Late 2014 27” Retina to m1 Mac Mini or Mac Studio?

[icemantx]

I have a late 2014 27” Retina iMac i5 3TB Fusion and it is about time to upgrade. However, I find myself in the dilemma many current 27” iMac owners fine themselves in - no obvious upgrade path with the 27” iMac dead (for now at least).

I currently have about 1.5TB of storage in use (900gb in iMovie). I am not a power user and mainly use my iMac for Photos, iMovie, email, productivity and web surfing. I know I do not want one of the 24” iMacs so that is not an option. Now that the 27” studio display is out (ouch $1600), it has me interested in a new machine. Question for me is how much to spend and which one.

Option #1
2020 Mac Mini
16GB RAM
2TB SSD
Price: $1699

Option #2
2022 Mac Studio
M1 Max 10/24 core
32GB RAM
4TB SSD
Price: $3199

So basically twice the price for twice the memory, twice the storage and roughly twice the graphics and processor performance. Reason for 4TB on the Studio is that if I buy that, I will keep it much longer than the mini which maxes out at 2TB internal storage. I’m not interested in primary drives hagining off the studio or mini.

This being the case, which would you recommend and why? Get the mini and upgrade in a couple of years? Get the studio and hang on to it for 5 years?

Appreciate the input.

 

[russell_314]

I am not a power user and mainly use my iMac for Photos, iMovie, email, productivity and web surfing.

Unless you’re going for a cool factor or just prefer the looks I would go for the Mac mini. I think buying the Mac Studio would be a total waste of money for your use. Also with either one you could get external thunderbolt drives much cheaper for storage

 

[DSTOFEL]

I have a late 2014 27” Retina iMac i5 3TB Fusion and it is about time to upgrade. However, I find myself in the dilemma many current 27” iMac owners fine themselves in - no obvious upgrade path with the 27” iMac dead (for now at least).

I currently have about 1.5TB of storage in use (900gb in iMovie). I am not a power user and mainly use my iMac for Photos, iMovie, email, productivity and web surfing. I know I do not want one of the 24” iMacs so that is not an option. Now that the 27” studio display is out (ouch $1600), it has me interested in a new machine. Question for me is how much to spend and which one.

Option #1
2020 Mac Mini
16GB RAM
2TB SSD
Price: $1699

Option #2
2022 Mac Studio
M1 Max 10/24 core
32GB RAM
4TB SSD
Price: $3199

So basically twice the price for twice the memory, twice the storage and roughly twice the graphics and processor performance. Reason for 4TB on the Studio is that if I buy that, I will keep it much longer than the mini which maxes out at 2TB internal storage. I’m not interested in primary drives hagining off the studio or mini.

This being the case, which would you recommend and why? Get the mini and upgrade in a couple of years? Get the studio and hang on to it for 5 years?

Appreciate the input.

I’ve got the Late 2015 27 inch iMac (3.3 GHz, I-5, 24GB Ram, 2GB Fusion, AMD Radeon R9 M395 graphics) that I’m replacing. I created a post a couple of days ago on this with many more details. The options I saw were:
-24 inch iMac M1
-Mac Mini M1
-Base model Mac Studio
-2020 27 inch iMac from Apple Refurb.

I went ahead and purchased the 24 inch iMac M1 from the Apple Refurbished site for $1,609 (16GB Ram, 512GB SSD). What I’ve done is purchase a 2 TB Sabrent Rocket NMMe M.2 (Model: SB-Rocket-2TB for $199) and enclosed it in a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure and moved my Lightroom catalog and photos to the external storage (ie the Sabrent SSD)..around 1.2 TB. I’m still within the 15 day window but so far I’m leaning towards keeping the M1 iMac. I quite like everything about it except the display (a nice display….but a bit of a downgrade from the 27 inch iMac). Otherwise the M1 iMac meets my photo and video needs just fine.

The other option I’m really considering is getting a 2020 27 inch iMac from the Apple Refurb site. I’d go of 8GB RAM, 3.8 GHz I-7, Radeon Pro 5500 XT graphics for $1,659. With this, I’d purchase 32 GB of RAM separately for around $150 and use the same 2TB Sabrent SSD as an external for my Lightroom catalog and Photos.

The new Studio and Studio display is a bit more than I want to pay (approx. $4,000 after all is said and done).

Why not consider getting a smaller internal SSD from Apple and getting cheaper (but very fast) external storage instead? Why not consider an apple Refurbished 2020 27 inch Imac…there are some great deals on those now.

