Refurbished Mac Mini M1

[southchatham]

I just ordered a refurbished M1 Mac Mini from the Apple store. I bought a 2009 mini from the Apple store back in 2009 and it was great, so I hope this one will be also. $589 with free shipping. It still comes with a 1 year warranty.

I have been using a 2014 4G model so this should be quite an improvement.

I remember back in 2009 you had to stalk the refurb store to get one. I've been looking at this for over a week and it's still in stock.

 

[Horsa]

I'm surprised that there is already such a thing as a refurbed M1 machine. Blimey!

 

[southchatham]

I'm surprised that there is already such a thing as a refurbed M1 machine. Blimey!

It could be as simple as people buy it and decide to return it for some reason. Probably new mac users who figured out no up grading. I noticed their were no M1 mini's with more than 8g ram.

 

[pigoo3]

I'm surprised that there is already such a thing as a refurbed M1 machine. Blimey!

Apple online store has had refurbished M1 Mac-Mini's for some time now (at least a month). And Apple has reduced the price to $589.

There's supposed to be a strong chance Apple's going to announce an updated Mac Mini in the next Apple hardware event (which could be this September/October)...with an M1x or M2 CPU (no one seems to know what Apple is going to call the next Apple Silicon chip). With potentially new model Mac-Mini's coming out...could be Apple trying to "clear out the pipe" of the older/current inventories.

Nick

 

[pigoo3]

I just ordered a refurbished M1 Mac Mini from the Apple store. I bought a 2009 mini from the Apple store back in 2009 and it was great, so I hope this one will be also. $589 with free shipping. It still comes with a 1 year warranty.

Please let us know how things go...M1 Mac-Mini's supposed to blow the doors off previous Mac-Mini's. I've read a lot of reviews...but always great to hear from individual owners & what they think.

Thanks,

Nick

 

[MacInWin]

Nick, I got my wife an M1 Mini to replace her older Mini. It's amazingly fast. She uses the Office suite and when we first launched Word, the interface was open before I actually got my finger off the mouse key! The combination of a super fast SSD speed and the integration makes it a real powerhouse. She doesn't do anything exotic with it, but I can definitely say it's quick!

 

[M_Six]

New M1 Minis with 8GB/256 are $600 on Amazon. Price shows $649, but there's a $49 coupon you can apply. You can bump the storage to 512 for $799 and still use the same coupon for a $750 final price.

Amazon.com: 2020 Apple Mac Mini with Apple M1 Chip (8GB RAM, 256GB SSD Storage) : Electronics

 

[southchatham]

I just got the new mini and this thing is using 5G ram for just the OS. Now just activity monitor and Firefox with YouTube going and this forum only 5.62G ram. I only have 8G ram.

My 2014 mini would be using about 2.8G ram with same stuff open.

Maybe the way this runs it's just hogging it because it can and will back off when I do more stuff.

As I was writing this I opened Pages, App store and calender and the Ram actually went down to 5.58G

So I feel better. I guess this system works much different.

All the apps opened instantly.

My 2014 Mini isn't really worth comparing to because it's so old. But I have a PC laptop 8th Gen I5 SSD 8G ram which is pretty fast. But this easily beats it. It did turn on almost instantly compared to my 2014 that you could use the bathroom and make some coffee while it turned on.

I've only been using it for an hour or so.

 

[MacInWin]

The approach to RAM and storage is entirely different. And the OS manages RAM really well, so just stop worrying about it. Given that if RAM gets tight, the system will use the storage for swap space, the real performance impact will be very small. The speeds at writing and reading from the cache/swap will be very quick.

 

[pigoo3]

I just got the new mini and this thing is using 5G ram for just the OS. Now just activity monitor and Firefox with YouTube going and this forum only 5.62G ram. I only have 8G ram.

My 2014 mini would be using about 2.8G ram with same stuff open.

Maybe the way this runs it's just hogging it because it can and will back off when I do more stuff.

As I was writing this I opened Pages, App store and calender and the Ram actually went down to 5.58G

So I feel better. I guess this system works much different.

All the apps opened instantly.

I wouldn't be concerned about the 8GB of RAM at all on the new M1 Mac-Mini. I've watched a lot of M1 Mini reviews...and unless a user is doing professional level computing tasks...8GB of RAM works fine.

Also I'm sure RAM is managed differently from the a 2014 Mac-Mini...and with the OS version that was installed.

Since you've only been using it for an hour or so...please let us know if you discover any additional Pro's or Con's.

Thanks,

Nick

 

[pigoo3]

...I got my wife an M1 Mini to replace her older Mini. It's amazingly fast. She uses the Office suite and when we first launched Word, the interface was open before I actually got my finger off the mouse key! The combination of a super fast SSD speed and the integration makes it a real powerhouse. She doesn't do anything exotic with it, but I can definitely say it's quick!

That sounds really awesome Jake! With experiences like this...I'm getting really close to getting one myself. Only thing holding me back is natively the M1 Mac-Mini only supports 2 monitors (I like to run 3). There are some non-supported ways of running 3 or more...but I like to keep things as native as possible.

