Sensible monitor for new Mac mini M1

my iMac is in sale :ROFLMAO:

that dock is very nice. might get one if I end up with a mini
 
my iMac is in sale :ROFLMAO:

that dock is very nice. might get one if I end up with a mini

That Dock is a must i think. it's tiny, takes up no more extra space, add tons of ports and SD card slot for a very reasonable price. Throw in a 1TB SSD and done.

I really think this is the route I am going now. I don't need a new machine yet since I have no wedding to edit so i will wait until I need one before spending the money.
 
That Dock is a must i think. it's tiny, takes up no more extra space, add tons of ports and SD card slot for a very reasonable price. Throw in a 1TB SSD and done.

I really think this is the route I am going now. I don't need a new machine yet since I have no wedding to edit so i will wait until I need one before spending the money.

I still haven't made my mind up yet. new MBP has just two ports where one is taken up by the power supply isn't great. I'll probably end up annoyed with it.

One good thing about the Samsung monitor I have is it also acts as a USB dock which is great.

At moment I use all 4 USB ports on my iMac plus have a USB dock for 4 more ports.
 
I still haven't made my mind up yet. new MBP has just two ports where one is taken up by the power supply isn't great. I'll probably end up annoyed with it.

One good thing about the Samsung monitor I have is it also acts as a USB dock which is great.

At moment I use all 4 USB ports on my iMac plus have a USB dock for 4 more ports.

4 USB ports in my iMac plus a 7 port hub here! Although 3 ports free at the moment.
 
The main reason, the biggest reason and the most attractive reason is actually I don't update my Apple machine often.

The 2018 MBP that I bought, it replaced my 2010 Base MBP with Core2Duo. I only use that to take on holiday/travel.

My day to day editing machine is this. I update my Apple machines at 8 years average....and climbing.

ZJcLbDa.png

I REALLY don't want to get into a Mac vs PC war, but my late 2008 Unibody Macbook (2GHz core 2 duo, upgraded with SSD and maxed with 8GB RAM) was struggling so badly with Lightroom 5 that replacing it with a Dell XPS in 2014 was a blessed relief. However I'm still happy to use that same XPS today. The mistake I made was that I bought the base level - which was still a £1000 machine 11 years ago - when I should have bough something better spec'd.

That Macbook was our travel laptop until this year, when I replaced the thermal paste in the hope of it being a little less tardy and it hasn't recovered from the anaesthetic - I suspect the ribbon cable for the keyboard hasn't connected properly & need to tear it apart again. However I took a 12" Linx tablet instead, and found that to have very comparable performance, even when editing photos (really REALLY not recommended unless you have incredible patience).
 
I REALLY don't want to get into a Mac vs PC war, but my late 2008 Unibody Macbook (2GHz core 2 duo, upgraded with SSD and maxed with 8GB RAM) was struggling so badly with Lightroom 5 that replacing it with a Dell XPS in 2014 was a blessed relief. However I'm still happy to use that same XPS today. The mistake I made was that I bought the base level - which was still a £1000 machine 11 years ago - when I should have bough something better spec'd.

That Macbook was our travel laptop until this year, when I replaced the thermal paste in the hope of it being a little less tardy and it hasn't recovered from the anaesthetic - I suspect the ribbon cable for the keyboard hasn't connected properly & need to tear it apart again. However I took a 12" Linx tablet instead, and found that to have very comparable performance, even when editing photos (really REALLY not recommended unless you have incredible patience).


I put an SSD in mine around 2013 which improved it dramatically. I only replaced it because Adobe stopped supporting it.
 
If you are getting a Mac Mini...get one of these


Put a SSD in the underside for storage. BAM! you have lots of storage, USB ports at the front for easy access, and SD card slot.

Haha, already got one of these in my Amazon basket. Thanks for the shout though!
 
I REALLY don't want to get into a Mac vs PC war, but my late 2008 Unibody Macbook (2GHz core 2 duo, upgraded with SSD and maxed with 8GB RAM) was struggling so badly with Lightroom 5 that replacing it with a Dell XPS in 2014 was a blessed relief. However I'm still happy to use that same XPS today. The mistake I made was that I bought the base level - which was still a £1000 machine 11 years ago - when I should have bough something better spec'd.

That Macbook was our travel laptop until this year, when I replaced the thermal paste in the hope of it being a little less tardy and it hasn't recovered from the anaesthetic - I suspect the ribbon cable for the keyboard hasn't connected properly & need to tear it apart again. However I took a 12" Linx tablet instead, and found that to have very comparable performance, even when editing photos (really REALLY not recommended unless you have incredible patience).

