What Time Wednesday Should Apple Stores Have the Mac mini? +B&H

[F-Train]

I’ve never been to an Apple store on a product’s first day, but at 24 hour stores are they normally in stock at midnight?

If so, I’m thinking of dropping by the N.Y. 5th Avenue store at midnight tomorrow to purchase a Mac mini, amount of RAM depending on what they tell me about RAM replacement.

Also, presumably Australians and people in Asia will know what the story is on RAM quite a bit before those of us in the Americas, no?

The RAM issue aside, I’m hoping that I can get a Mac mini that meets my specs Wednesday at one of the 11 NY Apple stores, B&H or Adorama:

i7
512GB
Ethernet: either
RAM: 16GB (8GB if changing out is easy)

 

[saulinpa]

Minis aren't like iPhones. In the past it has taken a couple days for my local Apple stores to get minis in stock. If you want one the first day the way to go is to order it online and get it delivered directly from China. Sometimes shows up a day early.

 

[F-Train]

Minis aren't like iPhones. In the past it has taken a couple days for my local Apple stores to get minis in stock. If you want one the first day the way to go is to order it online and get it delivered directly from China. Sometimes shows up a day early.

You’re talking about previous minis, which means you’re either talking about 2014 or stores getting them in after they were released.

I think that this is a qualitatively different product, and it’s the product’s first day.

In any event, Apple states that the new mini will be in stores on Wednesday, and given that Apple knows a thing or two about logistics, there's no reason to doubt it. I’ll be pretty surprised if Apple’s NY flagship store doesn’t have it, and probably at least some of the other ten NY stores.

In my case, I want clarification on RAM before I purchase, so on-line doesn’t interest me. Also, for on-line orders, last I checked Apple is showing delivery and pickup to be pretty much the same date, maybe a one day difference.

 

[inmnbob]

Use the site iStockNow.com. It is great and will send you notifications of store stocked items when the stock is adjusted. I get a lot of advanced notice at 8:00am. I have always been able to find the new phones and watches from this site on release day without preordering.

 

[F-Train]

Use the site iStockNow.com. It is great and will send you notifications of store stocked items when the stock is adjusted. I get a lot of advanced notice at 8:00am. I have always been able to find the new phones and watches from this site on release day without preordering.

Thanks, I just suggested that they include the Mac mini on the list of products they track, which they don't currently.

The Apple site itself is pretty good for identifying what store has stock. When the iPhone 7 came out, I decided two days after release that I wanted one. Apple's site showed which store had what (it was pretty volatile), and I was able to pick up the version that I wanted at their Upper East Side store in an hour. At the time, there was a long wait if one ordered on-line.

 

[F-Train]

Published today on ZDNet: https://www.zdnet.com/article/yes-i-bought-a-2018-mac-mini-and-heres-how-i-specd-it-out/

These paragraphs suggest that I may be getting 16GB of RAM rather than 8GB replaced by 32GB

Fortunately, the new Mac mini allows for RAM upgrades. The Apple spokesperson I spoke to last week told me, "Yes, Mac mini is configurable up to 64GB and uses industry-standard DDR4 SO-DIMMs. While we don't consider the memory directly end-user accessible, service providers can access the internals of the Mac mini to upgrade the memory."

Since the 32GB upgrade is a whopping $600 more than the base 8GB unit, I opted for the 8GB unit. I then went over to Amazon and picked up some Corsair Vengeance Performance 32GB (2x16GB) 260-Pin DDR4 SO-DIMM (PC4 21300) RAM. That set me back $288 instead of $600.

While Apple has not been entirely clear on what it means by "service providers," Tim Cook did go out of his way to state that the Mac mini supports SO-DIMM modules. I'm honestly not entirely sure what I'll encounter when the Mac arrives, but I'm sure it'll be interesting.

Stay tuned, because once the machine arrives, I'll do a piece on what it takes to add the RAM.​

 

[F-Train]

The more reading that I do, the more I'm comfortable with 16GB of RAM. For me, purchasing it ready to go outweighs what is a fairly small cost difference and the hassle of installation.

I'm ready to buy, tomorrow at midnight or by checking out stock at the NY Apple stores, B&H and Adorama during the day Wednesday. This should be easy to get off the shelf:

i7
SSD: 512GB
RAM: 16GB
Ethernet: either

 

[F-Train]

Well this is sort of interesting. B&H is selling all configurations except only with Gigabit Ethernet, no 10 Gigabit. Adorama is selling both.

 

[killawat]

Well this is sort of interesting. B&H is selling all configurations except only with Gigabit Ethernet, no 10 Gigabit. Adorama is selling both.

I wonder if Adorama just made sku's for every available configuration. No way they have 1TB, 32GB 10 GbE models sitting on the shelf.

 

[F-Train]

I wonder if Adorama just made sku's for every available configuration. No way they have 1TB, 32GB 10 GbE models sitting on the shelf.

Could well be. I just discovered that B&H, while saying that the mini will be available on Wednesday, is not offering in-store pickup. Only shipping, presumably from their Brooklyn warehouse. To be honest, that's not unusual for B&H on new products.

If they actually have my configuration in stock Wednesday, delivery would be Thursday, but I think that there's a reasonable chance that I'll be able to get a mini at an Apple store on Wednesday.

 

[F-Train]

Quick update...

