Which Mac Mini to replace my 'custom' Mac Pro?

[johnsmith555]

Hi everyone.

3.5 years ago I bought my first Mac… well I assembled it from bits of junk with help from this very forum. The original thread can be found on my profile called "My first Apple - Mac Pro 1.1 - sensible upgrades?".

It was fitted with 13GB of RAM, 4x 250GB HDDs, an Airport Extreme Wireless adaptor and a Apple Bluetooth Module and ran Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5.

The cheap (<£190) little computer had run wonderfully all this time, but it is time for a replacement - its a little too slow and adding/upgrading software is very tricky due to the OSX limitations on the 1.1. A lot of websites won't open and my iTunes (linked to an iPhone 6) hasn't been able to sync with my up-to-date phone for years.

…and I feel like treating myself. So I'm off to buy a refurbished Mac Mini - it should do everything I need (web browsing, iPhone sync and movie downloads mainly - but I'd also like to run MS Office for Mac).

My max budget is about £400, but I'd prefer to spend a bit less - so this gives me a few options. But I confess I get very confused with the different processors, speeds and operating systems. I'm looking for one that will let me update the OS Software for a good-while and work well for about another 3.5 years.

Having a quick look at some of the common sources gives me a few options:

1. £430: An absolutely basic, but brand-new Mac mini from Apple with my Student Discount: 1.4GHz Processor
   500 GB Storage
   1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5
   4GB memory
   500GB hard drive1
   Intel HD Graphics 5000
2. £449.00
   An independantly-refurbished Mac Mini - Intel Core i5 2.5 GHz - 16GB - 500GB - Gold Grade Refurbished
   Mac O/S High Sierra 10.13 - 12 Months Return To Base Warranty.
3. £349: An independantly-refurbished Mac Mini
   Intel Core i5 2.5 GHz - 4GB - 500GB - Gold Grade Refurbished
   Mac O/S High Sierra 10.13 - 12 Months Return To Base Warranty.
4. £285: An independantly-refurbished Mac Mini - Intel Core 2 Duo 2.66GHz - 2GB - 500GB - Gold Grade Refurbished
   Mac O/S El Capitan 10.11 - 12 Months Return To Base Warranty
5. £215.00: An independantly-refurbished Mac Mini - Intel Core 2 Duo 2.0GHz - 4GB - 500GB Refurbished
   12 Months Return To Base Warranty..

Could anyone offer a bit of advice about which components to aim for? (e.g. "I5, not core2duo / minimum of xGB / etc")

Thank you very much.

 

[harryb2448]

Personally I would only consider one with a Solid State Drive or a PCI-e Blade Drive. All Minis are now old machines the latest update four years ago.

And with later operating systems consider a model with 8GB memory. Aple seems to have let Minis die a natural death.

 

[pigoo3]

If you've got to have a Mac-Mini...and if CPU processing power is important...then there is really only one choice...a Late 2012 Mac-Mini with the quad-core i7 CPU. This is the only time Apple released a Mac-Mini with a quad-core CPU. The Late 2012 quad-core Mac-Mini still blows the doors off the lastest/newest Mac-Mini.

Latest Mac-Mini has CPU benchmark scores of around 7300...the 2012 quad-core Mac-Mini has benchmark scores of 11,000+. But...given the rarity & CPU power of this Mac-Mini...very possible that used models for sale will command a premium price.

Also to be fair...the newest Mac-Mini will have better graphics hardware.

- Nick

 

[m.g.mcc]

If you've got to have a Mac-Mini...and if CPU processing power is important...then there is really only one choice...a Late 2012 Mac-Mini with the quad-core i7 CPU.

Also, with these earlier MacMinis the RAM was user upgradeable. I have this model and upgraded it initially from 4GB to 8GB and, more recently, to its maximum of 16GB.

 

[pigoo3]

Also, with these earlier MacMinis the RAM was user upgradeable. I have this model and upgraded it initially from 4GB to 8GB and, more recently, to its maximum of 16GB.

User replaceable/upgradeable RAM definitely a positive.

- Nick

 

[foxhole]

I have a 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7 mini with 16gb memory and ssd hard drive, cost me £400.Replaces my aging 2.66 dual core with 16mb and 1gb video card [total 2.5tb of hard disk space over 4 drives] but I still keep them linked so I can share on my apple screen.My video library is too large for mini hard disk space.