I'm leaning towards the mini too. There are some pretty impressive compatible monitors out there that are much less expensive than the Thunderbolt. I don't do the heavy duty stuff either. As far as the optical drive goes, they are pretty cheap to buy. My wife likes to use CD's in her vehicle so I make copies of her favourites for her listening pleasure. That's about the only use the drive gets any more. On 2013-04-12, at 12:47 PM, Frank BIrch <fbirch@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote: > I personally work off a 15” MacBook pro (mid 2010) and a Apple 27” display. I > have had excellent success using my Ipad as my portable device. > My next upgrade will probably be a loaded Mac mini and continue to use my > iPad and iPHONE 6/7 (if the display gets little larger... Stubby fingers.) > That way I have a small footprint, power, storage and apple display. > I will probably use a fusion drive as I do not do a lot of fancy > stuff...however..???? > Cheers frank > > On 2013-04-12 11:23 AM, "George Couckuyt" <grandbender@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > >> ....but he's still saying that for us mere mortals the fusion drive is a >> good thing? >> I've been holding off on a decision to upgrade my iMac. I wanted to read >> some reviews on dependability etc. first. I'm still not thrilled Apple >> ditched the optical drive. I really don't care how thin the unit is I just >> want it to preform. >> >> >> >> >> By George