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The "I just ordered / bought / got my new/refurb Mac mini" threads, merged
- Thread starter MacRansom
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It looks like I'm going to be joining the ranks. I was all set on picking up a refurbished mid range Mac mini with ssd but when I checked out eBay I saw a auction ending for a used 2014 2.8 GHz 16 GB RAM and 1TB fusion drive and ended up getting it for $760 which was about what I was considering for the midrange. Really excited about it, I've been thinking about these for a few months and just found this with like 20 min left so just jumped on it. It will be my first mac as well so looking forward to it. Little bit of a "well that escalated quickly" feeling but I'm really excited.
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But kazmac, they both are less than 1/2 that price! Is 8GB of RAM really worth $940 to you? 16GB is better than 8GB but it is only that much better in certain specific scenarios.
For $759 a buyer could use either 8GB mini and sell it years later with a low cost of ownership.
I wonder if a buyer could do the same with a $1699 16GB model?
But kazmac, they both are less than 1/2 that price! Is 8GB of RAM really worth $940 to you? 16GB is better than 8GB but it is only that much better in certain specific scenarios.
For $759 a buyer could use either 8GB mini and sell it years later with a low cost of ownership.
I see your point sir, but
The $1699 2014 up now has the 1TB flash drive and 3.0 i7 chip in it - making it $180 less than what that would cost with an educational discount; I've got 12gb ram in my 2010 iMac here so I am used to more than standard configurations ram.
The other reason I want more ram, I've seen tons of beachballs since Mavericks in this machine and the 2015 27" iMac I had return for video card problems. The 27" had 16gb of ram in it. I multitask a lot and found it's better for me to have the most ram possible (esp. if you cannot upgrade it) when purchasing. If the mini still had the user replaceable ram, I'd see your point. I am not in this to sell my Macs though. I've learned to love them and use them until I cannot any more.
I see your points as well.
This is one expensive 8GHz mini. That is especially true considering $1699 only buys a dual core i7. I think that the sweet spot might be a bit lower in the Mac mini lineup.
And... I also purchase to use, rather than sell. I just mentioned resale value because I thought that you might have been worried about future proofing. I see now that you have a beachball concern. Perhaps 16GB of RAM is the solution for you.
I see your points as well.
This is one expensive 8GHz mini. That is especially true considering $1699 only buys a dual core i7. I think that the sweet spot might be a bit lower in the Mac mini lineup.
And... I also purchase to use, rather than sell. I just mentioned resale value because I thought that you might have been worried about future proofing. I see now that you have a beachball concern. Perhaps 16GB of RAM is the solution for you.
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Indeed, now that I've had a V8 (i.e. reread your post and appreciate the screen shot.). The dual core does indeed make this a very overpriced machine when I can get a retina 21.5" or a 27" iMac with a quad core chip for that money. That 100% solidifies your comments - pardon my being asleep at the monitor here.
Disappointing no matter how much ram one has in their machines now, OS X is so buggy the beachballs come up when they shouldn't. I rarely had that problem prior to Mavericks. This is my dliemma, I need a new Mac but the brief time I had the 27" iMac I was spoiled by the quad core chip and so I have no idea what Mac purchase now (either pay Apple for gimping the 21.5" or get an rMBP.) The 27" was great, but was too much $ and machine for my needs. I've learned I won't be doing heavy design work at school.
Sorry to throw this thread off topic. I wish I would have seen those refurb 2012 minis yesterday.
No sweat kazmac, those beachballs tend to throw us all a little off topic. Better luck next time with those refurb 2012 minis.
I just ordered my first Mac - the 2.6GHz Mac Mini.
Excited to join the Mac family!
Excited to join the Mac family!
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So pissed off that I couldn't get Mac OS on my desktop computer ( yeah Hackintosh ) so I decided to buy a second-handed Mac Mini. I'm going to get it this evening.
Mac Mini 2.7 Ghz i7 dualcore
16GB RAM
180GB SSD
AMD Radeon HD 6630GM 256MB GDDR5
For the price of €450 so 490$.. I don't think i'm doing a bad deal considering the CPU & the RAM's.
I'll probably upgrade the SSD in a few months/years, cause I'd like to do some video editing, so that might be a bit short ^^
Mac Mini 2.7 Ghz i7 dualcore
16GB RAM
180GB SSD
AMD Radeon HD 6630GM 256MB GDDR5
For the price of €450 so 490$.. I don't think i'm doing a bad deal considering the CPU & the RAM's.
I'll probably upgrade the SSD in a few months/years, cause I'd like to do some video editing, so that might be a bit short ^^
Well sparkie1984...
According to voyager03 they are rather rare.
Click the "here" link in the post to get an idea of the 2012 frequency and also a tip about a tool for automatic refurb notification.
Thanks for that.
Shame it seems so sporadic.
I check the refurb store regularly and it seems to constantlychange between what's in stock, sometimes nothing. Then 10 minutes later they're back again
Shame it seems so sporadic.
I check the refurb store regularly and it seems to constantlychange between what's in stock, sometimes nothing. Then 10 minutes later they're back again
If I were in the market for one now I would prefer to get a refurbished model.
My path would be to first install one or more refurb tracking apps on my phone and then to pounce immediately when the desired computer appears. If that method failed and I had to have a 2012 mini I would then search the used market for stock or near stock machines. After reading about all of the broken sensors and power LED leads, I don't really want a mini that someone else has fiddled with.
I played the waiting game for a refurb...but it was like trying to win the lottery trying to wait for what I wanted or if any to even be available. In the end I just ponied up and surrendered my Apple Store gift cards and got a new one..even if there is a refresh this year, I don't care.
