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+--- Thread: would you buy a new Mini these days? (/showthread.php?tid=64332)
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would you buy a new Mini these days? - space-time - 10-18-2008
what's the last time Mini has been updated? 438 days ago. Does it even make sense to buy a mini these days? I would love to buy one, but not that old, not at that price...
what do you think it is going to happen to the Mini? in many ways it is similar to the Cube, do you think it is going to have the same fate?
Re: would you buy a new Mini these days? - Gareth - 10-18-2008
Apple has no interest in the Mini. If they ever do update it, judging by the MacBook, they'll probably drop firewire from it, so keep that in mind. If you're lucky, they'd throw in a Santa Rosa or Penryn processor and the Nvidia 9400M graphics, but will that offset the loss of firewire for you?
And yea, who knows when that will be, if ever. There are always rumors that it will get discontinued. And you might save $100 on the old version when the new one comes out.
Re: would you buy a new Mini these days? - Ombligo - 10-18-2008
Still makes a great media center.
Re: would you buy a new Mini these days? - mattkime - 10-18-2008
i think its overpriced brand new but its not bad at that $499 refurb price. it all depends upon what you need. i'm a nerd that needs a couple of minis for various projects. its awesome to buy such a small mac that will sit and do a simple (and reliable) tasks.
yeah, i'd like to see apple give it an update. (and not remove firewire!)
Re: would you buy a new Mini these days? - deckeda - 10-18-2008
My position on the mini is no different than it was a few months ago, when I bought a 1.83 refurb to replace my Dual 2.0 tower, because the alternatives have not since improved any either. That's the way I recommend any potential buyer approach the mini.
So yeah, I still think it fills a purpose and yes, a decent value even with the outdated graphics and not quite as fast processors.
But I'll add that it's not clearcut, and that if you need a full setup with monitor/keyboard/mouse the equation rapidly moves in favor of low-end iMac to some extent. But I didn't value the iMac's better performance and FW800 as something I wanted to pay for.
I also admit I spent another $200 on it right away with RAM and HD upgrades. I stopped short of buying the internal DVD burner since I already had a nice external FireWire one. In the end I got a 1.83 that's better than the stock 2.0 for the same money by sacrificing the built-in DVD burner.
Re: would you buy a new Mini these days? - deckeda - 10-18-2008
deckeda wrote:
My position on the mini is no different than it was a few months ago, when I bought a 1.83 refurb to replace my Dual 2.0 tower, because the alternatives have not since improved any either. That's the way I recommend any potential buyer approach the mini.
So yeah, I still think it fills a purpose and yes, a decent value even with the outdated graphics and not quite as fast processors.
But I'll add that it's not clearcut, and that if you need a full setup with monitor/keyboard/mouse the equation rapidly moves in favor of low-end iMac to some extent. But I didn't value the iMac's better performance and FW800 as something I wanted to pay for.
I also admit I spent another $200 on it right away with RAM and HD upgrades. I stopped short of buying the internal DVD burner since I already had a nice external FireWire one. In the end I got a 1.83 that's better than the stock 2.0 for the same money by sacrificing the built-in DVD burner.
Edit: if the occasional refurb 2.0 was a bigger discount from retail I probably would have considered it, but the 1.83 remains the way to go, even if you have to toss a little more money at right away. I'd never pay for these incremental CPU differences alone.
Re: would you buy a new Mini these days? - blooz - 10-18-2008
I'm using my mini (i.42 pre-intel) for everything and it's doing just fine. Love the little critter.
I'd like to upgrade to another one but I don't see enough advantage (except for the intel chip) to getting a newer one compared to spending not that much more for an imac.
My problem is that i have an embarrassment of monitors so I could use a tower or mini to connect them to. But i can't afford a G-5 tower so i continue to use my mini and the G-4 tower someone gave me.
Re: would you buy a new Mini these days? - raz - 10-18-2008
Mom and Dad have a mini 1.25, and it serves their needs - having replaced a 266MHz G3 iMac. All they do is surf, send email, play solitaire, and run Appleworks. They don't need more.
Re: would you buy a new Mini these days? - kj - 10-18-2008
They need to update it, but the mini is already far from being the cube. Plus, it's always been a relative bargain. The cube was very expensive. kj.
Re: would you buy a new Mini these days? - RAMd®d - 10-18-2008
I love my Cube and my mini.
I'm thinking we might see a mini updated at MWSF or shortly after.
Since it was meant to be a bridge for PCers moving to Macs, I don't see *much* more happening to it.
I've got 3G in my mini and for what I do, 4G wouldn't make any difference. And we won't see much improvement in the graphics. So the only upgrading I'm likely to do is swap in a 320G HD.
I don't think there's much to gain by waiting, even IF we new that a new mini was in the works.