Mac Mini M2 - What will I need

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taxboy

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Now the M2 Mac Mini has been announced I shall finally be making the switch to Apple to replace my elderly PC. I'm not the greatest techie but usually can get there - often with a bit of hand holding. I've had a look around and think this is what I will require in addition to the "box":
2 x Western Digital 6TB Hard Drives for storage and back up
Logitech K780 or MX Keys mini keyboard
I'll reuse my Logitech M705 mouse
Replacement monitor - still agonising over size and 4k or not

I'm a stills photographer now getting more into printing and use a Canon R7 if that helps

For those with greater experience is there anything else I will need please. Also any software required to transfer my exisiting files across to the new Mac and is it a straightforward process ?

Any advice appreciated or alternatives you can recommend
 
Looks like you have it covered.

I can highly recommend the BenQ SW271C 27" 4K display for photography but it ain't cheap. The alternative is their 2k version which is the SW270C which is significantly cheaper.
 
Do Mac's read/write PC formatted hard drives out of the box now or do still have to enable that feature? Its been about 10 years since I last bought a Mac - its still in regular use, just not had to reinstall the OS.
 
ecoleman said:
Looks like you have it covered.

I can highly recommend the BenQ SW271C 27" 4K display for photography but it ain't cheap. The alternative is their 2k version which is the SW270C which is significantly cheaper.
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Thanks for that, the SW271C is way over budget I'm afraid. Currently considering the SW270C, which is a 2k monitor but full Adobe RGB vs the Dell U2723QE, which is a 4k but 87% Adobe RGB and about £100 cheaper. I know the coventional wisdom is to go full Adobe RGB gamut monitor if printing but having watched Keith Cooper's YouTube video it got me pondering if a lot of the difference is theoretical rather than noticeable in the real world
 
taxboy said:
Logitech K780
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don't. you may regret the round keys. I quickly moved on one I had.
Mx is a traditional much better layout.
If you fancy saving £££ just order USB keyboard from dell. They are fine and I paid under £20.

taxboy said:
I'll reuse my Logitech M705 mouse
Click to expand...
original magic mouse on ebay would be much preferable. They are not much money these days.

taxboy said:
Now the M2 Mac Mini has been announced I shall finally be making the switch to Apple to replace my elderly PC. I'm not the greatest techie but usually can get there - often with a bit of hand holding. I've had a look around and think this is what I will require in addition to the "box":
Click to expand...
Whatever you do avoid 256GB model. It absolutely should not exist. 512 is already very substandard, and so is 8GB RAM.
 
SFTPhotography said:
Don't get a membrane keyboard, horrible things. This is what you want.

Click to expand...
I couldn't live with that typewriter for even a half day. £20 membrane but whisper quiet keyboard is essentially a consumable item if anything happens over it.

Question:
Is it quiet ?
Answer:
Rings every time you tap a key!
Aluminium base turns out is also a daaam musical instrument
What a terrible design! Such a shame, returned same day!
Click to expand...
 
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taxboy said:
Thanks for that, the SW271C is way over budget I'm afraid. Currently considering the SW270C, which is a 2k monitor but full Adobe RGB vs the Dell U2723QE, which is a 4k but 87% Adobe RGB and about £100 cheaper. I know the coventional wisdom is to go full Adobe RGB gamut monitor if printing but having watched Keith Cooper's YouTube video it got me pondering if a lot of the difference is theoretical rather than noticeable in the real world
Click to expand...
I have the BenQ SW270C and one thing that swung it for was the Hardware Calibration when using BenQ Pallette Master Elements (PME) software (with a compatible calibrator ~ I have the Xrite Display Pro) as it is graphics card 'agnostic' so to speak.

PS I have MX Keys and the MX Ergo 'mouse'. NB using W10 Pro PC but you have drawn my attention to the new Mini Mac................food for thought and whether with Logitech Options + I can KVM switch both the MX Keys & MX Ergo and dual feed/switch the monitor :thinking: thus keeping the PC as my daily stuff (browsing, email etc) and the Mac Mini for all my photo related stuff :thinking::thinking::thinking::thinking::thinking:
 
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LongLensPhotography said:
I couldn't live with that typewriter for even a half day. £20 membrane but whisper quiet keyboard is essentially a consumable item if anything happens over it.
Click to expand...

I love them, proper tactile feedback, not these horrid rubbery keys. The RGB lighting makes keyboard shortcuts easy at night.

Cherry MX keys are pretty quiet and short. The blue switches are properly tactile.
 
One thing to think about for the future is a T3 or T4 hub with extra USB C ports. Having a hub gives you a lot more flexibility and most have card readers and some also operate as an SSD enclosure.
 
