I was in a similar situation; 2015 27" iMac which was showing it's age with 4K editing and extended export times (I typically make two or three 30-60m videos a month).
I decided to go M4 Mini and Studio Display. The base Mini at £499 was a no brainer. The thing absolutely flies for the basic editing i'm doing (Final Cut Pro, typically 4k60 linear footage). It will edit 4k video fine off a cheap USB3 SSD - though I've gone the route of a 2TB SSD and Passively Cooled External enclosure.
The Studio Display was the big decision - but everything else I looked at was a compromise and the 5k stuff that's anywhere near as good you're getting to similar price range. As I'll be keeping the display and just upgrading the Mini in future I bit the bullet. About a week later the new ProArt 5K display came out - that might've been an option but I'm happy with the Studio.
In the future I can just swap out the base Mini, plug in my external SSD and be up & running in minutes!
I decided to go M4 Mini and Studio Display. The base Mini at £499 was a no brainer. The thing absolutely flies for the basic editing i'm doing (Final Cut Pro, typically 4k60 linear footage). It will edit 4k video fine off a cheap USB3 SSD - though I've gone the route of a 2TB SSD and Passively Cooled External enclosure.
The Studio Display was the big decision - but everything else I looked at was a compromise and the 5k stuff that's anywhere near as good you're getting to similar price range. As I'll be keeping the display and just upgrading the Mini in future I bit the bullet. About a week later the new ProArt 5K display came out - that might've been an option but I'm happy with the Studio.
In the future I can just swap out the base Mini, plug in my external SSD and be up & running in minutes!
