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Mac Mini models

R

red11

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 17, 2011
8
0
Hi there,

Unfortunately I am not the most clued up when it comes to model specs, so hopefully you guys can help! I am currently eyeing up the mid or the top end Mac mini, but the only difference I am seeing is .2ghz in processing and the word 'fusion' being snuck in for the drive (both 1 tb). This seems a very small difference for a £230 price increase? Or is it?

Am I better off buying the mid range one and increasing the ram with some after market chips?

Your advice would be much appreciated! Thanks
 
"Fusion" is actually a big difference.

The mid-range model has a single 1 Tb spinning disk hard drive.

The top end model has a 1 Tb spinning disk hard drive PLUS a smaller solid state drive (SSD) which stores the OS and frequently-used applications. This greatly speeds up boot times, loading times, and overall operation of those applications. In this case, the spinning drive is used primarily for data storage.
 
You can no longer upgrade the ram as it is soldered to the motherboard in current mac minis. You must purchase the machine that already contains all of the ram you think you'll ever need. Definitely get one with a fusion drive. There's currently a i5/8Gb/1Tb fusion on the refurb store (but could be gone in 5 minutes). That's what I'd get. Or wait until you see a 16Gb (most ram you can get in a current mini) on the refurb store.
 
As others have mentioned, you should buy the gpu, cpu and as much ram as you might need now, because these specs can not be upgraded later.
 
Tomorrow said:
"Fusion" is actually a big difference.

The mid-range model has a single 1 Tb spinning disk hard drive.

The top end model has a 1 Tb spinning disk hard drive PLUS a smaller solid state drive (SSD) which stores the OS and frequently-used applications. This greatly speeds up boot times, loading times, and overall operation of those applications. In this case, the spinning drive is used primarily for data storage.
Click to expand...
The 1Tb Fusion is now down to 24GB SSD from previous 128GB.

I believe the 2Tb Fusion still retains the larger SSD.
 
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