[ZLS]

    I am thinking of replacing my 27" Imac, and I wondered if I could save money

by buying a MacMini and using a 27" monitor

http://www.abt.com/product/70877/ASUS-MX279H.html

    Is there any down side to this?


                                          Thank You

[jparkhur]

For the most part you are getting a very similar machine.  Couple things to wTch are how good is the video card you are getting and you are limited currently on the size of the mini Mac drive to 1 tb, iMacs can go up to 6 tb after market.  This should not be an issue as you can use a external drive for music.   The other nice thing about Mac mini is you can easily add ram cheap through the bottom. Not so much on imac.  I have two iMacs and a loaded mini, like it better.

[jparkhur]

Also. Go to the apple store and at bottom go to refurbished area for deals.  Just buy a apple wArrenty and you are good.  I have always had famy buy from here with no issues. Check daily weekly as stock changes regularly. 

[Photon46]

One downside I encountered with the new Thunderbolt 27" monitor is that there is an engineering bug they couldn't fix: The monitor calibration features would not work. I spent hours over several remote diagnostic sessions with an Apple service rep who was working with their engineers. After three weeks of unsuccessfully trying to fix it, they threw in the towel and refunded the purchase price and I returned it. There are numerous complaints about this on Mac user forums. I bought an NEC Pa271w 27" monitor instead.

[Doublej]

Google Mac Mini vs. iMac and you'll find differences in processors, graphics cards, network support, etc.  Also you may spend a bunch of cash to get a similar quality display as on the iMacs.

Whether you need or care about the differences is a function of what you want to do with it. The mini has enough oomph for many people.