You’re exactly right–I tried this today and only the thunderbolt ports send video as well. But it’s no big loss, I just changed my cabling scheme.
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M4 Mac Mini with a cheap, around $100 Monitor
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Can you elaborate on what you did/how you changed your cabling scheme? Sorry, noob here, trying to keep up.
Amen to that. I would recommend not using the 2018 mini's HDMI port, unless you need it to drive a third display. Until I replaced my 2018 mini last week, I used it with triple 4K displays for several years, and while it worked properly most of the time, the HDMI-connected display would fail to wake from sleep on a regular basis. As of a few years ago, the only way I could fix this was by rebooting the mini with the DisplayPort displays disconnected, thereby forcing the mini to boot up using the HDMI display, and then re-plugging the DP displays. More recently, I was pleased to find that putting the computer to sleep and waking it again, maybe a couple of times, was enough to get the HDMI display to wake up. Also, I noticed that macOS fairly recently got much better at restoring windows to where they should be across all three displays once the HDMI display came back online. Anyway, I'm now running the same three displays on a 2023 M2 Pro mini, two by DisplayPort and one by HDMI, and haven't had any problems yet.
Well it was user specific—I am able to connect my usb sound, Thunderbolt SSD, and cable to the monitor on the mini, which leaves me with a few open usb ports and even a Thunderbolt port free. That wasn’t possible with the only two Thunderbolt ports of rhe m2 MacBook Air 8/512 that spent most its life under my desk doing the same job. Man is this computer SO much faster and I think I appreciate the RAM upgrade letting me multitask and run VMs even game without closing safari is the best.
You lose nothing out by buying a cheaper screen from a reputable manufacturer.
But it might be worth your time paying double to get a QHD monitor with a better response time and double the resolution.
But it depends on your eyesight. I'm in my early 40's and actually prefer the slightly softer look of 1080p at the distance I'd sit from my monitor
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PPI matters, no question, but it is not like PPI=Quality. There is all sorts of juggling with types of panels, "enhancing layers", electronics and what not. High price doesn`t mean quality, cheap doesn`t mean crap.
Consider how much real estate you need for how you work and what you do, and get the best panel/monitor for what you do at a price point you can live with.
Contrary to what seems to be the approach for many, A LOT of people will do very well without Retina. High DPI is indeed great, but so is square inches of screen surface making sense for what you do. I got 140 ppi, and it works just fine, other panels/electronics may be a lot better and many more a lot worse having the very same size and ppi.
What would be the preferred (dare I say "best") way to connect two of these to an M4 Mini. Sorry, just a newbie trying to keep up!
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/del...3qe/apd/210-bdpf/monitors-monitor-accessories
https://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/del...3qe/apd/210-bdpf/monitors-monitor-accessories
1. The very best way is to connect each of them to the M4 mini using USB-C cables. They aren't terribly expensive either, but you want to look specifically for USB-C cables that carry DisplayPort Alternate Mode (Alt-DP) or are marked as 4K video capable
2. You also have the ability to connect just one of them to the mini, and then "daisy chain" the second monitor to the first. This typically involves using a DisplayPort cable between the two monitors, using something called Display Stream Compression (DSC)
Any monitor with a low PPI is going to give a sub-par experience. Apple devices work best with retina displays.
Ok so here's my advice.. They are quite rare, but if you want retina-like display at a bargain price, try to pick up a used 24 inch 4k monitor. You can get them, in the UK at least, for around £100 - £200. This way, you will get something akin to the quality of an iMac screen for WAY less money.
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Amen. I roll with triple 24" 4K displays (Dell P2415Q) that I bought new six years ago (for $300 each, from Newegg) and they're awesome! Too bad they're no longer available. Try searching eBay for "24-inch 4K display monitor".
If you don't mind using two of the three available Thunderbolt ports, you can run a USB-C-to-DisplayPort cable to each monitor. If you need to devote only one Thunderbolt port to both monitors, get a dual-display adapter that has a single USB-C plug at one end, and two DisplayPort plugs on the other. I see that the OWC Thunderbolt Dual DisplayPort Adapter is presently on sale for half price, just $40! I'd grab that right now if I were you.
This is my LG motor:
www.lg.com
Does the job for my M4 mini-has USB-C and 2x HDMI input plus 3.5mm for headphone out.
24” IPS Full HD monitor with USB-C - 24MS530B-B | LG AU
Discover LG 24MS530B-B. Click for pictures, reviews, and tech specs for the LG 24” IPS Full HD monitor with USB-C.
www.lg.com
Does the job for my M4 mini-has USB-C and 2x HDMI input plus 3.5mm for headphone out.
