Hello fermata,
fermata wrote:The MacMini does not have a 64-bit quad core processor as recommended in the Hauptwerk prerequisites, but rather a 2.8GHz dual core i5
http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/. Is this a problem?
Looking at Apple's website, the top CPU available for the Mac Mini is currently a dual-core 3.0 GHz i7 (which is an upgrade configuration option on their website from the 2.8 GHz model that doesn't add a huge amount of cost), so I'd definitely advise going for that. The i7 CPUs do manage to squeeze quite a bit more useful processing power out of a given GHz frequency (mainly due to Hyper-Threading in the i7, which in Hauptwerk is especially useful for handling non-audio events/processing, such as MIDI and the background models, and since the i7 models may have more CPU cache).
All of Apple's Macs have 64-bit CPUs.
Although it's still only a dual-core CPU (as opposed to quad-core, for example), I think you would find the 3.0 GHz i7 to be ample for current small and medium-sized sample sets stereo sample sets (or surround sets loaded in stereo). Certainly it's more than sufficient for an organ the size of St. Anne's.
fermata wrote:I'd like to go with the 2.8 GHz model, maxed out with a 2TB fusion drive (whatever that is)
If organ loading times are important to you, my advice would be to avoid the 'Fusion drive', which I think uses a 5400 RPM drive for most of its storage, and would potentially make for rather slow organ loading. For fast organ loading, with sufficient space for a reasonable number of medium-sized sample sets, I'd suggest going for the 512 GB 'PCI-e Flash Storage' option (or the 1 TB Flash option if you plan to install quite a few organs).
fermata wrote:Question:
I would like to get lots of pistons and possibly rocker tabs, so as to avoid having to keep a touch screen on my console. Will this eat up extra memory?
No -- MIDI pistons/tabs don't use any significant amount of extra memory.
fermata wrote:Question:
How do I get rid of all the junk that will be coming with my MacMini -- built-in apps that I will never use, since this unit will be dedicated to Hauptwerk alone?
I wouldn't worry about it personally. Just avoid running any of those applications whilst Hauptwerk is running, and (temporarily) disconnect the Mac from the Internet if you want to make sure that no applications try to update themselves whilst Hauptwerk is running. If you try to remove built-in applications/components you might risk breaking your OS X installation, and they would probably come back automatically anyway next time to you applied an OS X update.
Best regards, Martin.
Hauptwerk software designer/developer, Milan Digital Audio.