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Cancelled Studio Display order, bought iMac instead

A

Adelphos33

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Mar 13, 2012
1,886
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I had an order for a $1,999 Studio Display that I intended to hook up to what I thought would be a M2 MacBook Air. After deciding against buying the MBA, I decided to just buy a yellow, $1,499 M1 IMac. It will be my first ever iMac and the first computer I use at home with a display frankly ever.

I work at home now 1 or 2 days a week, remote logging into a Windows machine. That’s all I intend to use this computer for. I figure for that, 8 GB RAM and 256GB will be good for several years. Plus I get a good computer as well, and out it side by side with my iPad Pro. The webcam seems better than the Studio Display. The M1 is actually a better than the M2 in this storage configuration. And I save $500

Anything wrong with this thinking?
 
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Sounds good but I would of gone for the 512/16ram for the future, but then again who knows what the future will bring.
 
Adelphos33 said:
I had an order for a $1,999 Studio Display that I intended to hook up to what I thought would be a M2 MacBook Air. After deciding against buying the MBA, I decided to just buy a yellow, $1,499 M1 IMac. It will be my first ever iMac and the first computer I use at home with a display frankly ever.

I work at home now 1 or 2 days a week, remote logging into a Windows machine. That’s all I intend to use this computer for. I figure for that, 8 GB RAM and 256GB will be good for several years. Plus I get a good computer as well, and out it side by side with my iPad Pro. The webcam seems better than the Studio Display. The M1 is actually a better than the M2 in this storage configuration. And I save $500

Anything wrong with this thinking?
Click to expand...
Well the screen on the 24" iMac is a bit small for my taste and, in the US at least, the studio display doesn't cost $1,999 unless you order it with optional features like the adjustable stand. I would not buy the M1 MBA either. Instead I would hook the display up to an M1 Mac mini if performance was not too much of a concern or a M1 Max Mac Studio if it was. Alternatively, a MacBook does offer more flexibility, in which case the M1 MBA or the M1 Pro 14" MBP are reasonable choices.
 
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Some context guys:

- I already own a 16 GB / 512 Gb M1 Madbook Air that has served as my main driver for a while. I was looking to add a monitor solution. Theoretically, if I need to do a task that requires 16 GB of RAM, I can always just use the MBA

- For the space I am using this computer, 24” is fine

- If I spec up the iMac to 16GB, the cost advantage starts to go away
 
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Adelphos33 said:
Some context guys:

- I already own a 16 GB / 512 Gb M1 Madbook Air that has served as my main driver for a while. I was looking to add a monitor solution. Theoretically, if I need to do a task that requires 16 GB of RAM, I can always just use the MBA

- For the space I am using this computer, 24” is fine

- If I spec up the iMac to 16GB, the cost advantage starts to go away
Click to expand...

Given you already have a MBA. Personally, I'd just get a decent 4K USB-C/Thunderbolt display. To use for docking and charging the MBA. It's not like the remote PC is likely going to be able to utilize the extra pixels in the 4.5K display of the iMac or 5K Studio Display. It'll be limited to whatever resolution the display physically attached to it uses.
 
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velocityg4 said:
... It's not like the remote PC is likely going to be able to utilize the extra pixels in the 4.5K display of the iMac or 5K Studio Display. It'll be limited to whatever resolution the display physically attached to it uses.
Click to expand...
Actually, that's not how Windows remote access works, and hasn't been for a long time. Matching the resolution of the remote system to the local monitor is pretty common -- though, matching a hi-dpi Mac screen may require more bandwidth than it's worth, depending upon what you're doing and on what kind of internet connection you have.
 
Adelphos33 said:
I work at home now 1 or 2 days a week, remote logging into a Windows machine. That’s all I intend to use this computer for.
Click to expand...
If that's really all you are going to do with the computer I'd get a PC with a 1080p screen for half the price.

Not getting the Studio Display was sensible - even if your remote desktop supports 4k or 5k it might be laggy or artefact-ridden over your connection and you could find yourself stuck with 1080p. Even with a regular PC and directly connected display, 5k/220ppi isn't a "sweet spot" for Windows the way it is for MacOS so it's really not worth the expense c.f. 4k.

However, if you've got any reason for using MacOS and the 4k display then the iMac should be great.

Since the arrival of Apple Silicon, the Intel concept of "laptop CPUs vs desktop CPUs" with night-and-day performance differences has gone away (until you get to the Ultra) , so it is more about which format you prefer.
 
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I ordered the machine from Amazon. After looking at some of the comments on RAM, and also looking at how much it costs to add apple peripherals, I decided I will return the machine I got from Amazon and buy from Apple. Pros:
1) I can select the keyboard with numeric keypad along with trackpad by buying from Apple
2) I can trade in an old MacBook Pro I am not using and knock off $120 off the price
3) I can upgrade the RAM to 16GB (I don't think I will need more than 256GB on this machine, it won't be my main computer and I have storage elsewhere)
4) I can get 0% financing and 3% cash back with Apple Card

I am now deciding between yellow and purple, probably will go with yellow again
 
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I went with the iMac M1 in blue. I was replacing my 27 inch iMac Intel i9. I got the 16gb ram/2TB SSD model (I always get the most memory and biggest storage I can). With my veterans discount and trade-in on my 27 inch iMac, I was about $700 out of pocket. My main reason was because I was starting to see many apps that weren't compatible with the Intel systems. I know that's not a big problem right now, but I want to maximize the life of my desktop, and I remember when Apple switched from the Motorola to the Intel processors. Purchased directly from Apple so I could get the keyboard with the numeric keypad.
 
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Kiimora said:
Got a yellow one too for personal use with the same mid-model base spec. It was my first foray into Macs since hanging up the windows boots. I also have the M1 iPad Pro 12.9 as a secondary device

Over one year on and still loving it👍🏽
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my preferred combo as well (12.9 iPad Pro + iMac). I got the mid tier model too, but I did upgrade to 16 GB ram, because I sometimes need parallels for work related stuff and the virtual machine definitely uses a bit of the memory

to OP: I've had many iMacs over the years starting with the first intel white 24" iMac. They were all good / great, but this M1 iMac is the best out of all of them for me. I think you'll be happy
 
I went from an Intel 27" iMac to a 24" M1 iMac. After a few months of use, I sold it and got the Mac Studio and the Studio Display. For my workflow, the smaller display was a hindrance. Had an M-version 27" iMac been available, I would have gone with that. The 24" machine is fine if you don't need the bigger display. Ultimately, only you can determine what's best for your use case.
 
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SRQrws said:
I went from an Intel 27" iMac to a 24" M1 iMac. After a few months of use, I sold it and got the Mac Studio and the Studio Display. For my workflow, the smaller display was a hindrance. Had an M-version 27" iMac been available, I would have gone with that. The 24" machine is fine if you don't need the bigger display. Ultimately, only you can determine what's best for your use case.
Click to expand...

The iMac 5K 2020 edition with the 8-core i7 and 8GB Radeon 5500 is a very fine computer and can be found at a good discount as refurb/like new. Load it up with 128GB of RAM and a 2TB external NVMe SSD via Thunderbolt and you have the new Studio Display including an extremely capable computer for not much more money.
 
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