Help me find the perfect setup - $1000 ~ $1100 budget

This thread might have some useful info for you - https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1389558/

Sounds like your budget for a monitor is similar to mine although you may have different requirements.

A few things to look at...

1. Resolution. Look for at least 1920x1080 (1080p)
2. LED Backlight- I would suggest and LED model, better whites/blacks, and LED backlit displays generally have increased longevity.
3. Contrast Ratio- If a monitor hides this in the specs, its usually for a reason. Many people forget to check this.
4. Inputs- How are you going to connect this? Are you using it for multiple devices? If so, make sure you choose a monitor which has all the inputs you need. Don't forget to think of your needs in the next few years as well.

Hope this helps!

Go to newegg on the trackpad, keyboard, and ram, which is dirt cheap now. 500Gb will be stock for HD. I have a feeling that apple will be changing the mini in order to prevent the self-install of SSD's since they have become so easy to do with the 2011's, and the price of SSD's has came down drastically. If not, I would go for it, brought my restart time down to less than 20 seconds from about 90, and can definitely feel it day-to-day.

lilsoccakid74 said:

3. Contrast Ratio- If a monitor hides this in the specs, its usually for a reason.

I have a feeling that apple will be changing the mini in order to prevent the self-install of SSD's since they have become so easy to do with the 2011's, and the price of SSD's has came down drastically. If not, I would go for it, brought my restart time down to less than 20 seconds from about 90, and can definitely feel it day-to-day.

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Some good tipps there. However, don't look at dynamic contrast (the x-million-number) as it says practically nothing. Look at static contrast, which is usually between 300:1 (bad) to 1000:1 (pretty good if it comes close to this number in reality).

As for SSD's: the next Mini should have a 750GB HDD standard, so you pay "only" 100 bucks at Apple BTO to get a 128 GB SSD. Not that much more expensive than buying and installing yourself, and you safe mich time. So not a big problem if they don't allow to built one in anymore (altough highly doubtable because changing the internal design means higher production costs).

Edit: Oh, and when you don't want to spend at least 550 (Dell U2711) then consider going with a 24" screen. 1080p on 27" simply doesn't look top good and doesn't give you any extra workspace.

Poki said:

Some good tipps there. However, don't look at dynamic contrast (the x-million-number) as it says practically nothing. Look at static contrast, which is usually between 300:1 (bad) to 1000:1 (pretty good if it comes close to this number in reality).

As for SSD's: the next Mini should have a 750GB HDD standard, so you pay "only" 100 bucks at Apple BTO to get a 128 GB SSD. Not that much more expensive than buying and installing yourself, and you safe mich time. So not a big problem if they don't allow to built one in anymore (altough highly doubtable because changing the internal design means higher production costs).

Edit: Oh, and when you don't want to spend at least 550 (Dell U2711) then consider going with a 24" screen. 1080p on 27" simply doesn't look top good and doesn't give you any extra workspace.

Click to expand...

Currently, Apple charges $150 to go from 500->750gb, or add another $450 on top of that for a 128gb SSD. Seems like Apple would have to have huge price breaks in the next gen for this to start sounding like anything but a rip-off IMO. I bought a Vertex4 128gb for 150, which is much much faster than what apple gives you for 600. Saw vertex 3's on sale for 89 dollars for the same size as well.

lilsoccakid74 said:

Currently, Apple charges $150 to go from 500->750gb, or add another $450 on top of that for a 128gb SSD. Seems like Apple would have to have huge price breaks in the next gen for this to start sounding like anything but a rip-off IMO. I bought a Vertex4 128gb for 150, which is much much faster than what apple gives you for 600. Saw vertex 3's on sale for 89 dollars for the same size as well.

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Look at the upgrade prices for the new MacBook Pros which have a HDD as standard. MUCH cheaper! These prices should apply to all 2012 Macs after their updates.

Poki said:

Look at the upgrade prices for the new MacBook Pros which have a HDD as standard. MUCH cheaper! These prices should apply to all 2012 Macs after their updates.

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Sorry about that, your correct.

Didn't realize they had changed for the MBP's, good on them, those prices would be crazy to continue still. thanks for the tip!