Whereas Apple is lastly placing out an M2 Mac Professional at the same time as its highly effective Mac Studio machines conquer most hardcore computing duties, the reality is most customers can greater than get by with an M1 or M2 Mac mini. That goes for Invoice Penhale, who despatched us his setup from Shorewood, Illinois, close to Chicago.
“I’m fairly techy for 70, ha!,” the retired gross sales director advised Cult of Mac. And judging by his M1 Mac mini-powered setup, with a high-quality 4K exterior show, strong audio and a great deal of exterior storage, that’s actually true.
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M1 Mac mini on Satechi hub drives LG 4K show in succesful setup
“I’ve beloved seeing and getting inspirations out of your numerous readers for assist in getting my setup full the best way I needed it,” Penhale advised Cult of Mac by e mail when he despatched in data and photographs displaying off the workstation in his home.
“As I’m retired, I take advantage of my Mac mini, and so forth. for monitoring funds, information and following sports activities,” he mentioned. His Mac mini sports activities an M1 chip, 16GB of built-in reminiscence and a 1TB SSD. However even with that beneficiant storage, he additionally depends on 1TB exterior arduous drives from Suhsai and Seagate.
The little desktop machine sits on a Satechi Kind-C Stand and Hub. The favored accent, made for Mac mini and Mac Studio, provides exterior storage and broadens connectivity choices with a number of helpful ports.
DIY desk and monitor stand/desk shelf
Penhale mentioned the factor about his setup that pleases him most is the do-it-yourself (DIY) desk he constructed.
“I constructed the desk from 3/4-inch black pipe, flanges, tees and caps,” he mentioned. “I purchased the wooden at Menards. That inspiration got here from Etsy. I simply tweaked the scale to make the desk taller and larger.”
And a “particular contact” he added took the type of a hand-built monitor stand on the desk vast sufficient to carry a pair of Edifier R1280T Bookshelf Audio system.
The dependable model‘s in style audio system — they’re the No. 1-selling bookshelf speaker on Amazon — function good near-field screens at low value. They sport 13mm silk dome tweeters, 4-inch woofers, two AUX inputs, and twin RCA and three.5mm headphone jack outputs, although Bluetooth fashions might range.
Common Management helps, and so would a 15-inch M2 MacBook Air
And because it occurs, Apple just about solved the one problem Penhale talked about in growing his setup.
“Previous to Common Management, I had the problem of utilizing two keyboards, one for the Mac mini and one for the iPad Professional,” he mentioned, including, “Solved!”
As for future plans with the setup, why not add a stronger to-go possibility when he wants to depart it behind?
“I’d love so as to add a brand new 15-inch M2 MacBook Air to take with us south within the winters,” he mentioned. “However the iPad Professional handles issues fairly properly.”
Store these things now:
Pc and hub/stand:
Tablets and stand:
Show and light-weight:
Enter units:
Audio:
Storage:
If you want to see your setup featured on Cult of Mac, ship some high-res footage to information+setups@cultofmac.com. Please present an in depth record of your tools. Inform us what you want or dislike about your setup, and fill us in on any particular touches, challenges and plans for brand new additions.
Satechi Kind-C Stand & Hub
Constructed for M1/M2 Mac mini and Mac Studio, the versatile stand and hub options an SSD enclosure for M.2 SATA SSD, plus USB-C information port, Micro/SD Card readers, USB-A and headphone jack port.
