2014 mac mini i5 /1.4Ghz/ 4gb ram/ 500gb hd - $150

[digibob]

I found this mac mini for sale for $150. I was wondering if it was worth the money in spite of the 1.4 Ghz. It comes with the keyboard & wireless mouse, the model # is A1347.

I plan on upgrading the hd to a 1tb drive or a 500gb ssd.

how would I be able to add the turbo boost???? How would this be possible? I know this is a dumb question....lmao.
(1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5 (Turbo Boost up to 2.7GHz))

Any information would be appreciated.

here is the spec link
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_mini/specs/mac-mini-core-i5-1.4-late-2014-specs.html

 

[Kaida]

It's a good price, especially if the kb and mouse are Apple branded. Turbo boost is auto.

 

[Boyd01]

Well that computer with a 500gb hard drive sells for $500 without a keyboard or mouse, so obviously $150 is a good price. But we don't know anything about it, so how could we have a serious opinion? Is something wrong with it? Is it stolen? Regarding upgrading, there are a lot of threads here from people who thought they could do a disk upgrade but ended up damaging their Mini. And evidently Apple has made it even more difficult on the 2014 model.

You don't "add turbo boost". It's a feature of the processors that certain software can take advantage of. For certain tasks, it results in a huge speed increase. Ripping a DVD in Handbrake is one example. But it isn't anything you can configure or control as a user.

I have this same Mini and only use it as an iTunes server. Works great for that, but

 

[digibob]

Well that computer with a 500gb hard drive sells for $500 without a keyboard or mouse, so obviously $150 is a good price. But we don't know anything about it, so how could we have a serious opinion? Is something wrong with it? Is it stolen? Regarding upgrading, there are a lot of threads here from people who thought they could do a disk upgrade but ended up damaging their Mini. And evidently Apple has made it even more difficult on the 2014 model.

You don't "add turbo boost". It's a feature of the processors that certain software can take advantage of. For certain tasks, it results in a huge speed increase. Ripping a DVD in Handbrake is one example. But it isn't anything you can configure or control as a user.

I have this same Mini and only use it as an iTunes server. Works great for that, but

thanks for the info....

As far as not knowing anything about it goes, all of the information need was posted. What serious opinion is required? What difference would it make if it were stolen???? Its not yours.... rolmao.... you not selling it or buy it... & why does it have to be stolen? If there was something wrong with it I would have included the problem in the posting. what does any of that have to do with it being a good price for the unit & its configuration? not a thing.

 

[jpietrzak8]

What difference would it make if it were stolen???? Its not yours.... rolmao....

Hmm. Fencing stolen goods isn't a laughing matter, in my opinion. Most folks have to work for a living to afford a computer, and at their prices, Apple computers even moreso.

what does any of that have to do with it being a good price for the unit & its configuration? not a thing.

For one thing, the OS should have already been configured by the original user. If stolen, the thieves might or might not have reset the machine to factory settings, or might have loaded it up with their own crapware. And even if they managed to erase any original identification data from the rest of the machine, at the very least the integrated networking card should have a unique identifier associated with it. So it should be possible to identify who it was originally sold to.

At the very least, you need to price in the possibility that the police will come knocking on your door. That makes it a tad more expensive than a legal purchase.

In any case, I agree with other posters that this model is fine for light duty work -- at least using the current versions of OS X / macOS. Four gigabytes of RAM is the absolute minimum when running today's OS X.

If you're planning on doing anything more than light duty work, however, do note that the machine's drives are extremely hard to upgrade (they are held down by security screws, and the device is not well designed for taking apart and putting back together again, with numerous flimsy connectors in a variety of locations), and the RAM is quite literally soldered down onto the motherboard. So mucking around inside a 2014 Mini is going to involve massive pain for very little gain...

 

[Boyd01]

The point is that $150 seems like too good of a deal for that computer. This immediately makes one wonder "why is it so cheap"?

Regarding the computer itself, I have the same model with no upgrades and use it for an iTunes server. It just sits there connected to a big disk and runs iTunes 24/7. Works great for that. For anything else I would be hesitant to buy one, for the reasons that @jpietrzak8 mentioned.

 

[adam9c1]

If the computer functions correctly and is not hot, buy it and get SSD in a usb3 enclosure and use the spinner drive for storage or time machine.

 

[Che Castro]

I'll buy that for a dollar

 

[Larry-K]

I'll buy that for a dollar

Me too, it'd make a great coaster for a cup of coffee.

