I imagine so.
Was simply curious.
But those Macs with 8gb will be a tough sell above 200, i think.
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Rant about the new Mac Mini.
- Thread starter neomorpheus
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Was simply curious.
But those Macs with 8gb will be a tough sell above 200, i think.
For me, not interested in a used Mini, I already have three old ones if I wanted to go that route. Happy with my $529 m4 Mini, which is four years (?) newer than an m1, with a full Apple warranty. Would I like it to be cheaper? Of course. But the $500 price point is the same as my 2012 and 2014 base Mini's when I bought them new, yet this one has 16gb RAM instead of 4 and a fast SSD instead of a dog-slow 5400 RPM hard drive.
This machine is a media server - it's an appliance. Set it and forget it. In the end, you get what you pay for. What's the history of that used $200 Mini? Will they actually send it? Will it be damaged? Or still have some kind of management software from a company that used to own it? It's a gamble - and admittedly, you could win. Or you could end up wasting a lot of time.
Different philosophy than yours, and that's fine. Like they say: "You pays your money, you makes your choice".
This machine is a media server - it's an appliance. Set it and forget it. In the end, you get what you pay for. What's the history of that used $200 Mini? Will they actually send it? Will it be damaged? Or still have some kind of management software from a company that used to own it? It's a gamble - and admittedly, you could win. Or you could end up wasting a lot of time.
Different philosophy than yours, and that's fine. Like they say: "You pays your money, you makes your choice".
Swappa its a good place to buy.
I had good experiences with them.
Depending on the usage, 200 its not bad but yes, the current base M4 does throw a monkey wrench in there.
Especially with the possibility of cheap ssd upgrades on the horizon.
I had good experiences with them.
Depending on the usage, 200 its not bad but yes, the current base M4 does throw a monkey wrench in there.
Especially with the possibility of cheap ssd upgrades on the horizon.
For the M4?
I will believe that when I see it.
That’s been getting teased since the studios came out and it still has not appeared
Obviously do whatever you’d like, but I think you’re kind of just creating some scenarios that are mostly FUD … please take no offense but it just kind of reads a little bit paranoid about something that there’s no reason to be that way
One of the huge benefits of Macs being these locked down appliances is that there’s really nothing that can go wrong or anything anybody could’ve done to it to make it a preowned risk, especially a mini that doesn’t even have a screen or keyboard/trackpad.
I know but as someone said on another thread, the Studio userbase seems to be minuscule, but the mini is another story and i already posted a couple of links showing what looks like serious attempts to proceed with this.
Fingers crossed that it does happen.
Edit: here it is, for convenience:
Yeah, as someone who sells stuff on eBay all the time, I take seriously the need to describe items accurately. Ebay will almost always side with the buyer, as they want people to feel confident shopping on the site. They're less bothered about sellers, as they're motivated to use the site anyway. As a seller, you can't even leave negative feedback for a buyer.
If someone bought a Mac from eBay and there's anything wrong with it, they will complain, eBay will back them up, and the seller will generally have little choice but to accept the return. It would be in their interests to anyway, as a pissed off buyer might just send the item back damaged / incomplete / without proper packaging.
When buying used, I want to see clear pictures from all angles. If they say there's a flaw, I want a good look at it. It's crazy when people say stuff like 'light scratches on the screen, but you don't notice them' - I'll be the judge of that. I'm not interested in strategic disclaimers; I immediately move on to the next listing.
Thanks!
Yes, if (and that's "iff") I buy the M4 Mini, it will have 32GM of RAM as a minimum.
I question whether they will really be able to scale up that SSD upgrade process. Based on the videos, etc, they had to completely reverse engineer the ssd for the Mac Studio and create an exact copy. If Apple keeps the same design and it is just a marginal upgrade for each new Mac it wont be that bad to create new SSDs for each model, but if they have to reverse engineer it on every single Mac because each one is different, I just don't know that it's going to be something that makes enough money to keep a company in business.
Thankfully I guess, Apple charges so much for those SSD upgrades that someone can charge a lot and still turn a profit.
We'll see.
If apple is going through such lengths (actively sabotaging third parties) I will have a serious issue in continuing being their customer.
I don't recall Apple going after OWC or other brands selling SSDs that were compatible with the Blade port on their boards from 2012-2015. I don't think Apple would actively sabotage a third-party making replacement SSDs for the new Studio, Mini, and Pro models with removable NANDs. The logical calculation is that the people who are technologically savvy enough to go through the process of the upgrade probably weren't going to spend the extra money on the higher storage tier out of the box anyway. The people who either don't know about these new Mac SSD experiments/projects popping up or the ones who can just afford to pay more right now will just pay more.
