Luminous Landscape Forum

Equipment & Techniques => Computers & Peripherals => Topic started by: HSakols on July 26, 2012, 01:53:32 pm

Title: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: HSakols on July 26, 2012, 01:53:32 pm
Will a new Mac Mini with 8 gigabytes of RAM adequately run using Lightroom 4 and Photoshop 5?  Also I would use it with a NEC P221w monitor.
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: Ken Bennett on July 26, 2012, 02:56:19 pm
I'm running LR4.1 and Photoshop CS5 on a new Macbook Air with 8GB of RAM. I got the i7 processor upgrade, too, which appears to be worthwhile. It's quick enough for me processing lots of 5D2 and 1D4 images.

Does the Mac Mini have the latest i7 processors?
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: lfeagan on July 26, 2012, 05:31:38 pm
Adequately, yes. Blazingly fast = no. I suspect there will be a quad-core Mac Mini with the non-Intel graphics coming out in the near future. It has been quite a while since the last update to the Mini. Specifically, it has been 372 days according to the MacRumors buyers guide (http://buyersguide.macrumors.com/).
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: michswiss on July 26, 2012, 11:01:08 pm
Yeah, I'm waiting on the next version of the Mini myself.  I'm hoping for a dedicated graphics card as well as a 16GB memory option.  I currently have a 17" MBP with the C2D 2.66Ghz processor hooked up to an external monitor.   My longer-term plan is to look closely at whatever Apple does with the MacPro next year, so I'm looking to get two years out of the Mini before probably moving it into more of a server / HTPC role.
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: lfeagan on July 27, 2012, 01:23:30 am
I should have mentioned that I have a machine that is nearly identical to the current Mini in performance. I have one of the 2.66 GHz Core i7 MacBook Pros from 2010 (which is a dual-core Hyper-threaded to appear as four) and I have 8GB RAM. The only bump I might have vs a standard Mini is a 256GB Crucial M3 SSD. I use LR4.1 and PS6. And I have a D800E. The performance is what I would term "acceptable". Imports where I convert to DNG do take quite a while and all 4 cores are consumed the entire time. I would say around 10 minutes for 400 photos, as a rough estimate. I received a new MBP Retina today, with the bumped CPU and memory. I haven't yet pulled in my catalog on it, but I highly suspect it will trounce my older MBP simply from the benchmarks I have run on its memory and CPU subsystems.
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: alifatemi on July 28, 2012, 01:52:26 am
Will a new Mac Mini with 8 gigabytes of RAM adequately run using Lightroom 4 and Photoshop 5?  Also I would use it with a NEC P221w monitor.

I like the idea very much if you are seeking a very neat and practical solution and ready to sacrifice a little( if at all for this line of work ) on speed. read this interesting article:

http://www.shutterbug.com/content/2011-apple-mac-mini-affordable-dream-computer-photographers
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: JBerardi on July 29, 2012, 10:02:14 am
I was actually about to start a new thread on this very subject, but since this one is already here I guess I'll piggyback...

This is what I'm considering:

Mac Mini server, 2.0ghz i7 quad-core
+ 16 gig RAM upgrade
+ 256 gig SSD upgrade

I'd add the RAM/SSD myself, not via Apple. Probably the Samsung 830, sounds like it's well behaved under OSX and good with incompressible data. And I've got a local independent Apple shop that can swap drives for me if I decide it's too fiddly for me to deal with myself.

The one thing I'm hung up on is, the "server" Mac Mini doesn't have a dedicated graphics card, just the Intel on-board graphics (HD 3000). Would it be wiser to get a dual-core i7 at a higher clock speed and with a dedicated video card? I'd still do the same RAM/SSD upgrades. Does the graphics card really matter? LR4 performance is the most important thing, and running Photoshop well would be a plus. Compatibility with future versions of LR is also a concern.

Edit: I'm not using a D800 or anything crazy like that either, most images would be in the 10-16mpx range.
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: lfeagan on July 29, 2012, 12:03:11 pm
The next bump in the Mini is going to be more appealing than the current iteration. If you can wait, I would. For starters, in the quad-core variant you will have the Intel HD4000 graphics, which are greatly faster than the HD3000 in the current server iteration. USB 3.0 will also be in place. Those are the for-sures.

I personally believe they will go with 2x ThunderBolt ports instead of 1x ThunderBolt and 1x HDMI. When the 2011 Mini was released the chip for enabling dual outputs, Light Ridge, was expensive and ran fairly hot. The new part, Cactus Ridge 4C, lowers the power consumption and price thanks to a 36% die shrink (from 15x15 mm to 12x12 mm).
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: JBerardi on July 29, 2012, 12:36:49 pm
The next bump in the Mini is going to be more appealing than the current iteration. If you can wait, I would. For starters, in the quad-core variant you will have the Intel HD4000 graphics, which are greatly faster than the HD3000 in the current server iteration. USB 3.0 will also be in place. Those are the for-sures.

