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Apple Store has refurbished 2012 Minis!

Someone please talk me out of something stupid

New to the forum, just wanted to get some of the veterans opinions.

I was wondering if anyone had a good feeling for when the Apple Refurbished area gets replenished. It seems fairly random, but what would be the longest period of time you have seen between a Mac Mini replenishment?

I am looking to pick up either a Base 2012 Mac Mini, Mid Range 2012 or a Refurbished 2014 mid range Mac Mini for that $589 price point I had recently seen. Preferably it would be some sort of 2012 configuration with the ability to upgrade it.

I've been a PC guy for too long and I am just done with it. Too much hassle. I've never had a real horrible experience with PC, but they just aren't dependable and tend not to last very long before getting bogged down. My wife and I have had iPhones and iPads for a while now and I'm trying to sell her on the :apple:Desktops and Laptops, seeing this as a great way to get our feet wet. She's the type that hates to shell out large amounts of $ for technology just to see it be outdated quickly, we would like something to last for a while. We won't be doing any high end stuff on the Mac Mini just some web browsing, streaming video, but nothing the likes of photoshop etc.

I'm also very impatient and waiting for this replenishment is driving me semi-insane. Am I right to just wait on this great deal or pull the trigger on a new one?
 
elmarko9 said:
New to the forum, just wanted to get some of the veterans opinions.

I was wondering if anyone had a good feeling for when the Apple Refurbished area gets replenished. It seems fairly random, but what would be the longest period of time you have seen between a Mac Mini replenishment?

I am looking to pick up either a Base 2012 Mac Mini, Mid Range 2012 or a Refurbished 2014 mid range Mac Mini for that $589 price point I had recently seen. Preferably it would be some sort of 2012 configuration with the ability to upgrade it.

I've been a PC guy for too long and I am just done with it. Too much hassle. I've never had a real horrible experience with PC, but they just aren't dependable and tend not to last very long before getting bogged down. My wife and I have had iPhones and iPads for a while now and I'm trying to sell her on the :apple:Desktops and Laptops, seeing this as a great way to get our feet wet. She's the type that hates to shell out large amounts of $ for technology just to see it be outdated quickly, we would like something to last for a while. We won't be doing any high end stuff on the Mac Mini just some web browsing, streaming video, but nothing the likes of photoshop etc.

I'm also very impatient and waiting for this replenishment is driving me semi-insane. Am I right to just wait on this great deal or pull the trigger on a new one?
Click to expand...

I'm def not a veteran here however I just received my first Mac, 2012 2.3Ghz i7 rMini, in the mail two days ago. I spent about a month tracking and researching before I pulled the trigger. Everyone on here was immensely helpful in advising me so I'll attempt to pay it forward…

I started tracking them around Thanksgiving and finally bought mine Christmas night. There's really no consistent timeframe the listings follow however the general trend I noticed was new refurbs usually post around about Tuesday. however that's def not always the case. sometimes they'll post a few times per week, all at once, or in increments. it just varies.

the best thing to do is register here using a reliable push email service:

https://refurb-tracker.com/en/

when you get the email, jump on it immediately as they will be gone within 5 minutes (esp the 2012 quad cores).

when I got mine, I was just dozing off to sleep as I got the email alert. I immediately jumped online and bought it as my heart was racing lol. yeah. this was also the night we saw the first of the 2014 refurbs. so since 2014 refurbs are starting to trickle in, I'd say you prob need to buy a 2012 (if that's was you want) within this month. the last time one posted was this past Sunday.

Hope this helps. good luck!

oh and welcome to macrumors.
 
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elmarko9 said:
New to the forum, just wanted to get some of the veterans opinions.

I was wondering if anyone had a good feeling for when the Apple Refurbished area gets replenished. It seems fairly random, but what would be the longest period of time you have seen between a Mac Mini replenishment?

I am looking to pick up either a Base 2012 Mac Mini, Mid Range 2012 or a Refurbished 2014 mid range Mac Mini for that $589 price point I had recently seen. Preferably it would be some sort of 2012 configuration with the ability to upgrade it.

I've been a PC guy for too long and I am just done with it. Too much hassle. I've never had a real horrible experience with PC, but they just aren't dependable and tend not to last very long before getting bogged down. My wife and I have had iPhones and iPads for a while now and I'm trying to sell her on the :apple:Desktops and Laptops, seeing this as a great way to get our feet wet. She's the type that hates to shell out large amounts of $ for technology just to see it be outdated quickly, we would like something to last for a while. We won't be doing any high end stuff on the Mac Mini just some web browsing, streaming video, but nothing the likes of photoshop etc.

