Mac Mini Server QuadCore - Use as a Desktop?

[Mike Lewis]

Frank-

Now that you've had your Mac Mini setup for a few months, how do you like it? Would you do anything differently?

Mike Lewis

[Frank Petronio]

Hi, saw this resurrected. All is well, knock on wood. I've scanned and edited thousands of photos and have at least as many hours on it.

The only issues I have is that sometimes I loose the cursor between the two monitors and have to click out of Photoshop and back into it to regain the cursor (or maybe I just can't see a tiny grey cursor against a grey background, that happens too). Or I get wrong tool errors (paint brush becomes a hand tool, crop won't work, etc.) if I have been running Photoshop for a long time with lots of big files while simultaneously scanning and doing other tasks. I am not enough of a geek to understand why but both things probably have to do with the amount of video memory and it becoming fragmented until I restart. I suspect Adobe more than Apple is at fault since their apps shouldn't be failing, but it only happens occasionally and it isn't enough of a bother to get worked up over. It's also Apple's fault because the amount of video RAM is less than ideal but they figure you are using these things as servers, not for graphics, so I can't ding them too harshly.

I haven't looked at what is current recently to know if there are any improvements, I try not to dwell on what is current when I do not need another computer, otherwise I get tempted to buy more than I need. But maybe the newer ones have more video ram by now?

Frankly if I were doing it again I might just as well have gone in for a loaded, larger iMac... I think they are pretty nice, solid machines and it would have saved me a week of getting things sorted with this. So I saved a grand in price and spent a grand's worth of time (at least) dicking around... that's computers!

(The other good option in this range is a Powerbook with an external monitor, also a good choice but more expensive. If I shot a lot of digital and needed tethering then it would be a no-brainer.)

The bargain NEC monitors are still good, nice fairly even screens but even with calibration one is more/less green/magenta than the other, very slightly. I suspect better monitors also have these flaws and you just choose one to edit color on and the other for tools and other apps. Spanning Lightroom or Bridge over both doesn't work very practically, scrolling gets funky.

I don't follow the Mac press these days but it seems as though we all will be moving towards higher resolution displays, like the iPad and 13" MacBook Retina displays. This will obsolete this system when the larger Retina displays are possible and affordable but I bet they are still several years away. It will also be a huge pain as most web images will have to grow in resolution as well, and we'll be posting 2000-3000-pixel wide images online as normal practice soon enough. I've already made 2048-pixels my standard since they look good on the iPad 3 like that.

Nor have I gotten any Thunderport drives but in 3-4 years that should be sorted out better too. What is currently available is overpriced so I just used the port to drive a display instead (it can work that way) and use FireWire 800 for my external back up drives.

You can never have enough USB ports it seems, I have to switch a few odd things like 35mm scanners and the Quadtone RIP to my Epson but I can just do it from the wired keyboard I use (one advantage to the wired keyboards, plus they work when you reformat and boot the server from the internet.)

[Mike Lewis]

Thanks for the report. At some point my aging Mac Pro will need replacing, and at that time I may consider a Mac Mini as an alternative.

Mike Lewis

[vinny]

I've got the same mini as frank as well as one of the monitors. Great setup but I wish it had firewire 400 since that's what my hd's use. I use 800/400 adapters.