Greetings all, I thought I'd add my mac mini experience to this thread. My wife and I decided to get a Mac Mini right around the time when the updated spec rumors started. We wanted the $599 mini as I thought buying an external burner would be a better and cheaper option. Plus I could use it with the other two laptops and PC desktop. Anyway, being a mac junkie, and having the green light to buy a new mac, but having to wait for the update was killing me. I'm sure many of you understand. My main reasons for waiting, the 5400rpm drive, and the video RAM, which I feel are significant upgrades for a basic machine.
Anyway, I live in the DC area and this past Sunday CompUSA was offering $100 off any in stock desktop or notebook instantly. I went in with no hope that the Apple products were included in the sale. But, I asked anyway and to my surprise the salesperson said "yes" absolutely. 🙂 I then asked if they had any minis. I thought that a mid level mini for $499 would be a great deal even if it was the older model. The salesperson then informed me that they only had the superdrive mini left. Man, I was torn. At this point I wasn't sure if a $599 "old superdrive mini" was worth it. To buy me some time to think (it was a 12 hour sale) I asked to see the box. The salesperson came back with it, and I asked him if he knew about the updated minis. He said that he did not, but when questioned how old the mini was, he replied that it should be fairly recent. I didn't know about the mini serial numbers and the date at this point. Anyway, after talking with the manager about the specifics of the return policy, it appears that CompUSA allows 21 days satisfaction, and since the mini is considered a deaktop computer I could return it for a full refund with no restocking fee, provided "everything" was in the box. Despite their assurances I did not want to deal with actually having to return, knowing full well that the information may not be accurate. Well, with the other deal of 6 months same as cash (I'm a grad student) I decided to take the plunge and return the mini if I found it "too slow".
At the register, as I had feared, the mini didn't ring up with the $100 rebate. Fortunately I had the "new" cashier and because of this the only checkstand open quickly started to back up. This definitely worked in my favor becuase within a few minutes I had my salesperson, the head cashier, and finally the manager looking though the ad to see why the computer didn't have the rebate automatically removed. The manager told the cashier to just adjust the price and I got my mini for the $599 I was promised.
Okay, so I got the computer home and with the cute little box sitting and staring at me from the table I was again mortified to know if this was an updgraded mini. Just to inform those who were hoping to quickly test the mini at a store for its specs (I had considered doing this) removing the mini from all of the packaging makes it pretty much impossible to put it back in "like new" condition. So after it was out I hooked it up and started it up. To my surprise, relief, and delight it was an upgraded mini.
SN# - YM537XXXXXX
1.5 gHz G4
64MB Radeon 9200
80GB 5400rpm HD
and 8x DL Burner.
I didn't know how to test for the updated Bluetooth.
So it appears that week 37 production also has upgraded minis like the other poster who indicated his came from week 38. Sorry for the long post, and thank you for reading this far, I just thought I'd share my experience. It's definitely something I would NEVER want to repeat. I sympathize with those in a similar situation as my end result could have been drastically different. It is for this reason that I wish Apple would just announced the update and get it over with. 🙂
