I am looking to buy one used in the refub store but I need one where I can upgrade the ram, just not sure when they changed them to the RAM being soldered on the Logic Board?
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Which Mac Mini Now has the Soldered RAM?
- Thread starter Wicked1
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All of the 2014 Minis have soldered RAM. Only the 2012 Minis (and older) have RAM that can be upgraded, and those come and go very quickly from the refurb store, when they appear.
The current range are soldered .. The last with user replaceable RAM were 2012 I believe.
You might have better luck on ebay. As demand is high.. And certainly here in the uk older models are frequently listed. Many with decent upgrades. SSD or maxed out memory.
The 2012 Mac Mini range came with 4 GB RAM and can be upgraded to 16 GB.
Off the shelf 2014 Mac Minis come with 4 GB RAM (base model) or 8 GB (mid and top model). The RAM is soldered, thus not upgradeable, however they can be custom ordered with up to 16 GB RAM.
Off the shelf 2014 Mac Minis come with 4 GB RAM (base model) or 8 GB (mid and top model). The RAM is soldered, thus not upgradeable, however they can be custom ordered with up to 16 GB RAM.
Their prices for upgrading to 16gb is 300$ for the base model. You can pick up 16gb for the 2012 model for 70 bucks. It's like a knee to the gonads.
It's totally ruined apple for me. The battery is glued to the mobo is newer laptops. We can't replace a battery. They've been easing us down this road little by little the past 5 years. locking everything down, so the product life cycle is 2-3 years or you pay thru the nose for repairs.
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I've got the late 2014 Mac Mini with 8GB of RAM.
Whilst it's fine for what I currently use it for I am going to go back to an iMac in late 2016/early 2017 as I'd like to be able to upgrade the RAM without paying Apple's BYOD prices(!)
Whilst it's fine for what I currently use it for I am going to go back to an iMac in late 2016/early 2017 as I'd like to be able to upgrade the RAM without paying Apple's BYOD prices(!)
The funny thing is that we, the consumer let them do it to us. They slowly integrated this nonsense over the years- The proprietary screws, soldered, and now glued/pasted and impossible to repair was in exchange for a thinner, lighter (albeit weaker) machine. Now they do it specifically to hose the consumers. Great article in wired couple years ago from the founder of ifixit: http://www.wired.com/2012/06/opinion-apple-retina-displa/
Sorry- rant over.
Sorry- rant over.
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My beef with the iMac is that the 2011 21.5" could take 32gb but the last 3-4 years models can only take 16gb. That doesn't even consider the difficulty getting into the 2012+ machines to install flash drives.
The new Mac Mini (2014) is slower than the 2012. I couldn't believe it when I saw that in a post somewhere, but a check of MacTracker showed it to be quite true. In fact, some of the 2011 units are faster than the 2014 models.
So….what's the going price on a used 2012 Mac Mini…the one where you can still add more RAM?
So….what's the going price on a used 2012 Mac Mini…the one where you can still add more RAM?
The 2014 Mac Mini isn't slower across the range than the 2012.
Apple dropped the quad core model, so the top end 2014 is not as fast as the top 2012 and 2011 versions. The duo core models are all a little faster then the 2012 equivalent. That includes the humble 1.4 GHz base model, which can boost to 2.7 GHz for a bit when required.
I'd be curious of the prices people have paid for used 2012 Mini's lately too. Please say it's specs. and extras that were included with that price.
I'll start:
on 11/24/15 I bought a 2012 Mini via Craig's List for $1,000.
2.6 Quad core i7, 16Gb RAM, 512 GB SSD, 1TB HDD. It also came with a WL keyboard and mouse, USB2 Superdrive and an iHome 20 key number pad (USB2). Not sure if it is the best price, but perceived the i7, maxed ram AND 256GB SSD would be fewer and farther between than i5's with just 1TB HDD. NOTE: the Infrared sensor's socket on the main PCB is broken, so no remote control unless I buy a $20 USB IR receiver. I almost never use that on my old iMac, so I don't care.
How much of a premium did I pay for the Ferrari whose HP I feel good about, but prob. won't use.
The 512 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM was my big draw to this machine. The i7 was very tasty frosting on the (pricey?) cake.
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I'd be curious of the prices people have paid for used 2012 Mini's lately too. Please say it's specs. and extras that were included with that price.
