After much reading, I recently switched from PC and bought a Mac mini M2 with 32 GB of RAM and only 512 GB of storage. I only put apps on the main drive. I added a 4TB external SSD that plugs in a hub and use a Thunderbolt 4 to connect to mini. That’s my storage and it’s fast and seamless. I found online a Crucial 4TB m2 card for about $200 vs the $1200 more to let Apple do it. I also backup all to an external 8TB HD using Time Machine, a portable 5TB SSD monthly and subscribed to Backblaze. The cost savings covered everything new and then some. And I use my old 27” NEQ monitor. I’m happy and it works for me! Several YouTube videos online about how to set up the external hub.

So my husband may be in need of a new computer. I was thinking of giving him my computer and going for a new Mac with the M chip.

First things I noticed is the screen is now 24” not a 27? I like my 27”…..

Next I currently have 4TB storage, 3TB is already used. I only see the option of 2TB of storage on the new ones. Am I missing where you can get more storage? I like having my photos for at least the last few years on my main computer as opposed to an external hard drive.

My computer is the last before the M chips. Is the M chip that much better if I can find one with more storage?

Thanks and not super computer geek, so simple terms are best…..
Beth

I enjoyed the Tower Days of the Mac computers when my knowledge was funded by a Company.
When I retired I switched to a 27" iMac which is still hanging on, but
About 2 years ago I bought the 24" iMac M1 with 16GB Ram, to live with the new Internet.

You have chosen a good time to jump forward! assuming that you can watch the M3 chip results for a few months to learn what you will need for your successful operation.
1) Buy a 24" iMac with the new M3 chip. It's gotta be amazing! to us old timers.
2) Get everything you want in the iMac because it is a sealed box. The $$ pain goes away.
3) I doubt that you will miss the 27" screen; I did not.
4) Do not plan on your present perpherals to work with the new OS.
5) Keep the old 27" and lean on it as needed in the days of change.
Boris

Should I assume you do not have an Apple Store near by? If you do, go there to research their offerings and get first hand info.
Go to the apple website, which you may have already done. There you can configure the Mac you want.
Someone mentioned they just came out with a new Mac chip. This may lower the price of the last chip model. Or, go for the newer chip one to have the latest if you can afford it.
One thing you said that would concern me is that you like to store all of your photos on your local drive and do not like using an external drive. Do you backup the main drive?
I use a SSD drive bigger than my internal drive to off load photos to. If I need to retrieve something I just plug the drive into my MacBook Pro and search for what I need. This keeps my MacBook uncluttered and performing at its best.
As for the monitor, you can always buy a bigger monitor or for that matter, plug it into a tv via HDMI and you can go up to 82” monitor.
Good luck!

Apple discontinued both the 21.5" and 27" Intel iMacs about three years ago. They updated the 24" iMac from the M1 to M3 system-on-a-chip this past Monday. At the same time, they updated all the 14" and 16" MacBook Pros to M3, M3 Pro, and M3 Max versions. They also killed the 13" MacBook Pro.

UNEQUIVOCALLY, YES, the M-series chips are a radical improvement over the Intel-based Macs! They use about a third of the electricity, and perform faster. The M3 should astound you. Even the base original M1 iMac is faster than the fastest Intel iMac ever made.

There have been rumors of a 27" or 30" or 32" iMac for the last five years, but nothing has materialized. Personally, I doubt they'll make a larger model, since they make the Apple Studio and the Apple Studio Display, now, instead of the iMac Pro. They are also selling more MacBook Airs and MacBook Pros than iMacs.

The 24" iMac can support one external monitor up to 6K resolution. If you need more screen real estate, and/or a bigger monitor, get an external monitor as big as you want. In 2021, I replaced by old iMac with a 2020 13" M1 MacBook Air and an LG 27UP850-W 27” UHD (3840 x 2160) IPS Monitor. I couldn't be happier, as it gives me portability and far more power than I had in the old iMac. I use my old iMac keyboard and mouse with the laptop in my home office.

It makes more sense in 2023 to get a machine with NOMINAL internal SSD storage. MOST users should be fine with 16 GB of Unified Memory (RAM shared by all processors) and 1 TB of internal storage, plus external drives. The least internal storage I would ever get on an M1, M2, or M3 Mac is 512 GB. The least internal storage I would get on the M2/M3 Pro or M2/M3 Max Macs is 1TB. That's because the base M2 and base M3 models use only one 256 GB module, while 512 GB and larger M2 and M3 models get TWO modules, which are configured in a RAID array that runs twice as fast. That means all Input/Output operations run twice as fast.

I understand the "convenience feature" of large internal storage drives, but I also understand the risk of putting all my data on one drive. I have several backup drives and long term storage drives. I use SSD drives for speed, and spinning platter hard drives for long term storage and backup.

Any file I'm "done with" goes onto an external drive AND a backup drive, and a copy of it is stored online. I've seen enough hard drives fail over the last 38 years to know I can't afford a failure! My wife lost two drives in the late 2000s. Fortunately, none of it was priceless photos or important work product, and most of it WAS backed up.

If your current iMac's internal hard drive is a spinning platter, or a "Fusion" drive (a hybrid combination of a small SSD and a much larger spinning hard drive), you will be SHOCKED at the speed difference of the M3 iMac, which can be up to four times faster than the fastest Intel iMacs.

