Is the 2.6 GHz(8 GB RAM) 2014 Mac mini worth it?

[appleenthusiast96]

I am looking for a Mac to do some basic stuff on it: browsing the Internet, Youtube videos, documenta and etc. Ocassionally I might use it for some lightweight software development(apps and web). I may use a SSD to boot the OS from if the HDD is not fast enough.

 

[Trusteft]

Depends on who you are asking really. I think it should be ok for basic stuff. Others don't.

 

[opeter]

Yes it will be enough.

However for the future it is recommended, to swap out the internal HDD for an SSD.
And put the HDD in external enclosure.

I did the same.

And also, I wouldn't buy the Mac mini at current full price.
Rather a refurbished and/or used.

***

The negatives:
- the CPU is just a dual-core (with four threads, but that doesn't make it a four core beast) it can be slow for advanced things in the future
- some would say, that it would be nice for the comming years, if you could upgrade the RAM to 16 GB, but sadly, you can't
- GPU is what it is ...

 

[jm31828]

This is what I have, purchased it in 2014. It’s a great machine- boots slow due to the 5400 rpm hard drive, but once it boots it is snappy and has no issues running all of my apps.

 

[Easttime]

I got a refurb 2014 2.6 GHz Mini last year with 1 TB Fusion, 8 MB RAM when I was forced to buy suddenly owing to simultaneous dual deaths of my old iMac and MacBook. Very pleasantly surprised. Up and running in 3 days and it performs just fine. Multiple apps open all the time. Lot of MS Office document production, basic image and video work, personal information management, running two big monitors, multiple external hard drives and external speakers for background music. If only they would update this form factor!