I have had both too and don't really mind windows but the lack for a decent shell/terminal/commandline really annoys me on windows. lack of games on mac annoys me less these days since photography and travel has mostly replaced gaming for me.

my first laptop was a windows one, a big heavy beefy 17" gaming laptop from sept 2007 (my most expensive computer so far). Got replaced by a custom build laptop 4 years later in sept 2011, also for gaming. half way though got into photography and bought a nice dell monitor. then just after 5.5 years later, March 2017 i got my current iMac.
the other two laptop were worthless and i couldn't really sell it on. may be i can refurb them and sell them for a little but not really worth the pain. my iMac is still worth £1K+ looking at online sales.
 
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also taking about memory here's my memory usage just now:
Screenshot 2020-11-25 at 20.42.05.png

no idea why its using so much swap :p
as said on last page there is not real method to the madness (well i am sure there is in apple's minds). So i wouldn't knock off on an 8GB M1 based on just how much swap someone had at any given time.
this morning i had the same bunch of stuff running, in fact I had more chrome tabs with youtube running and there was less that 1GB swap used and my memory used was at 14GB.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯
 
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If you are getting a Mac Mini...get one of these


Put a SSD in the underside for storage. BAM! you have lots of storage, USB ports at the front for easy access, and SD card slot.
That looks great. I was looking at something similar but it didn’t have the in built hardrive/SSD.
 
I’ve been thinking of replacing my 2012 iMac with a Mac mini for a while. The new M1 Mac Minis are tempting but I’ve decided I’d be best to wait and see what comes out next year. I can see Apple bringing out a faster chip model at some point in the future. Whilst we initially think the M1 is fast when the next chips come out they will be even faster. The fact apple have currently kept the i5 and i7 intels in the line up makes me think the M1 chip will be the entry model and something faster is coming.

Personally I wouldn’t even think of staying with the base model. 16GB ram is a must to future proof it for a few years. I doubt these new mini Mac will be user upgradeable in the future. It’s one of the reasons I’m contemplating replacing the iMac with a PC. The lack of future upgrading is really annoying.
 
I’ve been thinking of replacing my 2012 iMac with a Mac mini for a while. The new M1 Mac Minis are tempting but I’ve decided I’d be best to wait and see what comes out next year. I can see Apple bringing out a faster chip model at some point in the future. Whilst we initially think the M1 is fast when the next chips come out they will be even faster. The fact apple have currently kept the i5 and i7 intels in the line up makes me think the M1 chip will be the entry model and something faster is coming.

Personally I wouldn’t even think of staying with the base model. 16GB ram is a must to future proof it for a few years. I doubt these new mini Mac will be user upgradeable in the future. It’s one of the reasons I’m contemplating replacing the iMac with a PC. The lack of future upgrading is really annoying.
I did look into getting a NUC but it's more expensive than the M1 mini. And not even sure it'll be any better/faster for my apps. So I kinda gave up lol.
Any other ideas?
Not keen on a big tower (never was, never will). I could work with a laptop though.
 
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I looked into a NUC several times the past couple of years, as well as a new AMD rig but all of them I ended up looking at £1500 before a monitor and right now looking at the Mac Mini at 2/3rd the cost will get comparable performance or better not to mention total silence, smaller, keeping my Mac workflow etc.
 
I looked into a NUC several times the past couple of years, as well as a new AMD rig but all of them I ended up looking at £1500 before a monitor and right now looking at the Mac Mini at 2/3rd the cost will get comparable performance or better not to mention total silence, smaller, keeping my Mac workflow etc.
Just £1500? That's cheaper
The ones I spec'd up was £2k up!! That's without a monitor.
 
These M1 mac mini's certainly look very tempting, but I think I might wait 6 months or so until the major software houses (Adobe etc) have produced M1 optimised versions of their software.

Amazing to think that built in graphics on these units are as good (if not better) than a low to mid range discreet external graphic card !

I use Davinci Resolve for my video editing which is supremely video card intensive, so I guess with the imminent lunch of Davinci 17 (which apparently will be available in a Mac M1 optimised version), I need to see if the built in graphics can handle this leviathan of a software package.

Love the external dock BTW - i notice this is on Amazon's US site. Anyone know if these are available in the UK ?
 
These M1 mac mini's certainly look very tempting, but I think I might wait 6 months or so until the major software houses (Adobe etc) have produced M1 optimised versions of their software.

Amazing to think that built in graphics on these units are as good (if not better) than a low to mid range discreet external graphic card !

I use Davinci Resolve for my video editing which is supremely video card intensive, so I guess with the imminent lunch of Davinci 17 (which apparently will be available in a Mac M1 optimised version), I need to see if the built in graphics can handle this leviathan of a software package.

