Replacing my mini with a new machine (after WWDC?)

[SamR123]

I'm no patient man. I've been working on this character flaw but still need a bit of help from my friends on this site.

It's time for me to upgrade my Mac mini (2011). While it's a nice little machine and the best I could afford a few years ago, my needs now have outgrown it. I've been creating around 1-3 10 min. video's weekly on this dual core i5 Mac mini with 8GB of RAM without any problems, but I wouldn't have mind it being a little snappier and usable while encoding stuff. But I need (and want) something I can take with me, for myself and some client work.

15 inch machines are both too big and probably too expensive for me. I'm currently looking at the 13 inch rMBP (the more expensive one). I'm a bit hesitant about the Intel HD 4000 though (while it did serve me ok on the mini), but I wouldn't really mind getting something like that Elgato H.264 dongle to take a load of the laptop.

I'm pretty sure I know the right thing to do, wait till after WWDC to see if and what Apple will bump. I've heard new processors should also include better (integrated) graphics, but I'm not sure if we can expect those in the 13" one?

So my question is, am I right to wait till after WWDC or should I spend the coming weeks finding a good deal on the higher end 13" rMBP? Also, it's quite important I buy and pay for a new machine before June 20th (because of tax-deduction reasons). That should give me 10 days after WWDC but only if Apple makes orders available on the (newer) rMBP's.

Also, I'm currently hesitant to buy the rMBP even with a great deal because of what I heard about it not being able to handle scrolling on websites (like G+ and Flickr) properly, anyone able to shed some light on that issue?

Ok thanks so much for reading and hopefully willing to help me figure out the right path to getting my next machine.

 

[GermanyChris]

I'm no patient man. I've been working on this character flaw but still need a bit of help from my friends on this site.

It's time for me to upgrade my Mac mini (2011). While it's a nice little machine and the best I could afford a few years ago, my needs now have outgrown it. I've been creating around 1-3 10 min. video's weekly on this dual core i5 Mac mini with 8GB of RAM without any problems, but I wouldn't have mind it being a little snappier and usable while encoding stuff. But I need (and want) something I can take with me, for myself and some client work.

15 inch machines are both too big and probably too expensive for me. I'm currently looking at the 13 inch rMBP (the more expensive one). I'm a bit hesitant about the Intel HD 4000 though (while it did serve me ok on the mini), but I wouldn't really mind getting something like that Elgato H.264 dongle to take a load of the laptop.

I'm pretty sure I know the right thing to do, wait till after WWDC to see if and what Apple will bump. I've heard new processors should also include better (integrated) graphics, but I'm not sure if we can expect those in the 13" one?

So my question is, am I right to wait till after WWDC or should I spend the coming weeks finding a good deal on the higher end 13" rMBP? Also, it's quite important I buy and pay for a new machine before June 20th (because of tax-deduction reasons). That should give me 10 days after WWDC but only if Apple makes orders available on the (newer) rMBP's.

Also, I'm currently hesitant to buy the rMBP even with a great deal because of what I heard about it not being able to handle scrolling on websites (like G+ and Flickr) properly, anyone able to shed some light on that issue?

Ok thanks so much for reading and hopefully willing to help me figure out the right path to getting my next machine.

I create more an longer videos that you do on machines that are older and slower.

IMHO you need an improvement in workflow and not computer. That new 13" MacBook Pro is going to improve your render times but not enough to justify the cost.

 

[SamR123]

Fair point, but I hope I made it clear that I don't really dislike current performance of my Mac mini system but I both need a portable machine and something that can handle exporting while allowing me to do simple other tasks (writing and browsing the web). But as it stands, your advice would be to both work on a better workflow (please expand) and search for a good deal on current 13" rMBP machine?

 

[Bear]

For a good deal, you could look at what is available on Apple's site in the refurbished section.

And to answer your question, when the update the MacBooks with the upcoming Intel processors, the HD4000 graphics will improve as that is part of the new processors.

 

[bcaslis]

The 13" rMBP can more than handle this. The graphics processor doesn't make any difference in iMovie, it probably helps in Final Cut Pro X. I've edited and generated a 3 hour movie on this machine (college graduation) with no problem. It does take a long time to generate a finished movie, but the 15" would also.

 

[SamR123]

Thanks for your responses, much appreciated.

