Used Mac Mini Buying Advice for HTPC

[mscriv]

There's a guy in my area looking to sell a 1.66 CoreDuo Mac Mini without the hard drive. He says he's upgraded and pulled the drive. He's only selling the computer itself with the power adapter. It's got either 512 or 1gb of ram, he's not sure. He claims it was 100% working before he pulled the drive. I've been wanting to get a mini to use as a HTPC for video playback and internet usage in the living room on our 50 inch Panasonic Plasma. Do you guys think this would meet my needs and what would be a fair offer? Is the drive too difficult to install myself or could it be done fairly easily? Two years ago I upgraded the drive in my iBook myself with online instructions and that went well. Thoughts?

 

[techound1]

ifixit.com will have have walk-though for the install so you can decide if it's easy for you or not.

 

[mscriv]

Thanks Tech, taking everything into account what do you think would be a fair price for me to offer him?

ifixit is where I got my iBook walkthru from two years ago. They have good stuff. I was hoping to hear advice from people who have actually performed this upgrade. Anyone swapped out the drive in a mac mini?

 

[mac88]

Why did he pull the drive and why does he not know how much ram is installed? Buyer beware.

 

[techound1]

Thanks Tech, taking everything into account what do you think would be a fair price for me to offer him?

ifixit is where I got my iBook walkthru from two years ago. They have good stuff. I was hoping to hear advice from people who have actually performed this upgrade. Anyone swapped out the drive in a mac mini?

How easy it is depends on how comfortable you are taking apart a computer - if you were fine doing the ibook surgery, you should be fine with this one.

As far as price, look at ebay and get a price for that machine WITH a HD, subtract the cost of having to buy and install a new one, and you've got your top price.

I agree with the previous poster that not knowing how much RAM is in it is a bit sketchy. Did the guy steal the computer and pull the HD to hide the original owner/info? Yeah, that was cynical, but you meet all types buying used Macs. Asking for the original install discs can be a clue as to ownership if you're wondering about that.

On the plus side, if you're using it a media server, you can plunk whatever size HD in it you need - a plus over buying one with a small HD and having to pull it.