I'm holding on a little longer to see what Apple announces for a possible new Mac-Mini with a newer Apple CPU (Sept/Oct hopefully). The next Mac Mini is also rumored to support more than 2 monitors natively. If it's not too expensive I'll get one...otherwise I'll be getting an M1 Mini.

Thanks,

Nick

 

[Randy B. Singer]

I just got the new mini and this thing is using 5G ram for just the OS. ..

My 2014 mini would be using about 2.8G ram with same stuff open.

This comes up pretty regularly on Macintosh discussion lists. Someone finds that Activity Monitor is showing that their Mac is using a lot of RAM, and they then erroneously assume something like "the latest OS is a RAM hog", or that "there is a memory leak somewhere", or even worse, they go around telling folks that the standard 8GB of RAM that comes with a base Mac "isn't enough" and that they "need" to buy a lot more.

The above are generally all false. The Mac has gotten really good at memory management under recent versions of the Mac OS, and the Mac OS even goes so far as to often not let unused RAM just sit there unused. The Mac OS will notice that you have unused RAM and it will make use of it by caching things so that if you go back and use them again, perceived performance will increase. For example, if you open a folder with lots of items that all have to be rendered, it will be cached so that if you go back a few minutes later, it will open again instantly.

In fact, Under recent versions of the Mac OS, the more real RAM you have installed, the more RAM that the OS will use to cache things. So if you have 16GB of real RAM installed, it may seem as if the OS is using an outlandish amount of RAM if you glance at Activity Monitor. It isn't; it's normal.

The Mac OS now even actively compresses things in RAM to make real RAM stretch farther before your Mac needs to hit virtual memory. And, of course, if you have an SSD, even if your Mac has to resort to using VM, the performance hit might be unnoticeable. So, unless you are doing something that is incredibly RAM hungry, such as editing movies, 3D rendering, etc., 8GB of RAM should be plenty.

 

[southchatham]

I wound up returning the refurbished mini and ordered a new one for $650 with free airbuds. I was considering an Imac after returning the refurb but went with a new mini.

 

[pigoo3]

I wound up returning the refurbished mini and ordered a new one for $650 with free airbuds. I was considering an Imac after returning the refurb but went with a new mini.

Did you return the refurbished Mac Mini due to the Airbuds deal? Did you mean "AirPods"...that's what Apple calls them.

Refurbished products from Apple are always just like a brand new product...and also come with the exact same Applecare warranty as a new computer. But with the AirPods deal...I can see the package deal being slightly less $$$ than the refurbished Mac Mini by itself.

Just curious...where did you get the new Mac Mini + AirPods deal from for $650?

Congrats,

Nick

 

[southchatham]

Did you return the refurbished Mac Mini due to the Airbuds deal? Did you mean "AirPods"...that's what Apple calls them.

Refurbished products from Apple are always just like a brand new product...and also come with the exact same Applecare warranty as a new computer. But with the AirPods deal...I can see the package deal being slightly less $$$ than the refurbished Mac Mini by itself.

Just curious...where did you get the new Mac Mini + AirPods deal from for $650?

Congrats,

Nick

Yes AirPods.

I sent it back because I was going to get an Imac on my state tax free day. It was new 2019 model $500 off but was an Intel and I decided not to get an Intel after all. The current M1 Imac seems to not have enough fans for cooling and people recommend the Mini instead. Then I noticed the free AirPods deal for $650.

At the Apple store in the buy area their is a tiny link to an educational discount. This has the Mini for $650 with free AirPods. I do meet the terms of the discount but it did not ask for proof. They used to. So anyone could order one.

So I could get $100 selling the AirPods making my total $550. I may keep them.

 

[pigoo3]

So I could get $100 selling the AirPods making my total $550. I may keep them.

Thanks for the extra details.

If you sell the AirPods for $100...and your final cost for the Mini is $550...seems like a lot of work to save $39 bucks ($589 refurb Mini - $550 net price new Mini = $39)! But $39 bucks is $39 bucks.

Keeping the AirPods would be cool too. They're supposed to have really good sound quality...and wireless is always nice!

Nick

 

[chscag]

The current M1 Imac seems to not have enough fans for cooling and people recommend the Mini instead.

Too late now, but that only refers to the basic model. The higher priced M1 iMac has two cooling fans and also a heat pipe. However, the Mini should serve you well. Let us know how you like it.

 

[southchatham]

My M1 1 day old Mini is in a reboot loop. Set it up last night and this morning it asked to restart for updates. So I let it restart and it's been restarting over and over. Now it's restarting going on 20 minutes. I'm just waiting it out for a little longer.

Update: It stopped rebooting and went into loading, similar to wiping your drive and using internet recovery. Then after 15 minutes it restarted and now works again on Big Sir 11.5.2.

It's all working again with no loss of data or settings. Fingers crossed.

 

[Horsa]

I'm sorry to hear this, @southchatham - not the kind of behaviour anyone wants from their machine, especially not a brand new one. I hope it resolves itself ASAP.

 

[southchatham]

I'm sorry to hear this, @southchatham - not the kind of behaviour anyone wants from their machine, especially not a brand new one. I hope it resolves itself ASAP.

Thanks, day 2 and it's working good.