I personally believe they will go with 2x ThunderBolt ports instead of 1x ThunderBolt and 1x HDMI. When the 2011 Mini was released the chip for enabling dual outputs, Light Ridge, was expensive and ran fairly hot. The new part, Cactus Ridge 4C, lowers the power consumption and price thanks to a 36% die shrink (from 15x15 mm to 12x12 mm).

Well, I really can't. I have to buy something in the very near future because I'm running LR4 on an old Core 2 Duo MBP and it is killing me. I know the current Mini may well be obsoleted in the near future, but that's not really my concern. My concern is that this machine will or will not meet my specific needs for the next couple of years. And my specific question there is, just how much does it's crappy GPU hurt me?
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: Slobodan Blagojevic on July 29, 2012, 01:33:44 pm
There's been a tidal wave of complaints that Apple is neglecting professionals (photo and video) when it comes to computers and especially desktops. Perhaps this chart can help understand why (hint: rapidly declining importance in overall revenue):

Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: lfeagan on July 29, 2012, 07:33:25 pm
Slobodan, just because Mac represents a smaller overall percentage doesn't mean that Apple isn't focused on growing Mac revenue. From the same page:

So, while I agree that Apple hasn't pushed updates to the Mac Pro as quickly as I and others would like, they are not disengaging from the broader desktop/Mac market. The chart you referenced aggregates all Mac sales. I also long for a note-worthy Mac Pro update. The new MacBook Pro is pretty smoking fast though.
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: alifatemi on July 30, 2012, 01:50:14 am
I believe Mac ignores professional and mostly aimed to consumer and mass market to gain more market share from competitors but in pro sector its shame that I believe Apple has or almost has forgotten it, one example, Windows now supports 10 bit display output since 2 years ago but Apple doesn't. Or Mac Pro now is way older than even Mac laptops range. Why!? because Pro sector now is so small that it is not worthy for Apple, business wise, to put his resources on it when they can earn billions on iPad, iPod, iPhone, Mac Air go figure. Pro people have to setup their own hardware accordingly these days. Even mini is old and it seems it is forgotten and neglected by Apple.
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: BJL on July 31, 2012, 01:16:23 pm
I'm running LR4.1 and Photoshop CS5 on a new Macbook Air ... It's quick enough for me processing lots of 5D2 and 1D4 images.

Does the Mac Mini have the latest i7 processors?
The top-of-the-line Mac Mini has an i7 processor, and seems to offer better specs all round that the top-of-the-line Air.

I am hoping that people who want to choose their own monitor, maybe because even the best iMac monitor is not good enough, will soon be well served by a next generation Mac Mini that can in many cases do what used to require a Mac Pro. For many of us, high-speed external interfaces like Thunderbolt have made most internal expandability irrelevant: I would rather add drive space, disc-writers and such in external units, which then carry over to future computers. (Future high-end monitors might have graphics cards in them, matched to the monitor's needs.)
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: John.Murray on July 31, 2012, 01:27:52 pm
Well, I really can't. I have to buy something in the very near future because I'm running LR4 on an old Core 2 Duo MBP and it is killing me. I know the current Mini may well be obsoleted in the near future, but that's not really my concern. My concern is that this machine will or will not meet my specific needs for the next couple of years. And my specific question there is, just how much does it's crappy GPU hurt me?

For Lightroom & CS5, it doesn't.  I recently purchased a dead Mac Pro from Chris Sanderson, he replaced it with a quad-core mini, presumably for video editing / rendering chores.....

I'll have to disagree with the speculation regarding additional Thunderbolt ports; adding an additional 40Gbps I/O to the existing PCIe bus makes no sense, let alone the cost - there is no savings whatsoever on cables as well - remember TB will daisy chain 6 devices...

I think you'll be fine....
Title: Re: Mac Mini with Lightroom 4, Photoshop 5, and Nikon D800 images
Post by: lfeagan on July 31, 2012, 04:13:02 pm
I'll have to disagree with the speculation regarding additional Thunderbolt ports; adding an additional 40Gbps I/O to the existing PCIe bus makes no sense, let alone the cost - there is no savings whatsoever on cables as well - remember TB will daisy chain 6 devices...

The price difference between a 2C and 4C Cactus Ridge chip is around ten dollars. Dropping the HDMI port in favor of a second TB port would increase output versatility--you could have two displays of a variety of types (VGA, HDMI, DVI, DisplayPort). The MBP Retina has dual TB ports and it is very handy for hooking up to two DisplayPort monitors (NEC PA301Ws in my case).