Hello everyone, as of yesterday I became the owner of my first Mac Mini: the base 2012 model (4GB RAM, 500GB HD, i5 CPU). I had been hemming and hawing about whether or not to get one, and had pretty much decided that I really don't *need* one (more on that in a bit), but yesterday morning I woke up, checked my email, and saw an email from Best Buy with a 10% off coupon for open box items. We were planning on going to see a movie yesterday at a theater about 40 minutes away which we never go to (one of the only theaters still showing Skyfall), so I checked the inventory of the Best Buy close down the road from that theater and saw that they had two Mac Mini's: the new 2012 model, and the base version of the old 2011 model (2GB RAM). As seems to be typical, they never show the price online, and my past experience had been that the stores near me never seem to discount them very well, so I still figured that it would end up being priced higher than I wanted to spend on a used/returned Mac Mini that lacked a full warranty. But, after the movie was done, we headed over to see.
Once there, I found a rep and he went into the back room and returned with two taped-up boxless Mini's. I forget exactly, but I think the 2011 model was stickered at about $480, and I believe it was missing the bottom plate (how does that happen?). The 2012 model, which was fully intact (but, like I said, no box) was stickered at $509. So, by my math, after another 10% off that would be about $458 (plus tax, unfortunately). The rep seemed to have some difficulty with the 10% off coupon not working, and then seemed to be acting as though perhaps they had stickered it wrong and it wasn't supposed to be marked so low to begin with. He got out a calculator and started plugging in numbers that didn't make any sense. At that point, I figured they were going to give me the runaround, reminding me why I hate Best Buy, but to my pleasant surprise they got a manager to come by, type in their code, and the price got adjusted down to $458. My wife and daughter gave me a hard time on the way out (why do you need another computer?), but walk out I did, with a new Mac Mini.
I'll add that I was a bit paranoid at the store as to whether or not it was truly a 2012 model. As you know, the case itself doesn't really give a lot of details on it, and I believe the model # is the same as the old model #. But then I did notice the mention of 2012 on it in tiny print, and I felt safe.
I had to rush home to watch the 49ers game, and I just finally booted it up for the first time a few minutes ago. While it was doing its thing, I used my laptop to go to the Apple website and plug in the serial number to see how much life was left on the warranty. Bonus: It was never registered, so I get the full year! I suspect this was a display model, because there was no box, but the power cable looked a bit dirty, and there was a tiny nick on the bottom of the case, and a tiny smudge/abrasion on the front of the case.
Anyways, this is getting wordy enough, so I'll elaborate more on my intended uses for it for later, but I'll just mention that I currently am using an HP tower (Intel i7 CPU) running Windows Media Center 7 in conjunction with a SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime 3-tuner cablecard box to do all of my TV recording and also as a Plex media server. I may decide to replace that box with this one, since it's in my bedroom and this will be much tinier and quieter. But (don't hate me for this) that would involve installing Windows 7 on it so that I can continue to use Windows Media Center. As such, if I go that route, I'm not sure how often I'll ever see the OS X GUI appear on this thing. My other dilemma will be: what do I do with that big HP tower PC? I don't want the i7 to go to waste, but I'd rather not leave it on 24/7 to act as a server, and I won't have too much need for it otherwise. Maybe I could sell it.
Once there, I found a rep and he went into the back room and returned with two taped-up boxless Mini's. I forget exactly, but I think the 2011 model was stickered at about $480, and I believe it was missing the bottom plate (how does that happen?). The 2012 model, which was fully intact (but, like I said, no box) was stickered at $509. So, by my math, after another 10% off that would be about $458 (plus tax, unfortunately). The rep seemed to have some difficulty with the 10% off coupon not working, and then seemed to be acting as though perhaps they had stickered it wrong and it wasn't supposed to be marked so low to begin with. He got out a calculator and started plugging in numbers that didn't make any sense. At that point, I figured they were going to give me the runaround, reminding me why I hate Best Buy, but to my pleasant surprise they got a manager to come by, type in their code, and the price got adjusted down to $458. My wife and daughter gave me a hard time on the way out (why do you need another computer?), but walk out I did, with a new Mac Mini.
I'll add that I was a bit paranoid at the store as to whether or not it was truly a 2012 model. As you know, the case itself doesn't really give a lot of details on it, and I believe the model # is the same as the old model #. But then I did notice the mention of 2012 on it in tiny print, and I felt safe.
I had to rush home to watch the 49ers game, and I just finally booted it up for the first time a few minutes ago. While it was doing its thing, I used my laptop to go to the Apple website and plug in the serial number to see how much life was left on the warranty. Bonus: It was never registered, so I get the full year! I suspect this was a display model, because there was no box, but the power cable looked a bit dirty, and there was a tiny nick on the bottom of the case, and a tiny smudge/abrasion on the front of the case.
Anyways, this is getting wordy enough, so I'll elaborate more on my intended uses for it for later, but I'll just mention that I currently am using an HP tower (Intel i7 CPU) running Windows Media Center 7 in conjunction with a SiliconDust HDHomeRun Prime 3-tuner cablecard box to do all of my TV recording and also as a Plex media server. I may decide to replace that box with this one, since it's in my bedroom and this will be much tinier and quieter. But (don't hate me for this) that would involve installing Windows 7 on it so that I can continue to use Windows Media Center. As such, if I go that route, I'm not sure how often I'll ever see the OS X GUI appear on this thing. My other dilemma will be: what do I do with that big HP tower PC? I don't want the i7 to go to waste, but I'd rather not leave it on 24/7 to act as a server, and I won't have too much need for it otherwise. Maybe I could sell it.