stainlessliquid
macrumors 68000
you can get a $499 1.83ghz C2D mini refurb at apple.com
Semi-decent mac for 500 dollars?
- Thread starter Alacres
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Yup, the refurb store has 1.83 c2d for $499 frequently - check back every morning.
Buy 2gigs of RAM, putty knife the thing open, maybe add a firewire drive for expansion later, and reuse your current keyboard/mouse/monitor and you are in a 'real' Mac for very, very cheap (by Mac standards)...If only it had a real video card.
jodelli
macrumors 65816
Disk Utility on your Leopard disk.
I was curious; do they constantly stock refurbished mac mini's when they get them, or was this a one time only deal? I noticed that I'd see one in the morning, then I'd check later and it would be gone, and then another would be put up for sale during the day. Lately though, for about the last two days, I haven't seen a single refurbished mini for sale.
Is this normal? Do I still have a chance to get one in a week or so? Or was it just an occasional, promotional thing?
They offer them for sale whenever they get them returned from customers. You just have to keep checking back or setup the RSS feed from the refurb page so that you know instantly when they have them in stock.
madmaxmedia
macrumors 68030
Scour your local Craigslist, you will find better deals there typically than EBay.
The $499 refurb C2D Mini is a great deal on a nice speedy Mac, only problem for you is that a dedicated GPU would be better.
I live in LA. I recently found a C2D 2GHz 17" iMac for $500. They usually of course go for more, but that's why you keep an eye out and pounce when something good comes up.
The $499 refurb C2D Mini is a great deal on a nice speedy Mac, only problem for you is that a dedicated GPU would be better.
I live in LA. I recently found a C2D 2GHz 17" iMac for $500. They usually of course go for more, but that's why you keep an eye out and pounce when something good comes up.
Ah ok, that's what I figured. I'm finally about able to buy it; I hope I get lucky enough for one to pop up soon. As for the RSS feed thing, I'm too much of a novice to know how to set that up
. Don't suppose you could give me a run down on how to do it?I've checked craigslist quite a few times, but I live in a really crappy town, along side a bunch of other little crappy towns, so I haven't had much luck hehe. Yeah, I was really dreading the whole integrated graphics thing, but after talking with several of the EQmac vets, they assured me that the mac mini I've been planning on was more than enough to run EQ close to flawlessly. It is an older game, afterall.
I know this is kind of out of the blue, but just out of curiousity, which Mac notebook would be the closest to the mac mini 1.82 C2D, in terms of performance and power? And how much would the price differ?
If I could find one with around the same power as the mac mini, at around the same price, I might see about getting one of those instead.
If I could find one with around the same power as the mac mini, at around the same price, I might see about getting one of those instead.
The Macbook laptops are the closest match to the mini. Actually, until the latest model they used the same internal components. You won't find one in the $500 range unless you find someone selling a damaged one. Even the oldest models like the one I have still go for $700+ depending on things like ram and hard drive size.
Stick with picking up a refurb mini. Since you already have a monitor you like, you don't need to pay for portability you aren't going to use.
I see what you mean about the price difference. The cheapest I could find with similar components to the mini was running at around 650-700 dollars.
The only reason I had even started considering the macbook was because I'll be starting at the University next semester and I figured a laptop could come in handy. It's no big deal though.
Thanks for the info
.Well, I came across what I "think" is a really great deal on a macbook on craigslist earlier tonight and I wanted to run it by you guys to see if it stands up next to the mac mini I was planning on.
Here's the desription with the specs:
"I am selling a pristine 13.3-inch Apple MacBook with a matte Black finish, a 2GHz Dual Core Intel Core Duo processor, and 2GB of RAM (upgraded from 512MB!). This notebook is in excellent condition. The screen is immaculate with no dead pixels and the case is virtually unscathed, save for some very minor cosmetic blemishes on the bottom that you'll likely never notice. It has a fairly new battery from Apple (warranty replacement).
I have installed a fresh copy of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and iLife '06. It was purchased in June of 2006 and is covered by the 3-year AppleCare Protection Plan ($249 value - expires June 2009).
Specifications
13.3" TFT LCD Display (1280x800)
Dual Core 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo Processor
80GB Serial-ATA Hard Drive (5,400 rpm)
2GB DDR2 SDRAM RAM
SuperDrive (DVD+/-RW/CD-RW)
Built-in iSight Camera
Built-in 54-Mbps AirPort Extreme (802.11g standard); built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, iLife '06, and Front Row preinstalled
Apple Remote included for use with Front Row"
She's selling it for only 600 dollars if you can believe it and I'm really considering it. The only thing I was unsure about was the graphics processor. She didn't have anything listed about it, and I have no idea which version this thing sports. Is it at least as powerful as the 64 meg Intel GMA 950 graphics processor that the mac mini comes with?
Also, is it possible to use a PC monitor with this macbook just like with the mac mini, as long as you have the correct adapter?
As far as I can tell, this thing seems even more powerful than the mac mini I've been looking at, but, being the desktop-minded person that I am, it's hard for me to believe that a laptop could rival it hehe. If everything turns out like I'm hoping, I may have finally found the mac I've been looking for.
