Why is the 2009 Mini refurb so popular?

[Bob Coxner]

Having purchased 100 or maybe 85 2009 mac minis including 2 of the 2ghz ones that came up on monday and wed last week.. they mod better.

I wish you would give other people a chance to buy one. I want to get one of the 2009 2.53's. I have the instant alert emails for when they come into stock. I got an email and I was online when it arrived. It took me about 30 seconds to check the message and go to the store. They were already sold out. It amazes me how fast these 2009's go, especially the 2.53 and 2.26 models.

To be thorough, I did check refurb.me and it appears they were actually available for 10 minutes. Maybe I need faster email notifications.

Last disappearance : 07/06/2011 17:20 GMT (was available for 10 minutes)

I've also been meaning to ask...what does Apple do to refurb Minis? I have a refurb iPad and I know they always put in a new battery for them but I don't have a feel for what new components (if any) are put in refurb Minis.

 

[philipma1957]

RIGHT now The last 5 mac mini refurbs I got were new old stock. meaning they were repackaged from the new boxes to the refurb boxes. this happens when a new model is close to coming out. If it is 45 days after a new model release and you get a refurb of the new model. Like a 2011 Macbook Pro 15 inch. They replace the damaged part whatever it is and they test all the other functions.

MY REFRUB RETURN RATE IS 4 FOR 85 TO 100 MACHINES 2008 to 2011 purchases.



I grabbed a 2.0 model today. the listings come on the website 5 to 10 minutes faster then the email notice. 12 noon east coast has been a hot time lately. My purchase was done and paid for 1 minute faster then my email notice!

 

[Bob Coxner]

RIGHT now The last 5 mac mini refurbs I got were new old stock. meaning they were repackaged from the new boxes to the refurb boxes. this happens when a new model is close to coming out. If it is 45 days after a new model release and you get a refurb of the new model. Like a 2011 Macbook Pro 15 inch. They replace the damaged part whatever it is and they test all the other functions.

MY REFRUB RETURN RATE IS 4 FOR 85 TO 100 MACHINES 2008 to 2011 purchases.



I grabbed a 2.0 model today. the listings come on the website 5 to 10 minutes faster then the email notice. 12 noon east coast has been a hot time lately. My purchase was done and paid for 1 minute faster then my email notice!

Do you spend all day just refreshing the Apple Store page? I guess I will always lose to you if that's the case.

Surely the 2009 refurbs are not new old stock.

 

[philipma1957]

Do you spend all day just refreshing the Apple Store page? I guess I will always lose to you if that's the case.

Surely the 2009 refurbs are not new old stock.

I refresh from 11am to 12 noon when I want to buy and mod some.


I always believed argued and fought with anyone that said macmini refurbs were new stock that are repackaged..

I now have hdd software to read smart times. the 2009 macmini refurbs I purchased in apr may and june of this year have hdds with no hours run time (under 2) the hdds are dated 2009 for the most part. the only way that is true is at least the hdd is new old stock. The short time was the time it took to load the hdd with the osx.

The white tops are pristine the bottom of the case is pristine.
All 5 mini's have had to get the efi update for bluetooth and 8gb ram. They have the 2009 software dvd's all perfect. None have had extra ram or better hdds. I have had a lot of 2009 refurbs look a tiny bit marked I have had some come with 4gb ram vs 2gb ram 500gb hdds vs 160gb hdds. I felt they were returned with the mod still in them and the techs just left the mods in. The minis that have come this spring appear new in every way except the refurb box.

 

[Bob Coxner]

I refresh from 11am to 12 noon when I want to buy and mod some.


I always believed argued and fought with anyone that said macmini refurbs were new stock that are repackaged..

I now have hdd software to read smart times. the 2009 macmini refurbs I purchased in apr may and june of this year have hdds with no hours run time (under 2) the hdds are dated 2009 for the most part. the only way that is true is at least the hdd is new old stock. The short time was the time it took to load the hdd with the osx.

The white tops are pristine the bottom of the case is pristine.
All 5 mini's have had to get the efi update for bluetooth and 8gb ram. They have the 2009 software dvd's all perfect. None have had extra ram or better hdds. I have had a lot of 2009 refurbs look a tiny bit marked I have had some come with 4gb ram vs 2gb ram 500gb hdds vs 160gb hdds. I felt they were returned with the mod still in them and the techs just left the mods in. The minis that have come this spring appear new in every way except the refurb box.

Interesting results on your 2009 purchases. I wonder where the new old stock units have been for 2 years? Returns from third-party retailers/dealers? Someone discovered a lost pallet of them in the warehouse? Apple has a large supply but only trickles them out to keep the price up? That one doesn't seem likely.

