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djborden Author

Level 1

57 points

Which Mac to buy

I have a Late 2015 27” iMac (Intel i7 Quad Core, 24 GB RAM, 2 GB Fusion Drive) that I’m getting ready to replace. The 24” M3 iMac’s screen is too small for my needs, so I’m considering:

Mac Mini - M2Pro/16GB Unified Memory/512GB SSD $1299

MacBook Pro 14” - M3/Upgrade to 16GB Unified Memory/512GB SSD - $1799

MacBook Pro 14” - M3Pro/18GB Unified Memory/512 GB SSD - $1999

MacBook Ait 13” - M2/Upgrade to 16GB Unified Memory//512 GB SSD - $1599

In all cases I would add a 27” or larger Display.

I don’t do much intensive computing - no Video, mostly Accounting, Investing and Finance related apps.

Will ALL of these be considerably faster than my Intel iMac?

Would the M3 of the MacBook Pro be a big upgrade from the M2 of the Air or M2Pro of the Mini?

Given that I don’t but a new computer very often (I kept the iMac 8+ years) do any of these choices stand out as being the best value over the long term?

Thanks for any suggestions.

Posted on Dec 24, 2023 8:43 AM

Top-ranking reply

Servant of Cats

Level 6

17,332 points

Posted on Dec 30, 2023 12:18 PM

djborden wrote:

I ended up getting the Mac Mini M2 Pro and a Dell U3223QE Monitor, which has more ports than I know what to do with. What is the best port to connect them?

https://www.dell.com/support/home/en-us/product-support/product/u3223qe-monitor/docs

The easiest way to connect them would be with a USB-C cable between one of the USB4/Thunderbolt ports on the Mac mini, and the USB-C (video + data) port shown as port 5 on page 12 of the monitor manual. There is a USB-C to USB-C cable in the monitor box, and that single cable would be enough to carry video and to connect downstream USB and Gigabit Ethernet ports.

You could connect video using a HDMI-to-HDMI cable to the HDMI port (port 3) or a USB-C to DisplayPort cable to the DisplayPort (in) port (port 4). But then you'd need a separate USB cable from one of your Mini's USB-A or USB-C ports to the monitor's USB-C upstream port (port 8) to connect the USB and Ethernet hub ports. (NOTE: this is a different USB-C port than the one you'd use for video+data.)

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Which Mac to buy

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