Here's the desription with the specs:
"I am selling a pristine 13.3-inch Apple MacBook with a matte Black finish, a 2GHz Dual Core Intel Core Duo processor, and 2GB of RAM (upgraded from 512MB!). This notebook is in excellent condition. The screen is immaculate with no dead pixels and the case is virtually unscathed, save for some very minor cosmetic blemishes on the bottom that you'll likely never notice. It has a fairly new battery from Apple (warranty replacement).
I have installed a fresh copy of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and iLife '06. It was purchased in June of 2006 and is covered by the 3-year AppleCare Protection Plan ($249 value - expires June 2009).
Specifications
13.3" TFT LCD Display (1280x800)
Dual Core 2.0 GHz Intel Core Duo Processor
80GB Serial-ATA Hard Drive (5,400 rpm)
2GB DDR2 SDRAM RAM
SuperDrive (DVD+/-RW/CD-RW)
Built-in iSight Camera
Built-in 54-Mbps AirPort Extreme (802.11g standard); built-in Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, iLife '06, and Front Row preinstalled
Apple Remote included for use with Front Row"
She's selling it for only 600 dollars if you can believe it and I'm really considering it. The only thing I was unsure about was the graphics processor. She didn't have anything listed about it, and I have no idea which version this thing sports. Is it at least as powerful as the 64 meg Intel GMA 950 graphics processor that the mac mini comes with?
Also, is it possible to use a PC monitor with this macbook just like with the mac mini, as long as you have the correct adapter?
As far as I can tell, this thing seems even more powerful than the mac mini I've been looking at, but, being the desktop-minded person that I am, it's hard for me to believe that a laptop could rival it hehe. If everything turns out like I'm hoping, I may have finally found the mac I've been looking for
.Well, nevermind about that last question. After doing some googling (once I got a very suspsicious e-mail from her) I found out that this whole thing was a scam. Apparently, these people put merchandise up for sale on craigslist, make up some phoney story about having to move to the UK, and then use some false shipping company to make the transaction.
I guess when things seem to good to be true, they usually are =/.
I guess when things seem to good to be true, they usually are =/.
madmaxmedia
macrumors 68030
Craigslist is great, but anytime a seller can't meet you in person to deliver the goods then it's an automatic no go IMO.
You will find some very good deals on CL, but yeah that one sounded too good to be true.
cherry su
macrumors 65816
have you looked on Apple Refurbished?
ibookluv111
macrumors member
I was bidding on a pre-iSight iMac G5 yesterday on eBay and then gave up. Bad idea. It went for $290. Yes, $290! Nothing wrong! It was a 1.8ghz 512mb Ram, 80GB, Airport, Bluetooth.
Stupid me.
So yes, you can definitely find a G5 for about $500. I've seen some Powermacs go for about that, but most will go higher.
Well, I finally have something ordered - I ended up going with a brand new mac mini 1.82 core2duo for $580 total (with shipping). I saved about $70 by buying it on eBay vs. apple; the only downside is, it's shipping UPS ground, so it'll be awhile . A small price to pay though for a decent deal.
Thanks for all the help throughout this thread; you've all been a great help.
. A small price to pay though for a decent deal.Thanks for all the help throughout this thread; you've all been a great help
.
kitch95
macrumors regular
if your swinging towards a emac try this www.wegenermedia.com sorry didnt read the last post but good deal on emac's
alexlovesmacs
macrumors 6502a
i would buy a powermac G4 look for one on craigslist
Well, I finally have something ordered - I ended up going with a brand new mac mini 1.82 core2duo for $580 total (with shipping). I saved about $70 by buying it on eBay vs. apple; the only downside is, it's shipping UPS ground, so it'll be awhile
Thanks for all the help throughout this thread; you've all been a great help
You made the right decision. Don't forget to putty knife the thing open and throw in 2 gig of RAM, it'll help a lot.
Yeah, I definitely plan to do that, but I didn't realize that the mac mini's come with two sticks of 512 ram =/. I figured it was a 1 gig stick, leaving an extra slot open for another stick. Since I can't afford any extra ram right now, I was thinking of just taking out one of the 512 sticks and putting in the 1 gig stick that I had left over from my old PC. That would give me around 1.5 gigs, which is a little better.
That, of course, raises another question - can you use regular PC ram in a Mac, or do you have to order a special, mac-only type?
It is regular, plain-jane SODIMM DDR2 Ram. Pretty much any recent laptop uses the same RAM
proc
macrumors member
Congratulations with your new Mac Mini! I'm sure you will enjoy it as much as we usually do. Keep in mind that you will need SO-DIMM memory as used in most laptops, not regular sized DIMMs. At the moment RAM is priced low, so this might be a good time to pick up 2 2GB SO-DIMM modules. Your Mac Mini will be able to use dualchannel memory doing this (will benefit about 10% in speed) and will be able to adress 3GB of the 4GB you installed. The extra GB (3GB instead of 2GB) will also give you some cache-speed advantage.
Thanks
I'm looking forward to testing it out.Bah, that figures =/. Well, looks like it'll be awhile before I upgrade the ram in it. I just hope laptop memory isn't a lot more expensive.
Thanks for the info.