Should I upgrade my iMac 2013 to a Mac mini 2023?

I don't know whether the iMac will work with the mini. It all depends on the models of each. Others on this forum will be able to help if you specify exactly what iMac you have.

Regarding the performance of the M2 mini . . . I bought the very lowest priced model last October and have not been disappointed.

Experts will tell you that it needs more RAM and the 256 GB SSD is too small.

Yes, the SSD is too small and for an extra £200 you can get a 500 GB drive but you don't need to do that.

Simply buy a cheap USB 3.0 1 TB SSD for around £60!

As for 8 GB RAM not being enough . . . that is complete baloney! I edit complex 1080p and 4K videos on Final Cut Pro with no problems at all. I would add that if you are a busy professional editing all day long it would be wise to get a more powerful machine as time is money but I don't think you are in that category.

There are only 2 USB 3.0 sockets but again that's no problem as you can buy a 4 socket hub for £10.

In conclusion, the M2 mini does everything at least twice as fast as my 2017 27" iMac, which is also pretty fast.

You won't be disappointed if you buy an M2 now from Amazon.

The M series was a tremendous step forward from the old Intel models but since then the advantages of new releases have been minimal.

Don't make the mistake of studying the numbers as they have little effect on real world performance.

One other thing I did not mention is that the speaker on the mini is pathetic.

My Philips monitor has speakers but they are not much better.

As I put sound tracks and deal with audio in my film editing I need to hear good sound so initially I used a tiny cheap (£20) Bluetooth speaker which was fine but I got fed up with having to connect to BT every time I woke up my mini.

So recently I went back to using an old pair of Harman/Kardon speakers that take up more desk space.

Of course you may not need high quality sound and the mini speaker may be adequate.

It all depends on how much your budget is. If the Mac mini is in your budget then sure you can get it; but if it’s still out of budget then yes you can wait for the next one to come out then the previous one will have a price drop like every other Apple product in general.

I think this video might help on the topic of how to turn your iMac into a monitor for your Mac Mini. So I hope it does work when you get your Mac Mini and I wish you best of luck :)

https://youtu.be/kbmX-oeEfvk?si=jU4vefXeQYSIKoOh

I notice that the Luna dongle costs £60 and there is no guarantee it will work so before purchasing I would wait for confirmation from others on this forum.

In any case, you could get a proper 27" monitor for an extra £50 that you know will work and will require much less fiddling every time you start to work . . . as you will have to wait for the iMac to launch and it will consume up to 10x as much electricity.

Take a look at this 2 minute video I made a few days ago to demonstrate how Final Cut Pro can be used to create an invisibility effect like 007s Invisible Aston Martin or the creature in Predator (1987).

You may not be interested in the effect I am creating but note this, the Mask Removal Filter I use needs an incredible amount of processing power and look at how instantaneously it works on the M2 mini with no rendering.

Just look at how slick everything works . . . except for me!

M2 & Final Cut Pro Demo

Harley2301 wrote:

...I assume it'll be OK to just plug a '23 mini into back of the iMac via a USB and after setting up with my apple ID, the iMac will work, solely as a screen? ...

You cannot use any iMac as a display with any MacMini that was made from 2020 and newer. There is no hardware support for that function.

I did buy a Philips 27" 1080p monitor for it costing £110.

Honestly I agree with you. I think Harley2301 can buy an affordable monitor or an used model of an older Apple monitor (the Cinema display) to use with the Mac Mini.

Oooh nice! I subbed to your channel btw. It's rlly cool.