I still have yet to name my Mac mini
I still have yet to name my Mac mini
I played the waiting game for a refurb...but it was like trying to win the lottery trying to wait for what I wanted or if any to even be available. In the end I just ponied up and surrendered my Apple Store gift cards and got a new one..even if there is a refresh this year, I don't care.
I still have yet to name my Mac mini
How do you find it?what spec did you go for?
well I knew I wanted the fusion drive so, I ended up getting the 2.8GHz which comes with the 1TB Fusion Drive standard and 8GB RAM standard.
I was in the Apple Store app for 3-4 weeks straight, just looking for a refurb, maybe one time did I see it but the next time I checked it was gone, and that was the same day! I kept seeing plenty of the entry level Mac minis but I wasn't going to settle. Need I say, I was also waiting for $300 in Apple Store giftcards from their reuse and recycle program for two old iPhones I had laying around.
Alas, I'm still happy with my purchase. Now just to figure out the best apps and software!
Congrats. I've been toying with just going with a "new" model.
Considering i will only be using it as a home computer for browsing and general website reading a dual core will probably be ok for me?
I guess I like the option of having a bit more horsepower if I ever did want it.
I would be interested to know what the performance of the fusion drive is like. Always felt I should go all ssd as it is supposed to perform much faster than the ssd portion of the fusion drive
Considering i will only be using it as a home computer for browsing and general website reading a dual core will probably be ok for me?
I guess I like the option of having a bit more horsepower if I ever did want it.
I would be interested to know what the performance of the fusion drive is like. Always felt I should go all ssd as it is supposed to perform much faster than the ssd portion of the fusion drive
Thanks...I thought about that too as the 1TB flash storage I'm sure is worth salivating over, however it increased the price significantly. I used to do photoshop a few years back on my 4GB RAM HP, but nowadays I don't even really have the time to tinker around with it any more...but with my new Mac mini I may try to make time for it and see if I can get back into it.
You did okay CaptMarvel! That 2.8GHz i5 will deliver great performance per dollar.
How do you like the Fusion Drive (FD)? I think that sparkie1984 has heard some misinformation about the performance difference between an SSD and a FD. The SSD should have a slight speed advantage over a FD. With the PCIe powered 2014 minis this difference should come down to the difference between scorching and burning! SSDs and FDs are both much faster than HDDs. There is often a measurable difference between an SSD and a FD but it is seldom a perceptible difference.
How does your FD perform CaptMarvel? Do you regret not spending the extra cash for the 1TB SSD option?
You did okay CaptMarvel! That 2.8GHz i5 will deliver great performance per dollar.
How do you like the Fusion Drive (FD)? I think that sparkie1984 has heard some misinformation about the performance difference between an SSD and a FD. The SSD should have a slight speed advantage over a FD. With the PCIe powered 2014 minis this difference should come down to the difference between scorching and burning! SSDs and FDs are both much faster than HDDs. There is often a measurable difference between an SSD and a FD but it is seldom a perceptible difference.
How does your FD perform CaptMarvel? Do you regret not spending the extra cash for the 1TB SSD option?
No regrets yet on not spending an extra $800 for the 1TB PCle Flash
but here's my question which I'm still a little confused about...if I wanted the machine to be that much snappier, wouldn't it be more cost effective to up the RAM to 16GB instead? The storage is just how fast your computer can access what's saved or save new things to the system? Right now, I've just been using the system for basic tasks, but maybe photoshop down the line or maybe other creative photo suite, maybe music too, but no where near the pro level, so I think my purchase will suffice...or I hope so? Celerondon you have a nice way of playing devil's advocate, haha.
No regrets yet on not spending an extra $800 for the 1TB PCle Flash
...maybe photoshop down the line or maybe other creative photo suite, maybe music too, but no where near the pro level, so I think my purchase will suffice...or I hope so? Celerondon you have a nice way of playing devil's advocate, haha.
Just call your machine Verbal Kint.
Just as Mr. Kint limped into that cluttered office in the police station, your crippled 2014 came into your home or office lacking essentials like an i7 CPU, SSD storage, and 16GB of RAM.
How does your FD powered mini perform CaptMarvel? What is the boot time on that little gray box?
That i5/8GB/1TB FD mini will certainly be sufficient for all sorts of work. If you use Activity Monitor to check Memory Pressure it should reveal that your 8GB of RAM is adequate for anything that you want to do. Programs like Photoshop and music software should do fine with that much memory. The folks who truly need 16GB are often running multiple (or really RAM hungry) Virtual Machines. This Macworld article claims that 8GB is enough for many virtual machine scenarios. http://www.macworld.com/article/203...ifications-of-additional-memory-on-a-mac.html
I was surprised to see small difference between 8GB and 16GB in some of their test configurations. It was also interesting that the tests showed that the advantage that 8GB had over 4GB in Photoshop CS6 was not automatically shared with other programs. According to Macworld, iTunes, Handbrake, iPhoto, iMovie, and other software showed only minor improvements (if any) when the RAM was increased beyond 4GB!
That $800 for the 1TB PCIe SSD is a premium price for the fastest storage option in Mac mini history. Is it worth that much? Does any particular machine need it? Those are subjective questions that consumers will answer on a case-by-case basis. Your 16GB of RAM question is similar. But…
I think that you could be right in the case of your FD equipped mini. At 4X the price it appears to be “more cost effective” even though the 16GB will not improve performance most of the time. I would prefer the memory upgrade because maxing the memory is much less expensive and you cannot do it later. Despite the performance advantage, the 1TB PCIe SSD from Apple is crazy expensive. Unlike memory upgrades, big PCIe SSDs can be purchased elsewhere and/or in the future for much less $.
Spending the extra $800 would get you a similarly sized storage system that is definitely faster than your FD. Would it be $800 faster?