Finished my computer upgrades... (Mac)

[Walti]

My 2015 27" iMac has fallen off the bottom of OS support and finally fell off the bottom of Lightroom support.

Looking around for a new computer, monitor and so on, I decided on a nice new Mac mini M4, with 32GB RAM and a 512GB internal drive and a 4TB SSD external drive (£199 Black Friday deal on Amazon). That's the easy bit...

Do I want to spend loads of money on a nice new shiny Apple display, which as displays go looks a horrifically expensive £1300 on first sight, but when you realise you're getting 5k display, Sonos standard speakers and a trick webcam, suddenly looks OK, however, I also had a perfectly serviceable 27" 5k monitor sitting on my desk, with inbuilt speakers which are not the same league but adequate, and a web cam...

The IMac has a resale value of £250 or so, so a nice new Asus monitor (£300 Black Friday deal on Amazon) along with an Astropad Luna Display module allow me to use a good quality 4k monitor for the editing screens and the iMac as a secondary screen showing the full image.

The ASUS monitor gives the Apple monitor lessons in colour quality too!

I can confirm this all works really well, its fast rarely works up a sweat (as denoted by the fan running) really is making photo editing easier and better.

An unexpected benefit is you still have two separate computers, the Apple Keyboard and mouse share on both easily so I can run website editing on one and have the customer view on the other!

[blackfox]

Nice set up

[pdk42]

Very nice!

[R99C99]

I was so close to going for an M4 Mac mini but I couldn’t resist a good deal on a 16 inch MacBook Pro M4.

I love the large laptop screen but seeing your setup suggests I might need to invest in a quality large screen at some point.

[Walti]

I would highly recommend the ASUS 27" as a second display on your laptop. Not that expensive either.

[BDennis]

That is a nice setup. The Luna display module sounds useful. My iMac is so old it supports the old target display mode even with the M2 Mac. The only problem is adjusting the brightness doesn’t work in the display settings.

I need to get a new wireless keyboard and mouse, my really old Apple ones are not working well and I’m forever putting new rechargeable batteries in them.

Bill

[davcoll]

May I ask how you are getting on with the Luna display dongle? I use a 2019 27" Imac and an M series 14" Macbook Pro, while I love the screen on the Imac the processing power of the Macbook is quite superior.

Dave

[Walti]

I have found a couple of tiny issues, nothing massive, but it is possible to "lose" the keyboard, I think it is when the secondary display "owns" the keyboard and mouse and you the switch off the app you're using... but other than that it's fine.

There's a Luna Display APP on the main computer and a Luna Display secondary app on the second, I've put them both in the dock for quick start up. The dongle does seem to simulate a monitor as when you're using the Luns the standard display settings page shows three monitors!

The other little aside is that when you have two Macs sitting side by side you can share the mouse and keyboard really easily, so even when they're not tethered together you can use either, which meant I didn't bother with speakers and webcam for the MacMini as I can still use the iMac for moosik and web chats.

[MK1]

That's a nice idea I have an older iMac upstairs the thin section type. I could organise a better work station hmmmm🤔

[Phill D]

Wow that's a big mug! . Sorry I'm a Windows user .
Seriously though it does look impressive and very swish. Sounds pretty cheap too from those figures maybe I ought to start considering a switch to the apple world. Updating my now pretty slow Dell laptop looks like it's going to cost a lot more than that.

[Walti]

Just so you can have a look:

The total costs were:

Mac mini £11199 (Apple charge silly amounts for upgrading the SSD and RAM)
4TB SSD external drive £199 - normally £250ish
ASUS display £299 - normally £399
Luna Display hardware £75
Keyboard and mouse "free" as already had them
Secondary display 27" iMac

I also bought a couple of cables to link things together: Ethernet cable - connects both computers to remove and WiFi latency - printer cable as the wi fi kept losing it! USB C to USB C to allow the iPhone to be used as a webcam should I wish. and a little USB C hub

[Phill D]

Gosh do you really mean £11199 for the mac mini. That really ought to be fast 😯. Thanks for the info, hopefully it was £199?