The Perfect Mac

 Tue Oct 27, 2020, last updated Thu Mar 24, 2022 -  Jim Deibele

Are you traveling a lot?

Do you like to carry your computer around the house with you?

If so, maybe you need a MacBook. But for most people, the perfect Mac is the Mac Mini with an i3 processor and 256GB of SSD. Why? Because you can expand the system memory on your Mac relatively cheaply to 32GB and you can attach terabytes of SSD for about $130/TB.

MacOS will load as much as it can into RAM and you’ve got 32GB of RAM, your processor will be flying along and outperform much more expensive processors if they only have the standard 8GB of RAM.

The Mac Mini comes with 6 (4 USB-C, 2 USB-A) USB3 ports, HDMI port, Ethernet port, and a headphone jack.

This allows you to easily re-use things like a USB-A hub because 2 USB-A ports aren’t enough. I have an SD card reader, thumb drive, and Yubi Key on one USB-A port because I had a USB-A hub already. That still leaves me with a free USB-A port. One USB-C port is used with a cable that outputs DisplayPort on the other end for my monitor. And another USB-C port is used for an external 500GB drive. That handles files that don’t fit on my internal SSD and backup of the internal drive.

I’m using a Magic Keyboard and a wired mouse for input. I had bought a 2560x1440 6 1/2 years ago for $417. It finally died and I’ve replaced it with this   4k monitor for $240. About the only thing that I wish the monitor had is VESA mount points. As it is, it comes with a stand that doesn’t let the monitor tilt at all. Still, the display is great and the price is definitely right. It’s a “retina display” like a MacBook has but it’s 27" instead of 13".