Help! Advice needed on upgrade path.

[Moccasin]

I currently have an Oct 2010 11" MBA whose hard drive is full of photos and iTunes. I travel a lot - either with work or to see family and want to make better use of my DSLR.

I'm trying to work out my best way forward to expand capabilities.

At the moment, the higher spec Mac Mini is looking like a good bet, however my cheap monitor wouldn't really do it justice so would need a new display. Of course, that means little or no change from £1,000 if I go for a Dell IPS screen, or £1,500 if I go for a Thunderbolt Display, though 27" is a little large for me.

Alternatively, a 21.5" inch iMac would probably achieve a similar outcome at a similar cost. I'm a bit reluctant to go down the all-in-one route though, especially when it's a first generation and when there's no way to adjust height etc.

It's a shame that I didn't wait a couple of months to buy my MBA as I could have had an easier upgrade path by combining it with a Thunderbolt display. Getting a Cinema Display seems like poor future-proofing. In any case, I need something to work on editing and storing photos, not to mention hsving itunes for AirPlay and Apple TV.

If I go for the Mac Mini, is a Dell display a worthy companion? Is self upgrade of RAM easy enough for someone who has done the same to PCs in the past?

If I go for the iMac, what spec do I go for? Is Fusion worth the cost or should I just upgrade the RAM.

As said before, main use of the desktop would be photo editing and management and a way of freeing up hard drive space on my MBA, which would probably remain as the machine used for web surfing etc and for use while away.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

 

[xShane]

I currently have an Oct 2010 11" MBA whose hard drive is full of photos and iTunes. I travel a lot - either with work or to see family and want to make better use of my DSLR.

I'm trying to work out my best way forward to expand capabilities.

At the moment, the higher spec Mac Mini is looking like a good bet, however my cheap monitor wouldn't really do it justice so would need a new display. Of course, that means little or no change from £1,000 if I go for a Dell IPS screen, or £1,500 if I go for a Thunderbolt Display, though 27" is a little large for me.

Alternatively, a 21.5" inch iMac would probably achieve a similar outcome at a similar cost. I'm a bit reluctant to go down the all-in-one route though, especially when it's a first generation and when there's no way to adjust height etc.

It's a shame that I didn't wait a couple of months to buy my MBA as I could have had an easier upgrade path by combining it with a Thunderbolt display. Getting a Cinema Display seems like poor future-proofing. In any case, I need something to work on editing and storing photos, not to mention hsving itunes for AirPlay and Apple TV.

If I go for the Mac Mini, is a Dell display a worthy companion? Is self upgrade of RAM easy enough for someone who has done the same to PCs in the past?

If I go for the iMac, what spec do I go for? Is Fusion worth the cost or should I just upgrade the RAM.

As said before, main use of the desktop would be photo editing and management and a way of freeing up hard drive space on my MBA, which would probably remain as the machine used for web surfing etc and for use while away.

Thanks in advance for any help/advice.

Definitely get an iMac if you plan on doing photo editing. An iMac will have a dedicated GPU, but a Mac Mini is basically a non-portable laptop without a screen.

 

[phoenixsan]

Because.....

your preocupation for quality screen and need for HDD space, I would say go for the 3 TB 27 inch iMac. Not need to be Fusion, but Fusion can help opening files and in booting times.

 

[Moccasin]

Point taken about Mac Mini. As I said though, 27" iMac is probably too big for my needs. External or networked storage may be the way forward as I need to address backup deficiencies too!