I too, just moved on from my 2019 iMac with that lovely large screen.
However, I went for an M4 Mac Mini.
Beefed it up a bit with 24 GB RAM and 1 TB of storage.
I purchased a 32" LG monitor to go with my 27" 2nd monitor.
Have now had this set up for about a month now, and frankly, I could not be happier!
The Mac Mini is quiet, runs cool, and I can leave it on much of the time.
Unlike my iMac that ran hot with fans blowing much of the time.
I’m lucky things have started to change there. I recently ordered the Asus 5K because for my use, where full adjustability and non-glossy surface are must-haves, the price difference to the Studio Display is a staggering $1374 even factoring in my Apple higher ed discount. And I just won’t pay a +167% Apple tax for essentially a webcam I do not care about. I’m anxious to see how the Asus 5K holds up and how it compares to the Dell 4K 27" I’ve become used to (U2720Q and U2723QE).
Dockability is indeed a huge plus. Thanks to Thunderbolt this has become ever so convenient: you attach one cable which immediately takes care of charging, large external monitor, extra disks, other peripherals, ands heck, even Gigabit if you like. My desks at work and my desk at home are equipped with various types of TB hubs/docks, and these days I couldn’t image being without them.
I think people sometimes don’t realize just how convenient and inexpensive such solutions have become. And without compromise — you still get great external video and super fast external disks, unlike pure USB-C (as in pre USB4) solutions. This bare bones TB4 hub is $96 and comes with both a TB4 host cable and an HDMI dongle for your screen. If you need Gigabit, add this $10 dongle (or this one if you prefer retaining an open TB4 port over USB-A) and you’ll still have a TB4 and USB-A port left for other peripherals. Done. There are for sure fancier dock solutions with lots of additional ports and slots etc. (I love my CalDigit!) but if all you just need is an simple/inexpensive solution that allows you to turn your MBP into a proper desktop computer with just a single cable, this gets that done.
I don’t seen any mention of the lack HDR on the apple studio display. For photographers the ability to see HDR effects would be especially nice. Apple portables have this ability and it is amazing. I think this would lead me to getting a third party display.
I’ve been delighted with the performance of Intel Windows apps running on Windows ARM in Parallels on my M1 MacBook Air. The main issue is whether your Windows 10 license will work on the new machine. I don’t know if you can directly convert an Intel Windows installation to an ARM installation in Parallels. That’s not as much of an issue as it once was, because it seems that Microsoft has removed some of the limits on non-activated Windows installations.
As mentioned in an old thread, I have an M2 Macbook Air and 32" LG monitor. A USB-c cable between the two provides video, power and access to external drives via a USB port on the monitor.
Previously I had powered hard disks but when I replaced them with SSD I found it needed a powered USB hub plugged into the monitor.
The only tricky thing about this setup is remembering to eject external drives before unplugging the Macbook.
Webcam … I use the Macbook in clamshell mode but open it up if I need a webcam. It means the camera is at the bottom of the monitor screen which makes me look a bit odd(er) but that is not an issue
Those instructions are way out of date. For many years now all you have to do is open your home folder, then Finder > View > Show View Options > Show Library Folder. It is at the bottom of the options list.
Note, however, that after you enable this, Library doesn’t appear on the Go menu (even when Option is pressed) until you restart the Finder (or log out/in, of course).
On Sequoia, turning Library visibility off immediately changes the menu. But turning it on again does not. Sounds like a bug. (I just left a bug report via Feedback.)
I’m really pleased that people are enjoying my thought process—I was worried that my situation is too unusual to be interesting. But then again, I’m also really liking the other upgrade stories people are sharing, so perhaps we all like hearing about such major tech life events.
Parallels is working on that, but it has significant limitations.
Thank you! I had a vague memory Apple had moved that into the interface, but I couldn’t find it in System Settings or the Finder’s Settings, so I did a search in TidBITS, found the original article, and used the old approach, which worked fine.
Another search just now turned up another article that shared the new setting, but in the context of a keyboard modifier changing weirdly.
i have a similar setup with a MBP and two 27" Studio Displays. Love it. I have a OWC Thunderbolt Hub in my configuration, and was happy to discover that the MBP would charge itself through the feed from the Hub. That means that I can leave my MagSafe charger packed in my travel bag and ready to go when I take the Mac on the road.
And your Apple Studio Displays are connected directly to the MacBook Pro, like mine? My understanding is that the MacBook Pro will charge through them as well.
I also appreciate your thought process. I have come to love my 27-inch screen because I need a large screen to avoid eyestrain. However, I have come to prefer a slightly split keyboard to put my arms and hands at a comfortable angle. I like the one Microsoft offers; it’s cheap, comfortable and the keys have a nice feel. Its only problem is that the ink eventually wears off on a few keys (I’ve lost about half of the D already). I’m a touch typist, but I need to realign my fingers once in a while so it helps to have visible letters.
This is now native to Silicon Macs. But I might not fully understand what you are trying to do…
Open Displays in System Settings. You’ll see your three displays - click on one and a Pop-up menu that says Extended or Mirrored Display appears underneath. If you have it on Extended the cursor action works great. If you are using the display on it’s own click the menu and select linked keyboard & mouse.
Or were you wanting to move your cursor to the far left of your left-most display and have the cursor appear on your right-most display?
I’ve recently upgraded from my 2017 (I think) 27" iMac to a MB Air M2 15". Since then I’ve been looking for a monitor to do justice to the 500 nits brightness of the Air. In Australia, the Studio Display is AU$3000, and I’m not spending that. There is a Mac retailer here called MacFixit who are doing the old 5K iMac as a display - stripping out all the stuff not necessary for a display, It’s a bit over AU$1200. I think I’m going to go with that.
I have a 2017 27" iMac that I love. I do a lot of photography, and the screen on the 27" is spectacular. The latest OS I can run is Ventura, so I’m sure I’ll be upgrading shortly. Unlike Adam, mine is running cool and not struggling with content. In addition to Photoshop, I use it primarily with Plex for OTA TV and DVR.
I modified my iMac by getting an enclosure from OWC and populating it with a 1 TB NVMe module and attaching it via Thunderbolt and then made it my boot drive. It’s not as fast as an internal SSD to replace the Fusion, but it adds significant speed to the computer.
It will be with reluctance that I swap out this computer for a new one, but in the next year or so…
