Not sure how much interest there is in one person's struggle with the mini vs the iMac but, as it is the title of at least one thread, I figured I would post my experience in hopes that it'll help someone else's decision-making.
My setup was a 2007 Macbook as the main computer that my wife and I shared. I used it for processing photos using Lightroom/Photoshop. It was becoming painfully slow and a new computer was in order.
I initially wanted to get the 27" iMac but was concerned about:
Inability to upgrade to an SSD on my own
Lack of USB3 (and concern about price for TB peripherals vs USB3 equivalent)
That both of the above would be fixed in the 2012 Ivy Bridge model
Glossy screen
So I decided to get the 2011 Mac Mini (799 version) and use my current 20" IPS monitor that had served me well. Bought it the day it was available in stores for $950 (including trackpad and tax). Hooked it up and was immediately thrilled with the purchase. Lightroom was at least 2-3 times faster and I could power through 500 photos of my kids in no time. Lion worked well and I really had no complaints.
I started to wonder about the utility of an SSD and found a great article showing it was not helpful with Lightroom (link). Also ran some HDD benchmarks and realized the baseline 5400rpm drive was a bit slower than the 2TB external hooked up via FW800. Bought RAM to upgrade and then started seeing threads about prices on Amazon, etc being $80 less than what I paid giving me a bit of buyer's remorse.
Had two issues yesterday that started the ball rolling toward reconsidering my purchase. Was working on a 4 image panorama and found that Photoshop took a fair amount of time to render it even with 8 gigs RAM. Then worked on that image with filters and later in Lightroom and saw some of the same 'Loading' messages pop up repeatedly as I used the graduated filter tools (this had been the final straw with the Macbook). I also had two episodes of screen flickering (only fixed with restart) that made me wonder if my 5 year old monitor might be failing. [Turns out others had the same issues and I started to worry about HDMI out but this likely will end up being fixed with a software update.]
I then took a step back and reassessed what it was about the iMac that bothered me:
-no longer felt the need to upgrade to an SSD for my needs
-Transferring images from my CF card maxes out at the cards' 45MB/sec which is well below FW800 speeds.
-External via FW800 was faster than the HDD on the mini so saw less reason to pursue a USB3 option until I had external SSDs to use that higher throughput
-Realized I could adjust lighting in my office to essentially remove all reflections from the glossy screen
So now I had removed the obstacles that had kept me from buying the iMac and was finding some limitations with the Mini. I also realized that I would likely still want to buy the 2012 version of the iMac and then would have ended up spending more over two years to get both than if I waited to purchase a lower powered mini or other HTPC replacement when my current computer pulling those duties died.
Just purchased the 1699 27" iMac from BHphoto with AppleCare and Trackpad for $1782 shipped. Cost ended up only $70 more than the refurb option as no tax charged. After looking at my situation and the specs, the $725 difference between the mac mini and iMac didn't seem to be an obstacle anymore.
This is very, very long winded and may not be helpful to anyone in the end but, if you've made it this far, I appreciate your time.
E
My setup was a 2007 Macbook as the main computer that my wife and I shared. I used it for processing photos using Lightroom/Photoshop. It was becoming painfully slow and a new computer was in order.
I initially wanted to get the 27" iMac but was concerned about:
Inability to upgrade to an SSD on my own
Lack of USB3 (and concern about price for TB peripherals vs USB3 equivalent)
That both of the above would be fixed in the 2012 Ivy Bridge model
Glossy screen
So I decided to get the 2011 Mac Mini (799 version) and use my current 20" IPS monitor that had served me well. Bought it the day it was available in stores for $950 (including trackpad and tax). Hooked it up and was immediately thrilled with the purchase. Lightroom was at least 2-3 times faster and I could power through 500 photos of my kids in no time. Lion worked well and I really had no complaints.
I started to wonder about the utility of an SSD and found a great article showing it was not helpful with Lightroom (link). Also ran some HDD benchmarks and realized the baseline 5400rpm drive was a bit slower than the 2TB external hooked up via FW800. Bought RAM to upgrade and then started seeing threads about prices on Amazon, etc being $80 less than what I paid giving me a bit of buyer's remorse.
Had two issues yesterday that started the ball rolling toward reconsidering my purchase. Was working on a 4 image panorama and found that Photoshop took a fair amount of time to render it even with 8 gigs RAM. Then worked on that image with filters and later in Lightroom and saw some of the same 'Loading' messages pop up repeatedly as I used the graduated filter tools (this had been the final straw with the Macbook). I also had two episodes of screen flickering (only fixed with restart) that made me wonder if my 5 year old monitor might be failing. [Turns out others had the same issues and I started to worry about HDMI out but this likely will end up being fixed with a software update.]
I then took a step back and reassessed what it was about the iMac that bothered me:
-no longer felt the need to upgrade to an SSD for my needs
-Transferring images from my CF card maxes out at the cards' 45MB/sec which is well below FW800 speeds.
-External via FW800 was faster than the HDD on the mini so saw less reason to pursue a USB3 option until I had external SSDs to use that higher throughput
-Realized I could adjust lighting in my office to essentially remove all reflections from the glossy screen
So now I had removed the obstacles that had kept me from buying the iMac and was finding some limitations with the Mini. I also realized that I would likely still want to buy the 2012 version of the iMac and then would have ended up spending more over two years to get both than if I waited to purchase a lower powered mini or other HTPC replacement when my current computer pulling those duties died.
Just purchased the 1699 27" iMac from BHphoto with AppleCare and Trackpad for $1782 shipped. Cost ended up only $70 more than the refurb option as no tax charged. After looking at my situation and the specs, the $725 difference between the mac mini and iMac didn't seem to be an obstacle anymore.
This is very, very long winded and may not be helpful to anyone in the end but, if you've made it this far, I appreciate your time.
E