Mini vs iMac

[dklassen]

I currently have a 4 year old 24" iMac 2.8GHz Core 2 Duo w/ 4GB of RAM. It's served me very well over the years and I LOVE the display... except for one thing. I've had the display replaced twice under warranty and now the 2nd one is having the same issues... this time out of warranty.

The issue is the screen develops brown and gray blotches and streaks. I've seen a few others with the same problem and it's coming back again with the second replacement.

So, I'm thinking about going with a Mini i7 w/ 8GB of ram and a decent 27" LED monitor.

The question is will I suffer any real world performance issues going to the mini? I'm not a gamer but do quite a bit of photo work (photoshop), and occaisionally a video or two along with all the other normal things most people do.

Any thoughts?

[epic_ed]

I went from having a Mac mini to an iMac and now back to having a Mac mini again. I was having issues with the screen as well. Plus, I never really adjusted to the glossy screen.

I don't think you'll have any issues with an dual-core i7 Mac mini with 8GB of RAM. It's more than a capable iMac or even Mac Pro replacement. It will definitely outperform the C2D that you are using now. The only downside would be with gaming, which doesn't sound like something you are into. You may even consider the server model with the quad-core i7 and extra hard drive. That's the model I am using now. It's WAY faster than my old C2D iMac. My more demanding applications are Photoshop, Aperture and Handbrake for ripping.

[dklassen]

So I pulled the trigger on a Mini i7 and a HP LED 27" monitor. Going to punch it out with 16gig of memory and a SSD. That I think should be plenty to get me away from the iMac given mine is a 4 year old C2D.

[thedeske]

Should be a nice rig. I have a client who swapped out 2 i7 iMacs (in 2 cities) for an i7 Macbook Pro and 2 Thunderbolt monitors.
The performance in Lightroom and Photoshop is only slightly slower. Day to day stuff feels about the same.

In your case, the mini should feel like a boost.