New 24 inch iMacs with M1 chip

[JonathanRyan]

Having seen the upgrade prices for the M1 24 inch iMac are exactly the same as the Mac mini I’ve started to think the Mac mini would be the more sensible option for me.l considering I have a screen I could potentially use. I’ve decided I’d need to spec it with 16GB RAM but the cost of storage upgrades feels excessive. It’s annoying you’re effectively paying £200 for just 256GB storage as it replaced the base 256GB SSD rather than provide an extra drive.

After discussing the 2TB upgrade with a friend who would like do it to match his current 2011 iMac spec he found this external caddy.

UGREEN M.2 NVMe Enclosure USB C External PCIe M-Key SSD Caddy 10Gbp UASP USB 3.1 Gen 2 M2 Reader Aluminum Thunderbolt 3 Case Compatible with 970 EVO Plus, Crucial P1, WD Black, Kingston NVMe Tool-Free: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy UGREEN M.2 NVMe Enclosure USB C External PCIe M-Key SSD Caddy 10Gbp UASP USB 3.1 Gen 2 M2 Reader Aluminum Thunderbolt 3 Case Compatible with 970 EVO Plus, Crucial P1, WD Black, Kingston NVMe Tool-Free at Amazon UK.

www.amazon.co.uk

If I coupled that with a 500GB NVMe SSD for £47 it would be a bargain compared to the apple price. I’d even think of upgrading that to a 1TB SSD for just £4

https://www.amazon.co.uk/WD-Blue-SN550-High-Performance-Pcie/dp/B07YFF3JCN/ref=mp_s_a_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=nvme%2Bssd&qid=1619822221&sr=8-3&th=1&psc=1

The 256GB internal SSD would probably be do for just the OS and apps. An external caddy SSD for Lightroom and general document storage, and my existing 6TB thunderbolt 3 drive for RAWS. I’m wondering if the caddy could be daisy chained off my existing thunderbolt 3 drive.

All in all that would be a Mac mini with 16GB RAM and 256GB internal SSD, and additional 1TB external SSD for just over £1K. That seems my most cost effective solution to stay with a Mac.

Anyone else considering doing similar?

The shocking costs of storage and older Macs' inability to hold a reliable connection to a USB drive (they often went missing when the computer woke from sleep or prevented sleep in the first place) is what finally pushed me from Mac back to PC.

Personally if I were running an external NVME all day I'd look for something with its own power supply and/or cooling. They generate a lot of heat which suggests they would be sucking a lot of power down the USB cable. I'm not sure most of them are designed for continual use.

 

[rob-nikon]

The shocking costs of storage and older Macs' inability to hold a reliable connection to a USB drive (they often went missing when the computer woke from sleep or prevented sleep in the first place) is what finally pushed me from Mac back to PC.

Personally if I were running an external NVME all day I'd look for something with its own power supply and/or cooling. They generate a lot of heat which suggests they would be sucking a lot of power down the USB cable. I'm not sure most of them are designed for continual use.

That’s a good point.

I’ve been using a Samsung portable SSD for a boot drive on my 2012 iMac. That seems to have been quite stable on the connection but I don’t think it goes into sleep mode. I’m wondering if that would be a better option for more storage. I’d not be looking to run off it continuously but more for extra storage for documents and may be the ZLR catalogue if that can’t fit on the internal SSD.

I’m also wondering if it would work at the end of the daisy chain on thunderbolt 3 drives. I’m guessing probably not but it’s not a big issue if it doesn’t as there would potentially be a spare port for it.

 

[inkiboo]

Would love to replace my 27 inch iMac but given you can’t spec 32gb RAM and the screen. Is too small, I need to wait.

Shame as they look great and the M1 chip is awesome.

 

[gad-westy]

Would love to replace my 27 inch iMac but given you can’t spec 32gb RAM and the screen. Is too small, I need to wait.

Shame as they look great and the M1 chip is awesome.

I'd be amazed if they don't release a large screen version before the end of the year.

 

[rob-nikon]

I'd be amazed if they don't release a large screen version before the end of the year.

I’m thinking they could release the larger screen M1 version by the end of year, and then release faster chip versions in 2022. Make sense to me they would do it in that order otherwise the M1 versions wouldn’t sell so well if people definitely knew there were faster versions coming soon.

 

[SteveA]

Having seen the upgrade prices for the M1 24 inch iMac are exactly the same as the Mac mini I’ve started to think the Mac mini would be the more sensible option for me.l considering I have a screen I could potentially use. I’ve decided I’d need to spec it with 16GB RAM but the cost of storage upgrades feels excessive. It’s annoying you’re effectively paying £200 for just 256GB storage as it replaced the base 256GB SSD rather than provide an extra drive. [...]

Anyone else considering doing similar?

I bought one of the M1 iMacs and a SanDisk Extreme Pro 2TB Portable SSD for my photos.
I've had it for four weeks now with no issues whatsoever.

I did consider going the M1 Mac Mini route, but I only had a 1080p monitor so considered the cost of upgrading that too (and there's also value in the webcam, mics, and speakers integrated into the iMac).

 

[rob-nikon]

I bought one of the M1 iMacs and a SanDisk Extreme Pro 2TB Portable SSD for my photos.
I've had it for four weeks now with no issues whatsoever.

I did consider going the M1 Mac Mini route, but I only had a 1080p monitor so considered the cost of upgrading that too (and there's also value in the webcam, mics, and speakers integrated into the iMac).

That’s good to hear. A friend of mine has just bought one and is doing the same. Does your SSD use the thunderbolt 3/usb-c ports or the usb-a ports?

I can see the benefit of the 24 inch Mac as like you same you’re missing out on the web cam, mic and speakers. That said on my 2012 iMac we’ve bought a ride usb mic as our family could hear us that well on the iMacs mic. Not sure exactly why that was a problem for us. Im waiting to see what happens with working from home and if I stay with the one screen. It does make sense if I’m going to be working and doing photos from the same desk.

 

[SteveA]

That’s good to hear. A friend of mine has just bought one and is doing the same. Does your SSD use the thunderbolt 3/usb-c ports or the usb-a ports?

I initially plugged my SSD into a USB-A port on my old Intel iMac and used it to store my photos then, when I got my new M1 iMac, I plugged it into a USB-C port and hid it away by sticking it to the back of the machine with a 3M Command Strip, It's been plugged in to USB-C and working without problems ever since.

I can see the benefit of the 24 inch Mac as like you same you’re missing out on the web cam, mic and speakers. That said on my 2012 iMac we’ve bought a ride usb mic as our family could hear us that well on the iMacs mic. Not sure exactly why that was a problem for us. Im waiting to see what happens with working from home and if I stay with the one screen. It does make sense if I’m going to be working and doing photos from the same desk.

I have a Yeti X microphone which I used to use on my old Intel iMac, but I've never bothered to plug it into my new M1 iMac as people tell me the sound quality of the built-in microphones is great.