Moving to Mac mini 2018 from 2009 Mac Pro

[LogicalVue]

I finally pulled the trigger last week and ordered a refurbished Mac mini 2018 (6-core i7, 1TB SSD) to replace my 2009 Mac Pro that had been upgraded a lot over the years, but has reached it's end-of-life for me.

I received it today and have been setting it up and migrating data to it from the Mac Pro. So far it's been working great, is fast and totally silent. It's been maxing out at about 144F while copying files. The top of the case is only slightly warm.

So far it's only running with 8GB RAM as the 64GB I ordered hasn't arrived yet, but here are speed comparisons with Geekbench and BlackMagic:

Mac Pro (32GB, 3.2Ghz 6-core Xeon):

• SC: 2722
• MC: 12358
• OpenCL: 71017 (Radeon RX560)
• BlackMagic: 430read/225write (PCI SATA SSD)

Mac mini:

• SC: 5721
• MC: 23731
• OpenCL: 20878
• BlackMagic: 2643read/2758write

I am thrilled with these performance improvements for CPU and SSD. I don't expect the lower video performance will affect me as I'm just a software developer, but so far things have been fine using a 4K Samsung U28E590 running at 1080p 2x. I have both the Mac Pro and Mac mini hookup up to the display right now and am using an older HDMI cable with the Mac mini so I'm only getting 30fps, but I'm sure I'll be at 60fps when I switch to the USB Type-C to DisplayPort cable once everything has been transferred off the Mac Pro.

I purchased an external quad-drive case (YottaMaster PS400U3) to contain the hard drives from the Mac Pro and will be hooking that up tomorrow once everything from the boot SSD finishes transferring overnight.

I don't use WiFi so this is connected using ethernet. I use a wired keyboard and mouse because those are just better. However, Bluetooth to my Bose QC35 seems to be fine with no skipping or anything.

And don't worry about the Mac Pro -- it's going to my son where it should get several more years of useful life for some gaming and other things.

 

[SpitUK]

If you do need a graphics boost I can thoroughly recommend an eGPU to add to your setup.

 

[ruslan120]

Congratulations on the purchase!

I can fully endorse eGPU. It won’t be as fast as an internal GPU but the technology should improve and it’s upgradable.

AMD 5700 support should be coming out soon.