Mac mini vs imac 27"

[Kevsterman]

I have a 2019 27" imac and I'm thinking of replacing it with a mac mini as I'd like a larger screen. I'm wondering how the spec of my computer compares to that of the mini (regular or pro). I mainly use my computer for watching stuff online, web browsing, a bit of 3D modelling and rendering and very occasional video editing. Here's my current spec:

3.6GHz i9 8 core
64gb RAM
1TB flash SSD
Radeon Pro 580X 8GB

If I got a mac mini would the specs be comparable or would I be taking a huge step backwards? Thanks

 

[padams35]

The M2-Pro Mini (10-core CPU / 16-core GPU) should be comparable. Especially if you max out the RAM, although it sounds like your current use isn't using all the RAM you currently have.

I suspect the baseline M2 Mini would be a step backward on ports and 3D rendering.

 

[paardenkapper]

If it's just a matter of screen size - why don't you get a second 27'' display and connect it to the iMac?
A 2019 is more than capable for what you're doing.

 

[Kevsterman]

If it's just a matter of screen size - why don't you get a second 27'' display and connect it to the iMac?
A 2019 is more than capable for what you're doing.

A second screen wouldn't really help as I want a bigger monitor to watch TV and movies.

 

[ovbacon]

There are many threads on this exact question in both the mini and the iMac section. I replaced my iMac and I do a lot of heavy load stuff and my mini M2 is very fast and I have no doubt it will do more than you could hope for.

 

[paardenkapper]

A second screen wouldn't really help as I want a bigger monitor to watch TV and movies.

Still you could have your movies and TV on the one screen and work on the second one.
But I think you answered the question yourself - go ahead and buy a mac mini + huge display.

I personally wouldn't buy any ARM mac but that's on you.

 

[ovbacon]

Still you could have your movies and TV on the one screen and work on the second one.
But I think you answered the question yourself - go ahead and buy a mac mini + huge display.

I personally wouldn't buy any ARM mac but that's on you.

So I'm always curious about advice like this... If your going to say "I personally wouldn't buy any ARM mac but that's on you" then you should say WHY.... why would you not buy it? Because that statement by itself is just completely useless info.

 

[paardenkapper]

So I'm always curious about advice like this... If your going to say "I personally wouldn't buy any ARM mac but that's on you" then you should say WHY.... why would you not buy it? Because that statement by itself is just completely useless info.

I wouldn't buy an ARM mac is just a statement based on my knowledge and assumptions on Apples latest mishaps.
Look at the dying SSDs in low-end MacBooks with 8 GB RAM where the SSD is heavily used for caching

1) Everything is soldered to the logic board
2) Apple treats customers like slaves, you do not own what you paid for - hardware is tied to icloud accounts
3) in my opinion the whole ARM mac stuff is still somehow in development

This is neither advice nor am I an Apple professional but considering current affairs I'd by glad to have a 2019 machine.

 

[theluggage]

1) Everything is soldered to the logic board

Also true of many Intel Mac models - the old iMac and Mini did have socketed DDR4 RAM, but newer models use LPDDR (low power) RAM which has to be soldered to the logic board.

I agree that I don't like having the SSD soldered in. The Mac Studio is partly a solution to that - the SSD is on plug in modules and even though Apple won't sell upgrades they can be replaced like-for-like if they fail. The studio also has most of the external ports and stuff on replaceable daughter boards.

2) Apple treats customers like slaves, you do not own what you paid for - hardware is tied to icloud accounts

Again, while I don't like it, that was becoming true of Intel Macs once the T1/T2 chip was introduced (I don't think its strictly iCloud accounts - it's the machine ID embedded in the T1/T2/ASi chip).

I mainly use my computer for watching stuff online, web browsing, a bit of 3D modelling and rendering and very occasional video editing.

64GB of RAM is probably a bit of an overkill for that and you'd have to go to a Mac Studio to match it (of course, video editing/3D rendering is a piece of string - 64GB may be justified for heavy use, and some people would add an extra '0' to that! - have a look at the memory pressure in Activity Monitor on your existing system to see if its ever going out of the green - you could create a RAM disk to mop up 32GB RAM).