I'll have to try the 11am-noon trick and see if I can beat you out of a 2.53. Don't worry, that's the only model i'm trying for. I don't want the hassle of doing my own RAM upgrade, so I thought I would just go for the 4gb model to begin with. It would probably cost me more than the $90 difference (vs the 2.26 model) to add 2gb and a 160gb larger hard drive, not to mention getting a better CPU. You're the expert but it appears to me that the 2.53 offers the best bang for the buck on the Mini refurbs.

Given the numbers you buy, I assume you're selling modded units on eBay or CL. I haven't checked but I assume there must be a good market for them or else you wouldn't still be doing it.

Thanks again for all the fantastic advice!

 

[Bob Coxner]

I refresh from 11am to 12 noon when I want to buy and mod some.

You've been so kind with advice that I'll try to return the favor a bit.

This talk of refreshing pages reminded me of a Firefox addon that I used to use when shopping the Dell Outlet. It's still available and could make your work MUCH easier.

It's called Check4Change

The addon will monitor a web page. You can set it to sound an alarm whenever the page changes. You mark the relevant portion of a page. When that portion changes, a popup alert occurs, along with an alarm sound. You can have it running in the background and go on about your business while it watches the page for you. You can set the check time to anything you like, from a few seconds to several hours.

It worked great for monitoring the old Dell Outlet database (not so good with the new Dell format). I haven't tried it yet on the Apple Store but you sound tech savvy enough to figure out how to make it useful for your purposes. I'm using it with Firefox for Windows but I assume it should work equally on Firefox for Mac. Dell used to get pissy about people using it. Most of us would set it to refresh pages every second, meaning we were pounding the Dell servers hard and they would eventually send warning messages about doing too many rapid refreshes.

http://www.check4change.com/
http://www.check4change.com/tutorial

 

[philipma1957]

You've been so kind with advice that I'll try to return the favor a bit.

This talk of refreshing pages reminded me of a Firefox addon that I used to use when shopping the Dell Outlet. It's still available and could make your work MUCH easier.

It's called Check4Change

The addon will monitor a web page. You can set it to sound an alarm whenever the page changes. You mark the relevant portion of a page. When that portion changes, a popup alert occurs, along with an alarm sound. You can have it running in the background and go on about your business while it watches the page for you. You can set the check time to anything you like, from a few seconds to several hours.

It worked great for monitoring the old Dell Outlet database (not so good with the new Dell format). I haven't tried it yet on the Apple Store but you sound tech savvy enough to figure out how to make it useful for your purposes. I'm using it with Firefox for Windows but I assume it should work equally on Firefox for Mac. Dell used to get pissy about people using it. Most of us would set it to refresh pages every second, meaning we were pounding the Dell servers hard and they would eventually send warning messages about doing too many rapid refreshes.

http://www.check4change.com/
http://www.check4change.com/tutorial

thanks I will look into it.


Yeah I do a lot of mod and sell. Custom and or ebay.

For the right user a 2009 mac mini with at least 4gb will do this:

record hdtv with eyetv.
stream netflix.
let you surf the net.

the 2.0ghz is 429 plus tax add 1 stick of 4gb ram for you have 5gb ram add a 320 scorpio black hdd for 40 bucks. the machine is only 509. with a warranty. it is enough for what I have listed above.

it will also let you print and do a decent small iphoto 2000 or 3000 photos at 5mb.

all in a single case. this why it still sells on ebay.

 

[mlyon]

philipma1957 is right. For the money they are tough to beat. Buy for $429 and add $100 worth of memory and disk they are great machines for keeping your iPhone and iPad up to date. As far as the difference between the 2.0 and the others, its been my experience that its a lot tougher to tell the speed difference between 2.0, 2.26, 2.53 and 2.66 duo cores, so buy the cheapest one and add a 7,200 RPM disk and RAM and you can clearly tell the speed difference. Just my .02¢

 

[philipma1957]

philipma1957 is right. For the money they are tough to beat. Buy for $429 and add $100 worth of memory and disk they are great machines for keeping your iPhone and iPad up to date. As far as the difference between the 2.0 and the others, its been my experience that its a lot tougher to tell the speed difference between 2.0, 2.26, 2.53 and 2.66 duo cores, so buy the cheapest one and add a 7,200 RPM disk and RAM and you can clearly tell the speed difference. Just my .02¢

when the 2009 2.66 came out in oct 2009 I built a lot of juiced minis 8gb or 6gb ram and 160 intel ssds. They sold quickly at 1100 to 1200 bucks.

Now that the mini is a slower piece of gear compared to the macbook pro 13 inch. So the idea is to make the low cost mini that still cuts it for certain users. If you have zero diy skill and don't want to open the mini then the 2.53 for 589 is good. if you buy on june 6th or later I think you will be able to get a free lion download when it comes out.

if you have skill then the 2009 2.0GHz will work for net surfing eyetv and neflix. you can add the parts (a 4gb ram stick and a scorpio black hdd) and have a good enough machine for 510.

