is this a good deal on this spec'd out 2012 mini?

For me no. I don't need the 16gb RAM though. I would rather have a brand new i7 with 8GB and add an SSD to the 1tb harddrive

The time to ask if something is a good deal is usually before buying it, not after. Especially with ebay.

For what it is, and if you don't already have an Apple wireless keyboard & trackpad (and want them), it seems to be a so-so deal. Okay if you really need the i7 and 16GB memory, but for what you say you do I think 8GB would be more than plenty. Contrast to $509 i5 Apple refurb or $679 i7 Apple refurb with an 8GB Crucial memory upgrade (Amazon $76 8GB) and a $110 Crucial m500 240GB SSD. OWC for wireless keyboard and trackpad at $60 each. i5 8GB ram system for $820 plus tax on the mini and you get both a warranty and a 500GB HDD to use as a separate drive or DIY Fusion drive. i7 8GB system for $990 plus tax on the mini plus you get warranty and a 1TB HDD to use as above. Add $60 for the Crucial 16GB ram upgrade instead of the 8GB upgrade; but again for the listed usage I think 16GB would be a waste.

khaile said:

So just like everyone, I was going to wait for the new mini... Up until now. I've been waiting for almost a year. So I decided to pull the trigger and just get one. I won an auction on ebay for this mini used:

2012 Mac mini
2.3 GHz quad core
256 ssd (Samsung 840 pro ssd)
16 GB of RAM
comes with keyboard and trackpad (apple OEM)

All for the price of $920. Was this a good deal? I figured if apple released a new one, I could sell this for what I bought it for, and get the new one.

Also, given that it is 2 year old hardware (and that it is used), will I notice lag in performance (even though it is spec'd out)? I'm just going to be streaming, youtubing, word processing, and running dual monitors. Thanks for the help!

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I don't think buying anything through ebay is a good deal. It is a great place to sell though. Factory warranty or store return are such power a consumer can enjoy especially you are spending more than the cost of dinner.

El Hikaru said:

I don't think buying anything through ebay is a good deal. It is a great place to sell though. Factory warranty or store return are such power a consumer can enjoy especially you are spending more than the cost of dinner.

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Yeah, eBays good for cables and such or hard to find parts. My last order was for some wrist watch band pins for $2.00.

El Hikaru said:

I don't think buying anything through ebay is a good deal.

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Generally true for non-commodity items; can be very good for small parts and cables and stuff but for larger stuff.

The trouble is all it takes is one uninformed buyer to bid the price up past where it's a bargain. Whenever shopping for a popular item, there's usually more such buyers than there are items available.

I wouldn't have paid that much for 2 year old technology. Your setup is overkill for your stated purposes. Could've got a refurbished i5 for much cheaper that would've been able to run everything fine. The much smarter buy imo would be a refurbished Haswell Air or even 13" rMBP for maybe ~$100 more. Either would be fine for your dual monitor setup, offer more portability, and provide current tech.

Orr said:

I wouldn't have paid that much for 2 year old technology. Your setup is overkill for your stated purposes. Could've got a refurbished i5 for much cheaper that would've been able to run everything fine. The much smarter buy imo would be a refurbished Haswell Air or even 13" rMBP for maybe ~$100 more. Either would be fine for your dual monitor setup, offer more portability, and provide current tech.

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Ditto Orr. For me, I'll wait until the next Mini has the PCIe SSD with 802.11ac WiFi or the rMBP has a quad core cpu. Two year old technology is not worth it if one can wait a bit longer

khaile said:

So just like everyone, I was going to wait for the new mini... Up until now. I've been waiting for almost a year. So I decided to pull the trigger and just get one. I won an auction on ebay for this mini used:

2012 Mac mini
2.3 GHz quad core
256 ssd (Samsung 840 pro ssd)
16 GB of RAM
comes with keyboard and trackpad (apple OEM)

All for the price of $920. Was this a good deal? I figured if apple released a new one, I could sell this for what I bought it for, and get the new one.

Also, given that it is 2 year old hardware (and that it is used), will I notice lag in performance (even though it is spec'd out)? I'm just going to be streaming, youtubing, word processing, and running dual monitors. Thanks for the help!

Click to expand...

I think you could have done better by buying all those things individually on ebay and/or craigslist if you were patient. Then upgrading the mini yourself. In the last two weeks I got:
2012 i5 Mac mini - $425
16gb owc memory - $90
256 gb samsung ssd - $76
Apple wireless keyboard -$25
Apple trackpad - $35

ranmyaku said:

16gb owc memory - $90

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Where'd you score this one?

deeddawg said:

Where'd you score this one?

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Probably eBay.

Not at OWC - it's currently a complete rip-off at $199.50.

Naimfan said:

Probably eBay.

Not at OWC - it's currently a complete rip-off at $199.50.

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Yeah on eBay.

I should say it took a lot of effort to scour ebay and craigslist, then place bids/negotiate, etc. So it was a lot of work.

ranmyaku said:

Yeah on eBay. [...] it was a lot of work.

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Understood. Still good to know, I may look there. Thanks.