I'm also very impatient and waiting for this replenishment is driving me semi-insane. Am I right to just wait on this great deal or pull the trigger on a new one?
Click to expand...

Hey there!

I am much like you. My wife and I have always been PC people through a desktop, laptop and work laptops everything runs on WINDOWS.

My wife and I have always had iPhones since the 3GS was out and we have a 4th gen & iPad air. Recently we purchased an AppleTV, for the sole purpose of Netflix and watching iPhoto Screen Savers of our 14 month old son which has billions of pictures we take.

Then something marvellous happened. My wife was like "LETS GET A rMBP as a Christmas gift to each other". I was like YES YES YES...picked up one from the REFURB Store for $2,069 and we love it. During my research I found this site and then found out about the MacMini....and how the new model is a waste of time. That being said, I pulled the trigger on the i7 2.3ghz late 2012 mac mini as I didn't want stock to run out.

I have since put 16GB of RAM and have a 240 GB SSD waiting for install. I will be using this as a media centre and as a desktop PC...it is essentially the same as my rMBP sans the dGPU.

To be FRANK, get the 2.3 Ghz i7 base model and upgrade it yourself. You will have a desktop computer/media server that will last for years!

Any questions, just PM me and I will help any way I can.

Use Refurb.me and refurbtracker.com to see when they hit the store!

Good luck!
 
elmarko9 said:
I am looking to pick up either a Base 2012 Mac Mini, Mid Range 2012 or a Refurbished 2014 mid range Mac Mini for that $589 price point I had recently seen. Preferably it would be some sort of 2012 configuration with the ability to upgrade it.

I've been a PC guy for too long and I am just done with it. Too much hassle. I've never had a real horrible experience with PC, but they just aren't dependable and tend not to last very long before getting bogged down. My wife and I have had iPhones and iPads for a while now and I'm trying to sell her on the :apple:Desktops and Laptops, seeing this as a great way to get our feet wet. She's the type that hates to shell out large amounts of $ for technology just to see it be outdated quickly, we would like something to last for a while. We won't be doing any high end stuff on the Mac Mini just some web browsing, streaming video, but nothing the likes of photoshop etc.
Click to expand...

Keep in mind Macs are PCs... they have hardware problems and software problems just like PCs. In the case of new versions of OSX, they have loads of bugs which you can read about on this forum. Apple releases a new version of OSX every year, so each version never has a chance to become really bug free. The old versions quickly become unsupported (you cannot put a new version of safari on old OSX). So you have to be willing to do an OS upgrade every few years if you want to stay on top of things. Also I can say that the most bogged down computers I've seen are Macs, so that is not true either.

I've been using Macs for 6+ years and I prefer them to pcs, but it's mostly because I like unix, their design, and the ease of use.

Like others have said, use a refurb tracker. Personally I think new Macs are a terrible value, so refurb store is a must for me.
 
I scored a 2012 2.3 quad core with the 1TB drive for $618 with tax thanks to the tips here.

Now off to Otherworld Computing for the SSD and RAM upgrades.

I've bought several Macs and iPods from the Refurbished Apple Store and couldn't be happier.
 
thepixelpusher said:
I scored a 2012 2.3 quad core with the 1TB drive for $618 with tax thanks to the tips here.

Now off to Otherworld Computing for the SSD and RAM upgrades.

I've bought several Macs and iPods from the Refurbished Apple Store and couldn't be happier.
Click to expand...

Picked up the same one as you did just this morning. My Late 2008 MacBook Pro was a bit too long in the tooth.

This is the first time I'm buying a refurbished Apple product and I'm excited to get this one up and running. I think I will first upgrade the RAM and then make the SSD upgrade in about a year or so, when 10.11 is released.

I can now turn off the RefurbMe alerts!
 
