About to play "Mac mini roulette"

[Silencio]

So it's been a month since Apple silently updated the Mac mini line without removing the older minis from the channel.

I would think the old models have filtered their way out of the channel by now, but: has anyone bought a mini lately and ended up with an "old" one instead of a "new" one?

I guess I'm not that excited about getting a 1.33GHz G4 instead of the 1.25GHz part, but I'd really rather get the 5400RPM hard drive instead of the glacially poky 4200RPM part.

Oh, and the mini isn't for me: it's for my grandpa. He's been hanging tough with a rev 1 233MHz iMac G3 for a good 6-1/2 years now, so he's long overdue for an upgrade.

 

[praseodymium]

I'd recommend going to an Apple Store if you want to be perfectly sure about what you'll be getting. The updated Minis seem to be US-only though - I have asked about them in an Apple Centre here in The Netherlands.

 

[budugu]

So it's been a month since Apple silently updated the Mac mini line without removing the older minis from the channel.

I would think the old models have filtered their way out of the channel by now, but: has anyone bought a mini lately and ended up with an "old" one instead of a "new" one?

I guess I'm not that excited about getting a 1.33GHz G4 instead of the 1.25GHz part, but I'd really rather get the 5400RPM hard drive instead of the glacially poky 4200RPM part.

Oh, and the mini isn't for me: it's for my grandpa. He's been hanging tough with a rev 1 233MHz iMac G3 for a good 6-1/2 years now, so he's long overdue for an upgrade.

I think the consensus is that you need a serial number of the form YM535xxxxx or G8535xxxxxxxx

some one on these forms explains it as YM = china G8 = CA
5 = 2005 year
now the next two parts are the critical represents the week you want >=35
(which denotes the week ) ... simply note the serial number enter it into the apple support page and you should be able to get the model details ... which should be listed as Mac Mini (late 2005) . Otherwise donot open it and promtly return it.

 

[wdlove]

From others it seems that customizing your Mac mini increases the chance of getting the newer version. I think that you grandpa will be very happy. Good luck.

 

[PCMacUser]

I think the consensus is that you need a serial number of the form YM535xxxxx or G8535xxxxxxxx

some one on these forms explains it as YM = china G8 = CA
5 = 2005 year
now the next two parts are the critical represents the week you want >=35
(which denotes the week ) ... simply note the serial number enter it into the apple support page and you should be able to get the model details ... which should be listed as Mac Mini (late 2005) . Otherwise donot open it and promtly return it.

I'm impressed with the science!