It was time to die.
My 2014 iMac, equipped with 3 TB he was driving and maximizing RAM, it was a dream car. For years, I fired him and started working, transcoding videos, recording podcasts, and writing books. It was almost too much of a machine. He had a Massive, beautiful screen – one of the first Retina models, if I remember – high speed and amazing performance. And it lasted almost seven years, a record set by my habit of upgrading with every major Apple update.
Once I installed macOS Big Sur, however, things went downhill. I would open several tabs in Safari and get a rotating beach ball that led to such a serious accident that I was embarrassed by the CEO of Apple Tim Cook. Everything would freeze and spin for two minutes before the gray screen of death appeared. I should restart almost daily. Apple once reduced my capable car to rubble.
What was I supposed to do? I could use a laptop at home, but they were taken by my children and their distance school. I could continue to work on this iMac and restart constantly. I could use an iPad and cry alone to sleep every night.
Reader, I bought a Mac Mini.
The Mac Mini is a computer dear to my heart. I had a first generation model in 2005 and it was my first real foray into Apple products. Remember, back then, unless you were a tough guy, you did all your real work on a Windows machine. They were cheaper, more ubiquitous and, with the exception of a few art, music and design applications, more capable. We can argue these points if you want, but for an average computer user, you get a Dell.
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The original mini was a revelation. It worked great, the user interface was great (I wasn’t a Mac head, so I probably hadn’t used it since PowerPC days) and I could add any peripheral I wanted. I used an old monitor, a nice keyboard and a Logitech mouse. Everything worked perfectly.
After at the death of my iMac, I wanted something similar in power to a great screen, something I liked about the huge, bright Retina screen my old one had. I also wanted to try the M1 chip. I traded in the iMac and set up the Mini. Here’s what I learned.
Get a great monitor
I went for the $ 700 LG 24-inch UltraFine 4K UHD IPS Monitor, which provides much of the brightness and clarity of the original iMac. I noticed a minor difference in color and brightness, and the screen was slightly smaller than the 27 inches I was used to and, in retrospect, I probably should have taken a bigger one considering this is my daily driver. That being said, the difference between a laptop, an iMac and this screen is minimal.
You can go cheaper – about $ 300 for the BenQ PD2700Q – or you can handle the LG 38WN95C-W for $ 1,600. But what you’re looking for is a USB-C compatible monitor with a few expansion ports. Because the Mini only has two USB-C ports and two USB-A ports, you’ll want to expand.
Get an external drive
Mac Mini maximum at 512 GB, which I noticed fills almost immediately. As I mentioned, my old iMac had 3 TB on board and that was more than enough. It was too little. I bought an external hard drive and turned it into a “junk” drawer for downloads and the like.
You will also want a good one USB docking powered. I have an eight-port Anker model and can change various devices while keeping the off-board sound system (Scarlett 2i2) and the Logitech MX Master 2S mouse connected.
Replace the webcam
You’ll want a $ 110 Elgato Cam Link 4K video capture device. You can also connect a GoPro camera to the M1, but I had difficulty working with the new M1 chips. I am currently connecting a Sony DSLR to Elgato via HDMI, as the USB streaming function does not work. This is the biggest mess of this whole system and I definitely miss the built-in webcam – although the old man iMac’s was ugly Model 2020it is much better).
In conclusion, I spent about $ 800 on accessories to make the Mac Mini work like my iMac, not including the cost of the Mini itself. Because iMacs don’t have M1 chips yet and the Mini was so reasonable, I think this is a perfect opportunity to try out the hardware I haven’t touched in years and update my Mac. ul in this process.