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I would like to know if anyone uses a Mac MIni for lightroom . I would like to purchase a new mini with the 2.6GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 processor, and 8-16 GB of memory, and 256 ssd for $900. Any advice would be appreciated.
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It should work fine. The current Mac mini crop hasn't been updated for a while though and so it is somewhat underpowered for current standards. You should generally get at least 16 gigs for Lightroom use and 256 Gb is a very small hard disk so you will quickly need an external disk for any serious digital photography work.
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Jao, thank's for the reply. I was mainly concerned with the dual-core processor, most of what I have read sates that a quad core is the minimum you would want for photoshop or lightroom, Do you think the i7 is a worth wile upgrade for $300? As far as the HD, I will be using external HD.
Regards
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Actually there is a strange problem when you have more than 4 cores where Lightroom can become really slow. People with big Xeon machines are having real issues. So it actually is more like 4 cores max. But an i7 would be a good idea. It really depends on what kind of raw files you're going to be running through it. If you have at most 20 MP or so it won't make a really big difference. But if you have 35 MP files or more it will be very noticeable. Also a good gpu makes a big difference if you run LR CC 2015/6. However you can't upgrade this on the mini I believe.
If you run an external hard disk, a 256 GB internal is very doable.
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Glad I ask you about i7 vs 15, now I am using a D200 which has 10mp, I am waiting for a replacement for the D810 which as of this date has 36mp, so I guess I am better off spending the extra $300 for the i7 because that is a big raw file compared to my d200. Thank you for your expertise in this matter. I have to look at the numbers, I might be better off with and imac.
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Yeah probably a good bet. By the time you add a good screen, keyboard and mouse, you might end up over the price of an iMac or a MacBook Pro. The D200 files are not going to be very taxing on the low-end system but D810 files definitely need a beefy machine and enough memory.