As I can no longer update it, i'm having to move on from my brilliant late 2014 imac (27inch ,i7, 3TB Fusion Drive, 24GB). Have decided to keep costs down by going for the new mac mini M2, 8-Core CPU, 10-Core GPU, 8GB, 256GB SSD. Both my wife and I have iphoto library files over 350GB so there is no point stumping up for the 500GB SSD version when I'm going to need some additional storage anyway (I thought I'd cracked this problem by moving the photo library file to icloud drive only to later discover the maximum file size is 50gb). I only really use the mac for office, emails, Teams, photo organising and web browsing. However, my wife does a lot of work on sketchup, designing interiors for homes.
So I'm looking for advice/reccomendations on the following...
1. A nice looking, £250 maximum 27inch monitor (ideally with webcam and speakers)
2. What external storage and using what connection (usb c, thunderbolt etc) you would use to gain an extra 2TB-3TB additional space. If it helps, I would rather have a better quality/faster 2TB solution than a slower 3TB (if that makes sense)
3. Any suggestions on how to setup the drives for maximum performance? e.g Boot from the external SSD or the internal?
4. I quite like the idea of using a hub with an integrated SSD (like this example) but can't seem to find one that looks smart and connects to the mac mini via thunderbolt rather than usb c. Not sure if this would result in reduced performance.
5. This is not linked to the mac mini, but is it possible, worthwhile moving the application folder to icloud drive to free up space?
Noticed it was coming up to 'Prime Day' on Amazon (here in the UK anyway) so thought it would be a good time to get some of the extras I might need.
Thanks in advance to anyome who takes the time to read/respond.
So I'm looking for advice/reccomendations on the following...
1. A nice looking, £250 maximum 27inch monitor (ideally with webcam and speakers)
2. What external storage and using what connection (usb c, thunderbolt etc) you would use to gain an extra 2TB-3TB additional space. If it helps, I would rather have a better quality/faster 2TB solution than a slower 3TB (if that makes sense)
3. Any suggestions on how to setup the drives for maximum performance? e.g Boot from the external SSD or the internal?
4. I quite like the idea of using a hub with an integrated SSD (like this example) but can't seem to find one that looks smart and connects to the mac mini via thunderbolt rather than usb c. Not sure if this would result in reduced performance.
5. This is not linked to the mac mini, but is it possible, worthwhile moving the application folder to icloud drive to free up space?
Noticed it was coming up to 'Prime Day' on Amazon (here in the UK anyway) so thought it would be a good time to get some of the extras I might need.
Thanks in advance to anyome who takes the time to read/respond.