Mac mini -- refurb or used

[147798]

Have some Mac Mini options. All are 2.6 GHz 2014

• refurb with a 1TB 5400RPM HDD and 8GB RAM
  
• used with a 1TB fusion drive and 8GB RAM at +$82 over the refurb (miscalced the first time)

I'm thinking the fusion drive is key, because I would end up spending MORE than $100 to get an external SSD to put the OS on with the refurb??

also, found another used with 1TB fusion and 16 GB RAM at +150 more than the second option, but I've got to protect my budget at some point. Use case is light activity and medium photo editing.


Can you buy apple care on a used 2014 mac mini, or is it probably too late?

 

[cruisin]

The fusion drive uses a 128 GB SSD in the old models and a 24 GB SSD in the 1 TB fusion drive and a 128 GB SSD for the rest in the new models. A 128 GB SSD plus an enclosure should cost under $100 and then you can setup the fusion drive yourself. So if you don't mind an external drive you can setup fusion yourself.

The 2012 models allow you to update the ram yourself and are faster in multicore tasks. The 2014 have a better GPU and are better at single core tasks. Outside of the GPU the 2014 isn't that much different than the 2012 model. This makes the quad core 2012 mini very hard to get but the dual core mini might be easier.

All official refurbs are treated like new so you have up to one year from purchase to get Applecare. A used model has up to a year from date of first purchase to get Applecare, so if the Mini is over 1 year old you can't get Applecare. Your only option is if someone bought a refurb 2014 mini less than 1 year ago and is selling it now.

 

[147798]

The fusion drive uses a 128 GB SSD in the old models and a 24 GB SSD in the 1 TB fusion drive and a 128 GB SSD for the rest in the new models.

On the Apple site, if you look at an iMac and drill into the details on the 2015 configure-to-buy page, it says that a 1TB fusion drive has 24GB flash. If you do the same for a mini, it says it has 128GB flash. I'm thinking that since the mini is an older model (still 2014) it still has 128GB flash drive component??

 

[Celerondon]

On the Apple site, if you look at an iMac and drill into the details on the 2015 configure-to-buy page, it says that a 1TB fusion drive has 24GB flash. If you do the same for a mini, it says it has 128GB flash. I'm thinking that since the mini is an older model (still 2014) it still has 128GB flash drive component??

The fusion drive uses a 128 GB SSD in the old models and a 24 GB SSD in the 1 TB fusion drive and a 128 GB SSD for the rest in the new models.

Right bkin1000, I think that the tiny FD SSD components are an iMac thing. It seems that the 24GB SSDs showed up after the 2014 mini was introduced. By the way, this issue seems to only affect the 1TB FD. The larger FD still comes with the 128GB SSD component.

Has anyone seen proof that Apple is installing the 24GB SSDs on the minis as well?

 

[Fishrrman]

The Mac Mini with a 1tb fusion drive (to my knowledge) is still using a 120gb SSD.

At this point, it's only the 2015 iMac that is using the meager 24gb SSD for the flash portion of its fusion drive...