The good news is you actually get a decent machine for photo editing at about $800.Wait, I said $900 above, was that a mistake? No, I am going to recommend that you spend an additional $100 and buy a memory kit from OWC to increase your RAM from 8GB to 16GB for half of what Apple would charge you. The least expensive Mac you can buy in 2019 is the 2018 Mac Mini with the lowest configuration choices across the board. Budget Mac For Photography: 2018 Mac MiniHonestly it is tough to put the words “budget” and “Mac” together in the same sentence. Good enough that you can certainly get some post-processing of your photos done, but if you get into advanced editing like compositing or handling raw files that are 50+ megapixels you are likely to be really frustrated with these options (as configured here) pretty quickly. Maybe you are like me and started into photography not very long ago only to find the computer you have is just not really working as you are trying to learn post-processing.Whatever your reason for being here, in this post I am going to give you some advice on the very least expensive Mac and PC options that should do… well … ok.Lightroom and Photoshop will launch and you will be able to edit and adjust your photos. Is it worth it to pay the $300 to upgrade to the 3.2GHz 6-core 8th-generation Intel Core i7? Yes, about 22% more performance for that $300, but you can’t start playing this upgrade game if you want to stay in the budget category.The Core i3 processor is going to work. 2018 Mac Mini Processor For Budget Photography ComputerYou are going to leave the processor at the lowest option with the 3.6GHz quad-core 8th-generation Intel Core i3. Seriously, $900 is “little” for a computer for photographers unless you go PC.2018 Mac Mini Memory For Budget Photography ComputerIt’s too bad you can’t order your Mac Mini with no memory. More on a recommended monitor later. The video built into the CPU just won’t do well with that.Check out my How Much Memory Does Lightroom Need article for more information.My experience has been that the memory is handled a little better on the Mac than it is on Windows, so being constrained to 8GB on a Mac is slightly better than it is in a PC. You can get the Mac Mini with 32 or even 64GB of memory here in 20198, but it comes at a steep price and the increase in performance isn’t nearly as significant. 16GB is probably the sweet spot with the best performance for what can be a pretty modest investment either from Apple or buy upgrading it yourself (see below). For sure you wouldn’t want to go any lower. To minimize your costs then you want to get the lowest amount of memory you can, which is 8GB 2666MHz DDR4.8GB of RAM is not too terrible for a photography computer.
![]() Best Specs Computers Mac You Can![]() 128GB of storage does get used up REALLY fast, expect to have to fight against not haveing enough storage regularly if you opt for only 128GB SSD in your Mac MiniThat said, if you want to use a lot of other programs on your computer, or keep a lot of documents, music, and videos on your main drive, 128GB is going to get used up REALLY fast. Not giving up a lot by saving money here and sticking with the lowest option. The size of the storage is pretty small, but it is really fast and realistically you aren’t going to be putting your photos on the internal SSD on the Mac Mini even if you spend a little more to go to 256GB or 512GB. 500GB version runs $130, 1TB version about $200, and the 2TB version about $480. Far cheaper disk storage than what Apple charges for internal SSD.Check out the testing I have done to see how storing your photos on an external SSD vs an external spinning drive speeds up Lightroom Classic by as much as 50% in this article on Performance of External Drives with Lightroom ClassicAnother incredible option is the Samsung T5 portable SSD drives. You connect these external drives through the Thunderbolt 3 connections of the Mac Mini and get some insane speeds. The 500GB version runs about $170 (on sale for $90 as I write this), the 1TB version about $350 (on sale for $160 as I write this), and the 2TB version is $700 (on sale for $330 as I write this). My favorite is the SanDisk Extreme Portable External SSD drives. It can be done, and done very well, but just make sure you go into this understanding that 128GB is a little tight and may be looking to get rid of things on your drive pretty regularly.The great news is that there are several super speedy options to add storage to your 2018 Mac Mini. Laser cutter software for mac full spectrumIf you are just starting on your journey with photography I wouldn’t worry about this choice now and recommend you stick with the lowest option. Not much of a compromise here in sticking with the lowest option.That said, if someday you want to connect a RAID system to your computer through the network, having the faster Ethernet connection will matter to you at that point. The network speed supported by a hard wired connection is going to be faster than anything you are used to over WiFi anywhere. The lowest choice is not a bad one at all for photographers. 2018 Mac Mini Ethernet For Budget Photography ComputerYour final decision is what Ethernet card to put in your 2018 Mac Mini on a budget. You can buy a much larger 4TB drive for about $100 that won’t be quite as fast as the external SSD drives but are still fast enough to get the job done for sure. Anything you find with those important specifications above will be great. A slightly upgraded pick that is larger and has better color reproduction for about $280 is the ViewSonic VX3211-2K-MHD 32 Inch IPS WQHD 1440p Monitor with 99% sRGB.ViewSonic has made high quality monitors for quite some time but I also like the quality I have seen and heard about (from readers/listeners) for LG, Asus, BenQ, Acer, Dell, and HP as well. 2560×1440 (WQHD or 1440p*) or 2560×1600 (WQXGA) resolution.If I was buying that budget monitor today, I would go with the ViewSonic VA2719-2K-SMHD 27 Inch IPS 2K 1440p for about $220 as a REALLY good option for photographers. You want to make sure the monitor has the following: Since Apple doesn’t offer anything for the budget photographer here you can buy any monitor you can find a good price on. 2018 Mac Mini Monitor For Budget Photography ComputerIf you don’t already have a good monitor for photo editing (see specs below) then you are going to need one to go with that 2018 Mac Mini.
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