Personally cannot get on with the Magic Mouse, and I've tried for many years. I use a Logitech MX Master 3 for which Photoshop (not Lightroom) throws up some warning message every time I launch it, but ignore it and have no issues.
 
Stephen L said:
Personally cannot get on with the Magic Mouse, and I've tried for many years. I use a Logitech MX Master 3 for which Photoshop (not Lightroom) throws up some warning message every time I launch it, but ignore it and have no issues.
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Agreed, The magic mouse is a terrible design unless of course you want carpal tunnel syndrome.
 
ecoleman said:
Agreed, The magic mouse is a terrible design unless of course you want carpal tunnel syndrome.
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Since I don’t sit in front of a computer for (large part of) a job anymore, I find the Magic Mouse to be fine. However, when I used to spend hours and hours using Excel, it was much better for me to use a Logitech Trackball a bit like this one:

 
andrewc said:
Do Mac's read/write PC formatted hard drives out of the box now or do still have to enable that feature? Its been about 10 years since I last bought a Mac - its still in regular use, just not had to reinstall the OS.
Click to expand...
Yes, they read and write to ExFat formatted drives as standard. Although they won't be as fast as using the latest Mac APFS file system.
 
taxboy said:
Now the M2 Mac Mini has been announced I shall finally be making the switch to Apple to replace my elderly PC. I'm not the greatest techie but usually can get there - often with a bit of hand holding. I've had a look around and think this is what I will require in addition to the "box":
2 x Western Digital 6TB Hard Drives for storage and back up
Logitech K780 or MX Keys mini keyboard
I'll reuse my Logitech M705 mouse
Replacement monitor - still agonising over size and 4k or not

I'm a stills photographer now getting more into printing and use a Canon R7 if that helps

For those with greater experience is there anything else I will need please. Also any software required to transfer my exisiting files across to the new Mac and is it a straightforward process ?

Any advice appreciated or alternatives you can recommend
Click to expand...
You wont need any special software to transition your image files over the Mac will be able to see and mount your existing drives.

You don't mention what image post-processing software you are currently using?
 
wornish said:
You wont need any special software to transition your image files over the Mac will be able to see and mount your existing drives.

You don't mention what image post-processing software you are currently using?
Click to expand...
Thanks for that currently using very old stand alone versions of PS and LR - so whilst I end up paying each month I'll gain access to plenty of new features
 
LongLensPhotography said:
don't. you may regret the round keys. I quickly moved on one I had.
Mx is a traditional much better layout.
If you fancy saving £££ just order USB keyboard from dell. They are fine and I paid under £20.


original magic mouse on ebay would be much preferable. They are not much money these days.


Whatever you do avoid 256GB model. It absolutely should not exist. 512 is already very substandard, and so is 8GB RAM.
Click to expand...

SFTPhotography said:
Don't get a membrane keyboard, horrible things. This is what you want.

Click to expand...

Stephen L said:
Personally cannot get on with the Magic Mouse, and I've tried for many years. I use a Logitech MX Master 3 for which Photoshop (not Lightroom) throws up some warning message every time I launch it, but ignore it and have no issues.
Click to expand...

ecoleman said:
Agreed, The magic mouse is a terrible design unless of course you want carpal tunnel syndrome.
Click to expand...
Whilst you do not need to have a Mac specific keyboard, it may help you to get used to the OS if you aren't having to work out keyboard mappings on the fly. So you can use your existing USB/Bluetooth keyboard, but if you are going to buy a new one, a Mac specific one is good. MX Keys, both standard and Mechanical are well regarded. However, if you do not wear an Apple Watch, I would not rule out the Apple keyboards with Touch ID - you can use a finger print to unlock your Mac/use stored passwords etc. I'm still using a 15 year old Apple keyboard daily and it is still going strong.

Likewise, I still occasionally use the Mighty Mouse, although I prefer the Logitech MX3 as my daily driver. The swipe gestures on the Mighty Mouse are really handy though. However, your existing mouse will likely work well with the Mac, so no need to splash out.

For a monitor, ideally you want a 4K or 5K resolution, so that you can run it in high resolution mode without scaling.

How are you planning to use your hard drives? Time Machine, built into macOS is good for system backups and CCCloner is good for copying other external drives.

The Adobe software moves across OK, although you may need to do a bit of digging to find preset files etc from Lightroom.
 
Craikeybaby said:
Whilst you do not need to have a Mac specific keyboard, it may help you to get used to the OS if you aren't having to work out keyboard mappings on the fly. So you can use your existing USB/Bluetooth keyboard, but if you are going to buy a new one, a Mac specific one is good. MX Keys, both standard and Mechanical are well regarded. However, if you do not wear an Apple Watch, I would not rule out the Apple keyboards with Touch ID - you can use a finger print to unlock your Mac/use stored passwords etc. I'm still using a 15 year old Apple keyboard daily and it is still going strong.

