New Mac Mini

Hey all -

Whats the thoughts on the new Mac Mini as a primary edit tool? Is it powerful enough or does it need and eGPU to make it worth the investment? Thanks in advance.

Scott

It really depends on what formats and resolutions you'll be editing. Not to mention how long/complex your projects will be. You can cut with FCPX on basically any new Mac (and many older ones). Our fearless moderator has described his editing machine as an older Mac Mini. Compared to that, one of the newer Minis would be a powerhouse.

2k and 4k. And any 4k and up would be proxy workflow. I do mostly shorter form video, but am cutting an hour-long doc on a tricked out 2017 iMac and that is working pretty well (2k source). Can it perform to that level? Any heavy-lifting color and audio go out of house.

I have all the monitors and keyboards, so was looking something low-profile, high performance to at least start cuts on. I read Oliver Peters article and it seems impressive:

digitalfilms.wordpress.com/2019/01/30/ed...h-the-2018-mac-mini/

Thanks for the input!

sw

I think it could work for you just fine. Personally I would go with one of the i7 processors and get at least 32GB of RAM. Connect a fast Thunderbolt 3 RAID drive and you're good to go.

How do these compare, realistically, to a Mac Pro Late 2013. Surely they're better. My only concern would be the GPU. Also maybe the I/O. I have way too many USB 3 things. I already have 3 7-port USB 3 hubs from Plugable, but this machine only has two USB ports. I'd have to daisy chain one of the hubs to another. Also do Thunderbolt 2 to 3 adapters exist? All of my hard drives are the archaic, undesirable and super slow Thunderbolt 2 standard.

@Jarrod: hahaha, thanks for the 'fearless' I would describe it more as 'enthusiastic but chronical under-financed'

Does a MacMini impress a paying customer in some classy dimmed lit editing-suite? Probably not.
Does a MacMini be a working horse in some news-room, where any minute counts? Neither…

But …
So, on a weaker machine a final render needs 25min instead of 19… whoo, 30% more! <sigh> or, a Motion project with +1000 particles has a framerate of 5fps … <sigh> …

What I intend to say: 'speed' is relative … an actual 2018 MacMini handles actual formats easy …
read for example what master Larry has to tell...
larryjordan.com/articles/configure-a-mac...8-for-video-editing/
or, the experts from Lumaforge


the bottlenecks are not just some MHz in some chips … complexity of projects (matryoshkaing comps), what external mass-storage for media and backup, config of whole set-up, mix of formats etc etc etc

… the MacMini handles 4k fine… even proResRaw … and, when you're on a budget and you already do have an existing infrastructure (cardreaders, 4/5k displays, Raids, NAS etc) it offers lots of bang for the buck....

Final word: I am fearless - I don't trust benchmark-tests (except BruceX) …

I completely agree with Karsten. And for what it's worth... In over two decades of editing for clients I have never had one be impressed by the type of computer I was using. If it does what you need (as fast as you need it to) then you're all set. Cheers!

BareFeats has done some testing both with and w/o egpu on the new Mac mini's

barefeats.com/mac-mini-2018-versus-other-macs.html
barefeats.com/mac-mini-needs-egpu.html

Hope this Helps, Greg

Popular Youtuber Linus Tech Tips reviews the new Mac Mini. -