Time to upgrade my Windows 11 machine to which Mac mini ?????

[tpittman]

OP here. Lots of good info here. I;m def gonna buy a Mac mini just as soon as the m5 comes out and I can see what happens in the used market. I may just buy a new m5...if I get a few years out of it, it will be a very cheap quality investment. I;ll use it just for music production like I do with my Win11 workstation.

One thing that baffles me is how people are so into how little desktop space the Mac Mini's take up. workstations take up no desktop space being a tower. I;ll probably just keep the Mac mini on top of the tower..ha

My plan is to buy a Mac mini and keep the workstation cooking and use that as a file server (not for music). It's got several ssd's in it. It dual boots into Win11 and Linux Zorin. I;ll likely remove the windows from it at that point as it will have no value. I'll just use the Mac mini for making music like I do with the workstation. I;ll get an enormous performance boost and no longer have to deal w. Microsoft any more

In my case the tower was not really the big issue per say. It was the cords, cables, usb cables, speakers etc. By moving the tower across the room and installing the mac mini freed up valuable room behind by desk / mixing board. I was able to re-route the cable(s) way more easily. I could have re-routed other ways but this was the easiest and quickest in my case. I have enjoyed all the info that was presented in this thread. I had been and will still continue to look at the 2003 mac mini. If I am thinking of the correct unit it as 4 Thunderbolt 4 ports - M2 Pro as 4 TB ports. M2 has 2 TB Ports My sight of range is anywhere from 2003 - 2006 mac mini. I want to buy new so 2005 or 2006 are in the forefront.

 

[Jemusic]

Consider a second hand Mac Studio also perhaps a slightly older model such as the M2 MAX like mine. (or M3 etc) They are still very very powerful indeed. The Mac Mini runs a little warm I hear but the Mac Studio is totally stone cold even on the hottest day. (the fans on mine have never come on) It has more connectivity also. I recently mixed a pop track with 500 tracks and had plugins on most tracks and it did not even break a sweat. The Mac OS is sublime and beautiful. Once you get into it you will never go back. Plus you can use multiple audio interfaces connected to it at the same time which Windows for some reason still cannot do.

The Mac Pro has been discontinued because the Mac Studio basically replaces it. It was good for people who needed the extra slots for extra cards to go in eg video editors etc. But performance wise it was no faster than the Mac Studio.

There is also another great option. A new range of very affordable Apple laptops are coming with M4 M5 chips also. Storage is easily solved with a drive enclosure. You can put multiple HDD drives in there as well as SSD drives. I am running a 5 drive enclosure connected to the USB 3 front connector. (eg 10 GBits/sec) You can also plug a SSD direct to the Thunderbolt 4 ports for blistering speed. (40 GBits/sec) You can use the SSD for recording and the normal hard drives for synth libraries and backup. A drive enclosure minimises the use of the internal SSD. A 512G or 1TB will last a very long time before it gets even close to being full.

 

[tpittman]

Consider a second hand Mac Studio also perhaps a slightly older model such as the M2 MAX like mine. (or M3 etc) They are still very very powerful indeed. The Mac Mini runs a little warm I hear but they will last a very long time before it gets even close to being full.

Yes, Mac Studio is in my lineup also. I will need to get both items soon, Mac mini / studio and or new or a newer, used
Laptop. Appreciate the heads up on your system(s) My old 2011 Macbook pro just simply cannot keep up any longer.
I installed Open Core so I can run the newest Fender Studio but it's really not cutting it on Instrument track

There is also another great option. A new range of very affordable Apple laptops are coming with M4 M5 chips also. Storage is easily solved with a drive enclosure.

Are you saying these laptops can be opened and added drive installed or you talking about an external device?

 

[tpittman]

Yes, Mac Studio is in my lineup also. I will need to get both items soon, Mac mini / studio and or new or a newer, used
Laptop. Appreciate the heads up on your system(s) My old 2011 Macbook pro just simply cannot keep up any longer.
I installed Open Core so I can run the newest Fender Studio but it's really not cutting it on Instrument track

Are you saying these laptops can be opened and added drive installed or you talking about an external device?

HaHa, you obviously said "Drive Enclosure" Got it now

 

[Jemusic]

The drive enclosure is external and connects to either USB C or the thunderbolt rear ports. (Yottamaster is a good example) On a laptop it would simply connect also. You don't have to turn the drive enclosure on either for certain types of work that only involve the internal SSD in your computer. You could take the enclosure with you anywhere also and connect it to another computer even.

Also I have my SATA drives to go to sleep also. Once you load up a big Omnisphere or Soundpaint patch into RAM (and by the way even on a 7200 rpm HDD that is still almost instant!) you don't need the drives any more. You will extend their life a lot. When you go to save etc they whizz up to speed fast. I have been doing large multitrack sessions also on the 7200 rpm drives without issue just playing perfectly. For video work though getting a thunderbolt 4 SSD is the go and connect it at the rear and you are away with massive speed etc.. Video editing is instant and rendering is also very quick.

They are now saying SATA HDD drives are reliable and very good for backing up. In my Win 98 machine the two SATA 7200 rpm drives in there are still working perfectly. eg after 28 years!