Upgrade MBP or buy Mac Mini?

Discussion in 'Buying Tips and Advice' started by gundamfan, Aug 7, 2012.

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  1. gundamfan, Aug 7, 2012

    gundamfan macrumors newbie

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    Aug 7, 2012
    #1
    Hey all,
    Have a question/looking for advice.

    I currently have a 09 MBP 13 (upgraded to 5gb ram and 500gb 7200 HD) that does everything I need to do except play tv/movies/netflix/anime etc on my HDTV. Because this model doesn't have hdmi audio out, I'm using an old windows machine I built as my htpc (amd 64x2) and it lags badly.

    Here's my dilema;
    1. Do I sell my 09 MBP 13" for a '12 MBP 13" and use that laptop as my all in one machine? (will the intel hd4000 be able to handle 1080p smoothly?)
    2. Or should I purchase a mac mini?

    What do you guys think?

    Thanks for your help!
     
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  2. spacepower7, Aug 7, 2012

    spacepower7 macrumors 68000

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    May 6, 2004
    #2
    I don't know enough about your situation but my main CPU are a MBA and a mini.. All media is on or connected to Mac mini (about 10 TB including backups), while all work is on both. Would something like this work in your situation? I use Dropbox to sync work documents, excel, word, etc....
     
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  3. thekev, Aug 7, 2012

    thekev macrumors 604

    thekev

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    Aug 5, 2010
    #3
    The mini isn't necessarily faster than the 2012 macbook pro. With the mini you have 3 options. The base mini uses Intel HD3000 which sucks. The discrete card mini is an extremely low end notebook class discrete gpu. It's not very good. If you've got a machine today, I wouldn't suggest a mini until it's updated. 6 months ago my suggestion would have been different, but Ivy will be a decent bump for the mini, especially with the inclusion of usb3. It's definitely cheaper than the 13" mbp. Cpu scores are comparable, but I think the HD3000 gpu and lack of usb3 are weak points. Noting Apple's transition to a 12 month OS cycle, I'm also hesitant to buy lower end hardware that has been on the market for more than a year. Weak gpu features were the official sticking factor in a couple things that didn't make it to mountain lion.
     
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  4. gundamfan, Aug 8, 2012

    gundamfan thread starter macrumors newbie

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    Aug 7, 2012
    #4
    All good points, I guess my thought process was that I could sell my current MBP, get anywhere from 600-700$ and upgrade to the newer one or wait for the new mini to come out. I know the new mini is not released yet but one can assume the lower end model will have Ivy, usb3, and at least hd4000. Boils down to is it worth to sell and upgrade, or not to sell and buy a new mini when it comes out?

    1 mac vs 2?
     
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  5. AxiomaticRubric, Aug 8, 2012

    AxiomaticRubric macrumors 6502

    AxiomaticRubric

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    On Mars, Praising the Omnissiah
    #5
    I'd suggest selling your current MBP and upgrading. With AirPlay on OS X Mountain Lion, your new MBP can fulfill the role of media center just as well as a Mac Mini can, and with better graphics.

    The other plus is that you wouldn't have to wait until the new Mac Mini is released.
     
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  6. macrominnie, Aug 9, 2012

    macrominnie macrumors member

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    #6
    +1.

    There is also advantages of more powerful mobile computing, and avoiding the inconvenience of having to keep track of things on two different machines.
     
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