Replace Mac Mini With?

[Photolandscape]

I have a 2014 Mac Mini, 8GB RAM, 1 TB internal drive that is only 35% full. Running latest version of Mojave. I run a BenQ 27" LCD monitor, which I finally have calibrated very nicely. I store my photo files on a G-Tech Raid (it's at about 50% of capacity). I use Adobe CS Photoshop and have lots of peripherals--Epson 3880, Epson V700 scanner and have 5 older SATA external drives which are typically plugged into my two USB hubs (BUS) but aren't turned on.

I typically shoot 5000-10000 shots a year with my Leica, but recently started using a Hasselblad X1D, which produces files of around 145MB each. Even well before I bought the Hasselblad, the computer seems to have grown slower and slower by the month when working on image files. Lots of beach balls, not much action. It can take minutes to process a change or save a file in CS. It's really hampering my work flow and I have lots of images to work on and print for an upcoming show, so time is of the essence.

I have been on the phone with Apple to see if they could assist, but they had me run Malware and I ran Disk Utility and Drive Genius 5 (probably the worst user interface I've seen in years) but no improvement. I can't add RAM to my Mac Mini unfortunately.

I dread the thought of making a change and setting up a new machine, but am willing to consider it. What would you recommend?

[BobShaw]

I dread the thought of making a change and setting up a new machine, but am willing to consider it. What would you recommend?

Why. Setting up an Apple computer is the simplest thing.
1. Make a Time Machine backup
2. Buy new machine
3. Start up new machine
4. When asked connect Time Machine backup and import everything.

A few hours later you will exactly the same machine that you had before.

Unfortunately on that model Mac mini you can not increase the RAM. That is a shame as I have a 2010 Mac Mini with 16GB Ram.
You could put in an SSD but I doubt that would make any improvement.

I suggest just getting any Mac Mini or iMac with at least 24G RAM and an SSD drive of 512G. Restore yours onto it and then sell the old Mac Mini.

[Joe Towner]

SSD upgrade would make a huge improvement to the current setup.  Photoshop would love one as the scratch disk, as I think it's currently using the 1tb internal that everything else is using.  OWC kit for this is $140 https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYMM14UE1TB/
 
One thing I would do is unplug as many of the USB hubs & drives as possible and see how the performance works.  A single USB2 device anywhere in the chain can make things really slow, even if powered off.

Going the path of a new Mac Mini would be a good long term solution, but you're looking at over $1,500 just for the unit (i7 & 512gb NVMe drive) and doing the RAM after market ($200 for 32gb).  I don't know how to value your time, but the time to get it calibrated again needs to be considered, plus all the adapters for USB-C to USB-A.

Personally, I'd do the SSD upgrade to get thru the show, and hopefully pull enough extra sales from the show to purchase the new Mac.

[plugsnpixels]

The older Mac Mini's are dogs, no matter what. SSD might help (I have small SSD in a 2008 MBP for fun and it is very spiffy), but better to get rid of the thing and move on.

Apple should not have wasted your time with diagnostics... The old Mini is what it is.

[lhodaniel]

Apple simply does not offer any decent computer for anyone who does not wish to have a built-in display. I looked at adding a Mini with eGPU to augment my 2015 rMBP. I read of too many headaches with eGPU's and the cost was still 1.5 to 2X over going back to PC's. I've been back on Windows for 6 months and have had no more (probably fewer) OS hiccups than MacOS. I have also dodged the Catalina compatibility fiasco.

Lloyd

[kers]

Apple simply does not offer any decent computer for anyone who does not wish to have a built-in display. I looked at adding a Mini with eGPU to augment my 2015 rMBP. I read of too many headaches with eGPU's and the cost was still 1.5 to 2X over going back to PC's. I've been back on Windows for 6 months and have had no more (probably fewer) OS hiccups than MacOS. I have also dodged the Catalina compatibility fiasco.

Lloyd

I understand- it was the reason for me to go to a Hackintosh. Now i have a kind of old Macpro with new harware using OSX.
I can put 10 harddisks in it and three NVME bars + 128GB ram. It even has Firewire! and a DVD writer. It has a 10 core i9 running at 4.5 kHZ
I like OSX so Windows was not an option for me.
About Catalina- That is for me a headache as well- i run some programs that are 32bit and very basic to me. One of them is Media Pro that is now end of life.

