Please Help Compare systems

[The Loaf]

Hi,

Not sure where to put this, if here or in the mini forum, but I have an older Macbook Pro from 2010 that is sputtering to a panicky death. I wanted to replace it with the current MBP, but really am not willing to throw that much money at that machine until they work out the kinks with the keyboard, etc. Once I'm rolling, I really don't have the ability to be without it if it's in for repair, replacement, return, etc.

So, I'm considering buying a mini to tide me over until the (hopefully next) rock-solid MBP iteration, and then use the mini as a music server or something. But I don't really know if the specs will be comparable to my current machine. I'm not really a tech-head so don't understand how the specs compare, just use my computer for basic chores, a little gaming, minimal video making, and A LOT of photoshop. Needs to be able to handle RAW files, etc.

Can you help me figure out if the performance specs will be a downgrade, improvement, or about the same? I really appreciate your help, and thank you in advance!

Currently using 2010 MBP:

(copying this stuff from my system profiler)

Model Name: MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro6,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i7
Processor Speed: 2.66 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 4.8 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: MBP61.0057.B0C
SMC Version (system): 1.58f16
Sudden Motion Sensor:
State: Enabled

Also with Intel HD Graphics Built in
and NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M

Thinking about purchasing a basic mac mini:

2.6GHz Intel Core i5 Dual-Core 4th Gen Haswell
Cache: L3: 3MB
8GB of 1600 MHz LPDDR3 RAM
1 TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive
Intel Iris Graphics

 

[treekram]

Short of actually trying it out, the best you can do is look at some benchmarks. Benchmarks, like the government MPG figures, are just meant to give an idea of comparative performance and they're always given as numbers so that's somebody that anybody should be able to understand.

In the following, it says the graphics hardware in the 2014 Mini is 153% of that in your 2010 MBP.
http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compar...l-Iris-Pro-HD-5100-Mobile-11-GHz/m7739vsm8813

You can look at Geekbench and it will give you a comparison. It looks like the mid-2010 MBP i7 isn't there, but you can use the 17-inch early 2010 as a proxy. The 2014 Mini looks to be about 50% faster.
https://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

The 2014 Mini has USB3 vs USB2 for the 2010 MBP. If you have a typical, current external HDD, you will notice a difference, I haven't see figures or done any benchmarks, but maybe twice as fast, using a USB3 external HDD on the 2014 Mini vs. the 2010 MBP. (USB3 is 10x faster than USB2, but HDD's run at maybe 20% of the USB3 speed.)

Check the ports and see if the 2014 Mini has what you need. If you need Firewire, you can get a Thunderbolt-Firewire adapter. Be aware that you can't upgrade the 2014 Mini memory and it doesn't have an optical drive.

There's nothing in the 2010 MBP that would be faster than the 2014 Mini that I am aware of. Some retailers are discounting the 2014 Mini by $100 (Best Buy, for one). At that price, there would be no alternative new Mac that would be that cheap and provide that kind of performance, even though the CPU in the 2014 Mini is currently 3 generations behind the current Intel CPU's.

 

[The Loaf]

Thank you very much. What a thorough reply. I really appreciate it. And thanks for the links to the benchmarks, etc. That reassures me that this could all work out. Yes, I know the mini is already way out of date, but as I say, I'm hoping to get back in the MBP game in the next iteration, with any luck.