Following the introduction of recent Mac fashions in October, Apple has shaken up its desktop Mac roster. This is what you can purchase, at nearly any worth level.
Value is a vital issue when selecting your subsequent Mac. The extra finances that you’ve got obtainable, the higher the Mac you will get.
Nonetheless, whereas Apple does cowl a wide selection of worth factors, it additionally has a number of selections obtainable for a lot of of them. Add within the variety of configurable parts, and it may well develop into a bewildering choice.
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 triggered fairly a number of adjustments in what’s beneficial relying on the scale of your finances. Notably on the higher finish of the dimensions. In some methods, it truly makes the method of shopping for a Mac a bit less complicated.
With so many choices obtainable, it is nonetheless a troublesome activity. This information will goal to inform you the place it’s 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 obtainable for shoppers to buy. The gathering consists of the Mac mini, the 24-inch iMac, the Mac Studio, and the Mac Professional.
Every has a variety of parts 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 all the way down to seven. On this case, the Mac mini is cut 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 worth vary for desktop Macs begins from $599 for the most cost effective configuration to $12,199 for the best, for those who bear in mind 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 worth ranges: sub-$2,000 purchases for one, and $2,000 or extra for the opposite.
Storage and reminiscence upgrades
A giant factor to contemplate when pricing out your splendid Mac is that you simply can not improve the specs of most of Apple’s Macs after you have purchased them. Apart from parts of the Mac Professional, you can’t merely open up a Mac and add extra reminiscence or storage.
Meaning you need 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 price some huge cash, it’s possible you’ll wish to take into consideration different methods to get improve advantages with out paying a premium. When you cannot change the chip nor reminiscence, you possibly can add extra storage capability, for those who 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 utilize SATA connections and PCIe growth so as to add extra inner storage, and different elements.
Upgrading the reminiscence to a better degree would not price as a lot as upgrading storage, however might find yourself being extra useful. Since Apple’s Unified Reminiscence system means the CPU, GPU, and different chip parts share the identical pool of quick reminiscence, you are successfully growing each the CPU and GPU’s reminiscence on the similar time.
Upgrading the chip is normally a good suggestion too, since you find yourself with extra CPU and GPU cores and due to this fact extra efficiency.
The underside line is that it’s 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 until it is completely important.
Underneath $2,000 – Mac mini and 24-inch iMac
Probably the greatest merchandise in Apple’s Mac desktop vary for brand spanking new customers is the Mac mini, which can also be the most cost effective. Up to date to the M4 chip, it’s priced at simply $599 for the bottom configuration (examine M4 Mac mini sale costs).
The M4 Mac mini can also be your solely alternative for something beneath $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 worth ranges for $2,000 and decrease budgets.
At $1,299, you are additionally a number of upgrades to the Mac mini, akin 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 choice.
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 in order for you an M4 Mac mini with the highest reminiscence choice and 1TB of storage.
The iMac continues to be an choice right here, however once more, it is solely actually an choice if you actually need the show. At $1,499, the opposite iMac is an choice with 4 rear Thunderbolt ports, not two, or you would get one improve for the two-port mannequin as a substitute.
As the value will increase, your alternative 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 choice away from its personal most configuration, as a result of being considerably restricted in reminiscence to 24GB as a substitute of 32GB, and at 1TB of storage as a substitute of 2TB.
For a similar cash, the M4 Professional Mac mini might get a 48GB reminiscence or a chip improve in addition to 10-gig Ethernet, or you would put 512GB of storage and 24GB of reminiscence within the four-port iMac.
Once more, your finest play is without doubt one of the Mac minis.
Past $2,000 – M4 Professional Mac mini, and a Mac Studio and Mac Professional drawback
Reaching $1,999, the 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 worth ranges for $2,000 and better budgets
As normal, until the show is required for aesthetics, the Mac mini is the higher choice right here.
$1,999 can also be the place the Mac Studio turns into an choice. Fitted with the lower-tier M2 Max, 32GB of reminiscence, and 512GB of storage, it sounds prefer it’s a viable choice.
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 problem is that the early benchmarks of the M4 Professional reveals it’s significantly higher than the M2 Extremely within the Mac Studio in terms of single-core and multi-core efficiency.
The place the Mac Studio nonetheless turns into viable is for those who care in regards to the GPU efficiency. The Max chips and even the Extremely chips are improbable beneath Metallic 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 inner 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 properly.
For virtually each worth level past $2,000, and particularly after the top-spec iMac departs at $2,899, we advocate the M4 Professional Mac mini as one of the best buy choice.
When you 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 a substitute. 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 bounce hyperlinks to the latest particular person guides beneath. At press time, costs begin at $499 throughout the present and closeout fashions.
At Apple Approved Reseller Adorama, customers 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.