Apple does not built these very capable computers anymore it is iMac- mac mini or the very very expensive Mac Pro that is slower than the imac unless you spend 15.000 €

[plugsnpixels]

Pieter, I agree that the Hackintosh route is probably one mid- to high-end users must take, unless you have spare cash to burn.

I'd love to see a pic of your rig and a description of the type of work you do and some benchmarks!

I have a 2011 build i7 Hackintosh in a G5 case running Mojave, Win10 and Deepin Linux (my tinker machine, though I actually end up using it for various tasks on occasion).

[rdonson]

If you like the Mac Mini footprint take a look at the new Mac Mini.  You can get a lot of power in it depending on your bank account.

https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/

[kers]

If you like the Mac Mini footprint take a look at the new Mac Mini.  You can get a lot of power in it depending on your bank account.

https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/

The problem with the mac mini is - no choice for a solid GPU. You have to take the e-GPU route.
The problem with the iMac is- You also get a screen - if you want it or not- and the very nice looking machine has a problem with cooling when things get rough.
Then it just lowers the speed to stay within limits.
- The old MacPro 2012 Box is just ideal, but old fashion according to Apple.
At Apple they have a designteam that puts looks before usability.
Our famous designer Rietveld designed very nice looking chairs, but they were not very comfortable to sit on.
His argument:  90% of the time you see a chair and only 10% of the time yoou sit on it.

[kers]

Pieter, I agree that the Hackintosh route is probably one mid- to high-end users must take, unless you have spare cash to burn.

I'd love to see a pic of your rig and a description of the type of work you do and some benchmarks!

I have a 2011 build i7 Hackintosh in a G5 case running Mojave, Win10 and Deepin Linux (my tinker machine, though I actually end up using it for various tasks on occasion).

some benchmarks

NVME   samsung  970 evo   2600 MB read/ write  (Blackmagic Disk Speed Test)
( in practice : a psb file is written to disk at about 1000-1500mb/sec

Geekbench 4.2.2

Name   Intel Core i9-7900X ( water cooled and running at max 4.5 kHZ)
Topology   1 Processor, 10 Cores, 20 Threads

5582
Single-Core Score
38442
Multi-Core Score

AMD Radeon RX 480 8GB-   ( mid range- enough for what i do)

OpenCL Score   52897
Metal Score   53342

[plugsnpixels]

Thank you for specs on the "Beast"!

[BJL]

If you like the Mac Mini footprint take a look at the new Mac Mini.  You can get a lot of power in it depending on your bank account.

https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/

The new Mac Mini certainly has its limits (as mentioned in other posts) but the current models offer very big improvements over the OP's 2014 Mini, so if that was almost getting the job done till recently a new Mini could be quit satisfactory, and that would be the most "conservative" option by staying with the same monitor and same OS.

[plugsnpixels]

One YouTube you can find videos of people comparing the new Mini (mostly unfavorably) to the Intel NUC

[Photolandscape]

Thanks for all the thought-provoking ideas. To save $$, I am sticking with my Mac Mini for now. I had two BUS hubs with roughly 10 peripherals plugged in and so I followed Joe’s advice and reduced the number down to 4 peripherals, and bought a pricey 8TB LaCie 2 Dock with Thunderbolt 3 that, with obscenely over-priced Apple cable and adapter ($80) allows me to plug into the Thunderbolt 2 port on the Mini. It all seems to run far quicker, though I occasionally get the Apple beach ball spinning longer than I’d like when processing a file. All in all, it’s much better.

SSD upgrade would make a huge improvement to the current setup.  Photoshop would love one as the scratch disk, as I think it's currently using the 1tb internal that everything else is using.  OWC kit for this is $140 https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/DIYMM14UE1TB/
 
One thing I would do is unplug as many of the USB hubs & drives as possible and see how the performance works.  A single USB2 device anywhere in the chain can make things really slow, even if powered off.

Going the path of a new Mac Mini would be a good long term solution, but you're looking at over $1,500 just for the unit (i7 & 512gb NVMe drive) and doing the RAM after market ($200 for 32gb).  I don't know how to value your time, but the time to get it calibrated again needs to be considered, plus all the adapters for USB-C to USB-A.

Personally, I'd do the SSD upgrade to get thru the show, and hopefully pull enough extra sales from the show to purchase the new Mac.

[plugsnpixels]

Another thought: Create a bootable external SSD HD and boot from that instead of the internal (clone your existing system with SuperDuper). That should give you better speed overall.