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[monkfish]

Hey all.

I'm currently running LPX on a 2012 quad-core Mac Mini (last of the good ones). I'm looking to upgrade. I write film and media music and run large orchestral libraries from an external Thunderbolt RAID. I would like to be able to run 3 displays, which I already have so I'm not looking at iMacs. I'm considering buying a new Mac Mini and maxing out the RAM, but would I be better looking at an older, secondhand trashcan Mac Pro? I have £1500 or so to play with. Thoughts?

[monkfish]

Or should I stay with my current Mini until next year when the new new Mac Pro hits, pushing the prices older models down? In which case I could buy a cheap secondhand Macbook Pro for on-the-go use in addition to my main set up. Decisions, decisions...

[ConcertinaChap]

I don't think I'd go the wastebin route unless you can get one very cheap. Once the new Pro is out I wouldn't be surprised if Apple didn't support the old Pro for much longer through OS upgrades. I think I'd wait until new Minis start appearing as refurbs and go for one of them. They look a nice bit of kit, though expensive.

CC

[johnny h]

The current Pro is an old design. Only get one if you can find one for rock bottom prices. The Mini 6-core is the one to get. The upcoming Pro is likely to be great but will come with a price tag to match.

[ConcertinaChap]

They're bringing in some good (if pricey*) machines right now what with the iMac Pro and the new Mini. Pity it didn't rub off on the team developing the Macbook Pro.

CC

* good if pricey is OK by me and really how I expect Apple to operate. Of course I'd like good and cheap, but if that means putting up with the omnishambles that is Windows 10 then I'd have some serious thinking to do.

[johnny h]

They're bringing in some good (if pricey*) machines right now what with the iMac Pro and the new Mini. Pity it didn't rub off on the team developing the Macbook Pro.

CC

* good if pricey is OK by me and really how I expect Apple to operate. Of course I'd like good and cheap, but if that means putting up with the omnishambles that is Windows 10 then I'd have some serious thinking to do.

To be fair, the MacBook 13 is now quad core, the 15 available in six core and they’ve finally broken the 16GB limit. On the other hand, the butterfly keyboard is absolute shite and the touchbar is a tacky, useless gimmick.

[ConcertinaChap]

The reason I'd steer clear of the Macbook Pro is the obsession with making it as thin as possible. It seems to me this is fundamentally incompatible with giving a "Pro" (i.e. powerful, usable and with a decent quota of ports) spec. There will always be problems with the platform until they give up on this.

Fortunately the fixation was not shared by the Mini developers.

CC

[Mellodian]

I have both. Started with a new Mac Mini and it seemed decent for a while, but quickly outgrew it. Purchased a refurbished Pro for less than $2K USD and added a good bit of RAM to it. Very happy now.

Yes, a new Pro design is forthcoming, but I prefer to save a lot of money by avoiding the cutting edge. My past experience with Mac is that your purchase will be good for several years to come.

Hope this helps.