Andy, you don’t indicate whether you do professional photography or are like most of us that do photography as a hobby.

I still consider my self a hobbyist after my involvement in photography and graphics illustration for over 40 years.

I’ve sold some stuff over the years but I can’t classify myself as a pro.

And, because of that, I would have a tough time justifying spending many thousands of dollars for my hobby. I would love to if I had a lot of disposable money.

That being said, I recently purchased a Mac Mini M1 with 512 Gb hard drive and 16 Gb of ram to replace a well used iMac and Mac Pro that was maxed out with 4 hard drives, 36 Gb of ram and a decent graphics card. I read and watched a number of reviews on the Mac mini M1 and that influenced my decision to buy one.

I have it set up with 2 modest 23 inch displays, ASUS ProArt, along with a Setachi dock that has a 1 terabyte SSD.

Compared to my MacPro the mini can run circles around it. It’s hard to believe that a computer weighing less than 2 pounds can be so responsive while running LR and PS as compared to a 30 plus pound computer that was built to the max, which is basically now a boat anchor. In some cases, what use to take minutes to render a small video clip now takes seconds.

Again, based on what I do with my photography and graphics the Mac mini certainly suits my needs and I feel good that what works for me didn’t cost an arm and a leg.

Good luck. I hope the many replies from the forum will help you with your decision.

Rich