I'm not one who needs to have the newest but when spending a whole bunch of money I don't mind doing the research

Anyone willing to expand a little on the scrolling performance of the 13" rMBP 2.6 256GB option? I really can't image I can't have a nice web experience on a machine this expensive. From what I've read now I would probably run the machine on 1440 x 900 equivalent and I do frequent sites like Google Plus and Flickr.

 

[GermanyChris]

Fair point, but I hope I made it clear that I don't really dislike current performance of my Mac mini system but I both need a portable machine and something that can handle exporting while allowing me to do simple other tasks (writing and browsing the web). But as it stands, your advice would be to both work on a better workflow (please expand) and search for a good deal on current 13" rMBP machine?

Let it render at times you don't need it. I work some from at home because I have a Mac Pro and at work I have an older iMac. Recently I cobbled together about 3 hrs worth of 1080p for training. I imported the largest section of source video the night before I was going to work on it, then when I got up I strated the import of the rest. When I left work at lunch time to finish the project everything was ready to go. I put the clips together added some transitions nothing drastic then when I was ready to go to bed I exported it. When I woke up in the morning I burned it to 3 or 4 DVD's and went to work.

At work I clean up interviews they are generally 20 to 30 min long. When it's time to export I'll let it work while at lunch or whenever I'm going to be away from the computer.

In the end I don't watch my computer render I couldn't think of anything more boring.

If I were you what I'd probably do is edit on the portable when you get it then send it to the mini over the network, screen share with the mini bring it into you editor and let them mini do the rendering while moving on to the next thing whatever it is.

 

[bcaslis]

Thanks for your responses, much appreciated.

I'm not one who needs to have the newest but when spending a whole bunch of money I don't mind doing the research

Anyone willing to expand a little on the scrolling performance of the 13" rMBP 2.6 256GB option? I really can't image I can't have a nice web experience on a machine this expensive. From what I've read now I would probably run the machine on 1440 x 900 equivalent and I do frequent sites like Google Plus and Flickr.

Mine's the 3.0 but I run at 1440x900 all the time. It's fine, on rare occasions I can see some small lag, but I saw the same on the 15" 2.7GHz quad-core. I use Flickr all the time but I don't use Google Plus.

 

[SamR123]

Ok thanks so much for the info.

As it stands I'm now able to order a brand new 13" rMBP 2.6/8GB/256 for about 650 dollars off (I'll spare you the euro tax and conversion calculations). That's including delivery, all in. Since it's the 2.6GHz version I can be sure it's a 2013 model, right?

This seems like a very good deal to me and even with a newer processor I can't really see how it would offset this nice discount I can now get.

 

[justperry]

Ok thanks so much for the info.

As it stands I'm now able to order a brand new 13" rMBP 2.6/8GB/256 for about 650 dollars off (I'll spare you the euro tax and conversion calculations). That's including delivery, all in. Since it's the 2.6GHz version I can be sure it's a 2013 model, right?

This seems like a very good deal to me and even with a newer processor I can't really see how it would offset this nice discount I can now get.

FYI, the lag if there's any is a software problem, not hardware.
10.8.3 seems to have solve the lag for many, if you still see lag use the latest webkit nightly built, it is better and faster than Safari.

 

[SamR123]

FYI, the lag if there's any is a software problem, not hardware.
10.8.3 seems to have solve the lag for many, if you still see lag use the latest webkit nightly built, it is better and faster than Safari.

Thank you very much for the info! Is this like Chrome Canary and it 'auto' updates itself or do I have to download every day to get the newest version?

 

[justperry]

Thank you very much for the info! Is this like Chrome Canary and it 'auto' updates itself or do I have to download every day to get the newest version?

WebKit Nightly Builds

You could download newer versions every day or sometimes even multiple ones but I would only do this lets say once a month.

I just opened the App, you can check for downloads inside the App, might even do this automatically but as I said there are new builds every day so I would not do this.
Just check it out.

 

[SamR123]

Will do, thank you very much sir

 

[justperry]

Will do, thank you very much sir

No worries, no need to say Sir

 

[majkom]

only problem with webkit is that is not as stable as safari... been using it on my imac, went back to safari...

 

[SamR123]

Would you guys shed some light on using Chrome on this machine? It might be blasphemy but it's my preferred browser.