Mini Advice Please

[Krypter]

I need some advice....

I have been wanting a mac now for a good year or so after purchasing my iphone and ipad over a year ago and would love to experience what apple has to offer in the desktop environment.

I held out buying a mini because there was a rumour that one would be released soon, because of this I held out buying one.

Now it's been updated and I am somewhat torn between fishing around for the old base 2012 model, buying the base model 2014 or forking out for the mid range model.

Now I already have a gaming PC that plays all games very well and because of this I don't need a powerhouse of a mac mini machine, I can turn to my PC if/when I need to. What I want from my mac mini is to last for a good few years, receive the latest updates and use it as my main driver for general media consumption, mail, browsing and the infrequent/occasional photo edits (hobby when I get a chance to leave house).

What ever model I intend to get I will be installing my own SSD drive either via interally or USB3 which is doable with the right hardware (people keep saying it's not, but I have seen/read it done and know someone who does it).

Because I am used to building gaming rigs my head is usually K processor and 8GB ram at least - But when I try and tone things down and think about just general media consumption on a mac I get confused about the low specs to what I am used too.

Now I know the RAM is now soldered and probably opening it up voids the warranty which is a total bummer, but I was surprised apple allowed this on their so called "entry model" so even though it's now not doable kinda sucks, I didn't have the previous or a mac to even care too much.

Now what do I buy?
(will add my own SSD to any one)

Mac Mini 2012
2.5GHz (3.1GHz)
4GB RAM
HD4000
500GB HDD

~£450

It seems like you can't get this cheap yet because it was the "last true mini" so cost is basically between the new base and middle 2014 models, also from reputable ebay users or websites (some very cheap dodgy ones around). Also do you think this model will be kept uptodate with mac updates in the future?

Might be able to get one from refurb store for alot cheaper, but mini's are always far apart and hardly the baseline model, and they go blazing fast from past experience.

Mac Mini 2014
1.4GHz (2.7GHz)
4GB RAM
HD5000
500GB HDD

£375

(I get a employee rate scheme discount across apple)

Mac Mini 2014
2.6GHz (3.1GHz)
8GB RAM
1TB HDD

£535

(looks like the old base model with more space/ram for extra £35 without the upgrade-ability of RAM)

Now I can afford the base line 2014 model easily and can justify spending that amount of money to get my first mac. The only way I can't justify it if that the specs are just too low to do anything....but apple would release a machine that wasn't apple to work right?? Also going anything higher than the base 2014 mac mini will cause the wrath of my wife, if I go higher the trade off has to be perfect (lol).

Like I said, I have my PC here for the heavy lifting I just generally want to get my first mac and do:

General browsing (day to day)
Mail
Media Consumption
Photoshop/Lightroom (light/infrequent edits, love to play around every so often with camera if I get the chance)

What do you guys think? I don't want opinions based on hatred for the new mac not being upgradable and saying just buy the late 2012 model just out of spite, I need some general advice please....

Thank you in advance!

 

[gizze]

I am thinking the same, I have been using Macs at home and as laptops for years now, and been using a PC at work as my POS software was windows, but just realised now it is going cloud based I can ditch the work PC at last.

So looking at the following....

Mac Mini 2012
2.5GHz (3.1GHz)
HD4000
16GB RAM

Or.....

Mac Mini 2014
1.4GHz (2.7GHz)
HD5000
8GB RAM



However, I would add 16gb ram on the 2012 which would bring it to £490, I would have to add it on build with the 2014 model and limited to 8gb, at £479.


I would probably add an SSD as I have a couple spare.



Also, Very are doing 12 month interest free on the 2012 model, or pay over 3 months, which is always nicer than dropping £500 in one go.

Basically would I be loosing out much?

It is on a gigabit network so not using the wifi, which seems like the real draw and if it was at home with everything else being on 802.11AC would have made the decision harder.

But think the older machine with 16gb might be a better buy?

 

[gizze]

I decided to just get the 2012 model.

At the end of the day at £399 with 12 months interest free makes it a no brainer.

Plus I may just order one 8gb stick giving me 10gb ram for £450.

And more than happy how nicely my old 2008 imac is running with Yosemite and only 4gb of ram, has got an ssd in there.

So just ordered.

 

[Akula971]

What to do?

I'm in the same boat. I use my 2010 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo (8GB RAM) Mac mini for my business, and use windows xp in parallels for my CAD system, that will soon be able to run in Win 7. My 2010 Mac Mini is getting to the point where it is getting a bit slow, and I'm concerned about using a 4 year old machine that may breakdown, and cause a disruption to my business (yes I back up, but a few days down would cause problems).

So I'm torn between spending £600-700 on an I7 Quad core 2012, or on a 2.8GHz dual core 2014 mac mini. I know that both will be an improvement on what I've got, but I suspect that a quad core will handle Windows/parallels and OSX better than a dual core.

Watching every day for a review of the 2014 units.

 

[Skibba]

Very are doing 12 month interest free on the 2012 model

I can only see 3 month interest free or 12 month with interest.

Still, 2012 mid range for £569 is great!

 

[gizze]

I can only see 3 month interest free or 12 month with interest.

Still, 2012 mid range for £569 is great!

If you add it, when you get to purchasing you can choose 12 month Buy Now Pay Later, just make sure you pay it before the 12 months is up.

Blip £50 in every payday.