iMac upgrade (late 2009)

newbie1

My iMac is now 9 years old, it’s had a few upgrades - 500gb SSD, 3TB drive, 12 GB ram and it still works, just very slow rendering video in premiere pro and previewing photos in Lightroom.  Photo mechanic is a much faster option for previewing photos so leaves the slow video editing as the main reason to upgrade.  

I want to keep with Mac so I’m thinking of a new Mac mini and keeping the iMac to use as a screen.

Thoughts? Any other ideas?

And a specific question will a usb c / thunderbolt 3 to Mini DisplayPort allow me to use the old iMac screen? It looks like it should, does anyone know for sure?

wysinawyg

It will work with the right cabling / adaptor by the looks of it:

Use your iMac as a display with Target Display Mode

I’m in a similar boat so if you do go ahead I’d be interested in what it’s like to use - i.e. do you leave the iMac in sleep and it wakes on demand from the Mini?

newbie1

Very likely to go ahead.  I’ve ordered a usb c to Mini DisplayPort connector.  Now deciding what Mac mini spec to go for and whether to upgrade ram myself or order with more included.

MacrosTheBlack

Definitely order the minimum ram you can and then upgrade yourself.  Super easy job and save you loads.

snerkler

If you can still replace the RAM yourself then do so, much much cheaper. My biggest frustration with my MBP is that nothing it user replaceable anymore

newbie1

I’ve pulled the trigger - Mac mini with i7 6 core CPU, 8GB RAM, and 512 SSD.  Separately ordered 32GB. Should arrive mid Jan.

newbie1

Geekbench tells me performance is going to 3x for single core and 8x for multi core compared with the old iMac. Can’t wait.

snerkler

Did your old one have SSD or HDD?

newbie1

Upgraded OS drive to SSD about 3 years ago.  Did get a good bump in performance.

damo_in_sale

You can upgrade the MBP yourself Snerks. You just replace the CPU, GPU, RAM, motherboard, SSD, screen, case and that stupid touchbar thing all at the same time.

Job done