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+--- Thread: Apple Store Mini Refurb Hijinks (/showthread.php?tid=39785)
Apple Store Mini Refurb Hijinks - endymion - 09-13-2007
Right now there's 3 models...
Refurbished Mac mini, 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory, 60GB hard drive, Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 memory
• Save 29% off the original price Original price: $599.00 Your price: $429.00
Refurbished Mac mini 1.66GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory, 80GB hard drive, SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 memory
• Save 19% off the original price Original price: $799.00 Your price: $649.00
Refurbished Mac mini, 1.83GHz Intel Core Duo
512MB memory, 80GB hard drive, SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 memory
• Save 41% off the original price Original price: $799.00 Your price: $479.00
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What kind of fool would buy the mini in the middle? Have they simply forgotten to adjust their plummeting prices?
g=
Re: Apple Store Mini Refurb Hijinks - richorlin - 09-13-2007
Aside from that madness, a person would be a fool to buy any of them.
$120 more buys you a new 1.83ghz core 2 duo with 1gb of ram.
External DL DVD drives are dirt cheap. If you can afford the extra money, new is a much better deal, just for the core 2 duo processor alone.
Re: Apple Store Mini Refurb Hijinks - MGS_forgot_password - 09-13-2007
...and you can order them online somewhere else where you don't pay sales tax.
Re: Apple Store Mini Refurb Hijinks - bhaveshp - 09-13-2007
...and if you wait ~a month you get a shiny new OS as well.
Re: Apple Store Mini Refurb Hijinks - Jem - 09-13-2007
Well... if you want a tidy "all-in-one" package, the $479 1.83Ghz SuperDrive model is a pretty good deal. If you don't mind an external drive the size of the mini itself, an external DVD burner isn't a bad way to go. In my media system I like the tidiness of a single point of access... the mini.
Core 2 Duo doesn't really get you all that much more performance right now... and if you so desire in the future you can replace the Core Duo with a Core 2 Duo when the price is cheap enough on the replacement processor.
No guaranty you will get the new OS with a refurb in a few months.
It ain't for everyone, but the $479 model is a *very* good deal for the right situations.
Re: Apple Store Mini Refurb Hijinks - RAMd®d - 09-13-2007
There are several HD enclosures that clone the mini look, but are there any *burners* that do so?
I'll be getting a 2.0mini with my store credit, and adding a miniStack. I'd get the 1.83 and roll my own if there were a faster burner in the mini-motif.
Otherwise the AIO (plus a faster, FW HD) appeals to me.
Re: Apple Store Mini Refurb Hijinks - Jem - 09-13-2007
Ramd®d,
Not sure if you were responding to my post, but I was referring to external DVD burners the same size *or bigger* than the mini itself as being a "negative" in my situation, but fine for someone who doesn't mind.
I don't know of any external optical drives in the "Ministack" or Mini form factor.
Performance-wise with the Mini I think there is something to be said for having an external optical drive AND hard drive. I find with built-in optical drive on my Mini that iTunes CD RIPs are heavily throttled on the earlier (inner track) songs... down to 5X to 8X. On the outer tracks, speeds get back up near 20X. I suspect this is because of noise concerns when the drive would have to rotate at higher RPMs on inner tracks to maintain the 20X read speed. External optical drives don't seem to have that problem... at least for me...
But again, for an elegant, tidy small profile device, having the SuperDrive built-in is a big plus. An external FW/USB hard disk for additional storage can be tucked out of sight, or even accessed via NAS if one has one of those setup.
Can't really tuck the SuperDrive out of sight, if one plans to use it regularly :}
Re: Apple Store Mini Refurb Hijinks - RAMd®d - 09-14-2007
Jem, I was just wondering in general *if* there were burners sized to match the mini.
I'm getting the 2.0 (which has an SD) but I'd also like to have a faster, more capable (read: DVD-RAM) burner.
While I too like the elegance of the neat, small form, the utility of a FW HD and burner have there place as well.