Ultimate BUDGET Mac desktop setup!

With the Mac Studio Apple provided a great way for Pros to get a powerful desktop without spending $6,000+ on the Mac Studio, but they also removed the 27 inch iMac, which was a great middle ground machine. Now, with the M2 Pro Mac mini some of the magic is back- but Apple's display and accessories are very expensive.. So today I'm going to put together the ultimate BUDGET Apple desktop setup to show you how I would do it!

Time stamps
0:00 Macs are getting more expensive
2:30 M2 Pro Mac mini is a sleeper
4:01 Criteria for an Apple setup
5:10 30 inch Cinema Display
6:12 Desk
7:21 Finishing touches
8:32 Editing on the M2 Pro Mac mini

#apple #mac #tech #deals
#trendmicro #premiumsecuritysuite #cybersecurity #antivirus

Gear:
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[megatronskneecap]

It's sick how you can now pop an entire desktop in your backpack (minus the monitor) and have an 8k editing workstation right there, on your back. We've come so far.

[lelluc]

I have been using a 2008 cinema display since I bought it back in 2008, although very heavy for today's standards, it is by far one of the best purchases I've done in my life... 0 problems so far!

[aliataciciek]

That 30" 2004 Cinema Display is insane. It is nearly my age and better than a lot of new monitors you can buy today. Also the design holds up brilliantly. The matte display matched with thin aluminium besels still looks great. The design language hasn't changed that much, the foot of the display tells a lot. I am glad you picked that for this video. You can have a sub-$600 M2 Pro desktop setup in 2022. How the times have changed.

[dgpsf]

First off, love this video. Second, I highly recommend any Mini owner to invest in the little "dock" hubs that fit the exact footprint, they're about 40% of the height of the Mini and add a bunch of front IO such as SD and USB, as well as usually an internal SSD slot inside them. (They just plug into a rear USB-c). It really enhances the usability! And totally agree that if you can do one upgrade these days it may as well be storage, especially since this generation FINALLY graduated to 16GB min ram. I have been helping a friend and it's shocking to me how hard Apple makes it to use external storage for things now. If you like most people want to also use the cloud to back up AND keep a copy locally on your large external SSD, you're out of luck. iCloud Drive can only use storage on your main boot disk, and OneDrive is the same, it can only live on a non-ejectable volume, so that rules out any other disk unless you're using a Mac Pro, I guess?

[MacSoundSolutions]

Check your power bill from using Cinema display after a few weeks, it probably uses 10 times what the Mini uses. On the other hand it makes for a good space heater if you live in a cold climate.

[dereinegreg]

I am totally happy with my Mac Mini M2 (non-Pro). In my setup it’s hooked up to a LG Ultrawide monitor which I’ve had already. This setup masters all the tasks I throw at it.

[MarcosRavena]

Man I love this Cinema Display model.
I still use my 20" from 2006. Great image. Combines perfectly with my Mac mini or with my wife's iMac as a secondary monitor.
Looking today, this amount of cables seem weird, but more than fifteen years ago, it was really innovative. An era where PCs were ugly beige boxes with small tube monitors.

Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[johnbergmann]

You can find the 27" TB displays for about $200 these days too. And don't be alarmed if you get one with a crappy cord, either get a new one (~$35 eBay) or get and extension and plug it into the other TB port. I have two of them and they are so nice. Speakers, mic, camera, ports, decent resolution for $200.

[td_kdname]

Luke refers back to the conversion he did with a 27" iMac with a 5K display to make it into his monitor. It was a great idea, but here's a pro tip. I did this with a 2K iMac by opening up the iMac and putting the Chinese conversion board inside, but it started to fail after a couple of months when the monitor got too hot. Keep the components outside in another enclosure so if they fail you don't have to pry open your iMac to fix it, which is a hassle and expensive if you buy the mounting adhesive strips.