 

[russell_314]

Why not consider getting a smaller internal SSD from Apple and getting cheaper (but very fast) external storage instead? Why not consider an apple Refurbished 2020 27 inch Imac…there are some great deals on those now.

I wouldn’t buy anything with 10th gen Intel in 2022 unless you need to run Windows or apps that haven’t been updated to work with Apple Silicon.

The external storage is a great idea because it’s a lot cheaper and if it’s a desktop there’s really no downside.

 

[page3]

How much RAM do you need? >16Gb then get the Studio.

 

[GDF]

I wouldn’t buy anything with 10th gen Intel in 2022 unless you need to run Windows or apps that haven’t been updated to work with Apple Silicon.

The external storage is a great idea because it’s a lot cheaper and if it’s a desktop there’s really no downside.

I agree with you and would not buy anything with Intel in it now either. I tried going to a m1 24 iMac from my current late 2012 iMac 27 with upgraded SSD and ended up returning the 24 iMac. Missed the 27 inch screen too much.

 

[icemantx]

How much RAM do you need? >16Gb then get the Studio.

I generally do not go over 12gb (have 16gb in my late 2014 iMac).

 

[icemantx]

I agree with you and would not buy anything with Intel in it now either. I tried going to a m1 24 iMac from my current late 2012 iMac 27 with upgraded SSD and ended up returning the 24 iMac. Missed the 27 inch screen too much.

That’s who I would want the studio display. Spoiled by the 27” iMac for the last 8 years.

 

[russell_314]

I agree with you and would not buy anything with Intel in it now either. I tried going to a m1 24 iMac from my current late 2012 iMac 27 with upgraded SSD and ended up returning the 24 iMac. Missed the 27 inch screen too much.

Well it's a big difference. I'm happy with my 24" iMac but it works for what I need it for. If I had to do lots of multitasking I wouldn't like it very much. I think you should be fine with the Mac mini but just make sure your favorite apps work on Apple Silicon.

 

[Jamacfer]

I am also in the same situation (fairly light computer use). After a (dead) 27" iMac (late 2013-24 gb ram-3 TB fusion drive) I would have liked a new (larger) one. Now I am undecided whether to buy an Apple Display+base Mac Studio 2 TB SSD or wait (patiently) for the new (M2 or M1 pro) Mini 16 gb ram and 2 TB SSD (I don't feel like buying a 2 years old model).

 

[stuartbell]

We use our Macs mostly for photography - using Adobe, Topaz and Luminar editing tools. Adobe has "aged out" our older iMac - so we decided to replace it with a Mac M1 mini (16gb/2tb) and were faced with a choice for a monitor.

We also do lots of Zoom - so a webcam capable monitor was a logical choice. Our old iMac was 21" - and space limited us to a maximum of 24"

We shopped Dell and HP - the HP advisor said the s2422HZ would be ideal for our environment.

We purchased it and connected it via USB-C using the cable supplied by Apple with the monitor. It has beautiful color and depth when calibrated with a Spider. We were completely satisfied with the monitor.

But, the built in speaker and microphone were supported as "legacy" devices using the USB-1 protocol over DisplayPort. No problem. If we power on the Mac Mini, power OFF the display, wait a minute or so and power up the Dell S2422HZ, all is well.

But if the Mac Mini M1 is power cycled or rebooted, the Dell display works OK but the speaker and microphone don't. This means that before each zoom meeting, we must test the functionality and restart or reboot just before using the webcam components.

Several calls to Dell and AppleCare resulted Dell clearly stating that NONE OF THEIR MONITORS ARE SUPPORTED IN A MAC ENVIRONMENT. Dell said that if the monitor fails in a Mac environment it will not be covered under their warranty. We returned the monitor.

HP confirmed this is similar to their support and warranty policy.

Lacking a suitable monitor, we called Apple sales support. They confirmed that only a few LG and Apple monitors are supported. None of the third party monitors have this support.

Since the monitors and the Mac Mini both support the HDMI, USB-C, DisplayPort and other standards, we concluded this problem is in protocol startup and read that portion of the applicable standards.

Startup timing in not explicitly covered. There is a bit about protocol timing, lost message retry and such, but nothing about, "Dear, I'm home" followed by silence.

This problem is similar to many relationship problems with a communications issue. A councillor might explain that the husband and wife, working together, could resolve the issue. The professional outsider might explain that either party might fix the problem.

But, Dell and HP mostly build Windows computers and Apple is working to enter the high end monitor market - something they have sort of done before.

So, this issue ends up in a divorce. We are returning the Mac Mini and trying anther iMac to replace our earlier iMac.

If not, I guess it is a dating service?