 

[Bob Coxner]

There's a really interesting article today discussing the future of the Mini. http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/the_once_and_future_macintosh/ The author is arguing that the Mini will eventually be the only surviving Apple desktop computer. He makes some strong points.

================

We know a lot more about the future of the Mac today than we did before the WWDC 2011 keynote. We were reminded that Mac sales are climbing at a significant rate compared to PCs. We were reminded that 75 percent of Apple’s Mac sales are notebooks.

Now that Apple has decided to put powerful CPUs in the iMac line, I expect the Mac Pro to be the first to be discontinued, maybe later this year. It will go the way of the Xserve. There’s just no Big Money in 41 pound cheese graters.

Next, in a few years, I expect that Apple will move to always have the strongest CPUs in the Mac mini (sans optical drive, SSD driven) so that the company can eventually eliminate the iMac. They’re very cool, but a bit hard to handle and work with when repairs are needed.

I suspect that in five years, many Apple customers will have a fairly large, very high quality display driven by a Mac mini or a MacBook. Others may find that an iPad and iPhone are all they need.

================

Makes sense to me, given that 75% of current sales are notebooks.

 

[Minicube]

"I now have hdd software to read smart times. the 2009 macmini refurbs I purchased in apr may and june of this year have hdds with no hours run time (under 2) the hdds are dated 2009 for the most part."

So, they are probably new Mini's being sold as refurbs. This is the first good, logical, factual news about a refresh I've heard in a long time, especially if it's true about 2010 Mini's also.

 

[mdgm]

So, they are probably new Mini's being sold as refurbs. This is the first good, logical, factual news about a refresh I've heard in a long time.

But they're "new" 2009 Minis. For it to be a sign of a refresh, one would think one would need to see a similar thing with the inferior 2010 Minis.

 

[mdgm]

For the right user a 2009 mac mini with at least 4gb will do this:

record hdtv with eyetv.

I find say recording a few SD programs in EyeTV can be pretty CPU intensive etc. So whilst I love my 09 Minis, I'd love to see something with a much faster CPU which does EyeTV without breaking a sweat.

 

[Minicube]

But they're "new" 2009 Minis. For it to be a sign of a refresh, one would think one would need to see a similar thing with the inferior 2010 Minis.

Agreed. I edited my post to say that. I wonder if anyone has tested the 2010 refurbs; quite a few have been popping up lately also.

 

[mrklaw]

how would the 2009/2010 minis handle transcoding a 1080p stream to an appleTV friendly format using plex (uses FFMPEG I think), while playing back another 1080p stream?

If I can do that with a 2009 machine I might look out for one and stop waiting for a refresh. Currently have a 2.0GHz C2D 2007/8? (GMA), so playback uses the CPU and doesn't leave enough for simultaneous transcoding. 2009 will use the GPU for acceleration

 

[mrklaw]

There's a really interesting article today discussing the future of the Mini. http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/the_once_and_future_macintosh/ The author is arguing that the Mini will eventually be the only surviving Apple desktop computer. He makes some strong points.
.

He ignores the part where the imac is an iconic product and unlikely to be discontinued while still selling well

 

[philipma1957]

how would the 2009/2010 minis handle transcoding a 1080p stream to an appleTV friendly format using plex (uses FFMPEG I think), while playing back another 1080p stream?

If I can do that with a 2009 machine I might look out for one and stop waiting for a refresh. Currently have a 2.0GHz C2D 2007/8? (GMA), so playback uses the CPU and doesn't leave enough for simultaneous transcoding. 2009 will use the GPU for acceleration

No macmini does fast transcoding. If you want to do a transcoding such as handbrake while watching a different stream you need a 2011 mini if it ever shows up. Basically the 09 and 10 mini's are all very close in performance when it come to cpu intensive work. Having owned the 07/08 with the intel graphics they are an improvement over them.

 

[mrklaw]

nah, I'm cool with handbrake on the 07/08, I have batch rip and encode scripts to do that overnight - it can be as slow as it likes.

I'm talking realtime transcoding - eg like airvideo when converting to play on ipad.

 

[bizzle]

It probably because the 2009 model is easier to upgrade the hdd. I've heard the 2010 model is much more difficult.

It's a giant pain in the ass. I work for a service provider and I absolutely hate doing any repair on those machines. You need to gut the entire case to replace the optical drive (or second hard drive if you have the server configuration). The cables are very delicate and there is barely enough room to get under them to disconnect.

 

[philipma1957]

It's a giant pain in the ass. I work for a service provider and I absolutely hate doing any repair on those machines. You need to gut the entire case to replace the optical drive (or second hard drive if you have the server configuration). The cables are very delicate and there is barely enough room to get under them to disconnect.

That just about sums the 2010 up perfectly!