Hey guys,
SO, I need some help deciding what to do. Was hoping that the 2012 mini's would be announced today, but no such luck. So here's my situation:
I've been waiting for new mini's to come out to have in addition to my early 2008 macbook, which runs like a champ by the way. The reason for this, is because I use my macbook to record music, but it's time for an upgrade. I need more HD space, faster processor, and a better machine overall for my music software and hardware. (Right now, it's OK. I could upgrade my HD and be fine for awhile, but I'm thinking more down the road...) I was thinking the mini would be nice to keep on my desk and hook up to an external monitor and use it as my main music producing computer. Then, I could use the old, trusty macbook for portability/backup/netflix/whatever.
BUT, I've recently been toying with the idea of just going for a new 13.3inch/2.5ghz Macbook Pro and selling my old 2008 macbook. I could hook up the pro to an external screen (and have a smaller screen actually on the laptop for a dual screen setup, super handy when working with music software), and use the pro for portability and whatnot. Maybe even bring it to live performances if need be... Cleaning up my old macbook and selling it on eBay (with upgrades I've put into it) would probably get me about 300 - 350; and picking up the new pro for 1,050 on eBay would make my net cost about 750 (sans apple care and external monitor costs).
So, I just need some advice on what you guys would do. From what I can tell, the mac mini 2011 and new macbook pros have pretty much the same specs. 2.5ghz dual core i5, stock 500GB HD. Macbook comes with 4GB RAM compared to 2GB in the mini, but that's really all I see different.. oh, I should also mention that in a night of drunken stupidness i purchased Diablo 3 to play on my 2008 macbook. So, since I already bought it I'd like to be able to play it sometime. The 2011 mini has Intel 3000 onboard graphics and the macbook pro has Intel 4000... both are pretty inadequete for gaming... but, I might just say F off Diablo and try to get my money back from Blizzard.
Anyway, all advice is helpful. Thanks in advance!
SO, I need some help deciding what to do. Was hoping that the 2012 mini's would be announced today, but no such luck. So here's my situation:
I've been waiting for new mini's to come out to have in addition to my early 2008 macbook, which runs like a champ by the way. The reason for this, is because I use my macbook to record music, but it's time for an upgrade. I need more HD space, faster processor, and a better machine overall for my music software and hardware. (Right now, it's OK. I could upgrade my HD and be fine for awhile, but I'm thinking more down the road...) I was thinking the mini would be nice to keep on my desk and hook up to an external monitor and use it as my main music producing computer. Then, I could use the old, trusty macbook for portability/backup/netflix/whatever.
BUT, I've recently been toying with the idea of just going for a new 13.3inch/2.5ghz Macbook Pro and selling my old 2008 macbook. I could hook up the pro to an external screen (and have a smaller screen actually on the laptop for a dual screen setup, super handy when working with music software), and use the pro for portability and whatnot. Maybe even bring it to live performances if need be... Cleaning up my old macbook and selling it on eBay (with upgrades I've put into it) would probably get me about 300 - 350; and picking up the new pro for 1,050 on eBay would make my net cost about 750 (sans apple care and external monitor costs).
So, I just need some advice on what you guys would do. From what I can tell, the mac mini 2011 and new macbook pros have pretty much the same specs. 2.5ghz dual core i5, stock 500GB HD. Macbook comes with 4GB RAM compared to 2GB in the mini, but that's really all I see different.. oh, I should also mention that in a night of drunken stupidness i purchased Diablo 3 to play on my 2008 macbook. So, since I already bought it I'd like to be able to play it sometime. The 2011 mini has Intel 3000 onboard graphics and the macbook pro has Intel 4000... both are pretty inadequete for gaming... but, I might just say F off Diablo and try to get my money back from Blizzard.
Anyway, all advice is helpful. Thanks in advance!