I am running a 2020 Intel Mac. I am old enough to think I bought it yesterday but it was actually 5 years ago, an age in tech terms. So I have to start thinking about its replacement.
I have the wide screen version, which makes working on large drawings much easier. It seems a shame to have to throw it away.
I believe there are alternatives to starting again, say by using a Mac Mini to do the donkeywork whilst my current Mac effectively runs as a slave. Does anyone have any experience of doing that? Itās cheaper than a clean sweep but are there any big downsides?
I am on a 2016 MBP, amazing how long these machines run for. Canāt do 2026 though because of my OS being stuck at Monterey, so I am on a clock for some new hardware as well. Curious to see the responses.
I too will be watching the responses here. Iām currently running a 2019 MBP 16", and other than a few years of bug patches, support for it will end some time this year. Aside from a delete key that has to be pressed on the left side to work reliably, It is still healthy. So it seems a shame to be compelled to abandon it.
But I fear that slaving it to a Mini would introduce a lot of complexity that I just donāt want to deal with, especially because it would involve different macOS versions on the two macines. I suppose I could get a M4 or M5 at a big discount once the M6 hits the street late this year or early next year, but, of course, thatās just setting the obsolescence horizon shorter than if I spring for an M6. Given my age, this may be the last computer I buy, so Iād like that horizon to be at least a bit closer to my own.
I think as soon as you do this you are becoming reliant on network connection to airplay or stream video to another so you are going to introduce some kind of delay and a loss of video quality - this is actually how I use my Mac via my main windows machine.
itās ok, I wouldnāt want to do that all the time if it was my main machine.
4K monitors are really common now and you can buy a 27inch LG screen for under Ā£250 and even a 32inch one for a little more (LG manufacture the apple displays)
So a new monitor and a Mac Mini would be considerably more cost effective than say buying a whole new iMac.
Now you see, that is exactly the sort of good advice I was looking for. Makes complete sense.
I can see that an iMac is ideal in that it is all in one neat box. Separating out the screen from the processor is a sort of retrograde step but Iām cool with that. I have keyboards and mice that can operate wirelessly but I have actually ended up having them permanently connected just to avoid the bore of recharging all the time. So my workspace is not as clean and uncluttered as all those lovely marketing shots of the āpaperlessā (ha ha), wireless, offices that you see.
Even so, there is a lot to be said about the quality of how everything interacts when itās all built together and how they can be engineered together perfectly. However this does mean that Apple can charge whatever they please for that privilege.
I did just have a look around and one of the common workarounds to use the Imac as a display the common one is Lunadisplay - that can be done directly over USB and perhaps has fewer caveats for image quality.
Itās kind of a bit of a hack and I can see people reviewing it say they can still feel a bit of latency - so there is definitely a loss that happens.
The Mini I would need to equal the spec I have now costs Ā£999. The 27ā 4K LG monitor adds Ā£249. But that is against Ā£1899 for an equivalent iMac. Thatās quite a difference.
But I am sure you are right. An integrated product is probably best and one reason we Mac users moved from PCs in the first place.
few years back that was my motivation for going from imac to mini.
I already had a keyboard and mouse, and an external screen, but even the added cost of the mini + a second screen + the stuff I already had was lower than a brand new imac.
nope.
Iām using the same mouse and keyboard and one of my screens as I did with the imac, and Iām with my second mini (M1 and now M4).
is the imac screen good ? yes. is it worth the extra cost ? for me no.
oh yeah, also, the mac mini fits below your desk, or on top of the screen support, itās very small, itās quite light, quite practical. and a decent number of usbC (just grab a cheap adapter for whatever older stuff you have that still requires usbA)
I used to have a kind of metal box that my monitor stood on which allowed you to have peripherals inside it. That could be an option. I have an external hard drive for backup that could live there too.
As @Elmtec-Adam said, he only used LG as an example because they make the Apple sccreens and some people think they are sprinkled with fairy dust.
I went through this fall of 24.
I had a 2019 maxed out iMac 27ā.
I really wanted to get a studio or a mini and use the iMac as a monitor but it was not possible at the time. Wrong generation iMac.
I got that iMac after semi-retiring a 2015 MacBook Pro. I just retired that laptop due to battery swelling.
For the iMac replacement I went with an M2 studio max and I did buy one of those fairy dust sprinkled Mac displays, even with the fancy nano coating - but I also do photography ā¦ and the screen is just incredible.
In my experience buying the best Mac I can afford has always paid off long term. They just seem to go and goā¦
This video I saw some time ago and am wishing to try on my dads 2019 iMac to use it as a monitor for the basic Mac mini.
Depending on what kind of work you do depends the recommendation. For sketchup, layout, and other Cad softwares, even the basic M4 is overkill, cause itās single core performance is amazing, actually all M series chips have great single core performance, even the basic M1 from 2020. If you do some light rendering work every now and then the M4 Pro Mac mini will make the work faster because it has more gpu cores. But personally Iād wait a bit if I were you, last year was released the basic M5 chip with the MacBook Pro, and Iāve seen some video showing huge improvements specially on the gpu side, itās comparable with M1 Max gpu but costs less and has raytracing hardware, some apple leakers say that on March there will be be hardware launches.
I use a 2020 Intel Quad-Core MacBook Pro that Apple gave me, a 2020 M1 MacBook Air, and this yearās M4 MacBook Air.
My experienceā¦ why didnāt I ask Apple for an M1 in 2020? Apple Silicon chips are so powerful! The performance difference between Intel and M1 is striking. The M4 is roughly twice as powerful as the M1, but I donāt notice it in SketchUp or in my development work. I mainly see the difference in radiosity rendering.
Itās primarily the design of the M4 Air that makes the difference: extraordinary sound, a more comfortable keyboard. The Apple Silicon era represents incredibly powerful machines, both entry-level and mid-range. More expensive machines donāt pay for themselves as quickly.
not counting second hand
