Mac Mini 2012?

[VirtuallyInsane]

What do you guys think of the specs of this Mac Mini 2012 that I found online for $100/£85?

I was thinking of getting one, and using it to play about with another OS (like Catalina, or loading Monterrey/Ventura, etc) to try it out without updating/changing settings on my main iMac. Or using it for general experimental purposes/beta testing etc. as well. I was going to hook it up to my TV as well for the display. Is it worth it for that purpose at that price, or would it be better to stick more RAM into it? Is it a good deal?

Just curious to know. I don't think that I want to shell out on a Mac Mini 2014 for twice that price just to mainly experiment with it.

 

[apostolosdt]

Mac Mini 2012 is the last upgradeable one. If I were you, I would buy it and upgrade its RAM to 16 GB at around $50. Or change the HDD to an SSD. Its price is excellent, provided of course Grade C means Grade C.

 

[admwright]

The 2012 Mini's are nice little machines. I have an i7 as my main Mac. Have upgraded to 16Gb RAM and put a SSD as the second disk. You really need the SSD for the modern OS's. Also Catalina is the highest that these Macs officially support.

 

[MBAir2010]

OWC macsales is selling this for $69 with a longer warrantee, fast shipping and upgrades.

im using mine with only 8GB RAM which serves as a movie player downstairs.
Catalina works fine and I only have a 265GB ssd drive.

 

[MBAir2010]

The 2012 Mini's are nice little machines. I have an i7 as my main Mac. Have upgraded to 16Gb RAM and put a SSD as the second disk. You really need the SSD for the modern OS's. Also Catalina is the highest that these Macs officially support.

I was running Monterey on my model with OCLP which was easy to install.
after the 3rd time!

 

[VirtuallyInsane]

Mac Mini 2012 is the last upgradeable one. If I were you, I would buy it and upgrade its RAM to 16 GB at around $50. Or change the HDD to an SSD. Its price is excellent, provided of course Grade C means Grade C.

Yes, I will definitely be upgrading the RAM and putting an SSD in it at some point. This company is good, and things that are listed as so show up as so, from my experience. I'm going to put it on my desk on the opposite side of my Apple TV and just use it for experimenting, like I said.

The 2012 Mini's are nice little machines. I have an i7 as my main Mac. Have upgraded to 16Gb RAM and put a SSD as the second disk. You really need the SSD for the modern OS's. Also Catalina is the highest that these Macs officially support.

Yes, I will probably turn it into a "fusion drive" and put an SSD as the second disk. And yeah, I know it's the last one that the Macs officially support but I was referring to using the OCLP to load Monterrey onto it (maybe) as @MBAir2010 mentioned.

OWC macsales is selling this for $69 with a longer warrantee, fast shipping and upgrades.

im using mine with only 8GB RAM which serves as a movie player downstairs.
Catalina works fine and I only have a 265GB ssd drive.

Thanks for showing me this, but the shipping and expenses will put it over the price I see here. I would have bought it otherwise. The one I showed ships within the UK and isn't as expensive.

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UPDATE: Thanks for your feedback, everyone. I bought it, and the shipping was very cheap, so I am waiting for its arrival. I am gonna buy the RAM soon as well and put an SSD into it

 

[Orizence]

I was running Monterey on my model with OCLP which was easy to install.
after the 3rd time!

Currently running Monterey on mine with OCLP to run much newer photo editing software. It runs great for everything but the photo editing lol

 

[now i see it]

I’ve got a 2010 Mini w 8GB ram & a 256GB SSD running Catalina and everything works fine. Its not my primary computer but it’s perfectly fine for doing mundane tasks.
The 2012 Mini is a much better machine.