It is indeed.
I’ve never tried this myself, but looking at the back of my 27" monitor and the old mini next to it, I wonder if you couldn’t just velcro the mini to the back of the screen (right onto the stand) to tidy up on a small desk. Also, there are wall mounts for the Mac mini.
I agree, fair point about the Mini, although iI find that it doesn’t add that much clutter given the tradeoff of the big monitor that I have. It fits comfortably under the arm that I’ve VESA mounted the monitor to. Bu I do understand that others’ aesthetics may be different than mine.
@mHm - I have a paperweight on my desk that says “A cluttered desk is a sign of genius.”. If that’s the case then I must be the smartest guy in the world. 
And I’m a firm believer in the archaeological filing system - oldest stuff on the bottom.
Twelve South has a product called Backpack for various iMac models. It’s a shelf that is fastened to the monitor stand. On their latest version (linked below), they’r creating a mailing list for a Studio Display model. Unfortunately, the specs don’t show a weight capacity.
In terms of desk space, it looks like Studio fits comfortably under one side of the display, So, a mini should even more comfortably sit there
Target Display Mode never supported the 27-inch iMac
I’m running Target Display Mode on my 2011 27" iMac, using it as an external screen for my 2015 15" MacBook Pro.
The correct statement is 27" iMacs with 5K Retina screens never supported Target Display Mode.
I’ve never had a bad experience using one of Dell’s Ultrasharp series displays (although ordering from Dell is another issue altogether - so you may be better off buying through a reseller). Current prices for a few models I think an individual consumer may want (sorted by price) are:
I’m in much the same position. I currently have a maxed-out 2012 mini and dimming Apple Cinema display, and am looking to upgrade, but what I need—or think I need—is in the hole between the M1 mini and the new Studio max.
I’ll definitely be getting a Studio display, but am torn between: 1. Buying a Mini and hoping 16gb of ram is enough to future-proof it some; 2. Shelling out for the Studio Mac with power I don’t really need; or 3. Waiting for a possible M2 or M1 Max Mini with 32gb of RAM to show up.
I know an upgraded Mini will come at some point; but if it’s a long time, I don’t want to wait, as my machine is really coming to a standstill when I am doing video editing with multi-tasking—and that’s with 16gb of RAM. I know the M1 manages memory better, but how much better I’m not sure, so that’s why I’m hesitant about the current one. Any advice?
PS, Great article, Adam!
We’ve been happy with Samsung and Dell displays.
I was about to say that you should just go for the M1 mini, since it will be much faster than your 2012 mini and has the same RAM limit. But then you wrote:
Video editing is one of those power-hungry applications that will use as much horsepower as you can throw at it. If you are doing enough editing that this is a concern, then I would definitely go for one of the Studio models with maxed-out RAM.
A base model with 64GB RAM is $2400. And with 2TB of storage is $3000. That’s a lot, but if you’re doing video work, I think it will be worth it. And I expect it will last a lot longer than a first-generation M1 mini will.
I wouldn’t worry about maxing out the storage. 2TB isn’t too horribly expensive if you want that much internally, but it gets ugly at the larger sizes. Get what will comfortably hold your apps (even 512G should be plenty for that) and use an external Thunderbolt (or 10G USB3) SSD for your media collection and working storage for your video editing. The performance won’t be at the level of the internal storage, but it should be more than sufficient (especially if you use a TB drive).
In your situation, I’d get the mini now. Even if Apple updates the high-end mini by year’s end, you can always sell the M1 and buy a new mini without losing too much. The 16GB mini after all is only $899-$1099 depending on internal flash. And the few hundred you’d lose (at most), amount then to what? $50/month? If your current Mac is on its last legs, that sounds like a comparably small price to pay to me.
Thanks for the opinions, David and Simon—good points, & gives me some things to consider. Whichever way I go, I’m sure I’ll probably opt for 2TB storage; the 1TB SSD in my 2012 is getting pretty crowded.
My data points are old, but before I moved to the 27-inch iMac and Thunderbolt Display, I used a Mac Pro with a pair of 24-inch Dell monitors, the Dell UltraSharp 2408WFP.
They were wonderfully adjustable and had a lot of ports, which was welcome, but both screens eventually developed display problems. I can’t quite remember all the details (this was almost 9 years ago) but one of them had a permanent 1-pixel-wide vertical purple line running down the screen about a third of the way in from the right.
And wow, did they pump out the heat! Made my office quite toasty in the winter and definitely encouraged AC use in the summer. In the end, they were entirely acceptable, but I never loved them.
Ahh, that egg-laying woolly milk sheep of a monitor. 110 Watts makes a good heater.
Agreed. When I moved my office to my house a year or so ago I got a M1 MacBook Air along with a Dell U2720QM. The Dell has 2-USB-C and 3 USB-A ports, so along with the 2-TB ports on the Air I don’t need to use a dock.
Yeah, that’s the downside of displays with CCF backlighting. I don’t think any of us would voluntarily go back to that. They draw far less power than comparably-sized CRTs, but a lot more than a modern LED backlight.
A good thought provoking article. I went to 27-inch screen a while back and have found that size ideal for my needs as a full-time professional writer, letting me split the screen between two pages to work on. But I couldn’t justify the cost of an Apple monitor then or of the new 27-inch studio display now. I paid under $400 for the ASUS HDMI screen then, and the price now is under $200. I don’t do video editing or any color-intensive work, and I got badly burned when I bought a 2004 17 inch Apple studio display that only lasted a few years.
I now use a 2018 MacMini with 16/512 Gig and that works well for everything but change tracking in Microsoft Word, which I suspect says more about what a mess MS Word is than than about what I should need for writing. I’ve started looking for a new laptop to replace my wife’s 2009 MacBook, and appreciate the comments on the advantages of investing in a laptop with 16/512 for that use. I use an 8/128 MacBook Air that’s now five years old for mobile computing, and the memory is just too small to hold her stuff as well as the minimal files I use. I’m not going to make that mistake again
6 posts were split to a new topic: Macs with HDMI output for streaming high-def surround-sound audio
My wait for a M-based 27 inch ( or larger ) iMac appears over for the moment. However, there are a few crumbs suggesting( wishful thinking to a large degree ) Apple hasn’t eliminated it permanently: the new Apple monitor could easily be the basis for a new iMac and some might suggest it’s almost there. Also, Apple’s web site banner ( after clicking on the ‘Mac’ category ) shows iMac 24" and not simply iMac. I will be looking at a Mac Studio combined with a larger monitor ( not XDR due to budget ) in the meantime.
Did you read Apple’s statement at the bottom of the ArsTechnica article Apple’s 27-inch iMac disappears from its store with no fanfare or replacement | Ars Technica?
You have hit the nail when you indicated that not all users who want large screens are video and audit developers - the ‘creatives’ to whom Apple directs all its attention. Many of us who are in business find large screens useful for business applications and the like.
Given the high price of Apple Display, the solution is to buy a more reasonably priced non-Apple display and hope it works ok with Mac Mini or/and Mac Studio and with Apple operating systems and hope that Apple can fix the Apple Display issues with its web cam.