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kardiackidneykids 192K Views
May 11, 2021 7:52 AM

Costco Members: Apple Mac mini (Late 2020): M1 CPU w/ 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD

$600

$670

10% off
+ Free Shippingat Costco Wholesale
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Deal Details
Costco Wholesale has for its Members: Apple Mac mini w/ Apple M1 Chip (MGNR3LL/A, Late 2020) on sale for $599.99. Shipping is free.

Thanks to community member kardiackidneykids for finding this deal.

Specs:
  • Apple M1 Chip 8-core CPU (4 performance cores & 4 efficiency cores)
  • 8GB Unified Memory
  • 256GB Solid State Drive
  • 8-core GPU
  • 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 & Bluetooth 5.0
  • macOS Big Sur
  • Ports:
    • 2x Thunderbolt / USB 4
    • 2x USB A
    • 1x HDMI 2
    • 1x Gigabit Ethernet Port
    • 1x 3.5 mm Headphone Jack

Editor's Notes

Written by qwikwit | Staff
  • About this deal:
    • Price matches this Frontpage Deal from February that received +161 votes from the community.
  • Ratings/Reviews:
    • PC Mag gives the new Mac mini a 4.5/5 (excellent) rating
      • "With a new lower starting price and Apple's straining-at-the-leash M1 CPU, the Mac mini is far and away the most polished, potent tiny desktop in its class."

Original Post

Written by kardiackidneykids
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
Costco Wholesale has for its Members: Apple Mac mini w/ Apple M1 Chip (MGNR3LL/A, Late 2020) on sale for $599.99. Shipping is free.

Thanks to community member kardiackidneykids for finding this deal.

Specs:
  • Apple M1 Chip 8-core CPU (4 performance cores & 4 efficiency cores)
  • 8GB Unified Memory
  • 256GB Solid State Drive
  • 8-core GPU
  • 802.11ax Wi-Fi 6 & Bluetooth 5.0
  • macOS Big Sur
  • Ports:
    • 2x Thunderbolt / USB 4
    • 2x USB A
    • 1x HDMI 2
    • 1x Gigabit Ethernet Port
    • 1x 3.5 mm Headphone Jack

Editor's Notes

Written by qwikwit | Staff
  • About this deal:
    • Price matches this Frontpage Deal from February that received +161 votes from the community.
  • Ratings/Reviews:
    • PC Mag gives the new Mac mini a 4.5/5 (excellent) rating
      • "With a new lower starting price and Apple's straining-at-the-leash M1 CPU, the Mac mini is far and away the most polished, potent tiny desktop in its class."

Original Post

Written by kardiackidneykids

Community Voting

Deal Score
+174
Good Deal
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Top Comments

chumtastic
141Comments
59Reputation
After reading all the discussions about ram amount, I'm just curious how many browser tabs people keep open at a time during a typical day.

POLL
How many browser tabs do you keep open?

"Like" for 10 or less
"Funny" for 11 to 20
"Helpful" for 21 and above
Go to Comment
LarrySW
54Comments
22Reputation
The ones who have actually used them personally say 8 is enough for most people.

The ones who have never used it and are just guessing say it isn't enough.
Go to Comment
MrSkeptic
14.5KComments
3.8KReputation
Another very expensive problem with today's Apple. Prior to 2016, you could buy a computer and later upgrade it by adding more RAM or storage later once your needs change. My daily driver is a mid 2012 MBPro. I've doubled the RAM and added a SSD over the years.

Now, everything is soldered, so upgrades are impossible. To get 16 or 32 MB of RAM or a bigger SSD, you need to pay 3 times the price up front of what upgrades would cost for the same configuration, even if you don't realize the need now.

No thanks, Apple.
Go to Comment

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451 Comments

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May 11, 2021 11:14 PM
130 Comments
Joined Apr 2014
BayernMau5May 11, 2021 11:14 PM
130 Comments
Quote from LarrySW View quoted comment :
The ones who have actually used them personally say 8 is enough for most people.

The ones who have never used it and are just guessing say it isn't enough.
It all depends on the task at hand. Plus, were you there to confirm that or just talking out of your ass?
1
May 11, 2021 11:24 PM
14.5K Comments
Joined Sep 2005
HapShaughnessyMay 11, 2021 11:24 PM
14.5K Comments
256 GB SSD is very meh. This is pure entry level for those who play solitaire.
Last edited by MrSkeptic May 11, 2021 at 04:30 PM.
3
May 11, 2021 11:27 PM
540 Comments
Joined Nov 2015
tuanmleMay 11, 2021 11:27 PM
540 Comments
Quote from palmfreeware View quoted comment :
I'm not sure what you think I'm comparing. Browsers on windows vs macs? Because if you notice others in this thread have stated that they experience similar RAM usages on either with browsing. Or that I've run unix/linux and experienced similar ram usages with browsers. They aren't apples and oranges, and I'm thinking you haven't experienced both.

My comment was intended to reflect that clearly there is discontent among potential buyers questioning if 8gb is enough. It wouldn't have been harder to throw in the extra 8 and silence any potential hesitations and make this an "instabuy". But it appears the apple fans are in full force defending this great miraculous product.

