Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Buying a used mac mini (mid-2011) w/SSD, what should I look out for?

Y

yoshimitsu

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 28, 2013
3
0
Just joined the forums, read through a few posts and got some solid pointers on how to set up a HTPC with a mac mini + plex + Synology 212 NAS (which I already own)

Found a used mac mini (mid-2011) sold here in Dublin (Ireland) where I live, this is what the seller says:

- Sandy Bridge 2.3GHz Intel Core i5
- 8GB RAM
- 128GB Vertex 4 SSD (bought in Jan'13, have receipt)
- Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 512MB shared memory
- Mac OS Mountain Lion 10.8.4
- 25/sec boot time, 350-390MB/s write speed, 450-460MB/s read speed

He wants €460 for it ($600/£390). may look a bit expensive in dollars but apple products are about 20% more expensive here in Europe. Holds up well against recently closed ebay auctions for similar products

Dont mind the 128GB size of the SSD as I'll be storing most media on the NAS and only the OS and some apps on the drive. i'm just a bit concerned that the SSD might not have been installed properly, or a lower quality drive which may ultimately result in problems down the line.
What sorts of things should i be looking at not to get ripped off on this deal? Do the specs look suitable for my needs?
any help will be greatly appreciated.
YLC
 
O

opinio

macrumors 65816
Mar 23, 2013
1,171
7
yoshimitsu said:
Just joined the forums, read through a few posts and got some solid pointers on how to set up a HTPC with a mac mini + plex + Synology 212 NAS (which I already own)

Found a used mac mini (mid-2011) sold here in Dublin (Ireland) where I live, this is what the seller says:

- Sandy Bridge 2.3GHz Intel Core i5
- 8GB RAM
- 128GB Vertex 4 SSD (bought in Jan'13, have receipt)
- Intel HD Graphics 3000 with 512MB shared memory
- Mac OS Mountain Lion 10.8.4
- 25/sec boot time, 350-390MB/s write speed, 450-460MB/s read speed

He wants €460 for it ($600/£390). may look a bit expensive in dollars but apple products are about 20% more expensive here in Europe. Holds up well against recently closed ebay auctions for similar products

Dont mind the 128GB size of the SSD as I'll be storing most media on the NAS and only the OS and some apps on the drive. i'm just a bit concerned that the SSD might not have been installed properly, or a lower quality drive which may ultimately result in problems down the line.
What sorts of things should i be looking at not to get ripped off on this deal? Do the specs look suitable for my needs?
any help will be greatly appreciated.
YLC
Click to expand...

The vertex is a quality drive, although the smaller drives are slower. Some people don't like OCZ SSDs but the Vertex 4 and Vector are exceptionally fast.

It has an integrated graphics card which is not the best option for 2011 minis but it is still fine for a HTPC. I ran the same GPU in a 2011 server for a year or so and it was excellent for 30GB plus mkvs etc. As the RAM is 8GB it gets 512MB ram on the GPU where as it is lower on 4GB of ram (384 I think). Anyway the GPU is ok/good for HTPC, but not for gaming.

Read and write speeds are good for a small drive.

Price? Not sure as I am not familiar with the second hand market. You probably know best. Even though the entry level current mini price is probably close, you get an SSD and 8GB Ram. The rest (GPU/CPU) would be better on a 2012 mini.

Also you will get USB 2.0. Not the end of the world but the speed is significantly different on the 2011 to the 2012 (USB 2.0 versus 3.0).
 
Y

yoshimitsu

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 28, 2013
3
0
Hey Opinio, thanks for your reply
I'll ask him for some screenshots of the benchmark tests where he got those read/write speeds to just verify if they're accurate. I've read on some forum that you could get up to 15sec boot time on a mac mini 2011 with SSD but i'm not sure what size it was so i'm not going to get too fixated on that. i plan on leaving it on 24/7 anyways

opinio said:
Price? Not sure as I am not familiar with the second hand market. You probably know best. Even though the entry level current mini price is probably close, you get an SSD and 8GB Ram. The rest (GPU/CPU) would be better on a 2012 mini.
Click to expand...

thought about getting the new entry-level mini but here in Europe it would've been quite a bit more expensive for a model with SSD so for the moment it'll do. It's my first HTPC so I'm still experimenting and understanding how central a piece of my home entertainment life it'll become before i make a bigger investment. need to check if the girlfriend will be able to figure it out as well!
cheers
YLC
 
philipma1957

philipma1957

macrumors 603
Apr 13, 2010
6,367
251
Howell, New Jersey
yoshimitsu said:
Hey Opinio, thanks for your reply
I'll ask him for some screenshots of the benchmark tests where he got those read/write speeds to just verify if they're accurate. I've read on some forum that you could get up to 15sec boot time on a mac mini 2011 with SSD but i'm not sure what size it was so i'm not going to get too fixated on that. i plan on leaving it on 24/7 anyways



thought about getting the new entry-level mini but here in Europe it would've been quite a bit more expensive for a model with SSD so for the moment it'll do. It's my first HTPC so I'm still experimenting and understanding how central a piece of my home entertainment life it'll become before i make a bigger investment. need to check if the girlfriend will be able to figure it out as well!
cheers
YLC
Click to expand...

yeah it is a decent choice for htpc. this would be better assuming it works.


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Apple-Mac-M...8287326?pt=Apple_Desktops&hash=item2ec8daf0de




this has the amd gpu a bit better then the hd3000 chip. All in all your buy should be okay assuming it is working gear.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom