intolerable noisy...

 

[dmk1974]

I am replacing my 2011 Mac Mini with a 2012 base 11" MBA. At my desk, I just have to plug in the Thunderbolt video adapter and the power cord and then it's effectively just like my Mini was since I'm using the same monitor, keyboard, and trackpad. Same speed as the Mini was too (since I had an SSD in that too) and portability whenever I need it.

 

[haoqfu]

I am replacing my 2011 Mac Mini with a 2012 base 11" MBA. At my desk, I just have to plug in the Thunderbolt video adapter and the power cord and then it's effectively just like my Mini was since I'm using the same monitor, keyboard, and trackpad. Same speed as the Mini was too (since I had an SSD in that too) and portability whenever I need it.

thanks. may i asking what you mainly do with your mba? what about the fan noise & heat when running flash content or vm?

 

[Skoopman]

yeah, that's what i m thinking about. but what about the performance and noise. my old mba is intolerable noisy...

Well performance depends on what you do. The Mini has no SSD so technically it is inferior, except on cpu demanding tasks (Handbrake etc.). For day to day use the MBA should be faster. My Mini is pretty quiet, I almost never hear the fan, don't know about the MBA though.

 

[dmk1974]

thanks. may i asking what you mainly do with your mba? what about the fan noise & heat when running flash content or vm?

I mostly use the computer for web, email, MS office apps, photo and video editing (once in a while), watching on SLignplayer and MLB.tv, and some CAD work here and there. So far with the tests all have worked fine. Under heavy load and flash videos for a while, the fan kicks in, but this years seems much quieter than previous. I can hear it, but nowhere near jet engine levels that the old ones used to have. I read somewhere that they made a fan improvement.

 

[haoqfu]

I mostly use the computer for web, email, MS office apps, photo and video editing (once in a while), watching on SLignplayer and MLB.tv, and some CAD work here and there. So far with the tests all have worked fine. Under heavy load and flash videos for a while, the fan kicks in, but this years seems much quieter than previous. I can hear it, but nowhere near jet engine levels that the old ones used to have. I read somewhere that they made a fan improvement.

Thanks. And yes, i heard they use the asymmetric fan system which lows down the noise level dramatically.

 

[Night Spring]

I mainly work at one desk, but there are occasions that i need a laptop as well.

Well if you need a laptop, you need a laptop, so wouldn't that rule out the mini? It's not like there's a way to turn the mini into a laptop when you need one!

 

[justit]

I tried, but i couldn't get the same productivity on iPad as i do on a full functional mac. i use keyboard shortcuts a lot, can't do it on an iPad.

What iPad apps are u running? On the new retina iPad, remote desktop is much better using LTE connecting back to the mothership. Carrying an iPad with external keyboard still lighter than an MBA.

New iPad + Mac Mini a nice economical match.