[HOLLYWOODUNAPOLOGETIC]

I know this video is a year old. But I should mention, I bought a 30” from a Goodwill auction for under $200 without the power adaptor. I couldn’t find an inexpensive adapter for months. When I finally did, the monitor powered up, but there was a gradient of brown going from one side to the other. I set the brightness and contrast high, much higher than I normally would and was able to get it somewhat calibrated. I bought it to be used as a third monitor on an old Mac Pro 5, 1 set up for graphics and special effects with the hopes of running 3 to replace my 27” Cinema Displays to only find that the monitor now flashes intermittently after the first month of use. I’m a bit disappointed and have the monitor off most of the time. When I do use it, I may be able to get one day of use at a time. I mention this because from my research, both issues are somewhat common on these 30” Cinema Displays your viewers may be interested in knowing if they were planning on setting up a Mac Mini like what you’re doing here. Luke, thanks for what you do, man!

[Mooooooof]

These cinema displays still look incredible, it was unbelievable when the 30” one was announced.

I had the very first gen Mac mini g4 with 20” Cinema Display. Looked so cool together

[davidempire]

A refurbished 14" MBP is the best value. Typing this comment from my refurbished 1TB 14" MBP, which I got for $1469. Looks and feels brand new and came in sealed Apple box. Can't go wrong.

[daspec]

To be historically accurate, the Apple display did have the highest resolution for a 16 : 10 monitor in the 2000's, but the world record for the 4 : 3 format in the '90s belonged to the legendary EIZO/NANAO F784W, the Mitsubishi Diamontron and the IIyama VisionMaster (I had all of them) all working @ 2048X1536 and the EIZO REQUIRED a purpose built Omniverse 60 VGA card that cost just as much. These monitors were priced at about $4000 each in today's money WITHOUT a VGA card and were gigantic, we needed 2 people to move them!!

[rodster]

The Apple Thunderbolt 27" display is a much better option. Requires just a small thunderbolt adapter (which is more compatible) slimmer more attractive design with built in FaceTime camera, microphone and speakers and runs a more standard 2540x1440 resolution, and even includes a USB A hub in the back. It's a much newer design 2011-2016, and you can pick one up for under $200.

[trulyirrelevant]

The Magic Mouse also has the great feature that no one has ever complained about, charging port on the bottom

[DDProCo]

I edit videos on my base model Mac mini. I just bought a few 1TB Samsung T5s and I edit right off of those. I have one for YouTube, one for Freelance work, and one for personal files and that was cheaper than maxing out the storage. Not to mention, I can just get another one when ever I need.

[LarryGanz]

We replaced our 2015 27" iMac with this, even though it had a 32GB RAM/2TB SSD upgrade in 2020. For being Future Proof, we got the Mini with M2 Pro 12/19, 32GB RAM, 4TB SSD, 10Gbps network. We should get another 8 years out of this, like we did the iMac. Paired with the old keyboard and mouse, and my extra Asus VG27AQ 1440p monitor and a Brio 4K webcam it's great! I could have got by with a 2TB drive, but backing up 6 iPhones and 4 iPads was eating up 500 GB right there, with another 500 GB of storage used up for my photos and my wife's photos (two users on the mini, syncing different include accounts. I don't want the only full copy of photos and iOS backups to be solely on the iCloud. My iTunes is all on a 16TB RAID with 50% space free, after 20 years of collecting music and movies, so it uses no internal storage space.

[robsquared]

You should do another one where you build the cheapest apple silicon setup (refurb gen1 mini), cheap monitor, keyboard, mouse and make it targeted for longevity for an older adult. Note: peripherals are 3rd party to be even cheaper.

[xvalentinserbanx]

Great video! But the 2010 27 inch Cinema Display is a better option in my opinion. It looks better and it has built in speakers and an iSight camera. And the resolution is with 109 dpi (vs 100 dpi on the older model) also slightly better.

[busyak]

For an extra $40 you can get the 27” Cinema Display from 2011, I got mine for $240 plus $10 for a t-bolt to usb-c adapter, fits the same aesthetic, but, the best part — great speakers!!! Worth it