Apple Silicon M-series Macs use completely different processing schemes from the old Intel Macs. The last four versions of MacOS have been re-written as "Universal Binary" systems that run on BOTH Intel AND Apple Silicon computers. MOST third party software has been updated or upgraded to run on Apple Silicon, so most third party software is now Universal, too.

A few older applications will run with Apple's "X86 emulator" known as Rosetta 2. Rosetta 2 is installed the first time you run an Intel-only application, and after that, the application runs seamlessly.

Even fewer old Intel applications won't run at all on Apple Silicon Macs, so if you have one, you'll need to find a substitute, or upgrade the old app if a new version is available.

If you use Intel-based plug-ins in your imaging applications, you will need to open your imaging application in Rosetta 2 mode (Accessed via the Get Info dialog for any universal app), THEN install the plug-in. After that, you usually can switch back to native mode by unchecking the "Open using Rosetta" box in the Get Info dialog. I have had to do this for one plug-in, Negative Lab Pro for Adobe Lightroom Classic. It works perfectly. You only do it once.

MOST important to realize: When you buy an M-series Mac, *it is what it is, until it dies. There are NO possible user upgrades.* So get the amount of Unified Memory and internal SSD storage you will need for the anticipated life of the machine (which should be 5-7 years, generally, because Apple won't have parts, won't provide service, and won't offer OS upgrades after that). It's expensive up front, but hassle free down the road, so long as you choose wisely.

I know that sounds like "the forced Apple Tax," or something sinister, but it really is just Apple's engineers thinking differently about speed, processing power, and reliability (fewer socketed components = fewer connections to fail from oxidation and vibration).

Without getting TOO technical, just know that MOST of the computer is integrated onto ONE small die containing all the CPU cores, GPU cores, Neural Engine cores, RAM chips used as Unified Memory for all those cores, and many other sub-system processors for video, audio, etc. (See the M1 die below.) Apple densely packs BILLIONS of transistors onto that single chip, reducing the space between them. Even at the speed of light, it takes one nanosecond for a signal to go 11 inches down a wire. When moving zillions of bits of data, the shorter the wire, the faster the data gets moved! The ARM architecture behind Apple's chip designs is a radical departure from the x86 architecture Intel has used for decades.

The Apple Silicon M3 chip uses Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing's 3-nanometer layering process, which creates the fastest semiconductor circuitry available today. It also uses the least power, so Mac laptops have phenomenal battery life, and they don't slow down on battery power, as do most Intel/AMD laptops. They also generate little heat, which is why the MacBook Air has no fans.

You have two options:

1. Purchase a refurbished Intel based 27" iMac. I see MacSales.com currently has none in stock.

2. Consider a Mac Mini with an M2 Chip (M3 may be coming). This is available with up to an 8TB SSD internal HD and up to 32GB of unified memory. The M2 Pro Chip is avilable with a 12-core CPU, 19-core GPU, and 16 Core Neural Engine. Note that, in my understanding, the GPU's do most of the image processing. This is a very small package.

This means an external monitor. The price range is wide as are the qualities. I use NED Multisync at 32". A multitude of sizes are available. Then, in the future, upgrades involve only the computer.

3. If you want to really jump in look at the M3 Mac Studio soon to be released with the M3 Pro chip which is a real screamer. It has the same footprint as the Mac Mini but is 2-3 times as tall. I have the M1 Ultra chip in my Mac Studio and it has an 8TB SSD and 128 GB of unified memory.

For the fastest storage, use Thunderbolt 3 or 4 or USB 4 drives, with cables specifically marked 3 or 4 with a lightning bolt above the USB-C connectors. Cables matter A LOT when moving data to and from Thunderbolt and USB 4 devices. Good ones are short and expensive, but worth it if you're spending $$$$ on Thunderbolt drives.

For reasonably fast storage, any USB 3.2 SSD. I use Samsung T7 drives.

For long term storage, OWC makes some very reliable conventional spinning drives.

Lumix users will want to go to Panasonic's web site and select an approved USB-C device for their GH6, S5 IIX, or G9 II. It can plug right into those cameras and record high bit rate video data (or stills). Users of other brands who use them to record lots of high bit rate video should consult their respective camera manufacturers.

I would wait for some tests of the new M3 Macs to indicate what drives transfer fastest to them. YouTube is full of reviewers who do such in-depth tests. Start with MaxTech's channel, and your YouTube feed will undoubtedly recommend many similar channels.

For ALL users, ALL drives: Be sure to UNMOUNT the drive from the desktop by dragging it to the trash or by using Command + E with the drive selected in the Finder. NOT unmounting a drive before unplugging it can damage its directory. Such damage cannot always be fixed without re-formatting and losing your data.

After much reading, I recently switched from PC and bought a Mac mini M2 with 32 GB of RAM and only 512 GB of storage. I only put apps on the main drive. I added a 4TB external SSD that plugs in a hub and use a Thunderbolt 4 to connect to mini. That’s my storage and it’s fast and seamless. I found online a Crucial 4TB m2 card for about $200 vs the $1200 more to let Apple do it. I also backup all to an external 8TB HD using Time Machine, a portable 5TB SSD monthly and subscribed to Backblaze. The cost savings covered everything new and then some. And I use my old 27” NEQ monitor. I’m happy and it works for me! Several YouTube videos online about how to set up the external hub.