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Anyone Using A Mac mini?

X350 XJR
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My trusty 27 inch iMac (late 2012) needs to be replaced due to screen failure.

Way too used to the size that I don't want a 24 inch iMac for a replacement which is the largest iMac they make now.

More looking for monitor recommendations, I can easily enough figure out the hardware aspect, although I would certainly like to hear about your experience there as well.

Thanks in advance.

Norman -
 
CBM1590
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X350 XJR X350 XJR
My trusty 27 inch iMac (late 2012) needs to be replaced due to screen failure.

Way too used to the size that I don't want a 24 inch iMac for a replacement which is the largest iMac they make now.

More looking for monitor recommendations, I can easily enough figure out the hardware aspect, although I would certainly like to hear about your experience there as well.

Thanks in advance.

Norman -
Following. My desktop at home is a 2010 iMac. Works, but it is going to die at some point. I have screaming fast MacBook laptop that I plug into 2 monitors at work. I really like that set up.
 
Tony C.
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I use a late 2012 Mac mini, and it works very well for my purposes. Specs in the image below.

I have used a 24" EIZO CE240W display for years. Very expensive originally (target market graphic artists and photographers), but can be found cheap (used) today.

iis.png
 
sheepdoll
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Yes.

I think I am on my 5th iteration. The prior one died when the GPU caused a lot of beachballs. It was prone to overheating after a hard drive upgrade. (Now they sell the thermal sensors.) The model I have dones not have an upgradeable hard drive. The flash is soldered onto the motherboard. They are in effect monitorless laptop boards, without mouse or keyboard.

I find them to be good value. The main reason for upgrading is that the old ones are not supported. Especially for web browsers.

I actually have an ASUS 3D monitor, what can use the polarized glasses. Will be a sad day when it goes.

Also use laptops. I really like the Macbook air. These can be found second hand. (Corporate sales.)

The local eWaste is a great place for finding older hardware. People tend to dump computers well before thier expiration date. Stick a new SSD in one and it is off to the races. The 'dump' also has a good selection of monitors.

In some ways I still collect older computers. I have some mac powerbooks, which are great for running the older programs. Especially when hardware lock dongles are used. Apple designs for things to last 7 years. So many users work with decades old computers. I still have some what work nearly 30 years later.

Since I got the watch bug again, I have not been doing as much with the upgrades. I still like to browse Other World Computing and iFixit.
 
fiberguy
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I have a 2014 model. Still performs very well, but it can no longer be updated with the latest OS, which bugs me not only from a security update point of view, but since I use the whole apple ecosystem, I cant take advantage of some of the newer features. Great thing about the 2014 models, they used standard disk drive, so I have a large SSD installed. The newer models cant be updated with larger disk space to the best of my knowledge. I will be buying a current mini model this year to use in my office and take the 2014 model home. I just buy Dell monitors for use with the mini's.
 
Dsloan
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We switched to Mac minis at work and home. The new ones with the M2 chips are shockingly powerful for the price point. We bought some larger ASUS monitors for them. The Apple monitors are not a good value as far as I'm concerned.
 
Donn Chambers
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Been using a M2-based MacBook for several years and it can do anything I throw at it, including processor-heavy scientific calculations and image processing. It should be fine for your needs and probably significantly faster than your old iMac. And I agree with the comments about Mac monitors - they are no longer worth buying, unlike in the past. Just get a good HD monitor for a lot less money
 
sathomasga
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I have a 2012 mini in the closet mainly as a media server. Still going strong, fingers crossed.

As for display recommendations, that's a bit of a can of worms with Apple. The problem is that all modern Macs are designed for 5K monitors. Standard 4K monitors work, but because the pixel space isn't a 1:1 match, the graphics driver has to scale the output which inevitably messes up the precision.

The obvious choice is the Apple Studio Display. It's what I use and it really is ideal for Macs. LG makes a 5K display, but it costs almost as much as Apple's, lacks many of the extras, and has had a bunch of quality problems over the years its been available. Samsung released a 5K display this month, but I haven't seen any reviews. Those are the only good options I know about.
 
kippyk
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I have probably purchased about 8 Mac minis over the years. I upgraded last year:

Apple M2 Pro with 10‑core CPU, 16-core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
16GB unified memory
512GB SSD storage

The new M2 version is amazing and highly recommended. Small, powerful, and quiet. I am not sure if there is even a fan in it anymore.

Some tips:

1. Order the 16 GB unified memory ... 32 GB does not get you much more performance. Lots of articles/YouTube videos about this
2. Upgrade to the 512 GB SSD. The 256 SSD is more slower. External storage will not help you with performance.
3. Order as part of the "Education" discount. The discount is 5 or 10%.
 
Vitezi
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X350 XJR X350 XJR
More looking for monitor recommendations
Can your Mac drive two displays? I find two smaller displays are more productive than one large display, assuming you have the desk space. I run a pair of 24" ASUS ProArt PA248QV Monitors, one of the few manufacturers to make a 24" display in the taller 16:10 format. The displays are mounted to a desk mount for optimal positioning:
613F+ILCC4L._AC_SX679_.jpg
 
Scarecrow Boat
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Vitezi Vitezi
Can your Mac drive two displays?
I have a colleague that has the new M2 Mac Mini with several upgrades and he runs several displays. He absolutely loves his M2 Mini.
 
pdxleaf
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I just saw this thread title and thought "Wtf?"

After opening it I realized my error. My first instinct was this:
1000021042.jpg


My buddy in the Army had one.

Sorry, carry on...
 
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