Rogue01

mbenz1962 said:

Rogue01 said:

"By the time you tack on a somewhat comparable monitor, you're higher than the price of the iMac. We say somewhat because it's next to impossible to find a 24-inch 4.5K display."

This doesn't make any sense.  The two port $1,299 iMac should never be recommended or considered.  The $1,499 iMac with four ports and 10/10 core M4 CPU is 16/256.  The Mac mini 10/10 core 16/512 is half the price at $799 with twice the storage, and you get more ports.  The iMac with 512GB storage to match jumps to $1,699.  Most people are not going to shop for a 24" display to match the iMac.  In fact, there are far better and larger 4K displays to match up with the mini and still be less than the price of an iMac.  Even if you bought a new keyboard and mouse, you can do it for less than the price of an equally configured iMac.

I think you may have forgotten the cost of the magic keyboard and magic mouse in your comparison.  Like the author pointed out, those 2 together run another $300.  

$300?  Where are you shopping???  $149 for Apple Keyboard and $79 for Apple Mouse.  Hardly $300.  Most people buying a Mac mini already have a keyboard and mouse, so unless they want to buy new, they don't need it.  Most are upgrading and use their existing keyboard and mouse.  

"By the time you tack on a somewhat comparable monitor, you're higher than the price of the iMac. We say somewhat because it's next to impossible to find a 24-inch 4.5K display."

This doesn't make any sense.  The two port $1,299 iMac should never be recommended or considered.  The $1,499 iMac with four ports and 10/10 core M4 CPU is 16/256.  The Mac mini 10/10 core 16/512 is half the price at $799 with twice the storage, and you get more ports.  The iMac with 512GB storage to match jumps to $1,699.  Most people are not going to shop for a 24" display to match the iMac.  In fact, there are far better and larger 4K displays to match up with the mini and still be less than the price of an iMac.  Even if you bought a new keyboard and mouse, you can do it for less than the price of an equally configured iMac.

Even the iMac with 10/10 M4 with 24/512 is $1,899, compared to the considerably faster M4 Pro Mac mini with 24/512 at $1,399.  Add a 28" 4K display and you are still less than the price of the iMac.  No one will see the difference between 4K and 4.5K, but they will all prefer larger than 24".  The iMac should not even be recommended when the Mac mini offers more for less money.  Apple blew it when they discontinued the iMac 27".  They could have had a killer iMac 27" with M Pro or M Max CPUs.

Since Apple appears to be moving back to socketed storage, likely to reduce their repair costs - since soldered parts means replacing the entire motherboard, they really need to dump that secure enclave encryption of the SSD so consumers can go back to upgrading their own storage, and it would be great if they would do the same with the memory too.  It is highway robbery with their insanely excessive mark ups for memory and SSD.  Sorry, but 256GB and 512GB is useless storage.  The Macs should be 1TB standard and not charge $2400 for 8TB storage when you can get an 8TB NVMe PCIe4 stick for about $650.

Apple threw a fit and refused to replace the swollen battery and top cover in my 2015 MacBook Pro because I installed an OWC 2TB SSD.  I had to reinstall the 1TB Apple SSD for them to do the battery replacement, or they were going to charge me $1200 for the 1TB SSD.  I told them, since when did upgrading storage prevent them from replacing an item that was completely unrelated.  They refused to budge so I reinstalled the 1TB SSD.  Then I reinstalled the 2TB SSD when I got the Mac back.  They never used to be like that with the Power Macs when you can self install 4 hard drives.

This article is pointless because the Mac Studio is due to receive the M4 Max and M4 Ultra upgrade in about 6 months.

The problem with the Mac mini is that once you upgrade it with usable memory and usable storage, you are now $200 shy of the equally configured Mac Studio, but the Mac Studio comes with the Max CPU, not the Pro.  You also get more ports, correct location of a power button, correct location for audio out, and with the M4 Max coming soon, a much more powerful Mac, for only $200 more.  As you increase memory and storage to the Mac mini and Mac Studio, the price difference remains at about $200 when you stick with the Max CPU in the Studio.  Which makes the Mac mini a poor choice when you get so much more for only $200 more.

The 24" iMac remains to be a complete joke for Apple and should not be considered at all.  Limited ports, limited memory, limited storage, small display.  Bad design.  You try and move the display and the iMac practically falls over.  On a budget, the Mac mini and your own choice of larger display is a far better option and saves money over the limited iMac.

And when the M4 Mac minis hit the refurb store, they will be even a better deal.  I got an M2 Mac mini refurb with 16/512 for $849 and a 28" Samsung 4K display for $200 and combined, it was $1,000 less than the equally configured iMac with 4 ports and Ethernet.  And a much better 28" 4K display than what is in the iMac.

The iMac 27" 2020 has slotted SSDs, when it is the 4TB and 8TB model.  The 8TB model uses two 4TB SSDs.  However, due to the T2 Security Chip, the SSDs are encrypted to the board so you cannot replace or upgrade them on your own.  Same concept with Apple Silicon.

Even if the slotted SSD in the new mini was upgradable by Apple, they would still stiff you a full $2400 for 8TB, just like they rip people off with the Mac Pro SSD upgrade options.  It is just a way for Apple to rip people off with SSD upgrades, and memory upgrades too.  It really is disgusting that Apple does this.  An 8TB NVMe PCIe4 SSD is about $650, but Apple charges $2400.

Nice that it is slotted so there is a repair option by Apple without having to replace the entire motherboard when the components are all soldered down.