Likewise, I still occasionally use the Mighty Mouse, although I prefer the Logitech MX3 as my daily driver. The swipe gestures on the Mighty Mouse are really handy though. However, your existing mouse will likely work well with the Mac, so no need to splash out.

For a monitor, ideally you want a 4K or 5K resolution, so that you can run it in high resolution mode without scaling.

How are you planning to use your hard drives? Time Machine, built into macOS is good for system backups and CCCloner is good for copying other external drives.

The Adobe software moves across OK, although you may need to do a bit of digging to find preset files etc from Lightroom.
Click to expand...
The plan is to run the programmes on the Mini's SSD and have the images saved on the HDs via USB and also temporarily on the SSD whilst working on them
 
Stephen L said:
Personally cannot get on with the Magic Mouse, and I've tried for many years. I use a Logitech MX Master 3 for which Photoshop (not Lightroom) throws up some warning message every time I launch it, but ignore it and have no issues.
Click to expand...
I’ve not noticed that with mine (on an M1 MBP14)

I bought an MX Mac keyboard to go with it and I am very happy with them (also handy that they will easily switch Bluetooth connections to my work laptop and child’s Mac Mini)
 
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wornish said:
Yes, they read and write to ExFat formatted drives as standard. Although they won't be as fast as using the latest Mac APFS file system.
Click to expand...
Can also read NTFS formatted drives, so typical Windows backup drives are readable by Mac…
 
PeteStewardson said:
If you are getting everything from scratch I would highly recommend you consider a 5k monitor instead of a 4k monitor. MacOS natively scales properly on a 5k monitor so much more pleasant to use.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately the budget won't stretch to a 5k monitor ☹️
 
PeteStewardson said:
If you are getting everything from scratch I would highly recommend you consider a 5k monitor instead of a 4k monitor. MacOS natively scales properly on a 5k monitor so much more pleasant to use.
Click to expand...
It's no different and perhaps worse on windows. Scaling non retina display to values that are not full integers absolutely destroys the quality of media. So just be prepared to run whatever you get at either 200% or 100% or else live with soft picture. 32" 4k at 100% is personally just barely doable
 
I was looking into getting one when I saw the announcement but after speaking to my lad who’s really into Apple ,he advised waiting on the M2 chip in a i.mac hopefully later this year
 
the black fox said:
I was looking into getting one when I saw the announcement but after speaking to my lad who’s really into Apple ,he advised waiting on the M2 chip in a i.mac hopefully later this year
Click to expand...
Can I ask why he recommended waiting please
 
One of the problems with Apple is that there is always something "worth waiting for". The iMac being updated from M1 to M2 will increase performance, but likely only for processor-intensive tasks, for example, a large export from Lightroom.
 
I can't move away from the Magic Mouse, i actually have been using it for like since it launched (when i got my old iMac). I do not hold it though...rather i kinda hover over it. What i like about it is the touch top surface which i use to move things around like a mini track pad, so i treat it almost like a track pad half the time. To do the same movement with a wheel mouse would require pushing the wheel sideways which uses a lot more force with the finger.

Terrible ergonomic but i can't move away from it.

As for keyboard, I like Keychron for it's value but.....Nuphy Halo 65 or Halo 75 would be my choice. It's has a Mac antithetic and also Mac keys mapped out of the box, including all media keys. Wired or Wireless, mechanical, you can choose your switch.

nuphy.com

NuPhy Halo75

Designed for pros and heavy hitters, Halo75 packs the firepower that can deliver on your most demanding tasks. From the cap to the coating, from the actuator to the damper, we push the envelope on wireless mechanical keyboard technology, and fine tune every component to create a typing...
nuphy.com nuphy.com

Mine is a 65%. (The only downside is ANSI and not ISO)

jbzt3Ru.jpg


Keychoron does ISO if you want but more expensive.

D0lmx3X.jpg


For a bit of fun...

cpWW4Ai.jpg
 
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Craikeybaby said:
One of the problems with Apple is that there is always something "worth waiting for". The iMac being updated from M1 to M2 will increase performance, but likely only for processor-intensive tasks, for example, a large export from Lightroom.
Click to expand...
I think that's an issue with any tech. I had settled on switching from PC to Mac 1 Mini but then there was an announcement that it was to be upgraded towards the end of 2022 so to my mind it made sense to wait and see i.e. would the M1 have some big price reductions or if the M2 was significantly more expensive was it much better than the M1 version. As it turned out the rumours were not quite accurate and it's only now at the start of 2023 it's being released
 
With Apple it's best to buy into the tech/generation near their announcements to get the maximum value. Whatever it is, that product is fixed for at least 12 months, possibly 24months.

So right now it's a good time to get a new Mac Mini.
 
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