You've made the plunge. You're getting a new Mac (or maybe you already ordered one, and you're anxiously awaiting its delivery). Though most PC accessories will work just fine with Apple's computer, there are a couple of things you're going to want to get to really tie the room together with your beautiful new Mac aesthetic. Here's a list of accessories you'll want to get you started right away.
Back it up: Seagate Backup Plus Portable 1TB External Hard Drive
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One of the most important things you should be doing is backing up your computer's data regularly. The Backup Plus from Seagate can provide you with up to 5TB of space to save all of your important files, or just backup your entire drive in case something happens. This drive also comes in several color options.
From $50 at Amazon
Don't forget the keyboard and mouse: Logitech MK850 Wireless keyboard and mouse combo
You'll need a good keyboard and mouse if you have an iMac, or plan on using a display with your MacBook, or even propping it up on a stand. The MK850 combo from Logitech gives you a quiet yet comfortable keyboard for typing out dozens of words per minute, and the contoured right-handed mouse is ergonomic. We like Logitech products, and the MK850 combo is a great value.
$75 at Amazon
Pump up the audio: Bose Companion 20 Multimedia Speaker System
These compact speakers provide powerful, punchy sound. The convenient control pad allows you to adjust or mute the volume, connect headphones, or even add another audio device to the speakers. The audio quality is also natural and rich and will fill up any room.
$249 at Amazon
Don't forget the optical drive: Apple USB SuperDrive
If you just got a newer Mac, then you may not have an optical drive, as it's mostly outdated these days in favor of digital downloads. But if you really need it, the USB SuperDrive gives you an optical drive for your Mac. Just connect it via USB-A (a USB-C hub is required for USB-C Macs).
$79 at Amazon
![]() Gorgeous display: LG UltraFine 4K Display
If you have a portable Mac and want a bigger and better display, pick up this one. It has a resolution of 3840-by-2160 with P3 wide color gamut, so it only gives you the best and most vibrant colors. It also has built-in stereo speakers, two Thunderbolt 3, and three USB-C ports for a wide range of flexibility. This is a must for MacBook (clamshell mode) and Mac Mini users.
$700 at Apple
Will the real Mac please stand up?: Twelve South BookArc for MacBook
As new as your MacBook is, you probably won't be on it all day, and maybe you want to save some desktop space. Or if you prefer to work in clamshell mode, you'll want the MacBook tucked away somewhere. Twelve South's BookArc is a sleek and beautiful stand that cradles your MacBook upright, giving you back a lot of space. Cables are neatly tucked away but accessible, and your MacBook is elevated. It comes in colors to match your MacBook.
$60 at Amzon
Juice it up: Mophie Powerstation USB-C XXL Power Delivery Battery
Your MacBook is bound to run low on juice while you're traveling with it, and outlets won't always be available. The mophie Powerstation USB-C XXL Battery is a huge beast that boasts 19500mAh of juice, which is enough to extend the battery of your MacBook by another 14 hours. It features USB-C PD I/O for fast charging, and you can use it for other USB-C or USB-A devices too.
$100 at Amazon
Gain those ports back: Satechi Aluminum Multi-Port Adapter V2
When Apple decided to switch over to USB-C, they went all out, as that's all the ports you'll get with a new Mac now. Fortunately, the Satechi Multi-Port adapter brings back the old ports for your existing accessories. The hub has a 4K HDMI, Ethernet, USB-C pass-through charging, SD card reader, and three USB-A ports. All while retaining and slim and sleek profile.
$80 at Amazon
If you need a little more: Elgato Thunderbolt 3 Dock
Need more than one 4K display? The Elgato Thunderbolt 3 Dock lets you connect your MacBook to two 4K displays simultaneously. This can also charge up your MacBook up to 85W, has support for one 5K display, two USB-C ports, and three more USB-A ports for all of your needs.
$270 at Amazon
Simple but protective: Tomtoc 360° Protective Sleeve
This simple and affordable sleeve will keep your 15-inch MacBook Pro safe and sound. The exterior is constructed from a nylon material that is durable and easy to clean. The interior has a plush microfiber lining to keep your MacBook Pro scratch-free and smudge-free. An exterior pocket means you can take some cables and smaller accessories with you, like hubs. It comes in a few different colors, and there are versions for different MacBook models as well.
$21 at Amazon
Dress it up in rich leather: Waterfield Designs VERO Sleeve
The VERO Sleeve is our favorite because it's made from a premium, high-quality full-grain leather. Your MacBook is easily accessible, and the discreet cutouts let you charge it even while it's still tucked away in the sleeve. The leather will develop a nice patina over time, and it's super classy and professional looking. Choose from two leather colors and three sizes, up to the 16-inch MacBook Pro.
From $119 at Waterfield Designs
Private audio: Bang & Olufsen Beoplay H4 Over-Ear Headphones
If you prefer to listen to your audio through headphones instead of speakers, then grab the Beoplay H4 from Bang & Olufsen. These headphones offer authentic, well-balanced, and natural-sounding audio to your earbuds. They're also lightweight, comfortable, and made from premium materials that look amazing. They're pricey but well worth it if you can grab them.
From $300 at Amazon
Here are some suggestions
All of these are optional, but they definitely help to improve the overall experience with your new Mac, whether it's an iMac, MacBook Pro or MacBook Air, or even a Mac Mini. Here are a few items that we can't do without in our personal setups.
First, we highly recommend grabbing a Seagate Backup Plus Portable Drive, because backing up your data is super important! We spend hundreds of hours on our computers for school, work, personal projects, memories, and a lot of other important stuff. It's so easy to prevent losing all of this incredibly crucial data by just backing up your computer.
