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Advice on choosing the right Mac from Windows

T

Tanzanite

macrumors newbie
Original poster
I need an advice on Mac choosing to transition from Windows desktop. I have an old, 12 year old desktop with 1080p monitor and two hard drives, one 1 Tb SSD as a main drive and a second 1 Tb drive where I keep all photos and videos collected for years. This second disk is about 70% full. I also have a backup external drive with Seagate backup program. Now, I’m debating the transition to Mac and my main issue is the storage. I’m circling between iMac, Mac mini, or MacBook Air with an external monitor. In my age, I really prefer a larger screen, although the convenience of moving laptop around the house is also appealing. The main program I care about is Lightroom, that I use now on M1 iPad Air, since my 12-years old PC can’t handle it anymore effectively. I don’t like the idea of maxing out the storage on Macs , the price for SSD is high, but not sure, if I will be able to configure an external storage for the photos and videos and all apps running on main drive. I would appreciate any advice. As retiree, the money is the issue as well, so no MBP, Mac Studio, or Studio Display HDR are affordable nor needed for my use. I’m not sure about refurbished options, since I want Apple to support my machine as long as possible, and a new Mac is always better in this case.
Hope to get some good suggestions. Thanks in advance.
 
Outside of looking at YouTube videos, it sounds like anything you get now will be better than what you currently have. Budget is your main concern then the Neo seems capable, bigger screen means MBA 15”.

Heck, I have a basically brand new MBP 14” M4 Pro on the classifieds I’m selling for the price of a MBA 15”.
 
Tanzanite said:
I need an advice on Mac choosing to transition from Windows desktop. I have an old, 12 year old desktop with 1080p monitor and two hard drives, one 1 Tb SSD as a main drive and a second 1 Tb drive where I keep all photos and videos collected for years. This second disk is about 70% full. I also have a backup external drive with Seagate backup program. Now, I’m debating the transition to Mac and my main issue is the storage. I’m circling between iMac, Mac mini, or MacBook Air with an external monitor. In my age, I really prefer a larger screen, although the convenience of moving laptop around the house is also appealing. The main program I care about is Lightroom, that I use now on M1 iPad Air, since my 12-years old PC can’t handle it anymore effectively. I don’t like the idea of maxing out the storage on Macs , the price for SSD is high, but not sure, if I will be able to configure an external storage for the photos and videos and all apps running on main drive. I would appreciate any advice. As retiree, the money is the issue as well, so no MBP, Mac Studio, or Studio Display HDR are affordable nor needed for my use. I’m not sure about refurbished options, since I want Apple to support my machine as long as possible, and a new Mac is always better in this case.
Hope to get some good suggestions. Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
The most economical solution is a Mac Mini with an external display.

A Mac Mini with 16 GB RAM and 512 GB of storage is very powerful. You don't need the Pro CPU or more memory; that's really quite a lot for photo and video editing and there's nothing you will not be able to do.

For storage, you can use external USB 3.1 or Thunderbolt SSD drives. They are very fast, but not as fast as the internal storage. So I copy whatever I'm editing to internal storage and then I move it to external when I'm all done. For me, I have around 11 TB of external storage, so there's no point in paying for a huge amount of internal storage anyway. You could buy a machine with 8 and 256GB but it could be a bit restrictive. I have been using a 16/512 M1 MacBook for years and it's fine. You could instead buy a MacBook Air or Pro with 16/512 but you do pay much more for that screen. Instead, you can buy a 27", 4K60 screen from Samsung or LG for about $250 and it will be great. It won't be a $1,500 Apple Studio, but it will be very good and far less expensive. An old 1080p display will work but you're selling yourself short.
 
If you prefer to use with an external display, a Mac mini would be a worthy fit. If you still prefer portability but still need a decent size screen to be able to see properly, the 15" MacBook Air is the right fit. If you're on a budget but need the storage, external ssd is about your only option then
 
Mac mini. A new M4 or a used M2. 16GB of ram and at least 512GB drive. This will provide plenty of power for Lightroom or most any other software. Then get a 32" LCD, doesn't have to cost much. Also, an external enclosure and a high speed NVMe M.2 2280 chip to put in it. Store your LR catalogue on your internal, and your photos on the NVMe.

Remember, you can always connect your mac to your big screen TV also. I'm a big Lightroom user, and I have a 32" Benq monitor just beneath my TV, so I sit close to the 32" when working with stuff like LR, but most of the time I control the mac from further away with the TV, and wireless mouse/keyboard.

If you don't get much second hand value on your PC, you can put those two 1TB SSDs in cheap enclosures and use them for backup.

(I think your post would be more easy to read if you split it up into paragraphs.)
 
OP:

I, too, will suggest an m4 Mini. It's the best buy in the Mac line right now.

But I'd also suggest 32gb of RAM and a 1tb SSD.
That gives you "more than enough room for the future".

It will cost a little more.
You can recoup some of the cost by buying from Apple's online refurbished store.
That's where I got my m4 Mini -- like new, same warranty as if it were new.

If you already have a display, keyboard, mouse... just plug them in and use them. They'll work.

If you're going to get a new display, I'd suggest
- 27" 4k
- 27" 5k
- 32" 6k

Also...
Don't put away the Windows machine too soon.
Give yourself some time (two, three, months) to get adjusted to "the Mac way".
If you run into a block, you can always go back to Windows to get the task done, if need be.
 
Tanzanite,
A year ago being in the same predicament I ended up with a refurbished (apple official) iMac with 24 gig and 1tb ssd. This year because of some surgery. I bought apple refurbished MBA 24 gig and 1tb ssd. reasons 1) ICloud for most of may data in spread sheets. 2) display sharpest one for my eyes. 3) speed great. I just wish word and execel ported better. I had macros that don't work anymore. I live close to an Apple Store so help has been good.
 
If you can visit a store or know someone with one of the set ups you're considering, then you can better decide which of them you prefer in person.

Since I like a glossy screen, the Studio Display I got a year ago has been great with the M4 mini. Initially I had considered the iMac, but decided against the all-in-one style for various reasons.

While I don't move it around that much, my current set up has been in three different rooms where I live and was not difficult each time although the display is not a lightweight by any means.
 
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