 

[jpietrzak8]

Me too, it'd make a great coaster for a cup of coffee.

Spend some time on a task like transcoding a few videos on the thing, and it'll do a fine job heating up your cup of coffee for you too.

 

[Larry-K]

Spend some time on a task like transcoding a few videos on the thing, and it'll do a fine job heating up your cup of coffee for you too.

It'll save me a trip to the microwave.

Maybe enough transcoding would melt the solder off the RAM.

 

[cynics]

Well that computer with a 500gb hard drive sells for $500 without a keyboard or mouse, so obviously $150 is a good price. But we don't know anything about it, so how could we have a serious opinion? Is something wrong with it? Is it stolen? Regarding upgrading, there are a lot of threads here from people who thought they could do a disk upgrade but ended up damaging their Mini. And evidently Apple has made it even more difficult on the 2014 model.

You don't "add turbo boost". It's a feature of the processors that certain software can take advantage of. For certain tasks, it results in a huge speed increase. Ripping a DVD in Handbrake is one example. But it isn't anything you can configure or control as a user.

I have this same Mini and only use it as an iTunes server. Works great for that, but

Good post, however just to point out Handbrake is threaded so while turboboost has measurable effect its minimal, +/- 3%. Overclocking (all cores obviously) is the best way to get some serious gains in handbrake.
[doublepost=1478652143][/doublepost]I think its "worth" it I guess but only if you have a use for it.

Put it this way, I have 150 dollars of expendable cash, I want a Mac Mini and I would not buy that. Just because I don't have a use for it.

 

[Boyd01]

Good post, however just to point out Handbrake is threaded so while turboboost has measurable effect its minimal, +/- 3%.

I'll admit I don't know the specifics of how turbo works. However, I have observed the following. My 2008 MBP has a 2.4ghz Core2Duo CPU. According to Geekbench, my 2013 i7 MBA is about twice as fast, and this also matches what I have seen in most software. But ripping a DVD in Handbrake is massively faster, I was taking about 75 minutes to rip a one hour B&W TV show on the old MBP. Same thing, same Handbrake settings, only took around 15 minutes on the MBA - about 5x faster than the MBP.

I assumed that had something to do with Turbo. But maybe there are other factors that make the i-series chips faster? I suppose it could also just be that I had to use an older version of Handbrake on the MBP which was still running 10.5.x at the time and I had 10.8.x on the MBA.

 

[Maxx Power]

I'll admit I don't know the specifics of how turbo works. However, I have observed the following. My 2008 MBP has a 2.4ghz Core2Duo CPU. According to Geekbench, my 2013 i7 MBA is about twice as fast, and this also matches what I have seen in most software. But ripping a DVD in Handbrake is massively faster, I was taking about 75 minutes to rip a one hour B&W TV show on the old MBP. Same thing, same Handbrake settings, only took around 15 minutes on the MBA - about 5x faster than the MBP.

I assumed that had something to do with Turbo. But maybe there are other factors that make the i-series chips faster? I suppose it could also just be that I had to use an older version of Handbrake on the MBP which was still running 10.5.x at the time and I had 10.8.x on the MBA.

Geekbench is not very reflective of the real-world performance. This is actually fairly common knowledge outside the Apple community. In fact, when other websites review hardware (non-Apple, usually), they use an assortment of benchmarking tools to get a better estimate of hardware performance.

In fact, according to the Geekbench whitepaper (for at least the latest Geekbench), there is no actual test that evaluates encoding performance, for both single-core and multi-core scenarios. In the meanwhile, this is an area in which modern CPUs have made tremendous progress.

The whitepaper for the current edition of Geekbench is here:

http://www.geekbench.com/doc/geekbench4-cpu-workloads.pdf

 

[Micky Do]

I voted no, because it is cheaper than it should be. Be suspicious; there must be a reason.

That aside, if a computer fits your budget, and does what you expect of it, then it's good value. If not, you've wasted your money, no matter how little you paid for it.

That being said, there have been those who have one, and have found the base level Mac Mini adequate for their needs.

Then there are those who claim that no current Mac Mini would fit their needs / desires. They may, or may not, have had one.

If you like to meddle, it could be a good project. If you want turbo boost, it's already there (as posted above). If you want more grunt, or quicker response to simply do stuff, you'd be better to stump up for something appropriately specced to your needs. The current line up of Macs is not particularly meddler friendly.