Ugh! I keep trying to snag a 2012 2.3GHZ 1TB, but don't seem to have the touch. Of course, I went to bed 30 minutes before the latest refurbs went live.
If I can't get one soon, I might buy the mid-range 2014 model (2.6GHz i5 with 1TB). Sucks to not be able to upgrade ram beyond the provided 8GB, but it seems like I could at least upgrade the HD down the line (though more difficult than the 2012).
I do no heavy video other than converting videos every once in a while to watch on my iPad or apple tv. So I am guessing the 2014 would be good enough. I just wish I could get the 2012 and future proof a little better.
Any advice either way?
Thanks,
RJ
 
gogogut said:
Ugh! I keep trying to snag a 2012 2.3GHZ 1TB, but don't seem to have the touch. Of course, I went to bed 30 minutes before the latest refurbs went live.
If I can't get one soon, I might buy the mid-range 2014 model (2.6GHz i5 with 1TB). Sucks to not be able to upgrade ram beyond the provided 8GB, but it seems like I could at least upgrade the HD down the line (though more difficult than the 2012).
I do no heavy video other than converting videos every once in a while to watch on my iPad or apple tv. So I am guessing the 2014 would be good enough. I just wish I could get the 2012 and future proof a little better.
Any advice either way?
Thanks,
RJ
Click to expand...
What machine are you currently running and how long do you think you can still wait it out? My main reason for wanting the 2012 was the ease of upgrading the HDD and RAM.

Honestly, I just got lucky in that I was up late and happened to grab it when the alert came.
 
I currently have a 2007 Macbook running snow leopard and struggling with some basic tasks (programs won't update, including browsers). I put in a SSD a few years back which helped extend its life, but I am looking to finally replace it.
A new Mini would serve as the central computer for the family, holding onto music, photos, etc. It would stream to and backup from the family's iPads, iPhones, and AppleTV. I do a little bit of video conversion for family and work video, but nothing major. So the quad-core is not a necessity, though it would be nice to have for future needs.
I hear that 8GB ram is a minimum with Yosemite and future programs. A 2012 would allow me to upgrade to a possible 16GB, while the 2014 midrange comes with a standard 8GB.
In the end, prices seem to be pretty even. The 2014 is $679. The refurb 2012 is $589, though I would add $100-$200 worth of ram. The 2014 comes with an additional 500GB of HDD and of course the newer processor, though not quad core i7.
Advice?
Thanks again,
RJ
 
valenrandy said:
I think I'm just going to skip the 2.6i7 instead of the 2.3 as I have yet to see it. Would I be missing out on much?
Click to expand...
In my opinion the 2.3 is the better option in the 2012 mini over the 2.6. While the difference between both in terms of performance is negligible for most use cases, the temperature is not. The 2.6 seems to run significantly hotter, thus leading to increased fan activity.
 
I was totally happy with my 2012 i5, then I got on this site :)

Every time I get a shot at a 2012 i7 I just can't pull the trigger on another $650 just because its the last fast upgradable mini. Might end up snagging one eventually but rather get a thunderbolt display or get an sad drive for it.

It seems like the i7's are more of a collectors item at the moment, Id love to have one, but just not sure it money well spent for my uses, when the i5 works fine.

Ill be now getting notice from the apple store in 5,4,3,2............ :)
 
Thanks for everyone's help! I was lucky and able to snag a i7 quad core 2012 late Saturday night as I was falling asleep. Awaiting the package shortly.

New issue is this. I went crazy that night and also bought a baseline 2012 model as well. I've had thoughts of just selling my i7 quad core to help finance the baseline model. Most going for about $175 or more than I paid on third party sites. Would anyone else think this to be a good idea since I won't be using mine for labor intensive things?

My main goal was just to future proof myself and wondering if just upgrading ram on the baseline 2012 would get me through at a much lower price point. Any thoughts?
 
elmarko9 said:
Thanks for everyone's help! I was lucky and able to snag a i7 quad core 2012 late Saturday night as I was falling asleep. Awaiting the package shortly.

New issue is this. I went crazy that night and also bought a baseline 2012 model as well. I've had thoughts of just selling my i7 quad core to help finance the baseline model. Most going for about $175 or more than I paid on third party sites. Would anyone else think this to be a good idea since I won't be using mine for labor intensive things?

My main goal was just to future proof myself and wondering if just upgrading ram on the baseline 2012 would get me through at a much lower price point. Any thoughts?
Click to expand...

Neither one of these has any real degree of future-proofing. Which one you keep really depends on what sort of work you do on the machine. Many people will never notice the difference between the quad and the dual cores. If you're in that category, save the cash and apply it to something else. :)
 
newellj said:
Neither one of these has any real degree of future-proofing. Which one you keep really depends on what sort of work you do on the machine. Many people will never notice the difference between the quad and the dual cores. If you're in that category, save the cash and apply it to something else. :)
Click to expand...

Thanks newellj. I was hoping to hear something along these lines. Thanks for the comment!
 
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