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View Full Version : Mac Mini as a Second Computer


chaos123x
2005-08-15, 13:41
Hello:

I am condsidering buying a second mac to bring with me to work, and hook up to a monitor and stuff with KVM cables. I do allot of video work and most of it is done on my home system (Dual 2.7 powermac, 4gig ram, nvdia 6800 card).

I am running Final Cut Studio at home, but at work they use a PC with Edius.... I do not want to use Edius! or Windows for that matter... and I would like to have a system I can bring to work.

The problem is that a nice powerbook with all the extras will run me about $3,000.00 dollars!!! and they have the same SLOW g4 chips in them as a Mac mini, Emac, or ibook. After spending ALL the money i have, this year on my Powermac setup, I do not wish to spend another 3 grand.

So heres the question... The Mac Minis have been slightly upgraded with a new videocard the ATI 9550.... the 9550 is a core image capable card... and it really is just a 9600 card just slightly clocked down.

Will the new Mac Minis run Motion? I mean the 9600 is on the compatiblity chart and the 9550 is not... But then again it is Core Image compatible.. so WTF?

Can any body see if Motion will open on the new Mac minis?

Or least run the compabilty checker on it?

I just need it to open... I will be doing 99% of my work at home, and 100% of the rendering and at home... At work I will just be making straight cuts when to fix errors I might have missed in FCP. I wont really be running motion on the Mini I just need to be able to have the graphics I made show up in FCP.

My friends powerbook is a few years old with a 32mb video card and it runs motion pretty FAST and it only has a 1.33ghz processer.

Mugge
2005-08-15, 13:46
The Mini didn't get the ATI 9550 GPU. Only the iBook did.

chaos123x
2005-08-15, 13:56
So the Mini has the same graphics processer? What the hell did they update?

Luca
2005-08-15, 13:58
Yeah, and while the mini is indeed small, it's going to be a big pain to bring to work every day. Remember that you have the computer, the power brick, and any necessary cables. It's a lot to carry even if you are going to be keeping your keyboard, mouse, and monitor at home and using a different set at work. Plus you have to remember that you're going to have to go through the ordeal of shutting it down and plugging/unplugging all the cables every time you want to move it.

Now, if you're keeping it set up at your desk at work (your post seems to imply that you're planning on moving it back and forth but on second thought, maybe not), then it might be a good idea. It would certainly be a lot cheaper than getting a PowerBook, and it would be almost as fast (though Motion generally is GPU-intensive, and that's the one area where PowerBooks significantly outperform the Mac mini).

Have you considered using some kind of a remote desktop thing to use your PowerMac remotely, through the PC? That tends to be kind of slow too, but it might just work. I don't know much about this, though, other than that it's possible.

Oh, and another little detail... there aren't any PowerBooks with 32 MB graphics cards and 1.33 GHz processors. All 1.33 GHz PowerBooks came with 64 MB graphics.

Mugge
2005-08-15, 13:59
Just the RAM, as far as I know.

:no:

geneman
2005-08-15, 16:10
They also made wireless (Wi-Fi and bluetooth) standard (i.e. $100 price reduction)