Space Pirate
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
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A friend has recently started making short little promo videos for a band some friends are in. He bought an iPhone since several of us use them. Now his girlfriend wants to get him a used Mac so he can work in a Mac environment.
She doesn't have a big budget but thinks she could swing a refurbished Mac Mini. What do you suppose are the lowest specs a non-computer user could get by with to make 1.5 minute iMovie files? I'm thinking $600 may be their upper limit? ... |
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¡Damned!
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Purgatory
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A 2018 Mini would do the trick, even an i3 as long as he's not expecting to real-time a 4K masterpiece. Stick to 1080p/24 and it'll be fine. Opt for a small internal system SSD to save cash and spend the extra on an external footage/scratch drive.
For example, this is pretty good starting point. Modern ports and everything so you're not dongling your cash away. User-upgradeable RAM. New, not refurbished. It's bare bones, and if I had to stay under $600 I'd opt for a footage drive over the RAM upgrade for now... but he'll definitely want that later. So it goes. |
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Mr. Vieira
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
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Everything 709 says, I'd say too. That should do the trick for the kind of projects they're wanting to do. And that you can open it up and add (affordable, reasonably-priced) third-party RAM down the road is very nice.
Get the barebones, stock machine for $469, add external storage (and RAM) as funds free up. Should be a nice little system. I see where OWC is selling 32GB RAM (two 16GB chips) for $159, so that's always something to check into when the time comes. Apple probably charges $600 for that. EDIT: I was being a bit joke-y/snarky, but I just checked and that's exactly what they charge to take the Intel-based Mac mini to 32GB RAM. |
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Space Pirate
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
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Are the modern Mac Minis even able to have their RAM upgraded?
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Space Pirate
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
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And the answer is YES!
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Mr. Vieira
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
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I don't think it's easy, or designed to be user-doable on the M1 Mac mini. Someone - chucker, ken, etc. - can confirm this. And the lone space grey Intel-based Mac mini starts at $1,099 (I didn't know that). |
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Lord of the Rant.
Formerly turtle2472 Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: Upstate South Carolina
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M1 is not upgradeable but the Intel one is.
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Space Pirate
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Atlanta
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Dang it. If I'd had time to look it up I'd have figured it out. Had to work some today.
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