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New Macs 2023

Tony L

Tony L

Administrator

The new Mac Mini looks seriously good value. As with all Apple kit I have real concerns with regards to long-term serviceability, though I do fully grasp much of the incredible performance of the M series is down to RAM and SSD integration. It is basically a single-board computer like a Raspberry Pi with bespoke busses and integration. Anyway, looks like the Mini is a bit of a bargain. A seriously powerful computer.

PS This may be the year I eventually retire my trusty 2012 MBP for the new 14” M2 MBP. That looks like a superb computer, though the screen camera notch thing is absurd. Definitely bug not feature!
 
Have to admit I was really hoping for hints on a replacement 27" iMac, but it appears a long way off yet.
It will probably come to buying a mini and a decent sized screen.
Not a fan of what they have done with the 24" iMac.
 
That is the argument Marques Brownlee puts forward in the video above. To my mind the iMac is a dead concept now, the Mini takes up so little desk space why would anyone put all points of failure in one box? I bet you could find a monitor that would look fine sitting on the Mini if desk space was really so tight.
 
The problem with that entirely sensible approach is that Apple wouldn’t be able to sell a new iMac to customers every three years or so. I have always thought the iMac was a bad long-term proposition (I actually worked on the original iMac product while at Apple), as bundling display and CPU together meant ditching a perfectly good display when the CPU board became obsolete. However, Steve Jobs was obsessed with the idea of a single-volume computer (ever since the original Macintosh), and it has become something of an Apple signature since.
 
New Mac mini looks good. I also fancy a 14" M2 MBP myself, I'm still on an intel 16" MBP.
Have to disagree about the iMac, I think it's still a great concept, might be different if Apple still did a cheaper range of monitors, but 3rd party monitors don't have the Apple vibe!
 
Yup; the M2 Mini is very appealing to me... My M1 Mini is still superbly fast, but I've been waiting for the M2 to be released...

Looks like that'll be my next purchase :D
 
Almost bought the 16" MBP today but couldn't quite bring myself to press the button:eek: - £2.6K is a lot of dosh. I went to the counter at my local reseller to get the M2 Pro mini instead only to find that they didn't have it in stock. Will now purchase one from the Apple store.
 
In the cold light of reason I agree with Tony and KrisW about the iMac concept. But my aesthetic sense cant help feeling that my ancient (2012) 27" iMac looks fantastic. 27" monitors are cheap and plentiful, but as industrial design they nearly all look crap in comparison to an iMac.

I'm at a crossroads with the computer I use for music at the moment. Annoyingly Apple Music demands Big Sur for hi-res, so if I'm to use that as my streaming platform I need to upgrade the machine. But however great value the new Mac Mini may be, it's too much to spend on something for streaming music and video.
 
Elephantears said:
Annoyingly Apple Music demands Big Sur for hi-res
Click to expand...
Wow. There’s an arbitrary restriction, right there. I’d keep the old computer and look for a different streaming service. For hi-res, try Tidal if you like pop; Qobuz if you prefer Jazz and Classical.
 
You could get the 27-inch 5k Apple monitor and a Mac Mini to make an iMac-like computer.

I have the last 27-inch iMac Apple made and I like the computer and design a lot, but if I were buying an Apple computer today I'd get the 27-inch 5k monitor and a Mac Mini even if a beeeeg iMac were available.

Edit: Hmmm, not nearly enough RAM,though. D'oh!

Joe
 
The introductory price does look attractive but to turn that into a computer for me brings the price of the M2 up into the £3k+ area. This then leads into the studio mini with the M1 max/ultra chip and before you know it you are in the £4K+ price range.

If I survive my op and come out of hospital alive I might treat myself to one. For now I'd have to install fusion to run Linux, Windows and Android O/S as the current Apple silicon Linux O/S is not there yet.

DV
 
Darth,

I thought you were running a 2012 Mac Mini. If that's sufficient for your computing needs, you don't need to spend anything near £3k or £4k on some uber Mac Mini.

Joe
 
Joe P said:
You could get the 27-inch 5k Apple monitor and a Mac Mini to make an iMac-like computer.

I have the last 27-inch iMac Apple made and I like the computer and design a lot, but if I were buying an Apple computer today I'd get the 27-inch 5k monitor and a Mac Mini even if a beeeeg iMac were available.

Joe
Click to expand...

I didn't realise Apple had introduced that 27" 'studio display', I thought they only had that mega expensive pro thing!
I lasted on my souped up 27" iMac for about 10 years (I do audio work) but changed to a laptop during the last upgrade just so I could always have my 'studio' with me. 16" intel based MBP which has had a lot of annoying issues (super expensive, fan noise, runs hot etc), the M1 / M2 range seem much superior.
 
Ted,

Aye, you can get an expensive 27-inch 5k monitor, or an eyewateringly expensive 32-inch 6k monitor from Apple.

The 5k one is tempting, but it's more than 2,000 clams where I live. I bought a used 27-inch Thunderbolt Display instead for a few hundred clams. It's not as impressive, but plenty good enough as a secondary monitor. In fact, I found another Thunderbolt Display for even less so I'm now running three 27-inch monitors, but only the iMac is running at 5k.

So5Q8MN.png


Joe

P.S. I used my previous 27-inch iMac daily for ten years, then gave it to my daughter who is also using it daily. It's 12 years old and its Mac OS cannot be updated further, but it still works.
 
KrisW said:
Wow. There’s an arbitrary restriction, right there. I’d keep the old computer and look for a different streaming service. For hi-res, try Tidal if you like pop; Qobuz if you prefer Jazz and Classical.
Click to expand...

I'm way of diverting the thread, but briefly: I've used Qobuz since they began but they've let me down badly. I'm trialling Tidal, which is ok, but lacking many more obscure titles.
 
So new Mac mini ok for Roon straight away? The basic ram would suffice?

I really should replace the iMac at work now.. but will probly go Mac mini and LG oled. They’ve just bought out a 42… should be big enough, and way cheaper that the overpriced Apple displays/screens!!
 
Can an existing iMac with 5k screen be repurposed with a new Mac mini just accessing the screen??
I'm guessing the answer is no....
 
My finger has been off the Apple pulse for a while. I just went onto the UK store site and configured the top spec Mac Pro for kicks to see how much it would cost....

£51,699.00.

WTF are Apple smoking??!! :eek:

I may be mistaken but I'm pretty sure that when I bought my 8-core 3.2GHz Xeon Mac Pro from the refurb store in 2010 for what I thought was an extravagant £2,139, a fully max'd out new Mac Pro cost well under £10k, which is no more than £15k today adjusted for inflation.

I get that the performance and capability of a current Mac Pro is exponentially better but it still smells like serious piss-taking to me, especially when you're charging £25k to max out the RAM (does anyone ACTUALLY need 1.5TB of RAM??!!).

Luckily the new entry level M2 Mini will almost certainly fulfil all of my needs, so when I decide that I'm fed up working on a 13.3" MBP Retina I can save myself £50k, buy an M2 Mini and put £1k towards a nice display. :)
 
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