Questions about replacing 27-inch iMac with Mac mini M4.

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Level 1

33 points

Questions about replacing 27-inch iMac with Mac mini M4.

I currently have a 27-inch iMac Retina 5k, 2017 with a 27-inch Thunderbolt Display of the same era. I would like to buy a Mac mini M4 and two 27-inch displays as a replacement.

My current iMac has a 3.5Ghz Quad-core Intel i5 Processor; 64GB 2400 MHz DDRr Ram; and 1.03TB Macintosh HD.

I don’t use this iMac for much graphic design and no gaming. Basically, I do lots of Excel and Word docs and lots of internet searching. My storage usage is light as well - I still have 865GB free on my 1.03TB HD.

I see current Mac mini’s come standard with 16 GB unified memory and 256-512 GB SSD storage.

Question1: What configuration of memory and storage would you suggest to be equal to or better than what I have now?

Question 2: If building this system to last 8-10 years, what memory and storage would you recommend buying long term?

Question 3: Displays. As much as I would like to have two new Apple 27-inch Studio Displays, at $1,499 each, without a stand, that seems excessive. What would you recommend for high quality displays from a different manufacturer, with complete compatibility with the Mac mini?

Thank you very much for the help!

[Edited by Moderator]

iMac 27″ 5K

Posted on Nov 12, 2024 3:32 PM

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Answer 1

Nov 12, 2024 10:07 PM in response to Don Mckinley

If you want to keep using your 27" Thunderbolt Display, you could connect it using the Apple Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 2 Adapter .

With respect to new displays, there is a wide selection of 27"–32" 3840x2160 (4K) displays and 27" 2560x1440 ones. I know of only three 27" 5120x2880 (5K) displays: the $1600 one from Apple – and two others from LG and Samsung that list for well over $1000, but can sometimes be had for $800–$850.

You can get some basic 4K displays with IPS panels and near-100% coverage of sRGB for as little as $300 to $350.

Note that many displays do not have built-in Webcams, and some do not have built-in speakers. It's no big deal to use powered speakers (plugged into a headphone jack, or into a USB sound card).

The Mini has USB-C (DisplayPort, Thunderbolt) ports and a HDMI port. You can get adapters, and adapter cables, to go from USB-C to just about anything you might need.

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Answer 2

tbirdvet

Level 6

14,483 points

Nov 12, 2024 6:27 PM in response to Don Mckinley

I also have a 27" iMac with I-9 and 32GB RAM. I just got the Mini M4 pro which is over kill for me. The new M4 is much more powerful than previous models. For you the Base unit with 16GB RAM would be fine but I would suggest a 512GB drive. Some may state that you need more ram but YouTube testing would say no. You can look at your present use of memory in Activity Monitor and go from there. I use a Studio display and an LG 5K (less expensive) and both work great.

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Answer 3

chdsl

Level 2

378 points

Nov 13, 2024 1:22 AM in response to Don Mckinley

Well, I purchased this professional monitor for office work and leisure, a few days ago. While it can certainly be used for photo and video editing, its not really suited for gaming. At the moment, I’m using it with a 2018 15" MacBook Pro as the main display, until I get the M4 Mac mini, which is expected to arrive between the 20th and 27th. It’s considerably more vivid and clear than the 'Retina' display on that MacBook, by the way. I’ve set it to 3008x1692 pixels, despite all the advice from the YouTube experts, and both the monitor and the MacBook are working well. It’s positioned roughly 85cm away from my eyes. I’m sure the M4 Mac mini will have much better graphics, even though this MacBook Pro has Radeon graphics for the external display.

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Answer 4

Nov 13, 2024 2:17 AM in response to Don Mckinley

It's not really pertinent to your question but don't forget that you can plug your M4 mini (via HDMI) into any modern TV so you could quite easily have a 4K 55" or larger monitor already.

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