Love the external dock BTW - i notice this is on Amazon's US site. Anyone know if these are available in the UK ?

i am thinking of running both my iMac and an M1 mini in parallel for a while for this reason. doesn't look like my iMac is getting sold in a hurry anyway.
I have been watching and following various tests and benchmarks and looks like the built in graphic is on the level of a mid range graphics card (good enough for me) but I wonder if it will be better when there is better native support for it.

as for the dock I could find the only one is UK and it doesn't have the SSD dock slot which isn't great IMO. but the one in UK has better ports for me at least (headphone jack, 3x USB 3 ports and a USB-C port).

but amazon will do the importing for you so you don't have any surprise charges when it arrives at your doorstep.

UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Satechi-Type-C-Aluminum-Stand-Hub-Grey/dp/B07YSWZNNW
import from US via. amazon UK - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Enclosure-Hagibis-Docking-Station-MacBook/dp/B088B4DCF2
 
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Oh dear, all this is making my head hurt :) - part of the reason i got the all in one iMac in the first place.

Next question is, will the 16gb eventually be in stock so i can order for next day like the 8gb or will it always be on a 3 week wait as it's made to order?

Some great suggestions for monitors so far, so thanks everyone for their input. Exciting times!

just been talking to some colleagues and they seem to think the 16GB version and higher SSD versions are all made to order so you will always have the wait. though they seem have got theirs in a week rather than 3 weeks. so you never know, you may get it sooner than later.
 
boooo.....
"This offer cannot be combined with the Corporate Employee Purchase Programme, education or business loyalty pricing."

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ah ok no point waiting i shall order today too :D
 
Ive ordered mine, Mini 16gb RAM and 512gb. now back to looking for a monitor!

Think I'll order the 1TB SSD even though I make do with 500GB at the moment.
2TB is a massive £600 more :eek:

Might help to know your budget. Also are you looking for a 4K monitor.

If QHD is good enough and you are on a budget then the Samsung I linked on previous page is rather good. It has one of each port (display, USB-C and HDMI). Works well I have 3 devices connected to it via 3 different ports.
 
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Think I'll order the 1TB SSD even though I make do with 500GB at the moment.
2TB is a massive £600 more :eek:

Might help to know your budget. Also are you looking for a 4K monitor.

If QHD is good enough and you are on a budget then the Samsung I linked on previous page is rather good. It has one of each port (display, USB-C and HDMI). Works well I have 3 devices connected to it via 3 different ports.

I'm going a different direction with the SSD. i will order the base from amazon and put a 2tb SSD in there for about 1/10th price of the apple SSD. alternatively, a Sandisk extreme 2tb SSD for <£300

Monitor wise, I would like 4k, but I am also looking for something bigger than 27" I don't want to spend too much on it as this would defeat some of the savings over a new Imac. I also want it to look nice on the desk, have a really small bezel, and have loads of connectivity. Basically I want the moon on a stick, but for £50 :) This is why I am going in circles around monitors.
 
Hi, I’m looking at taking the plunge with a new Mac mini M1 to update my 2015 iMac. Having been spoilt with my 5k Retina display for the last few years, I will need a decent but sensibly priced monitor. I’m looking for something that is at least 27” and hopefully around the 32” size.

In addition to PS and LR I edit 4K video on FCPX.

I’m a little out of touch with monitor shopping since the iMac, and I used to have a triple screen windows setup.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks.

....EIZO 27-inch. I bought mine from WEX but don't remember the price. Superb monitor!

Like you, I had also upgraded to a Mac Mini from a 2015 iMac (27-inch).
 
my mini also ordered.
my iMac in sales now.

also looking for a new large monitor in the long run but I have a nice enough monitor for the time being :)
 
....EIZO 27-inch. I bought mine from WEX but don't remember the price. Superb monitor!

Like you, I had also upgraded to a Mac Mini from a 2015 iMac (27-inch).

I am toying with an Eizo screen but heard very mixed reviews re quality control - most say they are great but some have been reported as sub performance, funny flickers and odd colour casts even post calibration
 
I am toying with an Eizo screen but heard very mixed reviews re quality control - most say they are great but some have been reported as sub performance, funny flickers and odd colour casts even post calibration

.... I have never experienced such performance problems on mine. But I have had occasional 'snow storm' if waking up the screen before the Mac has got going but an Off/On the monitor switch reboots everything as it should be. This does not happen often and is probably down to me and because I edit my photo images from external HD storage.
 
Years ago in our studio we never had anything else except Eizo monitors, they were the dogs at the time, alas they seem to be not the same company anymore
 
Years ago in our studio we never had anything else except Eizo monitors, they were the dogs at the time, alas they seem to be not the same company anymore

.... Have you had first hand poor experiences with EIZO monitors?
 
Everyone I know absolutely loves their Eizo screens, never heard a bad word about them. Expensive but if you have the cash and value the colour qualities well worth it
 
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