#LATE 2012 MAC MINI I7 SPEC UPGRADE#
#LATE 2012 MAC MINI I7 SPEC PRO#

I can add a LaCie RAID storage controller also connected to Thunderbolt 3. Add an eGPU enclosure with an AMD RX 580 GPU connected to a Thunderbolt 3 port. For example, I can buy a base Mac mini today.

#LATE 2012 MAC MINI I7 SPEC UPGRADE#

Although not at parity with PCIe, Thunderbolt 3 gives us the ability to buy a Mac mini and then add components that you can later upgrade and swap as needed at a much lower cost. You get less connectivity but more expandibilty than the current models, our unit has had the memory and drive upgraded, it is not possible to upgrade the memory in a new Mac Mini once it has shipped.Īnother alternative if you don’t mind an all-in-one solution is a used iMac, a used 27” iMac 3.1Ghz i5 Quad 16Gb 1Tb will cost you around £900, however as is becoming more common with Macs, make sure that you have the options to upgrade memory and drives - in some of the newer Macs this is not possible… even the Mac Pro.Our goal is to have a powerful computer with the added ability to allow for future upgrades and expandability. If you want a Quad Core i7 Mac Mini then you are better off getting a last generation Mac Mini Server, you’ll get more bang for your buck for the same kind of money. Remember this is us running audio at 96K abd through the internal soundcard, not the most likely set-up.

#LATE 2012 MAC MINI I7 SPEC PRO#

Whilst an i5 Mac Mini is no powerhouse, neither is it useless for use as a machine for Pro Tools, if you’re wanting a budget Mac based computer. We do not say this to endorse an upgrade to a yet Avid qualified OS, simply to let you know our findings.

It exhibited less of the trademark jolty performance metering that often occurs in Pro Tools and ran showing less CPU usage. Oddly enough the performance of Pro Tools on the unqualified 10.10 Yosemite OS was more stable. We ran the early tests on this machine with it running 10.8.5 Mountain Lion, however as the test on the Macbook Pro 15” Retina had been conducted using 10.10 Yosemite we decided to upgrade the OS to level the playing field and then run the test again. The session could be set to 2048 samples if this was required and at this setting the session ran without issue. The session would not play at H/W buffer sizes of under 1024, once settled it seemed to run at 1024 without any further issues.16 MIDI tracks with an instance of AIR Boom running with MIDI data.A mono audio track would record without issue along with 64 audio tracks in playback.64 Audio tracks reached without buffer errors.All audio tracks had an instance of Avid Channel Strip and Dverb inserted.Disk cache disabled to emulate native versions of Pro Tools.Volume automation recorded on every track.5 minutes of mono audio, with edits at every 1 second.96Khz - maximum with internal sound card.Is it just fit for a few demo tracks or can you get some real work done… find out below. This is the basic’ test, just the Mac Mini, internal soundcard and internal drive, it’s just you, your Mac, an iLok, headphones and a USB micro keyboard. We’ve been asked to run the same test on a Mac Mini, so we’ve run this test on a Late 2012 i5 which is more or less the same kind of spec as the new mid range model in the latest round of Mac Minis. A few days ago we took the latest Macbook Pro Retina 15” for a spin to see how it handles Pro Tools 11, you can see our Macbook Pro 15” Retina Pro Tools 11 test here.

Late 2012 mac mini i7 spec