[SOLVED] Looking for a back up computer (Photoshop, etc), choosing between these.

[PatrickPowers]

Hi there,

So, I have a workstation for my heavy lifting Creative Cloud needs, however, I’m moving that build out of the house and into my office and so we’re looking for a small, back up computer to use for every day computing needs. These will mostly be:

• Photoshop (editing RAW images, using layers, actions, etc. Needs to be able to handle this smoothly since my wife’s photography is a big reason we need a second computer)
• Light Premiere use (editing videos for friends / family)
• Light Audition use (cleaning up audio of ~1hr duration)
• Academic work (lots of chrome tabs open, lots of PDFs, some over 1k pgs. Need to search these, convert them to readable text, etc....don’t want to have a lag here b/c this is central to the computer’s purpose).
• General MS Office work.

So...that’s about the size of it. I’m thinking of getting the entry level Mac Mini M1 (which I can get for $625 w/ a coupon).

But then, have also seen a few cheaper options like this one from Dell.

I don’t need a beast machine, but I would like it to handle the sort of tasks outlined above without trouble and to last us as a backup for at least 6, hopefully 10 years.

Any advice—even beyond the two choices above—would be gratefully received. I’d like to keep the entire purchase (including monitor, keyboard, and mouse—which I’ve already picked out on Amazon) under $800. And I’d rather not build this one (as I did for my workstation) since my time is pretty strapped in my present season of life and a bit extra cost is worth the avoidance of hassle.

Thanks for your thoughts!

 

[CryoWolf]

Well the dell is currently on offer and is well supported with apps any way where as the m1 is good but still has teathing issues. THe dell is also upgradable and the fact its on sale you could add ram and some extras anf it still lower than the M1.
Plus you can always put i5 or i7 in the dell too, just more expandability.
As much as I am an apple fan boy, id go Dell.