Recommended Mac Mini Monitor?

[Paulg2uk]

Hi guys,

I'm after a bit of advice, my work is looking to upgrade their old PC's from like 6-7 years old to new macs. We have 2 choices really. We can buy new iMacs and have everything intergrated or i thought a good idea was to keep our existing monitors and buy a couple of Mac Mini's and just connect up via VGA to thunderbolt connector.

The problem we have is our monitors are so old that they look terrible when plugged in. This is because they are the old LCD screens with pretty bad resoulution. I've tried them on my MBP and I'm not happy. What would you all suggest? go with a mac mini and buy some better monitors? If so then what do you all recommend that is a decent price and decent quality? Or do we go for the iMac's?

I should probably add we won't be doing any major processing tasks. Mainly for email, web browsing and checking stock online etc nothing major.

Thanks in advance


Paul

 

[larrysing1963]

Hi guys,
I'm after a bit of advice, my work is looking to upgrade their old PC's from like 6-7 years old to new macs. We have 2 choices really. We can buy new iMacs and have everything integrated or i thought a good idea was to keep our existing monitors and buy a couple of Mac Mini's and just connect up via VGA to thunderbolt connector.
The problem we have is our monitors are so old that they look terrible when plugged in. This is because they are the old LCD screens with pretty bad resolution. I've tried them on my MBP and I'm not happy. What would you all suggest? go with a mac mini and buy some better monitors? If so then what do you all recommend that is a decent price and decent quality? Or do we go for the iMac's?
I should probably add we won't be doing any major processing tasks. Mainly for email, web browsing and checking stock online etc nothing major.
Thanks in advance

Paul

Some clarifications please.

What size monitor do you want or need? And what is the total budget, either for the whole project or for each workstation?

 

[Paulg2uk]

Some clarifications please.

What size monitor do you want or need? And what is the total budget, either for the whole project or for each workstation?

I'd probably say around 21"-24" max. Budget wise I'm thinking £200 max each monitor. Does that sound doable?

Cheers

Paul

 

[Johnlpi]

I'm happy w/ my mini 2014 + Dell U2415H monitor. It's non-glossy and has thin bezels and has 16:10 aspect ratio. It's hooked up via mDP-mDP cable.

As I write this, 200 quid is about $303 so I think it will fit into your budget.

Sine the mini 2014 has two thunderbolt ports, and the U2415H has thin bezels, you can get two and have one huge display or use them seperately.

It also is height adjustable and you can rotate them 90 degrees.

Colors look good to me; but I'm not a photographer.

 

[larrysing1963]

I'd probably say around 21"-24" max. Budget wise I'm thinking £200 max each monitor. Does that sound doable?

Cheers

Paul

Speaking only for monitors - there are a LOT of good 24" monitors under that price range, which by today's conversion rate is about $304 USD.
Check these:

BENQ RL2455HM
Acer S241HL
Dell E2414H
Benq RL2460HT
Viewsonic VA2445M

You could even step into 27" territory if you want, at those prices:

HP 27xi
Samsung S27D360H
Dell S2740L

 

[BrianBaughn]

What's the total budget for each computer?

If you want to consider the quality of the iMac monitor into the decision you'd have to spend a bit more than $300 to get one of equal quality.

 

[Paulg2uk]

What's the total budget for each computer?

If you want to consider the quality of the iMac monitor into the decision you'd have to spend a bit more than $300 to get one of equal quality.

That's actually what I was thinking about. I think the iMac is gonna be the way to go. At the moment the mac mini's are costing £667-00 that's the mid spec model with a wireless keyboard and magic mouse so let's say we spend another £200 minimum on a monitor each that's gonna be £887-00. That's pretty close to the imac base model over here in the UK at £899. I reckon it might be worth convincing work to spend a little more and get 2 mid spec iMac's.

Do any of you own a base model iMac are they pretty good?

My thoughts are the iMac is all in one no extra connections, it won't take up much more room. They will need to be future proofed a bit 3-4 years. That's what I'm trying to sort out anyway.

 

[Fishrrman]

Here's a very good list of currently-available IPS displays to check out:
http://www.pchardwarehelp.com/guides/s-ips-lcd-list.php