Thoughts on purchasing a 2010 Mac mini...

knightwrangler · Jul 30, 2012

I've been thinking about buying one of these for quite sometime and I actually came across a seller who has a 2010 refurb supposedly brand new in the box that he never opened or used.
My question is it was purchased almost a year ago so I would guess that the Apple warranty started on the day he received his unit? If so then there's probably only a month or so remaining on the standard warranty and would this effect it's selling price?
My other question is regarding the selling price at $550CAN. I have no idea what a unit in this "unopened" condition value would be that has been sitting around almost a year later.
I do remember that these occasionally appear on Apple's refurb site for around $569.

Any ideas?

blevins321 · Jul 30, 2012

The $569 is for the current 2011 Mini. They're a huge speed improvement compared to the 2010 C2D-based processor models. I'd say you're much better off getting a refurb 2011 if/when the 2012 models come out. They'll decrease in price a bit when that happens.

If you NEED one now, I'd go for the $569 2011 Refurb. However, the 2010's do have one thing going for them - the presence of a DVD drive. Note that the price for a new model 2011 is $100 cheaper than a new 2010. So that might account for some of the discrepancy here.

philipma1957 · Jul 30, 2012

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FC270LL/A

this comes up now and then in the usa.

I buy them a lot and do an 8gb ram mod.

your plusses are

1)dvd player.
2 ) runs snow ,lion, mountain, windows 7 i Think it will run windows 8.
3) it is low cost

your minuses

1) the cpu is slow the cpu is slow

2) In your case I do not know when the seller purchased it so I do not know when the warranty clock started.

here is one I sold a while back . note to the mods this machine was sold a while ago and I am not trying to sell a machine. I am showing the op ho a good listing for his machine should look like.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/16084371569...OX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1562.l2649#ht_596wt_1398

when this machine arrived at the buyers home he had about 51 weeks warranty . the warranty does transfer with machine as a ram upgrade is allowed. BTW this mini is really picky on ram. It rejects ram routinely.

One reason i can sell them is I pretest the ram and give results. I have not found a perfect ram for this machine but samsung 4gb sticks pass at the highest rate.

I end up using this ram with 2010 minis it fails ram test more then the samsung, but about 80 percent of the sticks are good. if you pass the test they tend to stay good for a long time.

http://www.amazon.ca/PNY-MN8192KD3-1066-PC3-8500-1066MHz-Notebook/dp/B004DHK85I/ref=lh_ni_t

knightwrangler · Jul 30, 2012

Thanks for your response. I realize the 2010 is slower, but this is the last mac mini model with the DVD drive built in. I would like this for a low cost mac/windows desktop machine.

From what the seller told me it was purchased in Sept. 2011 and is still in the original refurb packaging from Apple unused. So it would be safe to say that it even though it may be a new refurb it only has a couple of weeks left on the Apple standard warranty?

Also I stand corrected and you guys are right, the refurb cost is $469 not $569 for the 2010.
The seller is listing his for $550, which is high-I'm not sure why? Don't these models depreciate in value?

blevins321 · Jul 30, 2012

knightwrangler said:
Thanks for your response. I realize the 2010 is slower, but this is the last mac mini model with the DVD drive built in. I would like this for a low cost mac/windows desktop machine.

From what the seller told me it was purchased in Sept. 2011 and is still in the original refurb packaging from Apple unused. So it would be safe to say that it even though it may be a new refurb it only has a couple of weeks left on the Apple standard warranty?

Also I stand corrected and you guys are right, the refurb cost is $469 not $569 for the 2010.
The seller is listing his for $550, which is high-I'm not sure why? Don't these models depreciate in value?

I think the seller might just not realize that the 2011's decreased in price by $100. Try mentioning this and he might just drop the price. $550 is a fair price if the 2011's started at $699.

knightwrangler · Jul 30, 2012

blevins321 said:
I think the seller might just not realize that the 2011's decreased in price by $100. Try mentioning this and he might just drop the price. $550 is a fair price if the 2011's started at $699.

Actually I have seen other 2010 Mac mini ads (eBay, Craiglist, Kijiji)
USED for around the $500 mark !!! This is with no other additional accessories included like a keyboard, mouse & monitor.

Why so high? it's not like these computer are made from gold anyway!

Also does anybody know about the warranty? Does the warranty activate the day the Mac is purchased on the receipt or invoice?

philipma1957 · Jul 30, 2012

knightwrangler said:
Thanks for your response. I realize the 2010 is slower, but this is the last mac mini model with the DVD drive built in. I would like this for a low cost mac/windows desktop machine.

From what the seller told me it was purchased in Sept. 2011 and is still in the original refurb packaging from Apple unused. So it would be safe to say that it even though it may be a new refurb it only has a couple of weeks left on the Apple standard warranty?

Also I stand corrected and you guys are right, the refurb cost is $469 not $569 for the 2010.
The seller is listing his for $550, which is high-I'm not sure why? Don't these models depreciate in value?

No they have gone up in value. here is why;

they have

a dvd they run snow, lion ,mountain lion,windows 7, windows 8

they also run linux. I checked on windows 8 and I remembered linux.

This makes these machines have a lot of value.

Very few machines will run all of those os's. No hacks to run any of those os's that is worth money to a lot of people.

A 2010 Mac Pro does it not the 2012.

