Don’t forget about the microphone and camera…
Is the M1 Mini Upgradable???
No, but when you replace the Mini with another Mini you’re not replacing an expensive monitor too. To use a Siracusa-ism, you’re basically replacing the “naked robotic core”.
To get the same ports as the $700 Mini (including Ethernet) you need to buy a $1500 iMac. There’s an $800 difference there. If a mouse & keyboard are useful to you, you can knock out $200 of that $800 because the iMac comes with a new keyboard / Magic Mouse. But if you don’t even want the Magic Mouse or Magic Keyboard, that’s a further expense you don’t need.
That effectively means the monitor enclosure (monitor, webcam, microphone) costs you $600 every time you upgrade to a new iMac. And you’re forced to (effectively) spend $200 more on peripherals.
It’s why I go the Mac Mini route. Nothing against people who love iMacs, of course - Apple really does make beautiful all-in-one packages. 
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iMac should last you about 5-8 years.
Displays wear out as well. Just compare the display you bought 5 years ago with a new one in the same price class.
But hey if you want to get the most amount of computer for the $ and don’t do much more then browsing the web and email. I suggest an Raspberry Pi for about $90 
Well sure. Everything wears out. But being able to upgrade the components separately is still a huge benefit to some people - especially if you’re like the OP and already own perfectly-functioning components that you can use.
Or if you’re like me. I require an ergonomic keyboard. And I don’t use a mouse - I use a trackpad. So about $200 of the price of an iMac buys me things I can’t even use. That’s before I even consider that even a 27" monitor is way, way too small for me.
@MacSparky are you able to comment on the export / render speed of FCP on the M1 compared to Intel? Once a week, I have to export roughly 35-45 minutes of HD video in a time-sensitive manner, and I would love to give myself more breathing room. I’m currently doing it on a first-edition 13" TouchBar MBP. Thanks!
-Eric
Hi @EricWEvers.
Generally, it is at or better than my iMac Pro was.
If your video isn’t confidential, send me an email with a Dropbox link and I’ll render it and report back.
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Et voilà!
Thanks so much everyone. This thread has been super helpful. My wife really struggled because mac mini vs iMac 24" was too hard for her.
Everyone has different needs, so I believe all the comments here will be helpful for others too.
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@EricWEvers if performance is that critical for you and you can hold out a couple of months, it might be worth waiting for the rumored M1X and seeing if it does video even faster than the M1.
David,
That is super generous of you! Thank you. But really “at or better than… iMac Pro” is all I needed to know. That makes me confident it would be noticeably faster than my 2016 MBP. Now I just have to convince the church to buy one…
-Eric
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A quick update. My wife has this davinci resolve project that took twenty something minutes to render in her MBP. Now in the M1 Mac mini, it takes 3-4 minutes. It’s not even mine but hearing those stuff from her makes me so satisfied.
Thanks everyone for helping out!
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- Is that enough for casual video editing? (Like semi-pro level)
I own both the M1 Mac mini & M1 iMac 24, I use the Mac mini as my main work driver, I am a fund manager for an Investment House, so require the extra real estate to watch the markets and use a 32inch monitor with the Mac mini. I have also replaced my 27 inch iMac with the new 24 inch one. In all honesty they are both powerhouses and have enough under the hood for advanced video editing. I would probably lean to the iMac, as the 4.5k screen is amazing. I run the 8gb ram on 512HD on both machines. I haven’t run into any problems yet when editing 4k. To be honest I haven’t missed the extra screen real estate on the 27 inch, the new iMac is a gorgeous machine.
- Will the new iMac 27" successor probably be bigger? What do you think is the chance?