Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Monitor for a Mac Mim M4...

N

nuno1959

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 19, 2009
66
4
Hi guys

I have a 2017 iMac 27", i5 3.4, 40Gb ram, 1TB Fusion Drive ( 220gb used..) running Ventura 13.7.8 and I think that's as far as it will go in terms of OS.
It works fine, great image quality, fast enough for my use - surfing, email, GarageBand projects with a minimum of 2 tracks w/ maybe 2,3 or 4 VST's per track up to a maximum of maybe 6 tracks again w/ the same number of VST's, some VERY basic photo/video editing the sort you do in Preview or Quicktime.
I sit at a distance between 50 and 70cm of the screen, run it's brightness at about 1/3+ of the available range and as a 66 year old who wears glasses, I set it's resolution at 1600 x 900 ( DON'T laugh !! 😉 ) this gives me a very nice, comfortable image w/ fonts a size I can read easily... without any noticeable fuzziness.

Before I used to upgrade my iMac's every 3 to 5 years but since retiring my income being reduced by quite a bit, I've stuck with this one and to be honest zero complaints, however since it's already 9 years old I've been mulling over the purchase of a Mac mini M4 (since I can still sell my iMac for a good chunk of the Mini's price) and a monitor or... modify mi iMac to work as a 5k monitor retaining the use of it's very good speakers ( I hate extra boxes/cables all over the desk..) as you can see in the attached photo and super quality casing.


IMG_4889.jpeg


So, my question is, what monitor would you guys recommend I use w/ my future Mac mini M4 so I get at least the same quality of image I presently get from my iMac at the resolution settings I selected for it, with good speakers and requiring the least cables - I have an Anker USB3 powered hub for my external HD Raid1 boxes, my SPL Crimson soundcard..
I connect the iMac to my 75" LG tv via HDMI ( all good..) for displaying content in it and connected via Ethernet to my router to access Netflix, Prime, etc... ( works fine..) so that's all good.

I resorted to come here asking for help as I've been going nuts sussing out everything I could find about monitors, etc... but the sheer amount of makers/models/specs & recommendations are just bewildering ! And I get lost since I use what I suspect is a weird resolution setting that I have no clue how it will "translate" when using a different monitor.
The sound quality aspect IS important to me !
My price range would be anywhere between say 300 some € up to 600 max

A 2nd question - considering the use I stated above, would the base Mini M4 16gb ram suffice or...? Sometimes I open simultaneously 4, 6 or 8 1080p Quicktime videos..
Any advice would be greatly appreciated - maybe I'm so lucky one of you had a similar set up to mine and....?

Many thanks in advance from not so sunny Algarve
Regards

Nuno
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: pothi
nuno1959 said:
modify mi iMac to work as a 5k monitor retaining the use of it's very good speakers
Click to expand...
I am unaware of any iMac 5K conversion kits which allow you to keep the speakers. You need to gut the iMac and replace the internal boards.

One possible option is to replace Fusion Drive with SSD (FD will begin to fail, surprised it hasn’t already), add more RAM, and use OCLP to install Sequoia, which should run nicely. Might get you another 5 years with your beloved iMac and its speakers ;-)
 
  • Like
Reactions: nuno1959
@Bigwaff "I am unaware of any iMac 5K conversion kits which allow you to keep the speakers."

Some do, including much simpler one's than my conversion. 😉
Because good audio - the best it could be- was part of my goal, hence two sets of iMac speakers...
If you have the mindset to do a conversion, then the results will be identical in most respects to the original iMac, and somewhat less than $600, if you already have the iMac.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/diy-5k-monitor-success.2253100/ my conversion is on page 20:

01interiorfull.jpg
 
Bigwaff said:
I am unaware of any iMac 5K conversion kits which allow you to keep the speakers. You need to gut the iMac and replace the internal boards.

One possible option is to replace Fusion Drive with SSD (FD will begin to fail, surprised it hasn’t already), add more RAM, and use OCLP to install Sequoia, which should run nicely. Might get you another 5 years with your beloved iMac and its speakers ;-)
Click to expand...
Hi BiW

And thanks for the input..
Yes, according to what I've seen online by a few people, there are are some ways of using the speakers although it needs installing a crossover, etc... but very doable.
Now as for your suggestion, it is a solution but at 9 years of use, I feel my iMac has had a good run AND here in Portugal I can still sell it easily for 120 to 150€ less than the cost of a new Mac mini M4 which make the upgrade a lot more palatable than if I use it for a further 4 or 5 years, OCLP, patches, etc... and then it will be worth nothing making it more expensive to upgrade.
 
