27" iMac 2017 to Mac Mini M2 Pro - any benefit?

[Chuckeee]

My late 2012 iMac has just had a HD failure and is no longer booting up. I was about to purchase a MacMini M2 to replace it and look for a used thunderbolt monitor as i am on a budget. But today i came across a 27" iMac 5k (late 2017), 4.2 GHz i7, 1TB SSD, 24GB RAM (Radeon Pro 575 4 GB GPU) for 800$. Which sounds great after reading all your opinions herein. Another friend mentioned that he was not a fan of a M2 Mac Mini, and was mentioning that i should get a used Cylindrical Mac Pro which can run Monterey. I am not convinced on that choice. I would be interested in your comments and views. Thank-you.

Another factor to consider is how often do you typically update your hardware. I don’t know when but I think it is nearly certain that at some point, apple will start phasing out support for Intel Mac in favor of Apple silicon Mac. Eventually dropping support for Intel entirely. It happened with 68K macs, it happened with PowerPC macs, and it will eventually happen to Intel macs too

If you upgrade every couple of years then it is no big deal.

If you upgrade every 8-10+ year then it’s a major concern

 

[bici]

so i ended up buying the following : iMac 2020, Retina 5K 27" , 16GB RAM and NANO Screen --- 1TB SSD. I'll be able to expand the RAM with some OWC product for under 40$.
If it lasts as long as my late 2012 i'll be happy!
PS i completey erased my late 2012 and restored everything from Time Machine back up and it is now working fine, If fact becasue it now has a fusion drive it boots up faster. .

 

[saberfi]

When I bought the 2017 iMac, I knew SSD would be essential for longevity. I'm glad I got it back then.

That being said, I still switched to M2 Mac mini + Studio Display now. For me it made sense, because I can now plug in my work laptop to the studio display, but also use the Mac mini as the 'home computer' most of the time.

The other benefits I have observed are:
- The Studio Display (in my opinion) has a slightly better screen. The blacks are a bit deeper with less of that blue tint, even though it's still LCD. The colors are a hunch punchier too. A great addition is also True Tone, which I have on all the time, and was lacking from the 2017 iMac. The look is more modern too with less bezels.
- Studio Display speakers are better than iMacs.
- The Mac mini is more silent than the iMac, and somewhat snappier. In addition Sonoma is supported out of the box.

It feels like an upgrade to me. However, if I discount the work laptop from the mix, then I would've had to scratch my chin more times to justify the action. To me using Mac mini + ASD feels more fresh, so I would still go for it.

 

[Sal Collaziano]

One thing I hadn't thought about while updating my iMac was trade-in value. I'll assume I can't trade-in my iMac anymore now that I've updated it to SSD. I'd LIKE to get an M2 Mac Mini but I'm slightly held-back by the idea of buying a new 5K monitor. It really is silly that now I have this perfectly good 27" 5K iMac monitor that's useless after I upgrade.

 

[macuros]

I had an iMac 27" 2019 and decided to sell it and buy an Apple Studio Display. Currently, I use it with a Macbook Air M2, but I am thinking about buying the base model Mac Mini M2.

I can see the base model MBA M2 is more than enough for my needs, so the base model Mac Mni M2 should do well too. It is the same processor and I don't need any RAM or storage upgrades to suck more money. I can easily run many office apps, many stock Apple apps, Pixelmator occasionally, etc. I don't do any heavy video editing or design, but you can do that too on the base model (if you do that for a living, upgrade to Pro).

And I can agree with all of this:

- The Studio Display (in my opinion) has a slightly better screen. The blacks are a bit deeper with less of that blue tint, even though it's still LCD. The colors are a hunch punchier too. A great addition is also True Tone, which I have on all the time, and was lacking from the 2017 iMac. The look is more modern too with less bezels.
- Studio Display speakers are better than iMacs.
- The Mac mini is more silent than the iMac, and somewhat snappier. In addition Sonoma is supported out of the box.

I don't regret selling the Intel iMac at all. The MBA M2 (base model!) is faster and more efficient. Also, Intel is game over for Apple.

