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Is $699 2012 Mini (2.3GHz i7 Quad-Core, APMMMD388LL) & $69 Apple Care a good deal?

C

CousinVinny

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 15, 2014
4
0
A friend of mine bought a new 2012 Mini (2.3GHz Intel Core i7 Quad-Core, APMMMD388LL) with a 3 yr Apple Care a couple of weeks ago. He is wondering if he got a good deal or if he should just return it and keep trying to see if he can get a refurbished one from apple.com for about $640 (including CA tax) without Apple Care (although he has not had much success for the last couple of weeks).

What do you think?
 
CousinVinny said:
A friend of mine bought a new 2012 Mini (2.3GHz Intel Core i7 Quad-Core, APMMMD388LL) with a 3 yr Apple Care a couple of weeks ago. He is wondering if he got a good deal or if he should just return it and keep trying to see if he can get a refurbished one from apple.com for about $640 (including CA tax) without Apple Care (although he has not had much success for the last couple of weeks).

What do you think?
Click to expand...

I'd say it's not worth the hassle to return it and take a chance on trying to get a refurb. He's got a new one for only $60 more, and there's no guarantee he'll be lucky enough to snag a refurb as they only appear occasionally and go within seconds.

Heck, even in the states new Quad Cores at $699 are getting hard to find. Better keep what he has than miss it completely before they disappear.
 
valerian22 said:
I'd say it's not worth the hassle to return it and take a chance on trying to get a refurb. He's got a new one for only $60 more, and there's no guarantee he'll be lucky enough to snag a refurb as they only appear occasionally and go within seconds.

Heck, even in the states new Quad Cores at $699 are getting hard to find. Better keep what he has than miss it completely before they disappear.
Click to expand...

Thanks and I agree for the most part. That being said, he doesn't think he needs the Apple Care which is part of the bundle. Also, he plans to add RAM and SSD on his own and that might make the Apple Care useless...
 
CousinVinny said:
Thanks and I agree for the most part. That being said, he doesn't think he needs the Apple Care which is part of the bundle. Also, he plans to add RAM and SSD on his own and that might make the Apple Care useless...
Click to expand...

RAM no, SSD probably. If he ever had any problems he would have to take the SSD out. I would say keep the AppleCare, I've had to replace a dead logic board 2x on my mini...
 
CousinVinny said:
Thanks and I agree for the most part. That being said, he doesn't think he needs the Apple Care which is part of the bundle. Also, he plans to add RAM and SSD on his own and that might make the Apple Care useless...
Click to expand...

Normally I'd say AppleCare isn't worth it, but $69, probably would be. I've got 5 minis, 3 are 5 years old and of those two of the four hard drives failed in years 2 or 3, a third one failed in year 4 (would be outside of Applecare). Of course if the HDDs were replaced with my own SSDs I would have had no failures that could utilize AppleCare.
 
talmy said:
Normally I'd say AppleCare isn't worth it, but $69, probably would be. I've got 5 minis, 3 are 5 years old and of those two of the four hard drives failed in years 2 or 3, a third one failed in year 4 (would be outside of Applecare). Of course if the HDDs were replaced with my own SSDs I would have had no failures that could utilize AppleCare.
Click to expand...

I believe AppleCare for Mac Mini is $99, not $69. Sounds like you had a bit of bad luck with your hard drives. (Are 5 Mini's enough?... just kidding).

I have an early 2009 Mini bought when they're just came out and the drive is fine as is everything else. Before that, my G4 iMac ran without problem for 8 years before retiring it. So I'm not a big proponent of AppleCare... it's actually only a 2 year not 3 year warranty, since every Mac already comes with the first year warranty included.
 
Richard8655 said:
I believe AppleCare for Mac Mini is $99, not $69. Sounds like you had a bit of bad luck with your hard drives. (Are 5 Mini's enough?... just kidding).
Click to expand...

I admit to not being for AppleCare in most cases. If the OP's $69 price isn't a typo, then at that price it might be a good buy.

5 minis are certainly too many :) but provides a better estimate of costs than a sample size of one. Two of the failures are both of the drives in my 2009 mini with Snow Leopard Server (one in year 2, the other in year 4). That system does run 24/7 and has been for nearly 5 years now with no failures other than the disk drives. The other drive failure was in another 2009 mini, a base model, and the first that I purchased. It also was the only one purchased "new" -- the others are all refurbished. Its drive failed in year 3 (but no AppleCare) and was a surprise since it was little used.

Note that I had no hard drive or other failures in the first year on any of these systems but did have DOA sound on the first (that "new") mini.
 
So, my friend was able to order a refurb one and returned the new one with Apple Care.

BTW, I was able to order one as well and will be replacing the HDD with a SSD and bumping up the RAM in the next couple of days :)
 
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