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2011 Mac Mini vs iMac - my findings
eoren1
Registered Users Posts: 2,391 Major grins
I had been using a 2007 Macbook attached to a 20” IPS monitor for working in Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5 but was finding significant slow downs with local adjustments in LR and panorama creation or filter use in CS5 not to mention a general slowness to the system as a whole.
I started off by purchasing the Mini and found significant benefit but ended up running into some problems with use of graduated filters in LR and, again, panorama creation in CS5 taking longer than expected. This did not change after upgrading to 8 gigs RAM.
I decided to return the Mini and purchase an iMac instead. I have now had a chance to use LR3 and CS5 and found them to be markedly faster on this machine compared to the Mini. Specific benchmarks are below:
I calibrated the iMac with the Monaco Optix DTP94 and Coloreyes Display pro. I did this on the iMac with Snow Leopard since the software has not been upgraded to work on Lion yet. The average and max delta E astonished me at 0.25 and 0.47 at a luminance of 110. Compared an image on the calibrated monitor to a print and they matched up very nicely. I also see no real reflections but my office is set so the two windows are on either side of the desk it sits on and the light is at an angle away from the screen. No issues compared to the NEC Multisync IPS monitor I used before.
Have to say that I was happy with the Mini initially but quickly hit its limitations. It’s a fantastic device for the form factor but the iMac handily beats it. As the megapixels on SLRs increase, I think the iMac offers more assurance of being able to keep up with these file sizes and handling the complex renderings of LR and CS5.
Hope this helps anyone else specifically in this situation and looking at these two models.
I started off by purchasing the Mini and found significant benefit but ended up running into some problems with use of graduated filters in LR and, again, panorama creation in CS5 taking longer than expected. This did not change after upgrading to 8 gigs RAM.
I decided to return the Mini and purchase an iMac instead. I have now had a chance to use LR3 and CS5 and found them to be markedly faster on this machine compared to the Mini. Specific benchmarks are below:
I calibrated the iMac with the Monaco Optix DTP94 and Coloreyes Display pro. I did this on the iMac with Snow Leopard since the software has not been upgraded to work on Lion yet. The average and max delta E astonished me at 0.25 and 0.47 at a luminance of 110. Compared an image on the calibrated monitor to a print and they matched up very nicely. I also see no real reflections but my office is set so the two windows are on either side of the desk it sits on and the light is at an angle away from the screen. No issues compared to the NEC Multisync IPS monitor I used before.
Have to say that I was happy with the Mini initially but quickly hit its limitations. It’s a fantastic device for the form factor but the iMac handily beats it. As the megapixels on SLRs increase, I think the iMac offers more assurance of being able to keep up with these file sizes and handling the complex renderings of LR and CS5.
Hope this helps anyone else specifically in this situation and looking at these two models.
Eyal
My site | Non-MHD Landscapes |Google+ | Twitter | Facebook | Smugmug photos
My site | Non-MHD Landscapes |Google+ | Twitter | Facebook | Smugmug photos
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