PaulD-UK said:
@Bigwaff "I am unaware of any iMac 5K conversion kits which allow you to keep the speakers."

Some do, including much simpler one's than my conversion. 😉
Because good audio - the best it could be- was part of my goal, hence two sets of iMac speakers...
If you have the mindset to do a conversion, then the results will be identical in most respects to the original iMac, and somewhat less than $600, if you already have the iMac.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/diy-5k-monitor-success.2253100/ my conversion is on page 20:

View attachment 2599175
Click to expand...
Hi Paul

Wow, that's a pretty impressive set up you got there - will go through that link you shared asap...
In my case I was thinking about something simpler as my iMac's sound is good enough for my everyday use - if I want to listen to music either louder or w/ better quality, I have my sound card connected to my Roksan Kandy amp + B&W DM 603 S2..

To be honest I AM tempted to go the iMac mod way as I feel it's not only amazing value for such a high quality screen, it would display w/ the same quality as I the iMac does now AND it would allow me to sell all the removed parts of the iMac further reducing it's cost to what I suppose would be the cost of an entry level 27" monitor

More food for thought...

Thanks for the input !!
 
@nuno1959 If you buy any 4K monitor then you can run it in MacOS HiDPI retina mode at a resolution of 1920x1080.
This gives exactly the same apparent 'pixel sharpness' as your 5K iMac does at its default 2560x1440 resolution.

So if you buy a 32" 4K monitor, and run it at HiDPI retina 1920x1080, the viewed screen image will appear at more or less the same 'size' as your 5K 27" iMac at 1600x900.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: nuno1959, pothi and splitpea
My suggestion:

Buy a 27" 4k display. You can then use it at its "default" resolution (on the Mac) of "looks like 1080p". The resulting image is clear and "large enough" for older eyes (like mine).

Don't over-spend, but don't buy "the cheapest".
I've got a Dell Ultrasharp that works well enough for me, but a friend has a similar Dell (not the Ultrasharp) which was less $$$ but looks pretty much the same.

If you get a Mini, get AT LEAST 32gb of RAM, and at least a 1tb internal SSD.
Since these can't be upgraded later, you have to "buy for the future".

Be aware that once you move to Apple Silicon and the most recent OS, some older hardware could present problems. Not saying this is going to happen, but you have to consider that it -might- happen.

Unless you are handy with computer repairs and are sure of your abilities, I would not waste time and money trying to convert the old iMac into a "display". If it doesn't work, you're out of the money you could have used on other things...
 
  • Like
Reactions: colodane and pothi
Fishrrman said:
If you get a Mini, get AT LEAST 32gb of RAM, and at least a 1tb internal SSD.
Since these can't be upgraded later
Click to expand...

Agree. To add to that...

While the internal SSD can't be upgraded later, the overall storage size can be expanded using external SSDs. There are some drawbacks of using external SSDs, though.
 
I sold my high end 2017 iMac i7 a couple years ago and bought a discounted studio display with the money and have since got a base level $499 Mac mini and it's fantastic. amazingly can handle all my design work. no more spending 3 grand on new Macs.
 
  • Like
  • Love
Reactions: nuno1959 and _Mitchan1999
a digression, the comments on flicker on monitors and connection to os27 caused me to pencil whip the problem of the cable (computer to screen) acting as an antenna . the conclusion is (assuming the hypothesis is correct) is to use as short a cable as possible, and one which is shielded from radio frequency interference. ( since I haven't built a testing platform to experiment with treat this as a guess)
 
  • Like
Reactions: nuno1959
The Studio Display is amazing but possibly out of your budget.

However the rumour is that a new version is being released very soon, you might just be able to snag an eBay bargain on the current model in 3/4 months time?!
 
  • Like
Reactions: nuno1959
Fishrrman said:
My suggestion:

Buy a 27" 4k display. You can then use it at its "default" resolution (on the Mac) of "looks like 1080p". The resulting image is clear and "large enough" for older eyes (like mine).

Don't over-spend, but don't buy "the cheapest".
I've got a Dell Ultrasharp that works well enough for me, but a friend has a similar Dell (not the Ultrasharp) which was less $$$ but looks pretty much the same.

If you get a Mini, get AT LEAST 32gb of RAM, and at least a 1tb internal SSD.
Since these can't be upgraded later, you have to "buy for the future".