They are however making this more difficult overall than it needs to be
There is NO good customer focused reason to not offer a user accessible NVMe slot alongside the built in Apple SSD so folks could easily add storage of their choosing down the line
Sony has done this with the PS5 and it's brilliant and so pleasant as a consumer
If they were a PC manufacturer this would 100% be the case. But Apple have the Mac market to themselves, so enjoy a generous additional revenue stream.
It’s not an inappropriate description for anyone defending 256 GB of base storage (and the bad user experience once that fills up) in 2024.
Intel and maybe Samsung are pretty much the only companies in the world that fabricates their own CPUs. You might as well argue that Apple doesn’t mine its own steel or silicon. AMD, nVidia, Qualcomm, Broadcom and NXP all outsource their fabrication.
But Apple did design the M series processors, they did develop MacOS and they did design all their hardware and they completely oversee its manufacture. Dismissing that as “integration” demonstrates a strong lack of understanding of how technology is developed and manufactured.
I agree that I would much rather have standard gen 4 or 5 NVMe inputs for 2230-2280 sized drives. Though I don't think Sony is the best example to use here if you mean to say that Sony is doing something different from before. For starters the NVMe slot on the PS5 is for expansion only. If something happens to the internal SSD you're **** outta luck. On top of that Sony has basically always been good at letting users upgrade the storage on their home consoles. All versions of the PS3 and PS4 have easily accessible HDD trays. All you need is a USB flash drive with the easily downloadable firmware/BIOS from the PlayStation website, any standard SATA HDD or SSD (except for the PS3 - about a 1-1.5TB limit), and some time.
I'm reading this over and over again and while I see what you're saying, I'm having hard time being upset with Sony (vs Apple) here.
They at least give some care, however minor or with caveats, to the users in certain ways depending upon which console example (to your points)
Apple is allowing no such flexibility and continues to lock it down further (now fully so)
Isn't whatever Sony has offered better? To me it is
Yes, I also do not get it. What does the poster mean? Complaning you cannot replace the internal SSD in the PS5? I.e. the same SSD that contains the OS etc. Good luck for a non-expert to replacing the storage on a gaming station without going something horribly wrong.
Instead, Sony gives you to option (remember, a gaming station vs. computer) to expand it for a few bucks. And it is super easy. Also, with these new games I think it will probably be important to fully utilize the speed that nVME offers over some USB stick. Let alone the chance of knocking out the USB stick mid game.
I'm not upset either. I don't think what I wrote should indicate that at all. I'm just saying that Sony with the PlayStation 5 has the same problem Apple does in that when the internal SSD dies you can't really replace it yourself. Like ya I'm sure some people out there can do it but your average user won't or can't.
edit: easy user expansion is good. I don't think what I wrote prior to this would even imply that I think storage expansion is bad. It just isn't the same thing as what the PS3/4 had. And Sony providing users a way to expand or replace their home console storage is the norm. Whereas Apple used to allow that and stopped.
Gotcha -- thx for circling back and clarifying
Yes, I agree that sucks
Very happy they allow such easy user expansion for the PS5 at least. I think most of the frustration with the Macs isn't the inability to deal with a failed system drive, which is an issue for sure, but rather the excessive gouging for all amounts of storage up front from Apple..as well as not being able to expand it post purchase if your needs change.
From that view, Sony clearly wins for sure
My understanding is, in apple pittines and anticonsumer practice, they will only replace the drive but wont allow you to buy bigger in such scenario.
And assuming they did, they will price gouge you anyways.
Story time, CTO calls me and says:
I need a bigger ssd on my Macbook pro (was an intel Mac) heres my CC, get it done.
I call apple business support, since we were a big company and had a seizable contract with them, ask for the ssd and the person on the other side responded: cant do, plan your purchase better next time.
CTO was livid, returned the MBP, got a Lenovo and actually reduced the budget for apple devices.
You had to provide a good justification to be able to get a Mac.
Wow
That is about the most hostile and anti-customer reply I can imagine
(Especially to a business support customer!)
Briefly tried the base M4 Mini and was very impressed -- but decided upon a laptop form factor to solve all my needs at once.
I've just purchased a 14" MBP M4 base model for $1k BNIB and currently am working on how I'll attach my external NVMe to the back of the screen
Sorry Tim -- value had to win out here
Had to look it up ... $600 they charge for a 2TB (1.8tb) upgrade?
🤣😂
I've just purchased a 14" MBP M4 base model for $1k BNIB and currently am working on how I'll attach my external NVMe to the back of the screen
Sorry Tim -- value had to win out here
Had to look it up ... $600 they charge for a 2TB (1.8tb) upgrade?
🤣😂