My current M2 Mini will remain connected to its 6K monitor. My new M4 tiny Mini will go full time portable with me. Currently, I use Luna Display when I head to the library or coffee. I can then use my IPP as a monitor, and the “brick” power supply battery. The battery can power the Mini for more than 10 hours, and I’m guessing the M4 could go 20. A big advantage is being able to switch back & forth from Mac 15.2 to iPad OS. Best of both worlds. My little bag holds the extra power cable, Lightning to USB-C cable, 2 small SSD’s, Magic Mouse, and a rechargeable keyboard. Questions? No need to sell the M2, though I may use that for portable use and keep the M4 on my desk. Win/Win!!
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When you have a spare Mac Mini. What to do with it?
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I couldn't find much use for my m2 as a NAS. I tried all the settings I was supposed to change but devices didn't seem to see it like the old NAS I once had and then sometimes it needed to be logged into which sucked if I didn't have keyboard and mouse always on it. So I sold it for $340
Keep it around as a spare computer. It's a Mac Mini, it doesn't take up much space. On the other hand: Is it still getting MacOS updates? If not, maybe it wouldn't be that good of a spare (unless you feel up to installing Linux onto it).
I have a Mini from 2010 whose only purpose is being a music server, it can stream lossless music to a DAC via a iOS interface, issue being it can't run recent apps but there's plenty which still work and music not too big of a load for such an old CPU, with a newer machine you can sure arrange a NAS/flle server/backup machine/media server...
24/7 server duty is how my old Mac minis spend their afterlife. They’ve proven themselves to be reliable and low power.
I have a dual-core i5 2012 Mac mini in use as a server on Debian Linux, running some containerized web applications that can be accessed over the internet. It recently replaced the 2009 Mac mini which was still working fine but felt a little slow at times.
I have a dual-core i5 2012 Mac mini in use as a server on Debian Linux, running some containerized web applications that can be accessed over the internet. It recently replaced the 2009 Mac mini which was still working fine but felt a little slow at times.
The way I look at it, if I have to stretch to figure out a use case for an old Mac, I would get rid of it.
In your case, you might "lose" a little money selling it below cost, but you're losing all of that money by not selling it and having it sit around taking up space doing something you made up to justify keeping it around.
Also, you could donate it to an organization/charity/church, etc who could put it to good use, and then deduct that off your taxes.
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My old Mac Mini was sold. I have it at home for almost 2 months and I couldn't find a use case for it. Now it has a new satisfied owner.
So was market value actually lower than your original sale price, or did you finally manage to sell it at your originally listed price? How much?
The reason I ask is because often a seller’s estimate of market price is higher than true market price.
Cool idea... I saw a YouTube video that was similar, except the new MacMini is small enough to fit inside the AVP's case along with the AVP, so he calls it a $500 accessory to his AVP (the AVP links easily to a Mac and shows a wide screen display for it).