Just read through all 5 pages on this thread, and admittedly, understand little. I need to replace my wonderful 2019 iMac 27". Running horribly slow and I tried many ways to fix that without success. Thinking the mini would be the way to go, as 24" is too small, but I have no knowledge of how to get this going for myself.
Any recommendations or education would be much appreciated!
These are my needs:
Any recommendations or education would be much appreciated!
These are my needs:
- 27" minimum. 32" a consideration, especially given modern bezel's are smaller
- Usage:
- Microsoft Office: running Word, Excel, Outlook,...
- Electronic medical software (Epic)
- Surfing, etc
- Video conferencing (zoom/facetime)
- No Gaming and minimal streaming (Netflix during my lunch hour on the rare occasion I have the time)
- Features:
- Good picture, especially for text. This is a business workstation speakers and zoom/facetime capabilities.
- Integrated Speakers. I do not need amazing sound, but more something reasonable. I could always use my airpods when needed.
- Camera/Mic for Facetime/Zoom: I am not sure how this works. Every device I have is Apple, with integrated camera. Integrated would be best. If not, do these daisy-chain off the monitor, or do they wire into the mini itself? Recommendations for this would be appreciated, but perhaps for another thread?
- Price: Flexible. I would prefer $300-$500. Lower would be great, and higher only if I get significant added value.
galen wrote:
"I need to replace my wonderful 2019 iMac 27". Running horribly slow and I tried many ways to fix that without success"
Before you get the new Mini...
Have you considered buying a USB3.1 gen2 SSD (such as the Crucial X9), and setting that up to be an EXTERNAL boot drive?
It will give you read speeds in the 900+MBps range when connected to a USBc port on the back.
Could put a couple more years into the iMac...
"I need to replace my wonderful 2019 iMac 27". Running horribly slow and I tried many ways to fix that without success"
Before you get the new Mini...
Have you considered buying a USB3.1 gen2 SSD (such as the Crucial X9), and setting that up to be an EXTERNAL boot drive?
It will give you read speeds in the 900+MBps range when connected to a USBc port on the back.
Could put a couple more years into the iMac...
No, I have NOT thought about that!!! About $80 instead of well over $1,200.
Can you point me to a resource on how to set up such a drive? Totally foreign concept to me. Certainly, I will do my own research, but any direction to get me started would be appreciated.
Actually, I found this article to walk me through it (took me about 5 seconds). Would any quality USB-C cable be sufficient?
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Preowned an option?
I’m currently using my mini with an LG 24 inch 4K I scored for $110
I’m currently using my mini with an LG 24 inch 4K I scored for $110
I'm definitely not an expert on this stuff, but recently had some issues finding the right USB-C Cable for my laptop. It looks like you need a Thunderbolt 3 compatible cable to run an external drive at the fastest possible transfer speeds. I bought a Plugable Thunderbolt 4 cable, which has been really good for me, and wasn't either off-brand or crazy expensive. Might be more than you actually need, but I can say that it works great (My dock came with an unbranded USB-C cable & it took a while for me to find one that worked as well, but was longer. My first few purchases did not work correctly.
Edited to add: Looks like Amazon has Thunderbolt 3 cables from both Plugable & Anker for under $20. If you don't get any better replies, I'd go with one of those.
Well, @Fishrrman solution worked, but the external drive is not compatible with certain software. I just bought my M4 mini, and back in the market for a 32" monitor. Price point around $300-$400, though less would be even better.
galen wrote:
"the external drive is not compatible with certain software."
Could you tell us WHICH software gave you problems?
Can you tell us what those "problems" were?
I have never encountered ANY app which wouldn't run from an external boot drive.
Hmmm... I've heard that bootcamp has problems, but I've never used bootcamp, ever.
"the external drive is not compatible with certain software."
Could you tell us WHICH software gave you problems?
Can you tell us what those "problems" were?
I have never encountered ANY app which wouldn't run from an external boot drive.
Hmmm... I've heard that bootcamp has problems, but I've never used bootcamp, ever.
I used a 2016 16:9 1080p $100 LCD for the first month with my Mac mini, until I got my imac Franken-monitor conversion done. macOS was fine on a low-res, cheap monitor. It was just a low quality monitor and I wouldn’t want to live with such a low quality display long term.
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I am using Sugarsync. They do support external drives, BUT, that requires their business version. At another $250 annually, I decided that it is time to just get the Mac Mini. I will probably also change to DropBox, as SugarSync app has not been updated in years.