I’m on a budget of about £500/$600 and need a good powerful solution for using Traktor as my current laptop is about 3 years old now and is not compatible with Traktor software.
Looking at the Mac Mini it looked like the perfect solution to pop in your bag and plug in to a TV or DSLR monitor when you want to set up at a house party or club.
I was considering this option but only for my home setup as I’m trying to teach my fiancee how to dj. I have a 13"Mbp and it sucks sometimes because one of us will need the computer for something, which may cut into my practice time.
But there are a few problems when using a mac mini, specifically for gigging out.
yes its portable but now you have to find another plug for your monitor. And most of us know, depending on the gig you might find yourself lost without an extra plug.(*dj tip: bring extra power bars)
no optical drive(CD/DVD) mind you newer MBP have dropped the optical drive as the future is physical medialess. I actually took my optical drive out for an optibay holding my old HD. Now my optical drive is in an enclosure and ready to go during those times at gigs when people have cds to be played. But yeah no optical drive on a mac mini
people cant see a glowing apple and know that you’re a real dj… ;p
For producing they are amazing, so much bang for your buck. DJing not so much… Lack of screen, keyboard, mouse, plus cable to plug it a ll together = major hassle
Actually, it was before that. It’s due to a small number of friends who do/did live in the UK (mostly London, though also Edinburgh). There are a couple little things that I didn’t even notice until some random Londoner outside a pub pointed them out.
Sasha toured with an iMac while he was on Ableton. And even that’s a little less of a hassle because it has a screen. I don’t think I’d bring a Mac Mini anywhere. The only difference between it and a full desktop is that it fits into a smaller bag. And with things like the BitFenix Prodigy, it’s not even that big of a difference anymore.
That’s why I kind of think the Mac Minis were a failure. They’re cool. But they’re a lot harder to work on than they need to be and they aren’t that cheap compared to laptops.
I really think the non-retina MBPs are where Apple shines. Everything else seems to require too many sacrifices.
If the Mac Mini has a quad core available, I’d buy it without thinking. You know, if I were in the market for such a computer. I don’t like them, but I have the room for a full ATX case sitting next to my desk.
Seems like it’d work okay. But if you’re worried and on a budget, Hackintoshes have gotten pretty easy. I used one of the Tonymacx86 suggested builds, and it was about on par with how I remember installing Windows. Easier than Linux. The only thing remotely complicated was figuring out the right bios settings to get my thunderbolt ports working, and I only need them for TB->FW800 adapters.
I do professional work video editing, I’ve just sold my MacPro 8Core as the new iMacs are more powerful than it.
For audio work they are amazing! mac minis are not great for video because of the intel GFX chips, Petsonally I’d spec out the top iMac 27" or the top Mac mini.
could be… people have been saying it for the last three years
I’ve given up waiting, anywya for home use a Mac Pro is overkill, unless you need capture cards, raid cards, red rockets etc, the internal space is good, but drives are solo big now you don’t really need all that info in one space (unless your doing video or heavy graphics work.
IMO of course, i think Macminis are amazing for audio work.
Now, they just need to make the case big enough for real drive bays (2.5" is fine) that don’t require you to take the whole computer apart and maybe a PCIe slot, and they’ll have a good computer.
