Mac Mini and recording???

C

Curse9

Member
Jun 10, 2008
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Germany
hello gyus,

i'm a long time pc user and have enough of the failures windows is presenting me again and again.
i want to buy a mac now. as i read a bit and searched ebay i found the imac (which are available from 2006 - 2008) and the mac mini with an intel chipset.
do you guys are experienced in recording with these computers? do you give me advice which one i should get to be happy with?

thx and peace

Curse
 
lack of expandability is the problem I think you will face with a mini, less so with the imac.

What is wrong with your PC? Because without wanting to start a mac vs. pc debate, macs arent just "better", they still go wrong and you may find that you could save a lot of money by repairing your PC or getting a better one.

If you absolutely want to go mac I think the Imac is a better choice.

Joe
 
The Mac Mini is a great computer. As always with computers, buy the fastest one you can afford. Upgrade the RAM to 4GB from OWC and you're in business. If you already have an LCD, and USB keyboard/mouse, you can get into a mac really cheap. I recommend everyone purchase "refurbished" Apple products, they carry the same warranty, and with each item I've gotten that has been refurbished I would swear it was brand new.

I don't see any advantage to getting an iMac, other than a GFX card, but macs are not for games. I also fail to see how the iMac is expandable. The internal 5400 RPM drive in the Mac Mini (same as MacBooks) is more than adequate, and will handle recording 16 tracks simultaneously without a problem, but an external FW drive is preferrable.
 
Well I dunno, it might be fine, I just remember hearing about the Macbook Pros having a crappy chipset for awhile, and I wasn't sure if maybe the Mac Minis also fell victim...
 
I'm not positive about the mac mini's but I'm pretty sure that the firewire chipset issue is only on the iMac, Macbook, and Macbook Pro's built after oct. 07. My guess is that since the mac mini hasn't been updated in a real long time that it would have the TI chipset, and not the agere/lucent. The best way to see for sure though is to hold cmd+s at start up and see if the firewire says lucent, if it says lucent then you could run into problems with some interfaces.
 
I used to have a pre-Oct '07 Mac Mini and it was a great computer.

I made the switch to a post-Oct '07 MacBook for portability reasons, and initially had some problems with PT using a ProFire 2626, but after installing updated M-Audio drivers and upgrading the RAM (1GB is not enough), it has been really solid. I never had problems with Ableton, Reaper, or Garageband w/ the MacBook and FW devices, only nit-picky Pro Tools, but shit's all good now, so :headbang:

Edit: I can't believe 4GB of RAM for the MacBook is only $50 these days! How can you not?
 
Jesse Z said:
I don't see any advantage to getting an iMac, other than a GFX card, but macs are not for games. I also fail to see how the iMac is expandable. The internal 5400 RPM drive in the Mac Mini (same as MacBooks) is more than adequate, and will handle recording 16 tracks simultaneously without a problem, but an external FW drive is preferrable.
Click to expand...

I guess reading what I wrote again, my response was more of a backlash to the mac will fix it mentality.

I see your point and come to think of it the only thing the Imac has is the oppertunity to expand into a dual screen setup, which I like, but you were right.

Joe
 
Joematthews said:
I see your point and come to think of it the only thing the Imac has is the oppertunity to expand into a dual screen setup, which I like, but you were right.
Click to expand...

It's funny you say this, because I'm typing this on my MacBook expanded into a dual screen setup w/ a widescreen 22" LCD. No worries!
 
Checking back you appear to have a quad core PC with 2GB RAM - a huge amount of raw power over an imac let alone a mac mini. The mac isn't a utopia. If you want to run your DAW on the net maybe you should reconsider - dual boot ? run an old machine just to surf ? so you can run a pure DAW ? just throwing some stuff about to save you some cash further problems and the world some resources :)

By all means "switch" but don't think the grass is greener - those days have gone.

Pragmatism -
"But first, what is its purpose? What is it expected to accomplish? It is expected to bring to an end those prolonged disputes of philosophers which no observations of facts could settle, and yet in which each side claims to prove that the other side is in the wrong."
 
Using a mini with pro tools LE 7.4.2 and leopard 10.5.4.

Max the ram (2Gig) and get the quicker of the two versions (2.8GHZ). Its a great duo core machine that runs PT very well indeed.

Never had anyproblems with my external WD FW400 drive on my mini and tools.

Great machine that would recommend to anyone.

Can run 40 tracks and bout 70 RTAS plugins with no worrys at all

just my 2
 
AStudio said:
Max the ram (2Gig) and get the quicker of the two versions (2.8GHZ)...
Click to expand...

I think there're only two versions, Intel Core 2 Duo 1,83GHz and 2,0GHz... typo on that 2.8? ;)

I have two of them, they work fine and the portability factor is a plus for sure, when you're going to visit studio/band buddies. get a wireless key+mouse and you'll need only a monitor there.

this bag comes pretty handy:
http://www.marware.com/PRODUCTS/Specials/Sportfolio-for-Mac-mini
 
2000ContourSVT said:
I'm not positive about the mac mini's but I'm pretty sure that the firewire chipset issue is only on the iMac, Macbook, and Macbook Pro's built after oct. 07. My guess is that since the mac mini hasn't been updated in a real long time that it would have the TI chipset, and not the agere/lucent. The best way to see for sure though is to hold cmd+s at start up and see if the firewire says lucent, if it says lucent then you could run into problems with some interfaces.
Click to expand...

And not necessarily so, because at least my early 08 2,5ghz MBP has a TI chipset, and I know a few others who have it on their early 08 models as well.

I agree, the grass is not greener. I mainly made the jump because the early 08 Macbook Pro's were sold for so much cheaper because the new models came out (which don't even have better specs, except the new GPU and DDR3 instead of DDR2). Otherwise, it's been a nice experience, but I haven't really found any good free vst's etc. which I used a lot back when I was still using a PC :erk: so be prepared to pay more, it's harder to find good free alternatives to stuff on a Mac.

I'd wait a bit, I hear the Mac Mini is going to get an update soon. The older ones are probably going to be really cheap after that. I also hear they're going to stop making them though, but that'd make them cheap as well.
 
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