We also love the VERO Sleeve from Waterfield Designs. The single piece of hide that it's made from is super high quality and feels incredible. Accessing our computer is a simple affair, and the cutout lets us charge and protect at the same time without issue. We also highly recommend the Satechi Multi-Port Adapter because it's pretty affordable, and offers all of the necessary ports that you may need when transitioning to a USB-C-only Mac.
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Buyers Guide
Get 4K for your Mac with these great monitors
To get the most out of your Mac, you need a beautiful display. A 4K monitor is a huge step in the right direction. Here are the best 4K monitors for your Mac.
An eGPU can give your Mac additional graphics performance for professional apps, 3D gaming, VR content creation, and more.
eGPUs are supported by any Thunderbolt 3-equipped Mac1 running macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 or later. Learn how to update the software on your Mac.
An eGPU lets you do all this on your Mac:
eGPU support in apps
eGPU support in macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later is designed to accelerate Metal, OpenGL, and OpenCL apps that benefit from a powerful eGPU. Not all apps support eGPU acceleration; check with the app's developer to learn more.3
In general, an eGPU can accelerate performance in these types of apps:
You can configure applications to use an eGPU with one of the following methods.
Use the Prefer External GPU option
Starting with macOS Mojave 10.14, you can turn on Prefer External GPU in a specific app's Get Info panel in the Finder. This option lets the eGPU accelerate apps on any display connected to the Mac—including displays built in to iMac, iMac Pro, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro:
You won't see this option if an eGPU isn't connected, if your Mac isn't running macOS Mojave or later, or if the app self-manages its GPU selection. Some apps, such as Final Cut Pro, directly choose which graphics processors are used and will ignore the Prefer External GPU checkbox.
Set an external eGPU-connected display as the primary display
If you have an external display connected to your eGPU, you can choose it as the primary display for all apps. Since apps default to the GPU associated with the primary display, this option works with a variety of apps:
If you disconnect the eGPU, your Mac defaults back to the internal graphics processors that drives the built-in display. When the eGPU is re-attached, it automatically sets the external display as the primary display.
About macOS GPU drivers
Mac hardware and GPU software drivers have always been deeply integrated into the system. This design fuels the visually rich and graphical macOS experience as well as many deeper platform compute and graphics features. These include accelerating the user interface, providing support for advanced display features, rendering 3D graphics for pro software and games, processing photos and videos, driving powerful GPU compute features, and accelerating machine learning tasks. This deep integration also enables optimal battery life while providing for greater system performance and stability.
Apple develops, integrates, and supports macOS GPU drivers to ensure there are consistent GPU capabilities across all Mac products, including rich APIs like Metal, Core Animation, Core Image, and Core ML. In order to deliver the best possible customer experience, GPU drivers need to be engineered, integrated, tested, and delivered with each version of macOS. Aftermarket GPU drivers delivered by third parties are not compatible with macOS.
The GPU drivers delivered with macOS are also designed to enable a high quality, high performance experience when using an eGPU, as described in the list of recommended eGPU chassis and graphics card configurations below. Because of this deep system integration, only graphics cards that use the same GPU architecture as those built into Mac products are supported in macOS.
Supported eGPU configurations
It's important to use an eGPU with a recommended graphics card and Thunderbolt 3 chassis. If you use an eGPU to also charge your MacBook Pro, the eGPU's chassis needs to provide enough power to run the graphics card and charge the computer. Check with the manufacturer of the chassis to find out if it provides enough power for your MacBook Pro.
Recommended graphics cards, along with chassis that can power them sufficiently, are listed below.
Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPU products
These products contain a powerful built-in GPU and supply sufficient power to charge your MacBook Pro.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 all-in-one eGPUs:
AMD Radeon RX 470, RX 480, RX 570, RX 580, and Radeon Pro WX 7100
These graphics cards are based on the AMD Polaris architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Pulse series and the AMD WX series.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
AMD Radeon RX Vega 56
These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 56 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 56.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
AMD Radeon RX Vega 64, Vega Frontier Edition Air, and Radeon Pro WX 9100
These graphics cards are based on the AMD Vega 64 architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the Sapphire Vega 64, AMD Frontier Edition air-cooled, and AMD Radeon Pro WX 9100.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
AMD Radeon RX 5700, 5700 XT, and 5700 XT 50th Anniversary
If you've installed macOS Catalina 10.15.1 or later, you can use these graphics cards that are based on the AMD Navi RDNA architecture. Recommended graphics cards include the AMD Radeon RX 5700, AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT, and AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT 50th Anniversary.
Recommended Thunderbolt 3 chassis for these graphics cards:
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Dev C Macbook Air
1. If you have a Mac mini (2018) with FileVault turned on, make sure to connect your primary display directly to Mac mini during startup. After you log in and see the macOS Desktop, you can unplug the display from Mac mini and connect it to your eGPU.
2. If you're using a 13-inch MacBook Pro from 2016 or 2017, always plug eGPUs and other high-performance devices into the left-hand ports for maximum data throughput.
3. macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 and later don't support eGPUs in Windows using Boot Camp or when your Mac is in macOS Recovery or installing system updates.
Dev C Macbook Pro
4. These chassis provide at least 85 watts of charging power, making them ideal for use with 15-inch MacBook Pro models.
5. Playback of HDCP-protected content from iTunes and some streaming services is not supported on displays attached to Radeon 560-based eGPUs. You can play this content on the built-in display on MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, and iMac.
Dev C++ Online
6. If you use Akitio Node with a Mac notebook, you might need to connect your Mac to its power adapter to ensure proper charging.
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