Never have I done so much "techie stuff" in such a short period of time:

1) bought a 2nd Thinkpad off eBay for use with distance learning/working from home. Upgraded its memory (8 -> 16 GB) and SSD (256 GB -> 1 TB), replaced the WiFi card, and purchased a sleeve for it. While doing the memory upgrade, I found that a bad SIMM had been sent and exchanged it.
2) broke the screen on my laptop, which I then replaced. Thankfully, this happened after the Thinkpad arrived.
3) replaced my Securifi Almond+ wifi router (bought off a Kickstarter) with an ASUS RT-AC68U running Asuswrt-Merlin firmware. The home network also got an upgrade to its TP-Link Powerline adapters, new Ethernet cables, a new switch, and better electrical organization.
4) did some repairs and upgrades to my 2006 MacBook Pro (runs Snow Leopard!): new charger, replaced the hard disk with an SSD, replaced the suddenly broken DVD drive, and upgraded to TexLive 2020.

And that was just March-June.

I also did some non-techie home appliance repair, replacing a shelf and the condenser fan in our refrigerator.

I'm currently contemplating replacing my 21.5" iMac with a 27" 4k monitor and a decent spec Mac Mini...

I've found some employment, so my justification is that I'll be working from home, so a decent sized monitor is beneficial. The iMac looks quite dated now with the huge bezels - it's probably bigger than the 27" monitor I'm looking at.

If you really want to use a 4K resolution for work, you might want to look at a bigger screen, I have one at home connected to my MBP and while the text is still readable (chrome, iTerm etc.) it's very tiny so I had to scale down the resolution.

Oh yeah, I won't actually be using the native 4K resolution, it will be scaled. My 21.5" iMac is a 4K version, so that's scaled already.

27" is about as big as I can get in the home office space.

In that case, you can also consider getting a QHD monitor

Perhaps get the monitor upgrade and wait to see if there's a decent sale on Mac Mini or home equipment stipend? Many of my team mates in WFH mode have chosen to upgrade ergo gear like chair or standing desk followed by network gear. Not that many have chosen to upgrade their work or home computers, though that's possibly influenced by kids remote-school tech gear costs and upcoming PS5 release.

My 27" iMac which was used as a target display (pre-retina) was ghosting quite a bit so I went to an i5 Mac mini for home use and Dell 27" 4K monitor which switches over to work laptop via usb-c displayport. Self upgraded the ram on the mac mini to 32GB and also stalked inventory trackers for a brand name webcam. I'm looking at getting a USB audio receiver Topping MX3 or perhaps active bookshelf usb speakers and usb switch for audio so the software volume control works. My tech refresh is around $2,400 so far including the splurge targets of a nice monitor arm and MSRP (but not former pre-COVID price) high end web cam.

ETA: Also recently bought a usb-c to DP cable because I was tired of having to reset NVRAM after encountering "No Signal" after booting up the mac mini with HDMI mac mini out to HDMI monitor https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250715830 as recently as last month.

That's exactly what I'm looking at! The Dell Q2720U and an i5 Mac Mini. I can get a refurbished Mac Mini with 16GB / 1TB SSD for a little more than the standard 8GB/512GB model. I might upgrade the RAM, but 16GB should be enough.

What scaled resolution are you using (if any)?

How do you connect the Mac Mini? Via HDMI, or do you use the USB-C and then switch it to your laptop when needed?

Edited the my post but it is currently mac mini usb-c male to DP male and macbook pro retina 15" 4 port (2017?) via usb-c male to usb-c male 3ft DP-alt (comes with this cable). There's 3 inputs on the Dell Q2720U. I think I bought the Belkin usb-c DP cable. I was using HDMI 4k certified monoprice cable (2 pack which I also use with my older non-4K tv) but ran into the "No Signal" issue every week or so. I do pretty much live on one electronic device or another, though, so prob. boot up the mac mini every day. Yes, I still shutdown my devices which probably shows my age.

I'll need to check the resolution each system is set at tomorrow. It's set pretty close to the same resolution at 60Hz on both machines but honestly, it seems to drop down into 30Hz at times (con of restarting systems, I guess). It may need more than 16GB memory without eGPU to watch YouTube 720p or 1080p in a full window. Will double check when I lookup the resolution settings.

I don't feel Mac Mini fan temperature management is as good as the iMac and would probably get a quiet 200mm usb powered fan like Noctua or AC Infinity if my area wasn't headed towards mostly cooler weather though similar caveats also apply to the MBP 15". Overall, I don't feel it is as nice of machine as the non-retina iMac, a little more iffy, but also the less expensive option if you want to connect more than one machine via hardware to a single display on your desk and near term if you want an Intel processor. The more expensive one would be a MB laptop or Mac Pro.

Thanks - seems like a not too stable setup. Maybe I'll wait until the rumoured new almost-bezel-less iMacs appear

Yup. I'm happy enough with the stability after changing out the cable to the mac mini but I wouldn't suggest it to my non-techie family members as I'm one of the tech supports. I didn't have a "No Signal" issue with USB-C DP alt to the MBP and I doubt they'd really notice 30Hz refresh. The iMac rumors seem to fit their use-case a lot better.

Dell Q2720U also has a less than stellar design/manufacturing defect along the bottom bezel which leaves a gap https://slickdeals.net/f/14160827-de...16#commentsBox My bottom bezel isn't flush. If these times were not these times and/or I had purchased it closer to suggested retail price, it would have been returned. My unit didn't have any dead pixels, light bleed, or other defects so I decided not to gamble with it. I do like the USB-C and USB-A ports on the left hand side which edges out a similar LG without this feature.

Well, I doubt anyone has done anything as impressive or as technical as this: I bought a second hand X1 Carbon (due to impending retirement) off ebay for the princely sum of �160 and fitted a laptop camera sliding cover that cost about �1.98 for 3 (including delivery) from a well known auction site. I also managed to keep the edges square to the laptop cover. I know you are impressed.

All bow before thee, the prince of technology!

Oh yeah... Just realized I had something to contribute here though not that "exciting"
Upgraded 3+ family iPads to "latest" models (the 3+ one's were 6+ years old)
Setup two laptops for kids online school.
Dealt with connection problems on said laptops (See, A tough one for the WiFi Experts - Dell Difficulty Connecting to FIOS )
Began installation of whole house Wifi mesh system.

Memory used watching YouTube in Chrome, video in theater mode. Total of 5 tabs open including YouTube; terminal with top pid watch in the background. Browser Inner Window size 2422 x 1514.
Stats from Activity Monitor:
Hope this helps.

Video watched: www.youtube.com/watch?v=qecQ3RD0Nng

I have replaced the old Dell I picked out of the recycling bin at work to use with UniFi Video with a UniFi CloudKey Gen2+. I had previously setup a Debian machine but UniFi Video is done for come January.

Had the Dream Machine Pro supported RAID I probably would have sprung for that, for the moment I am still running the UniFi controller on a Raspberry Pi because I have the cameras in the DMZ.