I said I dont know ? I was checking with you guys here as in will it make any difference ? I dont know whether will it make any difference or not ?
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Can't Decide which M2 Mac Mini Configuration to buy ? Help !!
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I said I dont know ? I was checking with you guys here as in will it make any difference ? I dont know whether will it make any difference or not ?
On Apple.com opt for base model Mac mini M2 with 16GB memory & 256GB SSD then buy a external SSD if you want more space.
Should keep you well and good for 6-10 years if your use case remains unchanged.
Go to the Apple Education Store and save yourself another $120. Anyone can order from there.
Should I keep well and good for 6-10 Years ? lol ! You want me also to expire like a Product before that ?
You cant just go there and order. You need a Valid Id and a College Certificate meaning something that proves you are a Student. Apple does verify it. They have a Solid Verification Mechanism.
I am no longer in school but have ordered MBP, MBA, and Mac Mini through the education portal without issue. Apple doesn't verify in the U.S.
I was gonna buy the 16/256 model but am really torn now when I went to order.
Literally only going to use it for web, email and (office 365 stuff) YouTube and music. I’ll use my my windows pc for gaming. Not video or photo editing.
I’ll have to use an hdmi switch to connect it to my one monitor.
But having to buy another mouse and keyboard on top of the 16/256 model basically is the same price as an iMac at Costco.
Tempting to save the money and put it towards the mouse and keyboard. I’m not too worried about storage. I got external drives and an 18TB NAS.
Edit: does the apple us store really not verify student status?
Literally only going to use it for web, email and (office 365 stuff) YouTube and music. I’ll use my my windows pc for gaming. Not video or photo editing.
I’ll have to use an hdmi switch to connect it to my one monitor.
But having to buy another mouse and keyboard on top of the 16/256 model basically is the same price as an iMac at Costco.
Tempting to save the money and put it towards the mouse and keyboard. I’m not too worried about storage. I got external drives and an 18TB NAS.
Edit: does the apple us store really not verify student status?
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@Subliminal87, to my knowledge they don't verify at all, at least not for U.S. orders. I've successfully ordered two Macbooks in the past through the education store, once when I was a legitimate college student and once after I graduated. Neither order required any sort of verification, and they accepted my M2 Pro Mini order three days ago just fine. Chose my config, logged in with my AppleID, and completed payment. It is literally the exact same ordering process as the main apple.com site, just lower prices in the education store.
I mean, I can argue my kid is in elementary school so someone in our household is a student, but there is no verification on the U.S. education site, at all. Hey, we're all students of life, right?
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If that’s all you’re using it for, why not save a few bucks and get the $499 (edu) model? It will be plenty fast, and you can keep money in your pocket and be ready to upgrade in a year or two when Apple introduces something that really catches your eye.
M2 16/256 is $679. Add a generic mouse/keyboard is $20 or so, $80 if you go for Logitech fancy. How are you getting an iMac for anywhere close to that sum at Costco?
Apple (edu) USA doesn’t check anything.
I honestly didn’t know that the edu store didn’t verify. I may end up doing that lol.
And a few months ago my local Costco had a base iMac down for $1,100 on sale.
With the old Mac mini m1, if I would have gotten that, apples keyboard (I really like the idea of Touch ID on the keyboard) and mouse. It put me around $900ish before tax.
No one locally has the nice Logitech keyboard and mouse which sucks.
The base iMac doesn't have touch id, so it's a bit unfair to compare the two, IMHO. To me, for $499 you get all of what the $1100 iMac gives you, but without monitor, mouse, keyboard, camera.
I prefer that, because I'd rather upgrade monitor and compute separately.
And Apple's fancy 5k screen is $1299 at Costco. And the Studio is $1699 at Costco too.
Choices, choices.
I prefer that, because I'd rather upgrade monitor and compute separately.
And Apple's fancy 5k screen is $1299 at Costco. And the Studio is $1699 at Costco too.
Choices, choices.
Actually a lot of wisdom in this post. I often find myself in the same quandary, overthinking and wanting to future-proof, then paying just a little for RAM, a little more for larger SSD, and then after making the purchase, having buyer's remorse that you got duped by the hype, and spent more than you really wanted to. Depending on what you're using now, you'll see a dramatic improvement with the base M2 mini. Gotta hand it to Foo2, a real pragmatic response.
It’s better if you needed > 500GB and <1TB. Otherwise it’s wasted money (or inefficiently used money, at least).
In the grand scheme of things, it’s $180. But that’s a huge up charge for what was originally a $499 machine (which itself would satisfy the vast majority).
So do you believe upgrading from 256GB Storage to 512GB SSD could be offset by buying an external SSD ? Instead of spending $200 for the extra 256GB storage ?
Also why do you say the base model with only 256GB Storage would satisfy vast majority of people ?
If you need 500GB of storage rather than 256GB of storage, spend for the upcharge. Or get an external SSD. External SSDs, particularly in a cheap $20 USBC enclosure, get around 800-1000MB/s, which is plenty fast, and a 2TB SSD runs $100 or $150 these days.
Well all have our opinions. In my opinion the base model will satisfy most users. If you feel differently, you can spend $180 to go from 256GB to 500GB, or you can spend $20 + $50 ($70) to add a 1TB external SSD, or $20+$150 ($170) to add a 2TB external SSD, both of which are usable, and reusable, anywhere. It’s all up to you.
You’d either be running Win11/ARM (at a decent speed) or Win1/x86-64 (slowly). I wouldn’t get an AS Mac to run x86 operating systems; keep your old PC or Mac around for that, or run ESXi 7 (free) on a spare PC.