Mac Mini - i5 or i7

[westla]

Going to be purchasing a mac mini and wondering if it i worth paying extra for the i7.

I mainly do Finale work now, but occasionally use DP. At the most I have 12 audio tracks in DP, and use a few plugins (reverb, compressor, PSP Vintage Warmer).

For my uses, is it worth the extra for the i7?

Spec:

i5 - 3.0Ghz six-core
i7 - 3.2Ghz six-core

Thanks!

[HCMarkus]

i5 should be fine, but I'd spend the extra for the i7, as you will be living with that CPU for the life of the machine.

I may be touring later this year or next and am looking at the Mini for a live show machine to run MainStage. Less $$$ and more power than a laptop.

Note that you can get 32GB of OWC memory for what Apple will charge you to get 16GB, or get 16 for 1/2 of what Apple will charge. Also, external TB or USB3 SSD is way cheaper than adding storage from Apple. Just get what you need for your OS/Apps and add fast external storage for data. Then treat yourself to that i7.

[westla]

Note that you can get 32GB of OWC memory for what Apple will charge you to get 16GB, or get 16 for 1/2 of what Apple will charge. Also, external TB or USB3 SSD is way cheaper than adding storage from Apple. Just get what you need for your OS/Apps and add fast external storage for data. Then treat yourself to that i7.

How difficult is it too add RAM to the 2018 minis? I know its user upgradable, but is it really difficult?

[zuul-studios]

Note that you can get 32GB of OWC memory for what Apple will charge you to get 16GB, or get 16 for 1/2 of what Apple will charge. Also, external TB or USB3 SSD is way cheaper than adding storage from Apple. Just get what you need for your OS/Apps and add fast external storage for data. Then treat yourself to that i7.

How difficult is it too add RAM to the 2018 minis? I know its user upgradable, but is it really difficult?

Good question. So, I did a little research on the OWC web-site. They have a "How to Install" video for upgrading RAM for the 2018 Mac Mini. Apple didn't make the process easy, that's for sure. But it's doable. Just be careful. Just click on the link.

https://eshop.macsales.com/installvideo ... 18-memory/

[mikehalloran]

The Refurb Store has two i7s at the moment, one 512GB and the other 1TB. Both have 64GB RAM.
https://www.apple.com/shop/refurbished/mac/mac-mini

The savings works out to not much more than buying the 8GB version and the RAM from OWC to install yourself.

With DP, the GPU is fine.

[bayswater]

How difficult is it too add RAM to the 2018 minis? I know its user upgradable, but is it really difficult?

I did this upgrade using OWC memory. Can be done with the right tools, but very tricky. Watch the video a couple of times, make absolutely sure you completely understand each step. Be careful about the direction you unclip some of the connections. There are a couple where the OWC video is not explicit about which edge of a connector to lift. The Mini guts are very delicate and it would be very easy to damage something by prying the wrong edge. If you haven't done this sort of thing in the past, I'd avoid it.

[bayswater]

Going to be purchasing a mac mini and wondering if it i worth paying extra for the i7.

I mainly do Finale work now, but occasionally use DP. At the most I have 12 audio tracks in DP, and use a few plugins (reverb, compressor, PSP Vintage Warmer).

For my uses, is it worth the extra for the i7?

Spec:

i5 - 3.0Ghz six-core
i7 - 3.2Ghz six-core

Thanks!

The i7 will be useful when there are a lot of VIs. In my tests I didn't see a lot of difference for the type of project you describe.

[westla]

The i7 will be useful when there are a lot of VIs. In my tests I didn't see a lot of difference for the type of project you describe.

Would that be VI's housed on the mac mini, or would it also include VI's housed on another PC?

Thanks!

[HCMarkus]

Another guide:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac+mini+L ... ent/115309

[mikehalloran]

The i7 will shine when you are opening a large project. I have a 2 hour test file that I converted to Logic and took to the Apple Store to check.

It's probably no longer the 25 minute difference that it was when I A/B'd on my 2010 i7 (3 minutes) vs my 2011 i5 (28 minutes) but it was enough so that opening on a 2017 iMac i7 (2 minutes) vs an i5 (8 minutes) it was still quite noticeable.

My iMac Pro loads the original DP file in 35 seconds. The Logic version in 62 seconds.

[westla]

First off, thanks for all the great help.

So my current 2009 Mac Pro, is only slightly (and I mean slightly) sluggish on the largest file I've woken on in the last year or so.

I have a 2009 MacPro 2x2.26 Quad-core Intel Xeon

Here are the benchmark scores for the Mac mini's I'm considering (plus my current MacPro for reference)

Geekbench 4 (multi core)

Current Mac Pro - 11,701

Mac Mini i5 - 20,126

Mac Mini i7 - 24,072

So I'm wondering if the i5 would be more than enough for me?

[mikehalloran]

So I'm wondering if the i5 would be more than enough for me?

Sure. Why not? A basic entry level MacBook will run DP. As well as your 2009? I wouldn't bet on that.

OTOH, there is no way that you can rephrase that question that would get me to agree that an i5 is enough for me.

Geekbench and DP performance have little to do with each other. No amount of posting numbers will ever convince me otherwise. I've worked on too many Macs over the years to fall for that nonsense. When in the market as I was a few months ago, I took test files in and timed them.

[HCMarkus]

You will use what you buy, and probably be happy either way! But I'd still get the i7.

[bayswater]

The i7 will be useful when there are a lot of VIs. In my tests I didn't see a lot of difference for the type of project you describe.

Would that be VI's housed on the mac mini, or would it also include VI's housed on another PC?

Thanks!

If the VIs are hosted on another computer, I doubt it would make a lot of difference.

My test run has 32 instances of Kontakt playing 128 MIDI tracks, with all 128 active all the time. It also has 384 audio tracks all active, and all with an EQ on the first insert. It uses about 40-60% of the capacity on the Mini i7 with 32G RAM in DP. The same song in Logic used little less on a i7. I have all the VI libraries on an SSD connected over TB3 -- that probably helps. A Logic demo song bloated out to the same general size used more on a demo i5 in the Apple store, but still ran. (All buffers maxed out).

Of course these tests are silly, but they say that for my use, maybe 24 tracks with commonly used EQs Comps and reverbs, and the occasional 60-70 orchestral template, the Mini, iwhatever chip is good enough. My bet is that, unless you're scoring the next Star Wars, these processors are fast enough, and that memory and RAM are most likely to be the critical roadblocks.