Be aware that once you move to Apple Silicon and the most recent OS, some older hardware could present problems. Not saying this is going to happen, but you have to consider that it -might- happen.

Unless you are handy with computer repairs and are sure of your abilities, I would not waste time and money trying to convert the old iMac into a "display". If it doesn't work, you're out of the money you could have used on other things...
Click to expand...

Thanks Fishrrman

"..Don't over-spend, but don't buy "the cheapest"..." - no sweat, I always try to buy as good as I possibly can, sometimes even going above budget if it's not a big difference in price but there is a BIG difference in quality !
As for the ram, you bet, I'll try to get as much as I possibly can, already the internal ssd, I've seen a few videos of people upgrading it for mora capacity and I feel totally confident I can do that, no stress.. - since I keep most library in external drives I end up using like 200 and something gb out of 1 tb.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated !
 
pothi said:
Agree. To add to that...

While the internal SSD can't be upgraded later, the overall storage size can be expanded using external SSDs. There are some drawbacks of using external SSDs, though.
Click to expand...
Hi Pothi

For sure, as much ram as I possibly can afford - even if I must delay the purchase by a couple of months as I don't do credit..
Regarding the ssd's capacity I'm not too worried as I don't use a lot + I've seen a few videos of people upgrading it ( for A LOT LESS than Apple's storage prices..) and I have no doubt I can pull that off relatively easily !
 
  • Like
Reactions: pothi
Rychiar said:
I sold my high end 2017 iMac i7 a couple years ago and bought a discounted studio display with the money and have since got a base level $499 Mac mini and it's fantastic. amazingly can handle all my design work. no more spending 3 grand on new Macs.
Click to expand...
Hi Rychiar

Had I the €€ and I wouldn't think twice - i'd do exactly the same, as I find Apple's hardware not only of great build quality, very sexy AND being on my 7th iMac, very durable with zero problems during their lifetime !!
 
Abydos said:
a digression, the comments on flicker on monitors and connection to os27 caused me to pencil whip the problem of the cable (computer to screen) acting as an antenna . the conclusion is (assuming the hypothesis is correct) is to use as short a cable as possible, and one which is shielded from radio frequency interference. ( since I haven't built a testing platform to experiment with treat this as a guess)
Click to expand...

Hi Abydos

I agree with you, I'm a "bedroom/jam musician" and I apply the same principle when buying cables for my gear - what's the point of spending 1000's on quality gear only to then connect everything with dime a dozen type cables/connectors !? To me it makes zero sense..
 
ForkHandles said:
The Studio Display is amazing but possibly out of your budget.

However the rumour is that a new version is being released very soon, you might just be able to snag an eBay bargain on the current model in 3/4 months time?!
Click to expand...
Hi ForkHandles

I wish I could afford it as I love its design and quality BUT.... I do keep my eyes open for nice 2nd hand stuff, no problem....
Over the year I have bought many things this way and, knock on wood, never had any trouble !
 
nuno1959 said:
Hi Rychiar

Had I the €€ and I wouldn't think twice - i'd do exactly the same, as I find Apple's hardware not only of great build quality, very sexy AND being on my 7th iMac, very durable with zero problems during their lifetime !!
Click to expand...
I have Samsungs 5k 27" monitor at work and its not bad, just doesn't look as pretty and occasionally gets confused about its input
 
  • Like
Reactions: nuno1959
Well guys...

I think you covered all my questions pretty well and now it's really a question of selecting the right monitor - selling my iMac will bring me enough money for the Mini M4 and I'll just have to fork out for a monitor.
Even if I need to wait a couple of months to put the € € aside, in the meantime I can compute using my tv sitting in my sofa instead of at my desk so no biggie there...

Appreciate all of you chiming in but, the options these days are so many & since I always had iMacs ( 7 so far..) I never had to dwelve into the specificities of monitors before so your advice's a god send !

Again many thanks too all and here are a couple of compositions of mine - that is the heaviest use I subject my Macs to !
I play bass guitar, unlike the traditional way bass playing, and couldn't pass up the opportunity to inflict some song damage to you all :cool:;)
1st one was written in honour of David Bowie at the time of his death hence it's name, Major Tom, the other just a "funk/rock doodelidoo" called Fun Time, both have 2 tracks of bass, one for the rhythm section the other soloing, I record very poorly & somehow they sound best via headphones
Enjoy !

 
  • Like
Reactions: PaulD-UK
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back