Four Mac Mini's in less then a year.

[anti-win]

Proudly purchased a Mac Mini just before Christmas.

#1 lasted me two weeks.

Quickly exchanged Mac Mini, Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard.

#2 lasted until March.

Had logic board replaced

#3 two months later.

An even quicker exchange with some dissatisfaction.

#4 said goodnight, last night.

Handed a brand spanking new i5 Mac Mini!!


Now I'm not complaining about Apple one bit. They have been great ever since my original purchase. Huge fan, follow all the rumor sites online and am a spectator on launch days.

My setup is simple:
Sony 32inch LCD TV in Bedroom.
Mac Mini to LCD via HDMI
FW800 - iTunes, USB2 - TM
BT Mouse/Keyboard
Some Handbrake, iPhoto, iMovie, iTunes, Civ5 action.
Nothing my old 2005 AMD PC creature couldn't handle.

Now that I have my hands on an optical-less Mac Mini, am I making out on this exchange?

I'm fully aware of the TB, i5, Ram, HDD and Lion advantages. (SL on old Mini)

However, when I purchased my Mac Mini in December, I spent $699.
The Mac Mini I walked home with today is going for $599.

Price isn't the argument, more so the lack of video performance on the new Mac Mini.

I can deal with a USB optical drive if I need it. But I've already notice my desktop as being very washed out. Magnifying the Dock doesn't seem as fluent. Is this Lion at its early stages or from the integrated Intel graphics?

Is the higher end Mini that much better then the Mini with Intel graphics?

Lastly, anyone think Apple will allow me to exchange my current Mac Mini and pay the difference for the $799?

 

[Ice Dragon]

How much RAM do you have? If you only have the default 2 GB, I think you have the answer right there.

 

[Mr.C]

I have almost the same setup although I have the dual core i7 with a 7200RPM 750 GB HDD, 8GB RAM and the discrete AMD GPU with Lion. I upgraded from a 2009 Mini with a core 2 duo, 5400RPM 320 GB HDD, 4GB RAM and an integrated Nvidia GPU with Snow Leopard.

I have to say Lion has been buggy and my transition so far has not been smooth. The new Mini is definitely faster and has better performance although I'm still getting use to Lion's new features and interface changes. The colour scheme does seem washed out compared to the one in Snow Leopard.

Obviously for me the GPU performance is significantly better and apps start up much faster. All in all once the bugs and various issues have been fixed it should be a good OS. You do need at least 4GB of RAM preferably 8GB.

Depending under what circumstances you made all those exchanges I don't think Apple will let you upgrade to the higher end model. Normally any exchanges which are done under warranty or for goodwill purposes are like for like or the next best available option if an identical model cannot be provided. You may be fine with the model you have depending on your uses.

 

[dolphin842]

Depending under what circumstances you made all those exchanges I don't think Apple will let you upgrade to the higher end model. Normally any exchanges which are done under warranty or for goodwill purposes are like for like or the next best available option if an identical model cannot be provided.

Yup, this is pretty much how it goes. I've had my fair share of month-long hassles with AppleCare and hardware problems... one time they sent out a 3rd party tech to do an in-house logic board replacement. The other time they offered to repair the logic board on an out-of-warranty machine for free (after we had spent considerably less on other parts that didn't fix the problem). I always hear these special cases of people getting free exchanges for next-generation machines, but I have to imagine they're pretty rare.

Ironically, this is the one case where there's some question as to whether the swap was worth it. Given that the OP is using the Mini for Handbrake, however, there will be a noticeable improvement with the new machine that will likely make up for any deficiencies in the GPU department (game performance on the HD3000 is either a little better or worse than the 320M, depending on the specific game).