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Upgrading iMac


Albanil7

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Hi, i'm a new member here. I have been running Logic Pro X for quite a few years. Over the last 3 years it's gone from sporadic use to daily use. Recently i've run into regular trouble with system overload. The projects have gone from a dozen tracks with 40 Logic plug-ins where I never encountered any problems, to more recently running 30 tracks (mostly audio) with around 100 internal Logic Plug-ins. I'm presently using a late 2013 iMac w/ 3.2 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5, 8GB 1600 MHz DDR3 RAM, 1TB 7200 SATA Drive. I'm looking at a late 2018 Mac Mini w/ 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 6-Core, 16GB of 2666 MHz DDR4 RAM, 1 TB SSD. It's on sale for $1549. I've already got wireless keyboard and trackpad, so I'd need to buy a monitor. I'm anticipating a total investment of around $2000. Looking for feedback on 1) Are there are better options out there in that price range. 2) Is this upgrade enough to allow me to run 40-50 audio tracks & 100-150 Logic Plug-ins.

 

Thanks in advance for any feedback

 

kev

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I'm looking at a late 2018 Mac Mini w/ 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 6-Core, 16GB of 2666 MHz DDR4 RAM, 1 TB SSD. It's on sale for $1549

 

At this point you should consider the new Mac Mini M1, which is way more powerful than the 2018, and cheaper with the same specs:

 

https://www.apple.com/shop/buy-mac/mac-mini/apple-m1-chip-with-8-core-cpu-and-8-core-gpu-512gb#

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I'm looking at a late 2018 Mac Mini w/ 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7 6-Core, 16GB of 2666 MHz DDR4 RAM, 1 TB SSD. It's on sale for $1549

 

At this point you should consider the new Mac Mini M1, which is way more powerful than the 2018, and cheaper with the same specs

 

Thanks for your quick reply Triplets! I think I was concerned about the M1 being a new, unproven product. So to make sure I understand your advice:

1) an M1 upgraded with 16GB RAM and a 1 TB SSD is way more powerful than the late 2018 2.3 GHz i7 6 core with same RAM and SSD?

2) You've seen data that suggests it would have no problem running 50 audio tracks with 150 Logic internal plug-ins?

3) Would it safer to upgrade to 32GB RAM?

 

Thanks again Triplets!

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The M1 Mac Mini can have a maximum of 16GB of RAM. All of the tests I have seen videos of, or read about indicate that the M1 Macs (all of them) outperform EVERY Mac on single thread CPU - each channel in Logic gets put on a single thread, so that should be great. The internal SSD is supposed to massively outperform the SSD in previous Macs.

 

Remember that Apple has a generous return policy. If you get the Mac Mini (M1) and it can't perform as you want it to you can return it.

 

NB - my quad i7 MacBook Pro 16GB/512GB SSD works just fine with the giant demo projects in Logic, I expect the M1 to completely blow that performance away...

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Thanks so much Facej! I honestly did not know about Apple's generous return policy. In the past i've bought my Macs through other outlets and always knew what I was getting. I admittedly started researching this upgrade about a 3-4 weeks ago, and at the time I saw numerous posts suggesting to wait and see on the M1 processor. After reading Triplets message earlier today I researched again on YouTube, and was blown away by what I saw. One guys had a 100 mixed type tracks with 200 Space Designer plug-ins activated and it wasn't stressing the M1 Mac Mini at all :) That far exceeds any foreseeable needs in my little world of tracking and mixing :)

 

Thanks again ~

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