 

[Dameatball]

probably not but also probably for the best. When you line it up as a trade at the point of sale with the Mac Studio etc, they probably wouldn't give you very much for the 2017 iMac is my guess (you can totally check to see what they would offer). While easier for sure, you could get more selling it on eBay. Especially now that's it's using using an SSD as opposed to the Fusion Drive. The fusion drives had very little SSD- 24G SSD until you got to 2 TB+, then it was 128G+ (per apple- Fusion Drive specifications). Obviously the ability change the drives out is great way to spend less and use an actual SSD.

Also if you're using other machines on your lan for pushing files, read/write speed, the 10G throughput speeds are amazing. You need a switch with at least some 10G ports but you can get them without spending a ton. I started down the rabbit hole and now most of the hardware on my LAN is utilizing 10G. Even if it's other mac's on the Lan without the ability to change the Nic, you can get external boxes on the cheap. I bought an older Atto thunderlink NT 2102, dual 10G ports (Thunderbolt 2 - ethernet) off eBay for $40. I use a T2-T3 adapter and works great for the one of my two Mac-mini's that doesn't have a 10G port.

Understood my use case might be a lot different than yours and makes this point moot, but just an FYI.

 

[Dameatball]

I had an iMac 27" 2019 and decided to sell it and buy an Apple Studio Display. Currently, I use it with a Macbook Air M2, but I am thinking about buying the base model Mac Mini M2.

I can see the base model MBA M2 is more than enough for my needs, so the base model Mac Mni M2 should do well too. It is the same processor and I don't need any RAM or storage upgrades to suck more money. I can easily run many office apps, many stock Apple apps, Pixelmator occasionally, etc. I don't do any heavy video editing or design, but you can do that too on the base model (if you do that for a living, upgrade to Pro).

And I can agree with all of this:


I don't regret selling the Intel iMac at all. The MBA M2 (base model!) is faster and more efficient. Also, Intel is game over for Apple.

I have a 2019 MBP with the intel CPU (one of the worst releases in recent memory with the useless Touch Bar and then all the problems that came with it) and my wife recently needed a new Mac and I got her the new MBA with m2. It's crazy how much faster it is. It's immediately noticeable. It was also less than I spent on my MBP in 2019. Im a little envious but she deserved it after using the underpowered MBA's for many years.

 

[thebart]

It sucks that target display mode doesn't work if the computer is dead. LCD monitors basically last forever barring some serious mishap, and latter days iMacs have nice 5k glossy displays. You want to get serious about sustainability, Apple? Make the iMac monitor usable as a monitor instead of making some bs cloth woven case that falls apart in a month

 

[Sal Collaziano]

It sucks that target display mode doesn't work if the computer is dead. LCD monitors basically last forever barring some serious mishap, and latter days iMacs have nice 5k glossy displays. You want to get serious about sustainability, Apple? Make the iMac monitor usable as a monitor instead of making some bs cloth woven case that falls apart in a month

My 2017 27” iMac monitor will be a paperweight after I upgrade to the new Mac Mini.

 

[Dameatball]

It sucks that target display mode doesn't work if the computer is dead. LCD monitors basically last forever barring some serious mishap, and latter days iMacs have nice 5k glossy displays. You want to get serious about sustainability, Apple? Make the iMac monitor usable as a monitor instead of making some bs cloth woven case that falls apart in a month

Boy you aren’t kidding. The monitors on some of the iMacs 3-4 years ago would make beautiful displays.

The whole apple ‘cares about the environment’ and sustainable bs is almost comical if it wasn’t so amazingly hypocritical. They build machines where you can’t replace a single part bc the entire machine is a single part. They quietly funded opposition to the ‘right to fix’ bill for years until very recently when the PR became to great and exposed the fact that they were not only prohibiting simple fixes but requiring repairs can only be made by authorized apple shops (which shockingly is substantially more expensive).

Essentially it was starting to expose the whole ‘apple cares about the environment’ as the joke it is. They’re hardly the only ones that do this (most do now) but they’re by far the most sanctimonious about it.

Make computers we can repair or replace parts. If it voids the warranty that’s our choice.