I just want into the ecosystem with a decent system at minimal cost. I'm trying to figure out if this is it or not and as a potential new customer, I'm having doubts which comments like yours don't assuage.
I will help you make this decision easier if what you want is to get in the eco system:
buy this using the Costco Citi card. It gives you 2 years of extra warranty (or even 3 years extra in total - need to re-check). So you got it covered if the SSD crap out or anything else.
After 1-2 years, if you want to resell this and upgrade to the more refined M2 version or whatever it is out there, you can probably still sell it for $400 (thanks to the apple fan boy out there), so the cost of ownership would be minimal.
I would not recommend this at $700, but if it is $600 with the benefit of Costco customer service and warranty, and you want into the ecosystem, it is the most cost-efficient way.
I also assume that this will not be your only computer
May 11, 2021 11:27 PM
14.5K Comments
Joined Sep 2005
HapShaughnessyMay 11, 2021 11:27 PM
14.5K Comments
Quote from fawzi View quoted comment :
do not get 8gb of ram. it will use hard disk for swap to act as ram and ssd have limited number of rights and it will kill your machine within 1-3 years based on your usage.

i also highly recommend to NEVER buy any used apple products that use unified storage. this is not a mobile device and a lot of abuse will happen that will degrade the machine in a short period of time.

This. Very much this. Rewriting the swap file can = early SSD death.
1
May 11, 2021 11:34 PM
9.5K Comments
Joined Dec 2013
doboy007May 11, 2021 11:34 PM
9.5K Comments
Quote from MrSkeptic View quoted comment :
This. Very much this. Rewriting the swap file can = early SSD death.
Yes, you'll go through 100+ TBW rating for the SSD in few years, not! Most people who buy Mac Minis are not professionals.
May 11, 2021 11:38 PM
10 Comments
Joined Apr 2021
KK293May 11, 2021 11:38 PM
10 Comments
  • Apple M1 Chip 8-Core CPU, 8-Core GPU
  • 16-Core Neural Engine
  • MacOS Big Sur
May 11, 2021 11:52 PM
383 Comments
Joined Jan 2005
BayAreaBMWFanMay 11, 2021 11:52 PM
383 Comments
What is the $100 off $500 people are talking about?

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May 11, 2021 11:57 PM
54 Comments
Joined May 2021
LarrySWMay 11, 2021 11:57 PM
54 Comments
Quote from BayAreaBMWFan View quoted comment :
What is the $100 off $500 people are talking about?
A coupon that expired on 7th
May 11, 2021 11:59 PM
54 Comments
Joined May 2021
LarrySWMay 11, 2021 11:59 PM
54 Comments
Quote from doboy007 View quoted comment :
Yes, you'll go through 100+ TBW rating for the SSD in few years, not! Most people who buy Mac Minis are not professionals.
This.

Most people will replace the mini with another computer looooong before the SSD is an issue.
1
May 12, 2021 12:00 AM
242 Comments
Joined Jul 2014
abillmannMay 12, 2021 12:00 AM
242 Comments
Quote from MrSkeptic View quoted comment :
256 GB SSD is very meh. This is pure entry level for those who play solitaire.
This.

Processor: Unbelievably good
RAM: Un-upgradeable, but probably fine
SSD Storage: Unacceptable
1
May 12, 2021 12:14 AM
414 Comments
Joined Jan 2009
lupinMay 12, 2021 12:14 AM
414 Comments
This should be fine for most folks. Just FYI, I'm typing on my 9-10 year-old i3 powered pc with only 6gb of memory, and it still runs fine with Chrome. My other laptop (for DJing) has an i5 with 8 gigs of ram is 4 years old, and feels slightly snappier of course.


P.S. My main (baseline) computer is an Omen gaming laptop.
May 12, 2021 12:16 AM
2.2K Comments
Joined Aug 2014
fawziMay 12, 2021 12:16 AM
2.2K Comments
Quote from doboy007 View quoted comment :
Yes, you'll go through 100+ TBW rating for the SSD in few years, not! Most people who buy Mac Minis are not professionals.
one bad hungry app will kill the machine without noticing. resale value is deminished the moment something that have finite number is being sold. for example all hard drives will fail, it is a matter of how soon. cpu and ram are practically forever if they run within operating temperature.
1
May 12, 2021 12:18 AM
624 Comments
Joined Nov 2009
seanisbombMay 12, 2021 12:18 AM
624 Comments
Quote from birdsorigami View quoted comment :
Got my dad one at Micro Center, 8GB. I don't believe there is a legit warning for low memory, my dad got this and I ran Malwarebytes to remove the dumb virus he'd installed. There's no such thing as a low memory warning in OS X near as I can tell. The system hovered around 5gb usage when I opened 20 Safari tabs with video then is went up Abit. I think it's pretty decent but definitely Big Slur has bugs like the red dot one where these red rectangular dots blink all over. Maybe they fixed it now idk.
The dots on the screen might be a bad hdmi cable FYI if you want to try an hdmi 2.1 caliber cable.
May 12, 2021 12:22 AM
14.5K Comments
Joined Sep 2005
HapShaughnessyMay 12, 2021 12:22 AM
14.5K Comments
Quote from abillmann View quoted comment :
This.

Processor: Unbelievably good
RAM: Un-upgradeable, but probably fine
SSD Storage: Unacceptable
I've been a Mac guy forever, since my John Scully days Performa 600, Gone thru 2 desktops, 2 Powerbooks and 2 15" Macbook Pros (my trusty 2012 is running Big Sur using some software alchemy).

For what this thing can do, and who it's for, people should just get a cheap refurbed Acer Aspire 3 or 5 with 250 GB SSD in it for $350 from their fleaBay site like I did during a refurb discount deal (and stuck an old 750 GB hard drive in it for storage) for the rare times I need Windows for something. Or want to play solitaire. 2 year Allstate warranty, too.
Last edited by MrSkeptic May 11, 2021 at 05:32 PM.
1

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May 12, 2021 12:25 AM
14.5K Comments
Joined Sep 2005
HapShaughnessyMay 12, 2021 12:25 AM
14.5K Comments
Quote from LarrySW View quoted comment :
This.

Most people will replace the mini with another computer looooong before the SSD is an issue.
This is a Mac. Many people use them until the wheels fall off and they become legacy and unsupported many years later. Like the Macbook Pro I still use.

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