Following the introduction of latest Mac fashions in October, Apple has shaken up its desktop Mac roster. This is what you can purchase, at nearly any value level.
Value is a vital issue when selecting your subsequent Mac. The extra price range that you’ve accessible, the higher the Mac you will get.
Nonetheless, whereas Apple does cowl a wide selection of value factors, it additionally has a number of selections accessible for a lot of of them. Add within the variety of configurable components, and it may grow to be a bewildering resolution.
The October week of Mac bulletins launched new Mac fashions utilizing the M4 chip. This included replacements for 2 of its 4 desktop Mac fashions: the iMac and the Mac mini.
The M4 replace has induced fairly a couple of adjustments in what’s advisable relying on the scale of your price range. Notably on the higher finish of the size. In some methods, it truly makes the method of shopping for a Mac a bit easier.
With so many choices accessible, it is nonetheless a tough job. This information will purpose to inform you the place it is best to, and should not, be placing your cash.
This information was up to date on November 7, 2024.
General Apple Silicon vary
Apple has a complete of 4 Mac fashions accessible for customers to buy. The gathering consists of the Mac mini, the 24-inch iMac, the Mac Studio, and the Mac Professional.
Every has numerous components that might be configured, together with completely different tiers of chip, reminiscence, storage, and even whether or not you need Gigabit Ethernet or 10-Gig Ethernet.
The complete pricing vary for Apple’s desktop Macs, as of November 2024
The higher approach of contemplating the 4 product households is to interrupt them right down to seven. On this case, the Mac mini is break up into M4 and M4 Professional variants, the 24-inch iMac in 2-port and 4-port variations, the Mac Studio in its M2 Max and M2 Extremely variations, and the Mac Professional.
The general value vary for desktop Macs begins from $599 for the most affordable configuration to $12,199 for the very best, if you happen to consider the primary configurable upgrades. We’re counting issues like Nano-texture or Ethernet choices right here, however we’re leaving out add-on software program and peripheral adjustments.
To make it simpler to contemplate, we are going to break this down into two value ranges: sub-$2,000 purchases for one, and $2,000 or extra for the opposite.
Storage and reminiscence upgrades
An enormous factor to contemplate when pricing out your best Mac is that you simply can not improve the specs of most of Apple’s Macs after you’ve got purchased them. Excluding components of the Mac Professional, you can’t merely open up a Mac and add extra reminiscence or storage.
Meaning it’s important to take into consideration how a lot reminiscence and storage you need earlier than you buy.
Storage improve prices may be painful to finance.
Since Apple’s upgrades can value some huge cash, you could wish to take into consideration different methods to get improve advantages with out paying a premium. Whilst you cannot change the chip nor reminiscence, you possibly can add extra storage capability, if you happen to use an exterior drive.
Apple’s storage upgrades are painful to contemplate, particularly on the larger finish. For instance, it prices $200 to go from 512GB to 1TB of SSD storage on an M4 Professional Mac mini, however going from 512GB to 8TB is an eye-watering $2,400 upsell.
The exception is the Mac Professional, since you should use SATA connections and PCIe growth so as to add extra inside storage, and different parts.
Upgrading the reminiscence to a better stage does not value as a lot as upgrading storage, however may find yourself being extra helpful. Since Apple’s Unified Reminiscence system means the CPU, GPU, and different chip components share the identical pool of quick reminiscence, you are successfully rising each the CPU and GPU’s reminiscence on the similar time.
Upgrading the chip is often a good suggestion too, since you find yourself with extra CPU and GPU cores and subsequently extra efficiency.
The underside line is that it is best to improve the reminiscence as a precedence, then the Apple Silicon chip, then storage. And even then, do not go too nuts on storage except it is completely important.
Beneath $2,000 – Mac mini and 24-inch iMac
Among the finest merchandise in Apple’s Mac desktop vary for brand new customers is the Mac mini, which can be the most affordable. Up to date to the M4 chip, it’s priced at simply $599 for the bottom configuration (verify M4 Mac mini sale costs).
The M4 Mac mini can be your solely selection for something under $1,299, which is when the 2-port model of the M4 24-inch iMac makes an look. It makes use of the identical chip because the M4 Mac mini, however you do get a 24-inch show.
The perfect Mac desktop value ranges for $2,000 and decrease budgets.
At $1,299, you are additionally a couple of upgrades to the Mac mini, similar to 24GB of reminiscence and 1TB of storage or 32GB of reminiscence and 512GB of storage, in addition to 10-gig Ethernet.
