A good mixer saves your time and energy. If you've ever tried to mix cheesecake ingredients with a spoon or a manual handheld mixer, you'll know what I'm talking about.
You can use two types of mixers: hand held and a stand mixer with stand mixers being more expensive than hand mixers.
Besides price, the biggest difference is convenience. With the stand mixers you just drop your ingredients into the bowl and let mixer do the work for you.
With the hand held mixer there's still some physical exertion required. And even though the mixer is performing the mixing for you, your wrist and arm still may get tired. But it beats a spoon or a manual mixer any day.
Small kitchen mixers range in size from about 4 quarts all the the way up to 6 quarts. What size do you need? A 4 quart mixer is enough for you to mix the typical cheesecakes recipe.
Although a 4 quart mixer is enough for you to make any regular cheesecake recipe, I prefer at least a 5 quart mixer just in case you have to bake a big cake.