A good setup for a soon-to-be first-time Mac owner?

[Pahn]

I preordered an M4 Mini (base model). I know that I'm going to need to buy some additional hardware to really maximize my experience.

I see that there are docks available for previous-gen Minis (and there will no doubt be some for the new model, eventually). Does anybody recommend any of these? I would like to buy an NVME for additional storage. Is there an equivalent to a /home folder in MacOS that would be sensible to map to the external drive to make it easy to migrate/upgrade in the future?

I'll need some USB-A ports as well. I can just buy adapters, but does anybody have a better recommendation, or should I wait for a dock? Or is there an acceptable dock that will work fine and is currently available?

I currently put most of my media on a spinning disk connected to my router. I'd like to keep this setup, as it meets my needs and is cheap, so I'm not looking to put in a NAS or anything like that.

 

[Fishrrman]

My advice is...
Go slow.
Resist buying "too soon" until you KNOW what you'll be needing.

What kind of "dock" you buy depends on what you need it for.
How many external devices do you have to connect?
Hard drives, SSD's, other stuff ??
There are USB docks (get a POWERED one), and there are thunderbolt docks (more expensive).

If it's just one or two drives, and if any of those drives have removable connecting cables (example: drive has a USBa port), you could get a connecting cable with USBa on one end, and USBc on the other.

I also recommend at least two of these:

Cable Matters USB C to USB Adapter 6 Inches (USB to USB C Adapter, USB-C to USB 3.0 Adapter, USB C OTG) in Black

Cable Matters USB C to USB Adapter 6 Inches (USB to USB C Adapter, USB-C to USB 3.0 Adapter, USB C OTG) in Black

www.amazon.com

VERY handy to have close by.

 

[blufrog]

I can only echo what Fishrrman said above: go slow.

Without knowing why you bought a Mac (and this is true for any computer/technology - we could be talking PC here) it becomes quite hard to recommend anything, because it may not be suitable for what you NEED.

It should be asked then: what do you want to do? Just basic stuff (browser/e-mail) or do you want to do more (photo/video editing, movies/music, use it as a more capable Apple TV, programming, etc.)?

 

[Ben J.]

You'll need the basic stuff; keyboard and mouse or trackpad. I recommend the smallest Apple magic keyboard with TouchID. Very slick and nice to not have to type your password 90% of the time. But they don't have to be apple products, any keyboard/mouse wil do AFAIK.

Display(s). They often come with extra ports like usb-a, SD-card. something to take into consideration when selecting a dock. Audio. Many displays have OK speakers, but a set of small computer speakers can be very cheap and very nice. Or perhaps you have a home stereo that you could connect to. Most displays do not have a camera, so you might want to buy one for $50-60.

Do you have any other apple products? An iPhone, iPad, etc?

I always recommend Macmost.com to new mac users, and any mac user, for that matter. Gary explains things in a very no-nonsense way in their videos.

But, yes; we need most of all to know more of how you plan to use your mac. What computer usage are you coming from? Do you plan to use it for work? Syncing to work servers? Any interests, hobbies that you might find the mac useful for?

 

[Pahn]

Mostly browsing, with a small chance of doing some programming. I mostly want to replicate what I have with my Windows setup, which means more USB ports, and more storage. A small upgrade in storage wouldn’t be amiss, considering I’ve got an old 1TB spinning disk for files other than OS files and apps. I’m thinking a 2TB M.2 drive, and I’d like to avoid dongle city.

I’ve got my eyes on the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID. I do enough spreadsheets that I’d want the numeric keys. The price is a little hard to swallow, considering there’s nothing wrong with my 20 year old keyboard.

 

[Fishrrman]

"I’ve got my eyes on the Magic Keyboard with Touch ID. I do enough spreadsheets that I’d want the numeric keys. The price is a little hard to swallow, considering there’s nothing wrong with my 20 year old keyboard."

If there's nothing wrong with your old keyboard, just keep using it.
Same with the mouse you're using now.

There's nothing special about "Apple" keyboards.
No particular reason why you "must" use one.
I CAN'T STAND them, myself.
Same for Apple mice.

I've been using 3rd-party keyboards for 30 years now, 3rd-party mice for about 20...

 

[ChrisA]

I preordered an M4 Mini (base model). I know that I'm going to need to buy some additional hardware to really maximize my experience.

I see that there are docks available for previous-gen Minis (and there will no doubt be some for the new model, eventually). Does anybody recommend any of these? I would like to buy an NVME for additional storage. Is there an equivalent to a /home folder in MacOS that would be sensible to map to the external drive to make it easy to migrate/upgrade in the future?

I'll need some USB-A ports as well. I can just buy adapters, but does anybody have a better recommendation, or should I wait for a dock? Or is there an acceptable dock that will work fine and is currently available?

I currently put most of my media on a spinning disk connected to my router. I'd like to keep this setup, as it meets my needs and is cheap, so I'm not looking to put in a NAS or anything like that.

Yes there is a home folder. Each user has a folder called /Users/<username>. But I would not map that to an external. try /User/myusername/media or some thing like that.

The reason is that I want the Mac to still be functional if the external data goes missing.

 

[StoneJack]

I preordered an M4 Mini (base model). I know that I'm going to need to buy some additional hardware to really maximize my experience.

I see that there are docks available for previous-gen Minis (and there will no doubt be some for the new model, eventually). Does anybody recommend any of these? I would like to buy an NVME for additional storage. Is there an equivalent to a /home folder in MacOS that would be sensible to map to the external drive to make it easy to migrate/upgrade in the future?

I'll need some USB-A ports as well. I can just buy adapters, but does anybody have a better recommendation, or should I wait for a dock? Or is there an acceptable dock that will work fine and is currently available?

I currently put most of my media on a spinning disk connected to my router. I'd like to keep this setup, as it meets my needs and is cheap, so I'm not looking to put in a NAS or anything like that.

hi
you don't need any docs. just a portable USB drive or that hard drive will do.

 

[Pahn]

Yes there is a home folder. Each user has a folder called /Users/<username>. But I would not map that to an external. try /User/myusername/media or some thing like that.

The reason is that I want the Mac to still be functional if the external data goes missing.

Perfect, that sounds like a plan. Thanks.