I'll start:
on 11/24/15 I bought a 2012 Mini via Craig's List for $1,000.
2.6 Quad core i7, 16Gb RAM, 512 GB SSD, 1TB HDD. It also came with a WL keyboard and mouse, USB2 Superdrive and an iHome 20 key number pad (USB2). Not sure if it is the best price, but perceived the i7, maxed ram AND 256GB SSD would be fewer and farther between than i5's with just 1TB HDD. NOTE: the Infrared sensor's socket on the main PCB is broken, so no remote control unless I buy a $20 USB IR receiver. I almost never use that on my old iMac, so I don't care.
How much of a premium did I pay for the Ferrari whose HP I feel good about, but prob. won't use.
The 512 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM was my big draw to this machine. The i7 was very tasty frosting on the (pricey?) cake.
Wow, that's bold. I cannot see myself dropping $1000 cash on Craigslist regardless of the product. Just my own personal discomfort.
But I like what you have. Heck, it has more RAM than my Mac Pro.
I'd be curious of the prices people have paid for used 2012 Mini's lately too. Please say it's specs. and extras that were included with that price.
I'll start:
on 11/24/15 I bought a 2012 Mini via Craig's List for $1,000.
2.6 Quad core i7, 16Gb RAM, 512 GB SSD, 1TB HDD. It also came with a WL keyboard and mouse, USB2 Superdrive and an iHome 20 key number pad (USB2). Not sure if it is the best price, but perceived the i7, maxed ram AND 256GB SSD would be fewer and farther between than i5's with just 1TB HDD. NOTE: the Infrared sensor's socket on the main PCB is broken, so no remote control unless I buy a $20 USB IR receiver. I almost never use that on my old iMac, so I don't care.
How much of a premium did I pay for the Ferrari whose HP I feel good about, but prob. won't use.
The 512 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM was my big draw to this machine. The i7 was very tasty frosting on the (pricey?) cake.
Seems like a good price. I bought a dual-core i5 Ivy Bridge Mini back when they were new. I made the mistake of telling myself I'd get a quad-core unit when the Haswell models were released. I've probably sunk $600 further into my Mini in upgrades since then (16 GB RAM kit, 960 GB SSD, some accessories). Even with a paltry dual-core i5, it's still a great little computer. Almost as fast as my 2014 Pro in read/write speeds. 16 GB RAM and 1.5 GB storage (I left the stock 500 GB drive in the first bay) is just terrific. My model was $600 new (what I paid in 2012).
I will probably upgrade to an iMac when cannonlake hits. It's a pity, I'd rather have a miniPC that I can upgrade on my own. With the direction Apple has taken though that means building myself a Linux box.
I got a refurbished mini 2.6GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 from the UK store for £539 on 30th November (it was the last 2012 they have advertised too*) advertised as coming with a 1TB drive and 4GB memory so I was pleased to see when I switched it on to see that it had 8GB in there! (Will put an SSD and create a Fusion Drive in it in the new year.)
I would expect to have had to pay @25% - @£150 more for the 'same' spec used from ebay with no warranty (obviously).
* I have signed up to Referb Tracker it's really useful!
Just based on the specs alone, it's a good buy. Buying used/mileage that's been put on it of course is the unknown variable and can have a significant impact but assuming it's been well cared for, it's a good price.I'd be curious of the prices people have paid for used 2012 Mini's lately too. Please say it's specs. and extras that were included with that price.
I'll start:
on 11/24/15 I bought a 2012 Mini via Craig's List for $1,000.
2.6 Quad core i7, 16Gb RAM, 512 GB SSD, 1TB HDD. It also came with a WL keyboard and mouse, USB2 Superdrive and an iHome 20 key number pad (USB2). Not sure if it is the best price, but perceived the i7, maxed ram AND 256GB SSD would be fewer and farther between than i5's with just 1TB HDD. NOTE: the Infrared sensor's socket on the main PCB is broken, so no remote control unless I buy a $20 USB IR receiver. I almost never use that on my old iMac, so I don't care.
How much of a premium did I pay for the Ferrari whose HP I feel good about, but prob. won't use.
The 512 GB SSD and 16 GB RAM was my big draw to this machine. The i7 was very tasty frosting on the (pricey?) cake.