MrsD has reached the end of her tether with her 2014 Mac Mini and wants to go PC. Ideally, the PC version of a Mac Mini. There seem to be plenty out there.
It'll be used almost entirely for Photoshop; no games, no films, no web. Her kind of Photoshopping involves building images with a million layers of photos, working with a WACOM drawing tablet, ending up with a 5 Gig .PSD file.
What's really needed here? Besides being able to support 3 monitors (2 plus the tablet) am I right in thinking that RAM is probably the main thing? There's no 3d or video going on.
Personally I'd recommend a M1 Mac Mini + 16gb - it's a completly different beast to the old intel ones. I've got a workprovided Dell XPS desktop, 32gb RAM with an I7 and my personal M1 Macbook air runs rings around it.
It’ll be used almost entirely for Photoshop; no games, no films, no web. Her kind of Photoshopping involves building images with a million layers of photos, working with a WACOM drawing tablet, ending up with a 5 Gig .PSD file.
If she's trying to do that on a 2014 Mac Mini there's now wonder she's at the end of her tether!! 😬😬
It's not really the Macs fault.
And what he said ^^ M1 Mac Mini or Mac Studio if your budget will run to that...
https://www.apple.com/uk/mac-studio/
From personal experience PC's really, really don't like mahoosive multilayered Photoshop files.
I suspect that it won't be long before she's at the end of her tether with any PC she got
Just get the a new Mac
Have a look at what some of the UK builders recommend, eg chillblast. Fairly certain that any price point you'll get more with a PC.
@Yak. You probably will, but you will have to then factor in that it will need replacing or substantially upgrading in 2 to 3 years time
I doubt it. If you are buying enough clout for high-end photoshop work, you'll be good for years of OS upgrades.
you will have to then factor in that it will need replacing or substantially upgrading in 2 to 3 years time
If you buy a good, professional level Windows machine, it should be good for as long as a professional level Mac is.
but you will have to then factor in that it will need replacing or substantially upgrading in 2 to 3 years time
vs completely replacing an Apple equivalent? Apple's 'upgrade' process is definitely simpler I suppose...
The newer macs seem to offer great performance for this kind of work, even the laptops. Windows PC likely still offers better vfm.
CPU is important for Photoshop, not just having loads of RAM. Look up some performance benchmarks as they'll generally include some Photoshop tests.
but you will have to then factor in that it will need replacing or substantially upgrading in 2 to 3 years time
*Looks at the machine I built in 2014*
Yea, I noticed it starting to chug a bit last year, but it ran photoshop like an absolute boss for over six years. The only key interim change was a quicker SSD when I needed more space.
Buy the right spec and you'll get five years easy.
From personal experience PC’s really, really don’t like mahoosive multilayered Photoshop files.
That's interesting - do you know why that is?
She's partly hacked off with MacOS in particular, not least because she spends 9-5 every day on a windows computer, and then has to remember all the Mac key combos in the evening, so would prefer to just be on Windows which is more familiar.
I'm very tempted to get myself a M1 Mac Mini for my music computer upstairs though! Was holding out to see if there would be an M2 Mac Mini soon, but looking at benchmarks I'm starting to think it would be a fair price bump and not a huge speed boost over the M1...
@doris5000 I am currently looking to spec a PC for photoshop/premier/lightroom.
Past experience say that spending a bit more now can be the difference between not needing to spend much in future*.
Personally I am going AMD this time around. The PC will be built around an AM4 socket that will support up to the latest AMD 12 core CPU (Ryzen 9 series) - but I'll probably put an 8 core (Ryzen 7) into it for now unless I can snag the better CPU for less than +£100 which is unlikely. Benefit here is in a couple of years the higher spec CPU will drop in price so cheap upgrade. This is where the correct selection of motherboard helps.
RAM. 32Gb of DDR4 RAM - whatever sits at the sweet spot of price/speed.
Now I'm probably going to self build again, which I know is not for everyone. Especially if the machine is for work because if you build it, you also become tech support, and the person who gets blamed for every PC issue.
If buying complete I would avoid any of the big known brands because they often make financial choices with the spec that leave you less able to pick sensible cost effective upgrades in future. A decent machine from someone like Scan or Chillblast allows for a level of component selection but also is far more future proof.
* I know, it seems at odds to say this and then talk about upgrades. Last time I put a fair wedge of cash down wheras this time I have a much smaller wedge to play with so need to consider upgrade paths.
Think I’m fairly well placed to offer advice here, I’m a photographer/retoucher and I work on big files up to about 20gb with lots of adjustment layers and previously used a MacBook Pro hooked up to an Eizo, I also use a Wacom (tablet not screen) MBP was struggling with bigger files so I changed to a Mac studio. M1 Max with 64gb ram. Wanted 128gb but that meant M1 ultra which would see marginal gains for a bigger cost outlay.
Compared to a Mini/MBP I see no performance issues now, there were a few PS things that were not updated like smart sharpen but that was done in last update. I have been working on some 35gb 16 but files recently without having to stop and think about saving before doing something processor/ram heavy. Doing transforms is a lot easier now with no waiting for redraw time to see what you have just moved.
So a big leap in productivity, no thermal issues either, haven’t managed to get the fans screaming despite some intensive tasks.
My advice is get the max ram, enough storage to work in current projects but get external also as it’s cheaper than maxing out the computer.
The base graphics is fine for your intended use.
The Diglloyd Mac performance guide website is a good source of info and has a dedicated photoshop section. It will just reiterate the above but with immense detail and info.
Plenty of cores, plenty of (fast) RAM, fast SSD.
My wife has moved over from similar era Mac Mini to my couple of year old desktop (Ryzen 2700X, 32GB RAM, nvme storage) and is pretty happy so far.
