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I want to purchase a new m4pro mini with 14 cores, 48 gB and 1 TB. But I want to use it as a desktop connected to my M1pro macbook for the screen, keyboard, and mouse.
Can I have it set up this way? Or set it up myself?
MacBook Pro 16″, macOS 14.6
Not effectively, in my opinion. It's possible via various means, such as the screen sharing feature built into macOS and other remote desktop apps, or perhaps Universal Control, but in my experience that sort of remote operation isn't really suitable for day-to-day operation. I think you'll be much happier if you just get a monitor, keyboard and mouse for the Mac mini.
Note that you will need a monitor, keyboard and mouse for the mini long enough to get it set up intially. It won't be possible to do using your MacBook.
Regards.
You should be able to set up the MacBook as an AirPlay Receiver for AirPlay to Mac. This would let you use it as a second screen for the M4 Pro Mac mini.
Continuity features and requirements for Apple devices - Apple Support
Note that you will need a real monitor for the M4 Pro Mac mini to set this up, and that an AirPlay connection won't be as good as a hardware connection to a real monitor. You might not find this usable. However, if you have both Macs anyway, for other reasons, it wouldn't cost anything to experiment with the feature.
I doubt Luna will be suitable for driving another Mac as primary display. This screenshot is from Luna's own support site:
The red emphasis is theirs, not mine. To me they are saying Luna is for parking pallets and static Finder windows and little else.
Onward to answer my own question.....Actually, the current version of Luna will do exactly what I was wondering about. It will connect directly with a Thunderbolt 4 cable and the latency and delay is literally not noticeable. Currently Universal Control is very very wonky on anything past Sonoma 14.3 and has not been fixed as of Sequoia 15.1.
You do lose the stereo speakers but this is easily fixed with a set of headphones. I have not heard from Luna about whether the SSD on the MBP shows up on the. desktop, but a 120Gb external drive certainly makes up for that with those speeds on the M4pro Mini.
As to being happier, with the an apple quality monitor, new mouse and keyboard I’m not so sure. I would have to leave to living room where I usually listen to music and go to a room far away, as well as sit in a chair, not the couch, and be away from the warmth of the wood stove(I live in Maine), and the cost would be up near the price of just buying an new M4Pro in the macbook or about $3900. I figure the cost of the M4pro mini with the 14 core chip, 48 GB ram, and 1TB SSD plus the $80 Luna, plus the cable, plus an external drive to be about $2400.
I spoke to Peter at luna directly.
Current versions will work fine for regular work including watching movies. The key here is to be using not a regular USB cable but a Thunderbolt 3 cable. Use with WiFi or a cheap low quality cable will produce what you are saying. Since I don’t play games, it work fine for regular work as a primary screen. However, with the advent of the new M4pro macbooks, I will probably not go that route.
Bypassing the innards of my m1pro and use the screen, mouse and keyboard. Is this possible
