Macintosh Desktop Recommendations

Please note that prices shown below are approximate and subject to frequent change. Faculty, staff, and graduate staff placing orders with Purdue funds should contact ECN for up-to-date pricing and to place all orders. Note that 4-Year AppleCare+ is standard on all Macintosh machine orders and is included in the recommended price. We also do recommend a backup drive that is double the storage capacity that is chosen for the machine of choice. *Prices shown are as of 10/29/2021.

ECN's User and Desktop Services group is frequently asked to provide specifications and Purdue pricing for new Macintosh desktop computers. These models are designed to provide sufficient performance for most faculty, staff, and graduate staff for at least 4 years.

See also:

• Machintosh Recommended Laptops
• PC desktop recommendations

Incompatibilities and interoperability issues do arise between Macs and PCs. For example, because the Mac edition of Microsoft Outlook is architecturally different than Outlook for Windows and lacking comparable features, managing shared calendars is problematic. Microsoft PowerPoint has occasional trouble with presentations created in the PC edition (and vice versa). Some software might not be available for Macs. If you and/or your workgroup rely heavily on e-mail-, contacts-, and calendar-sharing features provided in ITaP's Microsoft Exchange server environment (as typically accessed using Microsoft Outlook on a PC), please contact ECN to discuss how or whether a new Mac would address these needs.

We're not going to discourage people from purchasing Macs, but we don't want them to think it's going to work flawlessly in the Purdue environment. It's easier for faculty, significantly less so for staff with administrative functions.

** Note: ECN recommends the 27-inch iMac for a desktop replacement. We also recommend this model for new faculty.**

27-inch, 19.7 pound model:  The iMac 27-inch has a 5K Retina Display, 5120-by-2880 resolution with support for one billion colors, 500 nits brightness, wide color (p3), true Tone technology (27-inch (diagonal) about 19.7 pounds. The 27-inch includes 32.0 GB memory, a 512 GB SSD, 3.3GHz 6-core 10th-generation Intel Core i5 processor, Turbo Boost up to 4.8GHz, Gigabit Ethernet, Standard glass display, Apple Magic Mouse 2, and Magic Keyboard – US English. Connections and Expansion are as follows; 3.5 mm headphone jack, SDXC card slot (UHS-II), Four USB-A ports, Two Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) ports with support for: DisplayPort, Thunderbolt (up to 40Gb/s), USB 3.1 Gen 2 (up to 10Gb/s), and Thunderbolt 2, HDMI, DVI and VGA supported using adapters (can be purchased for an additional cost below) 10/100/1000BASE-T Gigabit Ethernet (RJ-45 connector), and Kensington lock slot. Total cost is approximately $2,610.

Additional Options:

(Processor)

3.6GHz 10-core 10th-generation Intel Core i9 processor, Turbo Boost up to 5.0GHz +$450.00 

(Memory)

16GB 2666 MHz DDR4 -$360.00

64GB 2666 MHz DDR4 +$360.00

128GB 2666 MHz DDR4 +$1,800.00

(Storage)

1TB SSD storage +$180.00

2TB SSD storage +$540.00

(Ethernet)

10 Gigabit Ethernet +$90.00

(Display)

Nano-texture glass +$270.00

(Mouse and Trackpad)

Apple Magic Trackpad 2 +$50.00

Apple Magic Mouse 2 & Apple Magic Trackpad 2 +$129.00

(Apple Keyboard and Documentation)

*Note that additional languages are available

Magic Keyboard with Numeric Keypad +$30.00.

Mac Studio:

*** Note: The Mac Studio does not come with a display, mouse, or keyboard. **

Intel model:  The Mac Studio only comes in silver and can support up to five displays. The Mac Studio includes 32.0 GB memory, a 512 GB SSD, Apple M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine. The Studio has Four Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A ports, one HDMI port, one 10Gb Ethernet port, and one 3.5 mm headphone jack on the back of the machine. The front of the machine will include Two USB-C ports and one SDXC cord slot.Total cost is approximately $1,970.00.

Additional Options:

(Processor)

 Apple M1 Max with 10-core CPU, 32-core GPU, 16-core Neural Engine +$180.00 

(Memory)

64GB 2666 MHz DDR4 +$360.00  

(Storage)

1TB SSD storage +$180.00

2TB SSD storage +$540.00

4TB SSD storage +$1,080.00

8TB SSD storage +$2,160.00

Also available are the 24-inch iMac, Mac mini, and Mac Pro. Contact ECN for up-to-date pricing and options.

Western Digital 1TB WD My Passport Ultra USB-C: +$70.00

Western Digital 2TB WD My Passport for Mac: +$75.00

Western Digital 4TB WD My Passport for Mac: +$115.00

Western Digital 5TB WD My Passport for Mac: +$125.00

Dell 23" Monitor - P2319H  +$185.00
Dell 24" Monitor - P2422H  +$190.00
Dell 27" Monitor - P2722H  +$225.00

Dell 24" Monitor - P2421HE +$265.00 (1080p, with usb-c hub/rj45/dock)

Dell 27" Monitor - U2721DE +$395.00 (1440p, with usb-c hub/rj45/dock) 

Dell 27" 4K Monitor - U2720Q +$522.00 (3840p, with usb-c hub/rj45/dock) *Will need a requote*

Dell 32" 4K Monitor - P3222QE +$682.00 (3840p, with usb-c hub/rj45/dock) *Will need a requote*

Logitech c920 Webcam: +$60.00

Sennheiser PC8 USB Headset: +$30.00

USB-C VGA Multiport Adapter: +$70.00

Magic Mouse: +$80.00

Magic Trackpad: +$130.00

Magic Keyboard with Touch ID and Numeric Keyboard: +$180.00

When you're ready to order, please contact ECN. We'll confirm the order details and ask you to provide the Purdue account number to be charged (working as needed with your business office). ECN will also handle placing the order.

You may consider the info above to be ECN's official quotation for a standard new laptop PC, but please note that pricing and specifications are subject to change. If the actual cost varies by more than a few dollars or if hardware specs have changed significantly, ECN will alert you and await your approval before proceeding with your order.

Apple’s approach to hardware makes support both easy as well as incredibly difficult. It’s easy when it works, and incredibly difficult and time consuming when things do not work correctly. Also recognize that Apple changes OS settings at every update and causes software (and 3^rd party hardware) to break until things are fixed.

1. Before any work is undertaken, we require you to have an up to date TimeMachine backup - ECN is not responsible for (and unable to) recover lost data

2. Any hardware work will be undertaken only on machines under warranty. Even so, please recognize that we may need to get the device shipped out or delivered to Indianapolis.

3. Hardware work on off warranty machines is strictly done as a courtesy and will be completed as we can find time for the work. These are NOT considered priority items.

4. Mac hardware is expected to be in a standard configuration - the use of KVMs/non-standard setups is completely unsupported - even if we have a configuration that works once, recent OS updates have rendered hardware instantly (and expensively) non-functional (eg Startech dongles)

Some additional caveats, in no particular order:

• Apple store shipment estimates are NOT APPLICABLE to Purdue purchases - Expedited shipping is unavailable.
• With few exceptions, AppleCare is required for all Apple purchases
• Please do not dial down specs in order to artificially save money - we've come up with minimum specs for a good reason
• We would be happy to consult with you at any time in your purchase process - the earlier the better.