Mini purchase dilemma

[Dr Charter]

I'm in the market for a new Mac Mini. I'm not waiting for the refresh but am choosing between these two models. They are new and available at these prices through my university IT store.

2012 2.5 I5 with HD 4000 graphics: $569
2011 2.5 I5 with AMD Radeon HD 6630M: $469

Both have 4GB ram, which I plan to upgrade later regardless, along with an SSD at some point. I know the 2011 has USB2 but my drives are all Firewire or Thunderbolt anyway. I know that both are powerful enough for my needs (productivity apps and media playback). I love the price of the 2011 but have some reservations about buying a 2011 computer in 2013. Are these units comparable in your experience? Does the 2011 lack anything I haven't mentioned? Any feedback would be appreciated.

 

[balamw]

They are actually different i5 chips in the two machines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Mini

The 2012 has TurboBoost, but the 2011 does not. Small difference.

B

 

[nollimac]

What I did was to choose the late 2012 Mac Mini which was in an open box condition for $431.99 from Best Buy...hint, hint!

 

[Dr Charter]

They are actually different i5 chips in the two machines.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_Mini

The 2012 has TurboBoost, but the 2011 does not. Small difference.

B

Thanks. I hadn't considered that.

 

[balamw]

What I did was to choose the late 2012 Mac Mini which was in an open box condition for $431.99 from Best Buy...hint, hint!

Sounds like you got a great deal!

B

 

[Dr Charter]

Sounds like you got a great deal!

B

No kidding. This might be a good time of year to look for them. Damn. Now I have a third option to consider.

 

[nollimac]

No kidding. This might be a good time of year to look for them. Damn. Now I have a third option to consider.

I agree...I am even thinking of when I get the Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD next week and max out the memory to 16GB to put on Ebay. By April, it should be clear if the 2014 Mac Mini will be coming out.

 

[phrehdd]

I agree...I am even thinking of when I get the Samsung 840 Pro 128GB SSD next week and max out the memory to 16GB to put on Ebay. By April, it should be clear if the 2014 Mac Mini will be coming out.

That is pretty close to what I did.

I got the base model of the higher end Mac Mini, added a Samsung Pro SSD and 16 gigs of Crucial RAM. It runs quite well though the only thing I really wanted over this model and the previous was the Intel Iris Pro gpu on board. This should hold me over until 2014 comes along.

 

[Crosscreek]

I'm in the market for a new Mac Mini. I'm not waiting for the refresh but am choosing between these two models. They are new and available at these prices through my university IT store.

2012 2.5 I5 with HD 4000 graphics: $569
2011 2.5 I5 with AMD Radeon HD 6630M: $469

Both have 4GB ram, which I plan to upgrade later regardless, along with an SSD at some point. I know the 2011 has USB2 but my drives are all Firewire or Thunderbolt anyway. I know that both are powerful enough for my needs (productivity apps and media playback). I love the price of the 2011 but have some reservations about buying a 2011 computer in 2013. Are these units comparable in your experience? Does the 2011 lack anything I haven't mentioned? Any feedback would be appreciated.

Refurbished site of Apple has just restocked. I recommend this over BB.

 

[Dr Charter]

Refurbished site of Apple has just restocked. I recommend this over BB.

Thanks for the heads up. $509 for a base 2012 model! Sold.

 

[MrGuder]

I'm considering a refurbished now, but I don't want a 500GB hardrive, at 5400 rpm that is way too slow, boot up time and opening applications will be slow, I've seen youtube videos of time difference between a 5400 and a SSD and the 1TB Fusion they are night and day differences.

SSD is best, then the Fusion is ok (because it also has the 128GB Flash) but the 500GB w/ 5400 rpm is the slowest.

 

[Dr Charter]

I'm considering a refurbished now, but I don't want a 500GB hardrive, at 5400 rpm that is way too slow, boot up time and opening applications will be slow, I've seen youtube videos of time difference between a 5400 and a SSD and the 1TB Fusion they are night and day differences.

SSD is best, then the Fusion is ok (because it also has the 128GB Flash) but the 500GB w/ 5400 rpm is the slowest.

I agree about the drive. I currently have my media on an external and will probably keep it there. I'm planning to swap out the 500 GB HD for an SSD. With that and RAM upgrade, I should be good to go.

 

[Crosscreek]

I'm considering a refurbished now, but I don't want a 500GB hardrive, at 5400 rpm that is way too slow, boot up time and opening applications will be slow, I've seen youtube videos of time difference between a 5400 and a SSD and the 1TB Fusion they are night and day differences.

SSD is best, then the Fusion is ok (because it also has the 128GB Flash) but the 500GB w/ 5400 rpm is the slowest.

I bought a refurbished 2.5 mini and plan on using external 250mb ssd as a boot drive that I already have for my rMBP that I use for time machine and storage. When the refresh happens I will have the mini ready to sell as a base unit. I did buy 8GB of ram for it. That is what I have in my MBP and thats more than I ever use.

 

[Fishrrman]

[[ I'm planning to swap out the 500 GB HD for an SSD. ]]

There's no need to "swap out" the internal drive.

There's space for -two drives- inside.

Just add the SSD, and keep the HDD for a backup, extra storage, etc.

You will need another ribbon cable to the motherboard for this, however.

 

[scottsjack]

[[ I'm planning to swap out the 500 GB HD for an SSD. ]]

There's no need to "swap out" the internal drive.

There's space for -two drives- inside.

Just add the SSD, and keep the HDD for a backup, extra storage, etc.

You will need another ribbon cable to the motherboard for this, however.

That's what I am going to do when I gen mine in a couple of weeks; 2.3 i7, Crucial M500 960GB, 16GB of Crucial RAM and an OWC Data Doubler kit.