Thought it would be neat to see how everyone has their Minis setup. The thread on Johnathan Morrison's setup got me wondering how everyone here has their Minis arranged on their desk and what components they use. I'll go first of course:


This is just a work in progress, as I had a dual monitor setup with my Mac Pro previously. Am upgrading my desk and will report back at a later time when it's all finished.

Let's see some of your setups!

Hello there

I use the Mac mini as a media center to play music with Roon (DSD128 upsampling) & Torrent. I bought also an Apple TV 4K with Infuse Pro to play 4K UHD HDR movies.

Here are the components:

Panasonic OLED TV Panasonic TH-55FZ950S
Speakers KEF R300
Integrated Amp/DAC Teac AI-503
Mac Mini 2018 i5/8GB/512GB + 2TB Seagate HDD
Apple TV 4K with Infuse Pro

I need to clean the cable mess and I might buy a Synology NAS 718+ next month.

I use my new Mini to edit a lot of photographs. I’m not a pro, just an enthusiast.

stillcrazyman said:

View attachment 806600 I use my new Mini to edit a lot of photographs. I’m not a pro, just an enthusiast.

Which monitor is that?

F-Train said:

Which monitor is that?

ViewSonic VP3268-4K PRO 32" 4K running at native 3840x2160 via HDMI. No issues other than small menu fonts. A little squinty, but I can manage. I did put it to 2560x1440 'looks like' - that seems like it will do if I need it.

tpivette89 said:

Thought it would be neat to see how everyone has their Minis setup. The thread on Johnathan Morrison's setup got me wondering how everyone here has their Minis arranged on their desk and what components they use. I'll go first of course:

View attachment 806547
This is just a work in progress, as I had a dual monitor setup with my Mac Pro previously. Am upgrading my desk and will report back at a later time when it's all finished.

Let's see some of your setups!

Click to expand...

Is that a P2715Q display? How happy have you been w/ that setup? Looking at something similar myself for compatibility and options with plugging in work laptop for an external display, etc.

The ArchAngel said:

Is that a P2715Q display? How happy have you been w/ that setup? Looking at something similar myself for compatibility and options with plugging in work laptop for an external display, etc.

No, this is the one I'm using:

https://www.bestbuy.com/site/dell-s...c-monitor-piano-black/5996200.p?skuId=5996200

It only has two outputs... either HDMI or VGA.

OK, I would be embarrassed to send a photo as my work space rarely has time to be tidy. I'm working through a few minor hassles with egpu but am looking forward to parting with my Mac Pro trashcan in the next week or so.

Mac Mini i7 3.2GHz 8GB memory 1TB SSD
Self installed memory upgrade to 64GB
TB3-1 >> CalDigit TS3 Plus >> Apple TB3toTB2 adapter >> LaCie 5big TB2 40TB (32TB) >> G-SPEED Studio 40TB (30TB)
TB3-2 >> OWC 4M2 with 4x1TB PM961's >> Apple TB3toTB2 adapter >> LaCie LittleBig 4TB (2TB) RAID1 >> Little Big 2TB RAID 0
TB3-3 >> Razer G-Core X with SAPPHIRE RADEON RX VEGA64 >> displayport >> Dell 38" U3818DW

Note: as the OWC 4M2 only allocates one PCIe lane to each M.2 drive (ie max 700MB/sec) I found 4x used Samsung OEM PM961 1TB drives on eBay for a steal of a price and now have a 4TB 2.8GB/sec SSD drive for around $650.

As mentioned, I am working through the egpu issues that are well documented elsewhere on this forum but am quietly confident that all will be good in the next week or so.

stillcrazyman said:

View attachment 806600 I use my new Mini to edit a lot of photographs. I’m not a pro, just an enthusiast.

I want to see a bigger version of that photo of Stonehenge

gigatoaster said:

Hello there
I need to clean the cable mess and I might buy a Synology NAS 718+ next month.
View attachment 806551

Impressive

F-Train said:

I want to see a bigger version of that photo of Stonehenge

It's not my photo. I found it on Interfacelift.com

netdudeuk said:

Close then

It looks the business but IIRC the 45 watts looks a little low for a MBP.

Close enough

Not sure about a MBP but it charges my 13” Surface Book 2 just fine.

It's a bit of a mess:

kamuix said:

It's a bit of a mess:

A couple of good monitors and a valve amp ? Looks ok to me

This is an older pic, but it pretty much looks the same. The only thing that's changed is the mini is a 2014 instead of 2011 and the keyboard is no longer wired.

crhendo said:

OK, I would be embarrassed to send a photo as my work space rarely has time to be tidy.

Same here, so I'll just post the specifications instead:

• Mid-2010 Mac mini (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo)
• Upgraded to 16GB RAM (1067MHz DDR3)
• Internal HDD replaced by a Kingston SV300S37A120G (SSD 120GB)
• Optical drive replaced by a Western Digital WD7500BPKX (Black 750GB)
• ViewSonic VP171s monitor (not even 16:9 so that makes me laugh when some people say everyone "has to" upgrade to 4K/retina monitors)
• External Western Digital HDD (500GB) connected via USB2 for backups.
• Apple A1243 aluminium keyboard with enough dust packed under the keys to kill two dozen butterfly keyboards. But unlike a butterfly keyboard, the A1243 still works fine, the keys just feel a bit "mushy".
• Logitech mouse M-BA47 (not even optical)
• 4th generation iPod shuffle (gold, because I bought it about a week after it was discontinued so there was only gold and pink left in the stores)

Do I win a prize for still using the most obsolete components in the thread? (apart from MattA's iPod)

still working on the 2nd workstation made a stand up work area. the mini is connected to am entertainment center and 4k tv 6 feet away. Thankfully Thunderbolt 2 has a 3 meter cable length limit. USBc is only 2 meters.

The setup that matters to me is that, unlike my iMac, I can stick the mini in a carry-on bag that will fit in an overhead bin

In NY, the mini system has to fit into the space of a 27" iMac that in a couple of days is being moved elsewhere. It looks like this will be both straightforward and beneficial.

The iMac space will be taken up with a 32" monitor, audio interface, headphones, trackpad and keyboards (computer and music). The mini, its external GPU and external storage will be a few feet away, aka out of the way. I'm looking forward to exiling the external storage from my immediate work area.

The external speakers, which require me to move my chair (or head) 90° to the left for "proper" listening, will stay where they are. That just works for me. However, it remains to be seen whether this placement of speakers survives my recent dalliance with X-Plane, and the game controller paraphernalia (foot pedals, flight stick) that goes with it.

From the foregoing, it should be clear that a photo of my setup would mostly show a (for me) bejesus big monitor and not much else, so kind of pointless.

For anyone interested, specs (except for X-Plane game controllers) are in my signature.

This will be used primarily for iOS development, which is why I opted for the stand-up desk. Details of my setup (and the changes I had to make while building it) are elaborated upon in the Xcode screenshot. If you're not a coder, read the console output to see the current state of the rig!

iMacFarlane said:

View attachment 807203

This will be used primarily for iOS development, which is why I opted for the stand-up desk. Details of my setup (and the changes I had to make while building it) are elaborated upon in the Xcode screenshot. If you're not a coder, read the console output to see the current state of the rig!

View attachment 807204

Are you going with the Dell in the photo or with the BenQ also referred to in your Terminal output?

Just looking at this thread, I'm struck by the number of people so far who are using Dell monitors.