Oh brother. Not another one of these.
Unless you have a specific contract with Apple, allowing your ACMT-certified IT staff to both order parts and service them, then I don't care how large or skilled your IT army is, they aren't authorized by Apple to perform repairs. Period. There's a ton of language all over Apple's site that explains this. That said, if you do have that specific contract, then that's great, why are we discussing this further?
You got your certificate and think you are the end all of Apple knowledge. Just because you repair Macs you know contracts too. Lol.
My contract with Apple is a
Self-Servicing Account that falls under the(SSA) program. It is self explanatory. But you missed that. Or did not understand I don't know which.
A link from Macworld explaining that "if apple can't tell that you were digging in your computer, your warranty isn't voided" (no **** sherlock!) and a link from Apple explaining that computer RAM and items deemed a "user-installable part" (as opposed to a "technician-installable part") may be installed by the user does nothing for your argument, given that THE HARD DRIVE ON A MAC MINI ISN'T CONSIDERED A USER-INSTALLABLE PART!
Nowhere in the Macworld article says that.
If they can't tell you were digging in your computer. Sherlock. Not once.
I am a business owner who negotiated a SSA contract with Apple myself. You are a repair tech who has a certificate. Big difference.
You are governed by the contract by the business that you work at. Your place of business are governed by Apple's guidelines which Apple sets. Most authorized service providers are not allowed to make warranty decisions based on machines that have been altered by the user. The service providers do not have the power to make the decision weather the warranty is good or not. Your place of business does not have the discretion to make that distinction. Thus Apple sets up the guide lines for your business to follow.
So it is not a as you put it THE HARD DRIVE ON A MAC MINI ISN'T CONSIDERED A USER-INSTALLABLE PART! For you and your business it isn't under the contract that your business and Apple has agreed upon. A Mac Mini is not a user installable part governed by the contract that your business and Apple has together. So for you it isn't. So if you get a Mac Mini with a user installed HD at the place where you work, your business governed by the contract you have with Apple can not service that machine.
Under the scope in which your business( or the place you work)operates you are correct. Just like my business has a SSA and am allowed to service our own equipment under Apples guidelines. Each contract is different based on the business and the nature of the business needs. But overall if you upgrade your own Mac Mini, your average joe or mr consumer. It does not automatically void the warranty. Only if you damage your machine in the process. Apple knows if you replaced the HD or not, they can see when they turn it on.
Let me explain this to you. If you bring your mac mini to a Apple store for repair, say the WiFi. They can deny your warranty because they can deem it damaged due to a upgrade. Which the article suggests is the case. I don't care what link you have or don't have. This has always been the case with the Mac Mini. Even apple had instructions on how to change the HD on the older Minis. Even had a tool to do it yourself.
http://www.macworld.com/article/152061/2010/06/macmini2010handson.html
On that note, Apples policy on upgrading the Mac mini yourself has always been that as long as you dont break anything in the process, your warranty is still valid. I confirmed with Apple that this is, indeed, still the case with the newest Mac mini. However, the company contends that because the new mini includes at least 320GB of hard-drive spaceand you can upgrade at the time of purchase to 500GB for $100theres less of a need to upgrade the hard drive than when the mini shipped with only 160GB.d
I guess you ignored this for a reason.
This warranty does not apply: (a) to consumable parts, such as batteries, unless failure has occurred due to a defect in materials or workmanship; (b) to cosmetic damage, including but not limited to scratches, dents and broken plastic on ports; (c) to damage caused by use with another product; (d) to damage caused by accident, abuse, misuse, liquid contact, fire, earthquake or other external cause; (e) to damage caused by operating the Apple Product outside Apples published guidelines; (f) to damage caused by service (including upgrades and expansions) performed by anyone who is not a representative of Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP); (g) to an Apple Product that has been modified to alter functionality or capability without the written permission of Apple; (h) to defects caused by normal wear and tear or otherwise due to the normal aging of the Apple Product,
or (i) if any serial number has been removed or defaced from the Apple Product.
"damage caused by service (including upgrades
and expansions)"
If you were to take your Mini and you put in the HD and turn it on and a RAM module it bad, take it to the store, they cannot deny the warranty. Since the RAM cannot be deemed to be damaged due to a upgrade. Is this sinking in?
Nor can the HD be serviced by Apple, since it is a third party part. But the rest of the warranty is still good if you do not damage anything in the process.
It didn't. I know this much for a fact. Though again, feel free to expend more energy to prove me wrong.
No energy required. You're doing that for me.
The entire MacRumors forums, no. The Mac mini sub-section of the MacRumors forums, yes.
So it's okay to insult the whole Mac Mini forum with your drivel. Nice one.
The MacBook Pro models being compared there are the higher-end BTO models with the CPUs with higher cache.
No there not. The i7 is standard on the 15inch and 17 inch models. But you know that already right? The base Mac Book Pros are faster than any imac other than the top end i7 imac. And the top end Mac book pros only has a few points under the top of the line imac. With Ivy bridge that performance gap will shrink further. The Mac Mini will be on par with the imac's in the not too distant future as the performance per watt goes up.
So not only do you admit that the Mac mini has a poor bang to buck ratio, but you tell me that I'm not getting it? What's there not to get? Apple wants to force form over function with the Mac mini and given that their choices for those wanting an Apple-branded desktop at the low end are Mac mini or...Mac mini, they have no choice but to go with that small form-factor, which aside from being quiet offers no real practical benefit.
No I am not. The Mac Mini's performance is not too far off from the imac. The Server outperforms all imacs other than the i7 imac. That is bang for your buck as the server costs $1000 and the i5 top end imac costs $2000. For raw power the Mac Mini server is faster. Is that form over function? Yes the GPU is weak, but there are going to be trade offs with that form factor. Yes you can build a PC for much less. But we are comparing Macs here.
It is getting easier to do and not risk stability, even when running system updates. I'd say it's perfect for a second Mac.
Okay. Lol.
