The "I just ordered / bought / got my new/refurb Mac Mini" threads, merged

gdeusthewhizkid said:

you guys have definately sold me on the mac mini with all these deals on hard drives and memory i was considering a 2007 mac pro.

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Before buying any older Mac Pro, if you care about performance check the benchmarks at geekbench to compare with the newer minis. It's amazing: the 2007 Mac Pro Intel Xeon 5130 2000 MHz (4 cores) gets a score of 4103. The mid-level new mac mini gets a score of 11608! Even the fastest 2008 Mac Pro, Intel Xeon X5482 3200 MHz (8 cores), doesn't perform as well: it only gets 10692. The full list of all Macs goes from the iBook PowerPC G3 (740/750) 366 MHz which gets a score of 176, to the beefiest current Mac Pro with 12 cores with a score of 22200. It's a pretty interesting comparison:
http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

Just ordered the I7 2.6 with fusion drive. Already have the HP IPS LED 23" monitor. Will add 16G of Ram if needed. Should be a screamer compared to my 2006 white iMac.

My new mini just came in today. Spending a while getting it set up just right and moving all my files. Love it so far! And colors look great (I was worried!)

It seems the like the mini fix is working for most people so far. (still early days I guess).

I might wait and see if a 2012 refurb (basic model) shows up for sale - guessing quite a few people returned their minis. But there might be quite a gap in time before any appear on the Apple site do you think?

My $0.02

Just jumping onto the thread... got my shipping notice today for the 2.6GHz quad with Fusion Drive and 16GB RAM. Also MiniDP-DVI adapter for my 2nd monitor and VMWare Fusion. This will connect to my twin Dell 2001FP monitors and after making a VMWare image from my old Dell tower, I'll finally be down to one computer. Currently switching back & forth between the Dell and a mid-2007 Mini.

My old Mini is a fine computer, but looking forward to:

* Good dual-monitor support
* Enough horsepower to run VMWare and get rid of the stand-alone Win box
* USB 3.0 for speedy backups
* Mountain Lion - There are so many little things that work so smoothly on my work iMac (ML) and are just more cumbersome on Lion
* ONE keyboard and ONE mouse on my desk!

Just got my shipping notice. Will have in on Monday!!

Just ordered my base mini, along with a Mini-Display Port to VGA adapter! Got the wired Apple keyboard at a Premium Reseller today so quite excited now! It says on the order email "ships 2-4 Business days, delivers 02 Jan 2013". Does it take this long to ship?! How long have others waited for theirs? I'm in Ireland, btw.

Macclone said:

Just ordered the I7 2.6 with fusion drive. Already have the HP IPS LED 23" monitor. Will add 16G of Ram if needed. Should be a screamer compared to my 2006 white iMac.

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I just ordered the mid-grade 2.3 I7. It will also be replacing my family's 2006 iMac. Our iMac is on its last leg but has faithfully served us. It is the longest I have ever owned a desktop!

16GB of ram from crucial is also on the way.

I will do the SSD upgrade later.

I got my 2.3 i7 mini that replaces my original 1.42 PPC mini. It'll be my HTPC and file server as well. The i7 hooked up to my 46" Samsung through HDMI with problems.

I have a Apple BT keyboard and Logitech BT mouse as well. I'm undecided whether to get a Magic Trackpad or not. I do have 16GB of ram to install in this little baby as well.

USB123 said:

Just ordered my base mini, along with a Mini-Display Port to VGA adapter! Got the wired Apple keyboard at a Premium Reseller today so quite excited now! It says on the order email "ships 2-4 Business days, delivers 02 Jan 2013". Does it take this long to ship?! How long have others waited for theirs? I'm in Ireland, btw.

Click to expand...

It's coming much sooner in fact, by Tuesday! I am excited!

Just got my 2.3 i7 mini. I was worried about all the screen issues, but went for it anyway. So far I've had zero issues connected via HDMI and VGA.

Got my i5 base mini today, very happy! It will take a while to switch from Windows though, but it's worth it.

Just got the new i7 mini today at the Apple store in less than ten minutes!

Jim

Bought my first Mac yesterday 2.3GHz quad-core. Not our first Apple though as we have 2 iPhones. No complaints it actually runs better than the Win7 it replaced. Using Virtual Box with XP for a few apps with no issues. The only thing that doesn't work is the HP Laserjet 1018. Now to get 16GB upgrade and external bluray drive and eventually a SSD.

Just bought the 2.5 i5 core mini the other day for myself, loving it so far. (Might just drop my windows pc)

So my birthday is tomorrow (the 26th), so I get a lot of combo gifts. Today my family chipped in and got me a 2012 i7 Mini. It will replace my 2008 Core 2 Duo 24" iMac. First upgrade will be 16gb of ram, still contemplating the SSD.

With xmas gift cards/money I think I'll finally take the Mac Mini plunge again... I'm so torn between the base 2012 or the mid tier 2012 model. Is it worth $200 for the better processor? The hard drive space is no big deal as I'll end up putting an SSD in there at some point anyway.

