I dream of Mini, fulfilled!
Today we went to MicroCenter and finally picked up the Mac Mini that I've been saving for almost since the day they were announced. As luck would have it, I got a better model than I was planning for. Turns out MC has had several open-box Minis on clearance from the holidays. They had a 1.25GHz base model for $425 and a 1.42GHz SuperDrive marked at $629 on Tues. when I went in to scout things out. That's only $30 more than I was planning to spend on a non-SD 1.42GHz Mini. But, we go in tonight and they have two more Minis behind the glass. One marked at $629 and another marked at $599. Yep, a full SD WiFi BlueTooth 512MB 80GB 1.42GHz Mini for just $599. I asked the saleman if there was any reason to not buy it over the $629 models. His reply? "I can sell you a more expensive one if you like, but I don't see why. They're the same thing, it's just that we've had this one in stock a bit longer." The ACW starts ging at the date of original purchase, thus the older a particular return is, the less warranty and the less worth it has. Oh well! I can save $100, so I get the SuperDrive for free? Heck yeah!
This Mini sure looks snazzy at 1280x1024 on a 19" LCD... 
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Congrats!
And a purchasing job well done, Jon. It's good to see you finally get this lovely machine after saving for it for so long!
Best,
Matt
Now I've gotta get going on m
Now I've gotta get going on my plans for BYODKM - Applefritter style. I've got a most of the parts, now it's just planning. What to do, what to copy, what to make my own...
Congratulations! And nice de
Congratulations! And nice deal, too. If this were Dealmac, you'd get a LEADER!
I get the feeling you were the kind of kid who could save his nickels for five years to get a shiny new bike...
I was the kind of kid who sav
I was the kind of kid who saved $500+ to buy a laptop while I was a freshman-sophomore in HS. It was the time when Win95 just came out, so all the old Win 3.11 stuff was on clearance. I got the Packard Bell Statesman wiht DOS 6.2 and WFW 3.11 and a whoppig 4mb RAM and a 200MB drive. This was the first machine I loaded Linux on. It was Slackware 3.2 or something, dual booted with DOS.
I also remember seeing something like a Performa 5200 on display when I went to pick it up. I drooled for mere moments then remembered that I only had enough cash for the lappy.
I carrie dthat thing in HS back before it was cool to do so. I lso used it for my Intro to Programming w/ C++ course when the lab machines were all in use. My instructor thought it was great that I had setup Turbo C++ on my own... 1995, those were days...
Turns out that I seem to have
Turns out that I seem to have gotten one of the "quietly upgraded" Minis. I double checked the specs after I was browsing Wikipedia's claim that late 2005 models had an upgrade. ASp shows this as a 1.5GHz and 64MB VRAM model. I had thought the 1.5GHz rating was just a rounding error until I discovered teh 32mb vs 64mb VRAM issue. Sweet!
[b]Plus[/b] it's got the [url
Plus it's got the 5400 RPM Seagate Momentus ST9808211A 80GB drive! Wahoo, this this was made for being a speedy Mini!
Now to get speakers that don't tune Country 104.1 FM outta the wall-wart... grr!
way to go!
congrats on the score!
What is also odd is that the
What is also odd is that the DDR SDRAM is a PC3200. I'm not sure if it runs at 400MHz, or if it's just reporting the SPD ino and runs it at PC2700. And, the HDD runs with 8MB cache.
Hardware Upgrade! We just ca
Hardware Upgrade! We just came home with a new Apple USB keyboard. This'll replace the kruddy BlueBerry USB keyboard that I've been having trouble typing with. Maybe my posts will get a bit better. Now I just have to deal with large hands on a regular keyboard...