Home » forums » Discussion » Intel Macs

thinking about buying a mini....

Submitted by Smiththers on May 9, 2006 - 12:14am. Intel Macs

however, im unsure if i should go brand new or refurbed. what are the pros and cons of this idea? i see an $80 cut on the intel solo mini. they both come with apple remote for front row which i want. 1.5ghz/60gb/512/airport/BT/Combo/ i wont use it for games so im thinking cheaper dell 19" lcd. if its better to go brand new then by all means tell me because im planning to buy tommorow. im so glad that i waited for a little while to buy a mini cuz i like the idea of being able to run windows native.

also, can mini's boot from external drives? this would make it so much easier for me to put windows on a hard drive and save the space of the internal.

» login or register to post comments | previous forum topic | next forum topic

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.
Dr. Webster's picture

Apple offers the same warrant

Submitted by Dr. Webster on May 9, 2006 - 1:29am.

Apple offers the same warranty regardless if you buy new or refurb. The only real difference between the two, other than price, is the fact that the refurb one was "fixed" by Apple because it had some sort of problem and comes in a plain brown box (not the fancy retail packaging). Another idea would be to buy a "refresh" mini; when a retail Apple Store has a customer return and the machine is resellable, they'll repackage it and mark it down.

» Applefritter Admin
5 stories posted
login or register to post comments
davintosh's picture

Go for the refurb.

Submitted by davintosh on May 9, 2006 - 2:40am.

I've bought about a dozen machines from Apple over the last five years for work, and only two were brand new. And the only one that ended up going in for waranty work was one of the new ones. You can get great bargains from Apple's refurb page.

Yes, the mini can boot into OS X from an external firewire drive, but I'm not sure if it'll boot Windows from that external.

» Obsolescence is just a lack of imagination.
Visit my blog: davintosh.com -- it may not be up to date, and it may not be exciting, but you can say you've been there.

login or register to post comments
Jon's picture

That's how I got my top-end G

Submitted by Jon on May 9, 2006 - 5:17am.

That's how I got my top-end G4 Mini. Microcenter had several full 1.42/SD/AP/BT Minis for sale, and a few were marked down to $599 from $699. I hadn't planned on getting a SuperDrive model, but for the same cash I was willing to sacrifice the "brand new" of a returned Mini for a nice savings and a hardware upgrade. It even ended up being a 1.5GHz Mini...

i'd certainly give the refresh/return Minis a good looking at.

» I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine. - Fritz Perls

login or register to post comments
Smiththers's picture

im just thinking to myself if

Submitted by Smiththers on May 9, 2006 - 11:08am.

im just thinking to myself if the ability to run windows is a must. ive got a PC for that.... but the remote looks killer. my bed is not on the floor so i have to jump down every time i wanna change a song on itunes or somthing. im not so much worried about the speed difference between the two but i KNOW its going to be faster then my old G4. 667mhz system bus looks nice though :-)

» -Justin
EVGA 680i, E6850@ 3.4ghz, 2gb G-Skill, 8800gtx, OCZ 700w PS. 250gb + 500gb Seagate Sata, ASUS Sata DVDR.

login or register to post comments

i talked it over with apple f

Submitted by twoksl2 on May 9, 2006 - 2:53pm.

i talked it over with apple for quite a while, and found out some interesting info.
when they assemble a new machine, it only gets a basic function check and QA before they send it out the door.
when they get a return they totally tear the computer down, test each individual part, replace anything thats bad, reassemble it, then they do a burn in stress test, where they run the thing as hard as they can for a while (don't know how long). only if it makes it through that process does it get out the door.
also, anything that comes back for any reason goes through the refurb process. even the ones that they get back from lease agreements with production company's

me personally.. i won't buy anything but refurb

» http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/sigs/sigimage.php?u=190069&bg=1.png

login or register to post comments
Smiththers's picture

sounds like a great reason to

Submitted by Smiththers on May 9, 2006 - 3:34pm.

sounds like a great reason to buy a refurb!

» -Justin
EVGA 680i, E6850@ 3.4ghz, 2gb G-Skill, 8800gtx, OCZ 700w PS. 250gb + 500gb Seagate Sata, ASUS Sata DVDR.

login or register to post comments

I haven't gotten a brand new

Submitted by hackintoshg4 on May 9, 2006 - 6:18pm.

I haven't gotten a brand new mac since my g4 powerbook, and that was the only one I had any real problems with. Apple refurbs seem to be a much better deal than a new one imho.

»
login or register to post comments

Does Apple wipe the drives on

Submitted by ravuya on June 2, 2006 - 3:00pm.

Does Apple wipe the drives on those refurbs? I'd hate to return a computer and have it just end up in someone else's hands without a reformat.

»
login or register to post comments

mine came just like a new one

Submitted by twoksl2 on June 2, 2006 - 10:28pm.

mine came just like a new one, OS and related try-before-you-buy apps, and thats it.

» http://folding.extremeoverclocking.com/sigs/sigimage.php?u=190069&bg=1.png

login or register to post comments