I think a 2011 Macbook Pro will run all of them if it was older then may or June of 2011.

My self I would just look at the refurb store over and over and over until I found one they still come up. They sell out in minutes.

knightwrangler · Jul 30, 2012

philipma1957 said:
No they have gone up in value. here is why;

they have

a dvd they run snow, lion ,mountain lion,windows 7, windows 8

they also run linux. I checked on windows 8 and I remembered linux.

This makes these machines have a lot of value.

Very few machines will run all of those os's. No hacks to run any of those os's that is worth money to a lot of people.

A 2010 Mac Pro does it not the 2012.

I think a 2011 Macbook Pro will run all of them if it was older then may or June of 2011.

My self I would just look at the refurb store over and over and over until I found one they still come up. They sell out in minutes.

I checked on a used mac website and this model quoted value is $260 !

I can see the desire since they have a dvd drive, the possibility of running a few different OS's and use as a media center bit still $550>$260 is a lot of money!

I would buy refurb from Apple but do not have a CC. Hence why I am shopping through online classifieds.

The seller who has the unused 2010 Mac mini I find very appealing except for his high $550 listed price and am wondering if it still has a one-year warranty coverage as it is unopened but was purchased last September 2011.

philipma1957 · Jul 30, 2012

knightwrangler said:
I checked on a used mac website and this model quoted value is $260 !

I can see the desire since they have a dvd drive, the possibility of running a few different OS's and use as a media center bit still $550>$260 is a lot of money!

I would buy refurb from Apple but do not have a CC. Hence why I am shopping through online classifieds.

The seller who has the unused 2010 Mac mini I find very appealing except for his high $550 listed price and am wondering if it still has a one-year warranty coverage as it is unopened but was purchased last September 2011.

no the warranty starts at his purchase date. so if you buy it the warranty ends sept of this year.

philipma1957 · Jul 30, 2012

knightwrangler said:
I checked on a used mac website and this model quoted value is $260 !

I can see the desire since they have a dvd drive, the possibility of running a few different OS's and use as a media center bit still $550>$260 is a lot of money!

I would buy refurb from Apple but do not have a CC. Hence why I am shopping through online classifieds.

The seller who has the unused 2010 Mac mini I find very appealing except for his high $550 listed price and am wondering if it still has a one-year warranty coverage as it is unopened but was purchased last September 2011.

knightwrangler · Aug 1, 2012

Thanks for your replies. Even though this is a popular model, the used re-selling prices are quite high at $500+ and considering it was released on the market over two years at retail $599? The standard/Applecare warranty in most cases is over and only comes with a paltry 2GB of ram makes me want to re-think this.

Now if I could find one in great condition between $300-400, I might jump on board !

md8232 · Aug 15, 2012

Refurbme sent me an update last night and I bought one.

Refurbished Mac mini 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo $549.00
They had a couple of 2010's that sold fast

I've been reading threads here for a week or so and jumped on this.
I have the Crucial 8 GB memory on the way and I'm picking up a wireless keyboard and trackpad tomorrow at the Apple store.

Thinking about a SSD too. What would be a good one?

Bunyak · Aug 16, 2012

md8232 said:
Refurbme sent me an update last night and I bought one.

Refurbished Mac mini 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo $549.00
They had a couple of 2010's that sold fast

I've been reading threads here for a week or so and jumped on this.
I have the Crucial 8 GB memory on the way and I'm picking up a wireless keyboard and trackpad tomorrow at the Apple store.

Thinking about a SSD too. What would be a good one?

I installed a Crucial M4 SSD in my 2010 Mini. It speeded up everything and has been working fine.

LeandrodaFL · Aug 16, 2012

The 2010 has the advantage of having aDVD drive buit iin and it rusn Snow Leopard, wich to many is far superior to Lion.

If you happen to prefer Lion, then go with a current mac mini

md8232 · Aug 16, 2012

Bunyak said:
I installed a Crucial M4 SSD in my 2010 Mini. It speeded up everything and has been working fine.

Crucial recommends this:
128GB Crucial m4 2.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s
128GB Crucial m4 Internal 2.5-inch (9.5mm) Solid State Drive 500MB/s Read, 175MB/s Write Part #: CT2127255

Is this what you went with?

Bunyak · Aug 16, 2012

md8232 said:
Crucial recommends this:
128GB Crucial m4 2.5-inch SATA 6Gb/s
128GB Crucial m4 Internal 2.5-inch (9.5mm) Solid State Drive 500MB/s Read, 175MB/s Write Part #: CT2127255

Is this what you went with?

I bought the latter drive. I bought it based on price at the time so I don't necessarily recommend it over other options.

bearcatrp · Aug 16, 2012

knightwrangler said:
Thanks for your replies. Even though this is a popular model, the used re-selling prices are quite high at $500+ and considering it was released on the market over two years at retail $599? The standard/Applecare warranty in most cases is over and only comes with a paltry 2GB of ram makes me want to re-think this.

Now if I could find one in great condition between $300-400, I might jump on board !

$599 was for the 2.4Ghz model. As was posted above, if you want SL, get the 2010 mini. Otherwise, get a newer model. Myself, I don't care for iOS on a computer as lion and ML are turning into.

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Thoughts on purchasing a 2010 Mac mini...

knightwrangler

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blevins321

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philipma1957

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