Half a decade ago, the idea of a desktop Apple computer wasn’t especially compelling. Certain professionals had them for very specific reasons, but outside of that, Mac users either got an all-in-one iMac or connected their MacBooks to a monitor if they needed to use them at a desk. But these days, in the era of Apple Silicon, things are different.

Between the Mac Mini that was reintroduced in 2020, and the Mac Studio that joined it in 2021, standalone Mac desktops have never been more appealing. These are hugely powerful devices that are also power efficient, quiet, run cool, have heaps of ports and work with whatever monitors, keyboards and other inputs you want. With almost all apps now supporting Apple Silicon (that is to say Apple’s own processors, as distinct from Intel’s), and MacOS becoming less esoteric in general, there are fewer barriers to most people leaving Windows behind.

The current Mac Mini starts at $1000 with an M2 processor that will pack more than enough power for practically anyone not doing graphically intensive work, though I would suggest you upgrade from 8GB to 16GB of memory for an extra $300.

Compared with a MacBook with the same chip, the Mini will sustain performance for longer thanks to its size and active cooling, plus you get full Ethernet and HDMI ports as well as two ThunderBolt 4 and two USB-A. I love how low it sits on the desk; you can put a monitor right over it and forget it’s there.

At $3200, the most powerful possible Mac Mini is ready for some heavy production work, or demanding photo, video or graphics tasks. It has an M2 Pro, 32GB of memory, 10 Gigabit Ethernet and Four Thunderbolt 4 ports. But if you’re spending that much you might as well go for the Studio, which is my new favourite Mac.

Now in its second year, the Studio looks like two Mac Minis stuck on top of each other, and it starts at $3300. That entry-level model gets you the M2 Max — which is a leap again over the M2 Pro chip with a huge 12-Core CPU and 30-Core GPU — plus 32GB of memory and all the same rear ports as the Mini. But you also get a pair of USB-C ports up front and an SD card reader.

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The highest end Studio tops $11,000, with six USB-4 Thunderbolt ports plus an outrageous M2 Ultra chip (which is two M2 Max units combined), 76-core GPU, 24-core CPU and 192GB of memory. It’s a tiny version of the $12,000+ Mac Pro, with the same processor but without the cheese-grater finish or the ability to add PCIe cards; in other words overkill for almost everybody.

Somewhere in between, at the $4000 to $7000 mark, is an extremely capable Mac that can drive a high-end multiple monitor desktop setup with twice the memory of the best Mac Mini, and has incredible performance when it comes to enthusiast non-Pro tasks such as real-time video editing, the instant processing of massive photos, and top performance in Apple’s burgeoning video games ecosystem. Plus it still fits under most monitors, never makes a sound and runs extremely cool.