In impact, you are paying $700 further on the iMac to get the show versus a pile of upgrades for the Mac mini. This might be price it if you actually need an all-in-one and you do not have already got a monitor for the Mac mini, however the Mac mini might be the higher possibility.
At simply $100 extra at $1,399, the M4 Professional model of the Mac mini comes into play, together with its Thunderbolt 5 connectivity. The question then turns into whether or not you want the efficiency profit from the M4 Professional itself with no upgrades or if you need an M4 Mac mini with the highest reminiscence possibility and 1TB of storage.
The iMac remains to be an possibility right here, however once more, it is solely actually an possibility if you actually need the show. At $1,499, the opposite iMac is an possibility with 4 rear Thunderbolt ports, not two, or you may get one improve for the two-port mannequin as an alternative.
As the worth will increase, your selection turns into a extra upgraded M4 Mac mini, a lesser-upgraded M4 Professional for efficiency, or both of the iMac fashions with equally lagged upgrades.
Once we attain the highest configuration of the Mac mini with M4 at $1,899, we’re additionally surprisingly trying on the two-port iMac. It is solely a $30 gigabit Ethernet possibility away from its personal most configuration, on account of being considerably restricted in reminiscence to 24GB as an alternative of 32GB, and at 1TB of storage as an alternative of 2TB.
For a similar cash, the M4 Professional Mac mini may get a 48GB reminiscence or a chip improve in addition to 10-gig Ethernet, or you may put 512GB of storage and 24GB of reminiscence within the four-port iMac.
Once more, your greatest play is likely one of the Mac minis.
Past $2,000 – M4 Professional Mac mini, and a Mac Studio and Mac Professional downside
Reaching $1,999, the very best level within the vary, you are principally saving $100 and getting the above four-port iMac. Or there’s the 48GB and 1TB storage upgrades for the M4 Professional Mac mini, although both might be switched for the chip improve too.
The perfect Mac desktop value ranges for $2,000 and better budgets
As ordinary, except the show is required for aesthetics, the Mac mini is the higher possibility right here.
$1,999 can be the place the Mac Studio turns into an possibility. Fitted with the lower-tier M2 Max, 32GB of reminiscence, and 512GB of storage, it sounds prefer it’s a viable possibility.
The issue is, it is not.
The entire level of the Mac Studio is to supply Mac Professional efficiency in a extra compact type. Technically, it does that, because it makes use of the identical Extremely-based Apple Silicon chips.
The precise challenge is that the early benchmarks of the M4 Professional exhibits it’s significantly higher than the M2 Extremely within the Mac Studio in the case of single-core and multi-core efficiency.
The place the Mac Studio nonetheless turns into viable is if you happen to care concerning the GPU efficiency. The Max chips and even the Extremely chips are improbable underneath Steel benchmarks.
There’s additionally the flexibility to configure larger quantities of reminiscence, with the M2 Max able to utilizing as much as 96GB and the M2 Extremely as much as 192GB.
Then there’s the Mac Professional, which principally simply provides PCIe help and the flexibility so as to add extra inside storage. These aren’t nice advantages, as attaching an exterior PCIe enclosure and exterior drive to a Thunderbolt port on the Mac Studio does the identical factor.
Certainly, hooking it as much as the M4 Professional Mac mini does it as nicely.
For virtually each value level past $2,000, and particularly after the top-spec iMac departs at $2,899, we advocate the M4 Professional Mac mini as the perfect buy possibility.
If you happen to completely want a sky-high reminiscence capability past 64GB, the M2 Extremely Mac Studio is all the time a chance. However even then, we might inform you to attend till Apple upgrades the Mac Studio to M4, which might be someday in mid to late 2025.
For everybody else with cash-laden pockets, they need to get the M4 Professional Mac mini as an alternative. That’s, if a MacBook Professional with the M4 Max is not out of the query.
Save on Apple’s line of desktop Macs
AppleInsider readers can save on Apple’s new M4 Mac mini and 24-inch iMac, in addition to on last-gen fashions at blowout costs. Particulars can be found in our Mac Value Information, with leap hyperlinks to the most recent particular person guides under. At press time, costs begin at $499 throughout the present and closeout fashions.
At Apple Approved Reseller Adorama, buyers can save as much as $300 on each desktop configuration stocked by the retailer with promo code APINSIDER. The identical coupon code additionally reductions AppleCare to guard your buy.