I wish they were in the refurb store

Just got my 2012 2.3 i7 yesterday. Powered it on to make sure everything worked. Shut it down and took it apart. Put in a Data doubler with a 512 GB m4 SSD and 16 GB of 1600 mhz ram. VERY happy with my choice. Also running a thunderbolt display. I was waiting for a new iMac but the extra time made me reconsider and decided I'd rather have the mini with the thunderbolt display to use with my laptops. I think I'm going to get the Twelve South HiRise stand and Backpack. Stick the Mini in the HiRise and put one or two of my MyBooks on the Backpack.

Ordered a 2.6 i7, 4gb ram and 1 tb hdd. Was gonna go with a fusion, but outside of booting and copying files faster than a regular hdd, it probably wasn't going to make a huge difference in my cpu/ram intensive audio apps.

So by saving 250, I bought 16gb ram from crucial, applecare and a new apple keyboard

I figure by the end of three years that my applecare warranty expires, I'll add a large enough sized SSD being that they'll probably be a lot cheaper by then that it would really make a speed difference.

I'm upgrading from a 2007 macbook C2D 2ghz. Keeping it of course...it works great!

i7 4Gb 1Tb First Mac

Bought the day before xmas to replace the 6 year old core 2 quad, bigger than a house with absolutely no WAF PC, but never let me down.
Weeeelllll it's not a PC, that's for sure. Wifey has the full tilt 64Gb iPad 3 and an iPhone. I have an 8 year old motorola razor, and my last computer purchase a Toshiba netbook 3 years ago, and still running a few PC's that have been torn down, rebuilt, upgraded big time...
Back on topic. Hooked it up: Mac -> HDMI -> Yamaha receiver -> HDMI -> LG plasma.
2.4Ghz dongle for the keyboard with trackpad.
Worked! ...after I reset the audio midi settings. Keyboard is kind of wonky too, hey it's a PC thing, but Wifey downloaded the remote app, so that might be easier. Got that command key now, Woo Hoo. Plugged in a couple of 2Tb external drives with the AVI & MKV's and promptly downloaded VLC. Mirrored to the Apple TV in the kitchen and midi glitches abound, as well as screen savers. Wheeeee.
Next: I'm going to figure out how to get my LG blueray drive from the replaced unit to work with this thing too. I see a 500Gb Win 7 partition coming up.

I actually ended up returning my i7 base Mini the other day and custom ordered from home. I got a credit from the Apple Store and then had some other Apple gift cards from Christmas/Birthday. Those, combined with my Corporate discount, I was able to order the i7 with the Fusion drive, and it should be here within the week.

My 16gb of ram just showed up today

mndwgz said:

Bought the day before xmas to replace the 6 year old core 2 quad, bigger than a house with absolutely no WAF PC, but never let me down.
Weeeelllll it's not a PC, that's for sure. Wifey has the full tilt 64Gb iPad 3 and an iPhone. I have an 8 year old motorola razor, and my last computer purchase a Toshiba netbook 3 years ago, and still running a few PC's that have been torn down, rebuilt, upgraded big time...
Back on topic. Hooked it up: Mac -> HDMI -> Yamaha receiver -> HDMI -> LG plasma.
2.4Ghz dongle for the keyboard with trackpad.
Worked! ...after I reset the audio midi settings. Keyboard is kind of wonky too, hey it's a PC thing, but Wifey downloaded the remote app, so that might be easier. Got that command key now, Woo Hoo. Plugged in a couple of 2Tb external drives with the AVI & MKV's and promptly downloaded VLC. Mirrored to the Apple TV in the kitchen and midi glitches abound, as well as screen savers. Wheeeee.
Next: I'm going to figure out how to get my LG blueray drive from the replaced unit to work with this thing too. I see a 500Gb Win 7 partition coming up.

Click to expand...

Do you turn off your monitor of your mini when you use airplay on you Apple TV?

MJ23 said:

Do you turn off your monitor of your mini when you use airplay on you Apple TV?

Click to expand...

No I don't, I want both to stream the same thing. Check out the vid I posted in the show me you system thread, you'll see it at the end.

uncleMonty said:

Before buying any older Mac Pro, if you care about performance check the benchmarks at geekbench to compare with the newer minis. It's amazing: the 2007 Mac Pro Intel Xeon 5130 2000 MHz (4 cores) gets a score of 4103. The mid-level new mac mini gets a score of 11608! Even the fastest 2008 Mac Pro, Intel Xeon X5482 3200 MHz (8 cores), doesn't perform as well: it only gets 10692. The full list of all Macs goes from the iBook PowerPC G3 (740/750) 366 MHz which gets a score of 176, to the beefiest current Mac Pro with 12 cores with a score of 22200. It's a pretty interesting comparison:
http://browser.primatelabs.com/mac-benchmarks

Click to expand...

Good advice. I bought my Quad 2.6GHz i7 Mini just a few days ago. After checking Geekbench, I comparison shopped a 2008 8 Core 3.0GHz Mac Pro and I almost went with the Mac Pro until I saw the RAM prices at Crucial. I was able to upgrade the Mini for substantially less money than the Mac Pro, and the end performance will be just a hair better.

mndwgz said:

No I don't, I want both to stream the same thing. Check out the vid I posted in the show me you system thread, you'll see it at the end.

Click to expand...

Could you check this for me if the video playback on your apple tv stops when you turn off the monitor? Thanks!