Also, anything or nothing could be announced at WWDC next week - but buying a new Mac this week is probably inadvisable.

Bear in mind that while you could get a nice big 4k screen to go with a Mini that would be great for TV & movies and perfectly good to use as a computer screen in native 4k mode, it's not going to be in the same league of sharpness as the 27" 5k.

 

[Fishrrman]

OP wrote:
"A second screen wouldn't really help as I want a bigger monitor to watch TV and movies."

OK, well, how big of a screen do you want?
32"?
43"?

I've seen some 43" 4k tv's that made me think they would look great as Mac 4k displays running "pixel-for-pixel" (NOT HiDPI). But there are also a few 43" 4k displays made specifically for computer usage.

I agree with other posters above that you want an M2pro Mini (not a "non-pro" version).

 

[padams35]

Also true of many Intel Mac models - the old iMac and Mini did have socketed DDR4 RAM, but newer models use LPDDR (low power) RAM which has to be soldered to the logic board.

I've got to object to this particular claim. The latest Intel models (2018 Mini and 2020 iMacs) use SO-DIMM sockets which could be user upgraded. LPDDR was only used on the 2014 Mini and 2015 21.5" iMac (plus laptops).

 

[theluggage]

I've got to object to this particular claim. The latest Intel models (2018 Mini and 2020 iMacs) use SO-DIMM sockets which could be user upgraded. LPDDR was only used on the 2014 Mini and 2015 21.5" iMac (plus laptops).

Also true of many Intel Mac models - the old iMac and Mini did have socketed DDR4 RAM, but newer models use LPDDR (low power) RAM which has to be soldered to the logic board.

OK, you're right, that could have been clearer - by "old iMac and Mini" I meant the 2018/2020 models (they're old models now but I guess they're also the latest Intel models). Anyway, go back far enough and all Macs - including laptops - had DIMMs or SO-DIMMS. LPDDR was gradually taking over and was in all Mac laptops before the switch to Apple Silicon.

 

[padams35]

OK, you're right, that could have been clearer - by "old iMac and Mini" I meant the 2018/2020 models (they're old models now but I guess they're also the latest Intel models). Anyway, go back far enough and all Macs - including laptops - had DIMMs or SO-DIMMS. LPDDR was gradually taking over and was in all Mac laptops before the switch to Apple Silicon.

My mistake. I didn't look closely enough at Apples "Unified Memory" to realize that was LPDDR (4X? 5?) and not custom Apple silicon. Learned something new today.

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

A second screen wouldn't really help as I want a bigger monitor to watch TV and movies.

Unless you lack the space, if you are happy with the computing on that iMac, I'd put my TV and Movie "bigger screen" money towards a television. New Mac money could get you a fantastic television of great (relative) size.

If you sometimes want to "throw" some computer video to it, maybe pick up an AppleTV too and Airplay anything on that iMac to the new TV... or direct connect.

Especially at Mac Mini Pro + big screen pricing, that budget would buy a large and pretty nice quality television to cover what is apparently the main driver of why you want a new screen.

Or wait until WWDC and behold the virtual screen available within Goggles. Cheap versions built on allegedly much inferior technology consistently reference 100-200 INCH virtual screens.

 

[Kevsterman]

Unless you lack the space, if you are happy with the computing on that iMac, I'd put my TV and Movie "bigger screen" money towards a television. New Mac money could get you a fantastic television of great (relative) size.

If you sometimes want to "throw" some computer video to it, maybe pick up an AppleTV too and Airplay anything on that iMac to the new TV... or direct connect.

Great idea about getting a telly instead. I hadn't thought of that. And I'd never even heard of an apple tv so thats a possibility too.

 

[mcnallym]

Great idea about getting a telly instead. I hadn't thought of that. And I'd never even heard of an apple tv so thats a possibility too.

Not to mention that usually the tv is for viewing from the sofa as opposed to computer work space so can get more comfy if use AppleTV with a big tv in living room.