Apple's Current Crop of Mac Desktops
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After unveiling new Mac models in October, Apple shook up its Mac desktop lineup. Here's what you should buy, at almost every price point.
Price is a big factor when choosing your next Mac. The bigger your budget, the better the Mac you can get.
However, while Apple covers a wide range of price points, it also has a few options for many of them. Add in the number of customizable elements, and it can be an overwhelming decision.
October’s Mac announcement week saw the introduction of new Mac models with the M4 chip. This included replacements for two of the four desktop Mac models: the iMac and the Mac mini.
The M4 update has caused quite a few changes in what’s recommended depending on your budget, especially at the higher end of the scale. In some ways, it actually simplifies the Mac buying process a little.
With so many options available, it’s still a difficult task. This guide will aim to tell you where you should and shouldn’t invest your money.
This guide was last updated on November 7, 2024.
Overall Apple Silicon Range
Apple offers consumers four Mac models available for purchase. The collection consists of the Mac mini, 24-inch iMac, Mac Studio, and Mac Pro.
Each model has a number of customizable elements, including different levels of chip, memory, storage, and even whether you want Gigabit Ethernet or 10-Gig Ethernet.
The full price range for Apple's Mac desktop computers as of November 2024
The best way to look at the four product families is to break them down into seven. In this case, the Mac mini is divided into M4 and M4 Pro variants, the 24-inch iMac in 2- and 4-port versions, the Mac Studio in M2 Max and M2 Ultra versions, and the Mac Pro.
The general price range for desktop Macs starts at $599 for the cheapest configuration and goes up to $12,199 for the highest once you factor in major custom upgrades. We factor in things like Nano-texture or Ethernet options, but we don’t factor in extra software or peripheral changes.
To make things easier to think about, we’ll split this into two price ranges: purchases under $2,000 for one, and $2,000 or more for the other.
Storage and Memory Upgrades
An important thing to consider when determining the price of your ideal Mac is that you can’t upgrade the specs of most Apple Macs after you buy them. With the exception of the Mac Pro items, you can’t just open up your Mac and add more memory or storage.
This means you need to think about how much memory and storage you need before you buy.
The cost of upgrading storage can be a pain to finance.
Since Apple upgrades can cost a lot of money, you may want to consider other ways to get the benefits of an upgrade without overpaying. While you can’t replace the chip or memory, you can add more storage capacity if you use an external drive.
Upgrading Apple storage is a pain to consider, especially at the higher end. For example, upgrading from a 512GB to a 1TB SSD on the M4 Pro Mac mini will cost $200, but upgrading from 512GB to 8TB is an impressive purchase at $2,400.
The Mac Pro is an exception, as you can use SATA connections and PCIe expansion to add more internal storage and other components.
Upgrading memory to a higher level doesn’t cost as much as upgrading storage, but it can be more cost-effective. Since Apple’s Unified Memory system means the CPU, GPU, and other elements of the chip all share the same pool of fast memory, you’re essentially upgrading both the CPU and GPU memory at the same time.
Upgrading the chip is usually a good idea, too, since you end up getting more CPU and GPU cores and therefore more performance.
The bottom line is that you should upgrade memory first, then Apple Silicon, then storage. And even then, don’t go too crazy with storage unless you absolutely have to.
Under $2,000 — Mac mini and 24-inch iMac
One of the best products in Apple's desktop Mac lineup for new users is the Mac mini, which is also the cheapest. Upgraded to the M4 chip, it costs just $599 for the base configuration (check out the M4 Mac mini sale prices).
The M4 Mac mini is also your only choice for anything under $1,299 when the dual-port M4 version of the 24-inch iMac comes out. It uses the same chip as the M4 Mac mini, but you get a 24-inch display.
The best price range for Mac desktops is $2,000 and under.
For $1,299, you also get a few Mac mini upgrades, like 24GB of memory and 1TB of storage or 32GB of memory and 512GB of storage, as well as 10-gigabit Ethernet.
Basically, you're paying $700 more for the iMac to get a display rather than a bunch of upgrades for the Mac mini. It might be worth it if you really need an all-in-one and don't already have a monitor for the Mac mini, but the Mac mini is probably the better option.
For just $100 more, at $1,399, the M4 Pro version of the Mac mini comes into play with Thunderbolt 5 connectivity. Then the question becomes whether you need the performance of the M4 Pro itself without an upgrade, or whether you want the M4 Mac mini with the maximum memory and 1TB of storage option.
Mac mini m4
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The iMac is still an option here, but again, it's only really an option if you really need a display. For $1,499, the other iMac is the one with four rear Thunderbolt ports rather than two, or you can get a single upgrade for the two-port model.
As the price goes up, your choices become the more upgraded M4 Mac mini, the less upgraded M4 Pro for performance, or any of the iMac models with similarly lagging upgrades.
When we reach the top configuration of the Mac mini with the $1,899 M4, we also look with surprise at the dual-port iMac. It’s just a $30 Gigabit Ethernet option from its own top configuration due to some memory limitations, down to 24GB instead of 32GB and 1TB of storage instead of 2TB.
For the same money, the M4 Pro Mac mini can get 48GB of memory or a chip upgrade, as well as 10Gb Ethernet, or you can put 512GB of storage and 24GB of memory in a quad-port iMac.
Again, your best bet is one of the Mac minis.
At $2,000, the M4 Pro Mac mini and the Mac Studio and Mac Pro problem
At $1,999, the high end of the range, you're basically looking at saving $100 and getting the aforementioned four-port iMac. Or there are 48GB and 1TB storage upgrades for the M4 Pro Mac mini, though either can be swapped out for a chip upgrade.
The best Mac desktop price ranges for budgets of $2,000 and up
As usual, if the display isn’t a must for aesthetics, the Mac mini is the better option here.
$1,999 is also where the Mac Studio becomes an option. Equipped with the lower-end M2 Max, 32GB of memory, and 512GB of storage, it sounds like a viable option.
The problem is, it’s not.
The whole point of the Mac Studio is to deliver Mac Pro performance in a more compact form. Technically, it does, since it uses the same Apple Silicon chips at the heart of the Ultra.
The real problem is that early tests of the M4 Pro show that it’s significantly better than the M2 Ultra in the Mac Studio when it comes to single-core and multi-core performance.
The Mac Studio still becomes a viable option if you care about GPU performance. Max chips and even Ultra chips perform fantastically in Metal tests.
There’s also the ability to configure larger amounts of storage, with the M2 Max able to use up to 96GB and the M2 Ultra up to 192GB.
Then there’s the Mac Pro, which essentially just adds PCIe support and the ability to add more internal storage. These aren’t huge benefits, since connecting an external PCIe enclosure and external drive to the Mac Studio’s Thunderbolt port does the same thing.
Indeed, connecting it to an M4 Pro Mac mini does the same thing.
For almost any price point over $2,000, and especially since the top-end iMac drops to $2,899, we recommend the M4 Pro Mac mini as the better buy.
If you absolutely must have massive amounts of storage beyond 64GB, the M2 Ultra Mac Studio is always an option. But even then, we’d advise you to wait until Apple updates the Mac Studio to the M4, which could happen sometime in mid- to late 2025.
Everyone else with cash in their pockets should get the M4 Pro Mac mini instead. That is, unless a MacBook Pro with M4 Max is out of the question.
Save on Apple's line of desktop Macs
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- Best Prices on M4 iMac
- Best Prices on M4 Mac mini
- Best Prices on Mac Studio
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