At the time of this writing there was only a $4600 model available. The previous version Mac Pros are available only as refurbished models in the American online Apple store. The new Mac Pro base model is $2900 American, which is really not bad at all when you fully and carefully consider what you are getting. I'm fairly guessing it isn't because of not enough RAM, unless you work on huge files and/or use many apps at one time.

How would the two compare in terms of speed running Photoshop with large files and Lightroom 5 (both using comparable SSD boot drives)? Thanks!!įirst identify exactly why things are going slow for you. Since I would have to spend around $600 for a Thunderbolt external drive enclosure if I bought the Mac Mini, the price of the two systems would be in the same ballpark. I'd put my current SSD boot drive and three other spinning drives in it. So my other consideration would be to buy the old 2012 Mac Pro 3.2 Ghz Quad Core Intel Xeon (refurbished at $2139 or new at $2500) and install 32 GB of RAM. I realize that is probably enough now, but might not be in the near future. I'd jump on a Mac Mini with the fastest processor and SSD drive, but I'm put off by the limit of 16GB RAM. It seems that unless one is editing video, the yet to be released 2013 Mac Pro would be overkill and quite expensive. My first generation Mac Pro is just too slow now, even with 16GB RAM. I need a new system for my photo editing in Photoshop and Lightroom. My apologies if this is already a beaten to death thread.I couldn't find one.

Mac mini 2012 review i7