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Mac Mini
Greetings, all. I’m looking for a fairly inexpensive machine for home, so I can practice my chops with some older versions of Final Cut (haven’t bought it yet) and After Effects (version 6.5). I was leaning toward an old G5, but then someone steered me away from the G5 and suggested a Mac Mini. I looked up the specs on the Mini, and it seems adequate. Again, this is for practice so I can really cut my teeth on AE, but I’d really like to know what you guys think. I know rendering will be slow, but as long as these apps will run fine on it, I’m ok with that. Thanks.
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7 Replies
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I would strongly recommend against using AE on a mac mini. The biggest reason is that the mini has integrated graphics. If you are just trying to learn the program and are still budget minded, I’d go with an imac. It still won’t be ideal, but at least you will have a GPU to process the graphics.
If you are just using Final Cut and DV footage, the mini will work, although rendering will be pretty slow.
Brian
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It will work but be very slow. One because the processors are slow and two because anything before AE 8.0 will run in Rosetta on Mac OS 10 so it will be even slower.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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Gents, thanks for the info. Man, I was so close to pulling the trigger on that Mini.
What minimum system would you guys recommend to someone who’s fairly budget-minded? I just flat out cannot afford a new Mac Pro, as much as I’d love it, but I’m chomping at the bit here to start playing around with AE.
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There’s some scuttlebutt on the ‘net that the Mac Mini is being discontinued….
You didn’t hear it from me, but someone COULD go to insanelymac.com and learn how to make a hackintosh, or better yet, a dual boot hackintosh, so you can run all those windows only programs without a performance hit, or to make a non-OS X using spouse happy. It COULD be a great way to polish up skills/learn new programs/make family vids on your own time w/o spending a lot on hardware. You could even do it on an inexpensive laptop like a Toshiba Satellite that has the same specs of Macbook Pro from a year or so ago. You may need to thoroughly research the process and potential pitfalls, including how to get particular hardware not used by macs (like AMD processors, graphic cards, wireless adapters) to work, as well as workarounds for things like getting the computer to restart after it goes to sleep.
But of course, this is all theoretical…
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Wow Dennis, that sounds….well, dreadful. I’m not a Mac guy, I’ll say that up front. PC’s I can manipulate fairly well, but not so much with the Macs. You sound like you’ve done this a few dozen times or so, and thanks for the alternate solution, but I think I better stick to my original plan and just ask what my minimum Mac should be. (Translation: I’m a chicken-sh*t and can’t stomach investing any $ in a piecemeal system that may or may not work 🙂
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[Paul Campbell] ” I just flat out cannot afford a new Mac Pro, as much as I’d love it, but I’m chomping at the bit here to start playing around with AE.”
An iMac with AE 8.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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Walter, is it possible to add a 2nd monitor to an iMac, and run it in dual-monitor configuration? This iMac might be my answer. Is it safe to say that if it can handle AE8, it should be able to handle FCP? (or am I reaching here?)
Thanks!
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