As of 2:00 PM Tuesday, the NY flagship store and the other ten Apple stores in the NYC area all show November 20 availability.

Despite that, I'm pretty sure that by tomorrow morning Apple will show minis available in-store, and maybe at midnight tonight at the flagship store.

We shall see.

As for B&H, it still seems to be saying that it will ship minis tomorrow. The B&H web site says that its top sellers (presumably actual orders) are:

Processor: i3
RAM: 8GB
SSD: 128GB

i7
8GB
512GB

i7
16GB
512GB

 

[F-Train]

Earlier today, I asked B&H for notifications on several configurations. I've had just one e-mail from them saying that a configuration was "not in stock"; namely I7, 8GB RAM, 256GB Flash.

As of 9:00 PM, the others are still alive.

 

[bigfatipod]

w

Earlier today, I asked B&H for notifications on several configurations. I've had just one e-mail from them saying that a configuration was "not in stock"; namely I7, 8GB RAM, 256GB Flash.

As of 9:00 PM, the others are still alive.

What do you mean, are they manually emailing you inventory information?

 

[F-Train]

What do you mean, are they manually emailing you inventory information?

They are telling me that a product that I'm interested in is not in stock. So far, they've only told me that about one configuration.

This suggests to me that they are able to fill orders on other configurations that I asked about. Given that I haven't made an actual order, I will eventually be told that I can order or, if all the stock is spoken for, that my other configurations are also now out of stock.

B&H has a pretty sophisticated ordering system

 

[jrlcopy]

I don't think a single NY apple store will have stock tomorrow. Apple.com is showing Nov 19th as the earliest any configs would be available.

 

[F-Train]

I don't think a single NY apple store will have stock tomorrow. Apple.com is showing Nov 19th as the earliest any configs would be available.

Yes, and a couple of hours ago Apple's site suggested that none of the 11 NY stores would have any until November 20.

Given that Cook said that the Mac mini would be "in stores" on Nov. 7, I don't take seriously the idea that NY stores won't have any for another two weeks.

Anyway, either they'll have them or they won't. I'm not going to lose sleep over it

 

[saulinpa]

You were right. Today Apple's site is showing the two base configs are available for pickup at all of the stores near me as well as NYC area.

 

[F-Train]

You were right. Today Apple's site is showing the two base configs are available for pickup at all of the stores near me as well as NYC area.

Thanks, I would have been dumbfounded if the NY Apple stores didn't have the mini in stock.

I've been absorbed over the RAM issue (someone in the UK has now actually done a changeout), but I'll be buying a mini this afternoon if any of the stores has my configuration.

 

[Banglazed]

The more reading that I do, the more I'm comfortable with 16GB of RAM. For me, purchasing it ready to go outweighs what is a fairly small cost difference and the hassle of installation.

I'm ready to buy, tomorrow at midnight or by checking out stock at the NY Apple stores, B&H and Adorama during the day Wednesday. This should be easy to get off the shelf:

i7
SSD: 512GB
RAM: 16GB
Ethernet: either

Apple Stores will only have the base models available. Normally for any configuration, you will need to wait longer or purchase it online for the i7 configuration.

 

[bigfatipod]

well my mini status at b&h has gone from pre-order to back order

 

[F-Train]

Apple Stores will only have the base models available. Normally for any configuration, you will need to wait longer or purchase it online for the i7 configuration.

I get a kick out of the certitude in this thread. So far, two people have posted here saying that Apple stores wouldn't have any in stock. They were wrong; indeed, it looks like all eleven of the NY stores have stock.

Myself, I'm going to check around. I think that there's a reasonable chance that i7 Mac minis will soon be available, maybe even later today.

Indeed, based on today's clarity about what is involved in changing out the RAM, the $1099 configuration may work for me. I'm OK with 256GB Flash. The only issue is i5 vs i7, which I'm thinking about.
[doublepost=1541607817][/doublepost]

well my mini status at b&h has gone from pre-order to back order

Well, that's a drag.

 

[jrlcopy]

I get a kick out of the certitude in this thread. So far, two people have posted here saying that Apple stores wouldn't have any in stock. They were wrong; indeed, it looks like all eleven of the NY stores have stock.

Hey I was totally wrong, I assumed it was going to be like the 2013 Mac Pro, those they didn't have for a couple weeks, but they were VERY back ordered.

 

[F-Train]

I thought I'd mention that I just received an e-mail from B&H saying that it has the i7/512GB/8GB in stock, which I confirmed by going to their site. As you may know, this is not one of the two base configurations. I did not check other configurations.

 

[comptr]

I thought I'd mention that I just received an e-mail from B&H on Thursday saying that it has the i7/512GB/8GB in stock, which I confirmed by going to their site. As you may know, this is not one of the two base configurations. I did not check other configurations.

I just ordered from B&H on Thursday the same config as yours and the sales guy on the phone told me it was not in stock. Maybe they got inventory after I ordered mine.

 

[F-Train]

I just ordered from B&H on Thursday the same config as yours and the sales guy on the phone told me it was not in stock. Maybe they got inventory after I ordered mine.

I just did a search on B&H's site for "2018 Mac mini". When you get the result, there is a little box on the left (see photo) that you can check asking to filter by "In Stock". Of the 31 returns, 13 are Mac minis, each of them a different version. They range in price from US$800 to $3,300.