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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
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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 19, 2021 4:29 PM
444 Comments
Joined Jul 2019
WoodenWineBoxMay 19, 2021 4:29 PM
444 Comments
Quote from Rajmachawal22 View quoted comment :
Im making a whole mew setup around this computer.
Farva?
1
May 19, 2021 4:35 PM
5.2K Comments
Joined Dec 2009
masterz13May 19, 2021 4:35 PM
5.2K Comments
These things are beasts supposedly, but I've yet to try one in person. Maybe at my next trip to Best Buy or the Apple Store. Though if you're really wanting a Mac, wait until next year; there's a massive rumor that several chips are launching that will blow the M1 out of the water.
2
May 19, 2021 4:46 PM
30 Comments
Joined Feb 2012
monkeyroticaMay 19, 2021 4:46 PM
30 Comments
Having owned minis since the original, the baseline model is fine for your needs today. And if you upgrade every few years and sell the old model on ebay, the 8 gigs won't be an issue. But once Apple inevitably starts rolling out OS updates, those will take a bigger and bigger bite of your ram. I'm currently running Catalina on a 2012 mini on 8 gigs (with an external SSD as the boot drive) and it runs fine for browsing and streaming. If I were to upgrade, I'd spend the extra cash on the 16 gig model and drive it into the dirt.
May 19, 2021 4:59 PM
1.2K Comments
Joined Dec 2017
gldooriiMay 19, 2021 4:59 PM
1.2K Comments
Thanks to the countless reviews and explanations about how the RAM works with everything being unified now I have a much better understanding why 8GB on the M1 performs closer to 16GB on Windows. My only concern about buying one is that I still use a 1080p monitor and from what I've read there was something disabled in an OS version awhile back that ended up making 1080p look a lot blurrier than it used to. Unfortunately I can't figure out if this was fixed with the latest OS or if I'll need to add a 4K monitor on top of this, which in that case I might just buy the new iMac. Does anyone have a Mac paired with a 1080p monitor that notices this?
May 19, 2021 5:04 PM
292 Comments
Joined Jul 2020
JasonG1116May 19, 2021 5:04 PM
292 Comments
This is just my 2 cents…
I bought the 8gb/256gb version (the "base model") as a small-footprint computer for our desk. This unit has performed wonderfully. I'm not trying to "promote" Apple products or say that it's the "most bestest" computer out there, not having a dedicated graphics card is a hindrance, but for 90% of the work I do, this works great. I haven't seen a need for more RAM or memory. If I need more storage, I'll get an external drive for the fraction of the cost to upgrade this to 512. Most of my work is in the cloud or on RAID drives anyways.
I believe Apple mentions how well this is suited for 4K video editing, etc. I don't know about that, but for this budget price you're getting quite a bit. And if you're job has you editing 4K/RAW video regularly, you'd probably not be getting this unit. For the newest processor and the technology at a slightly higher price than a computer from Walmart, this is a great computer.
May 19, 2021 5:05 PM
292 Comments
Joined Jul 2020
JasonG1116May 19, 2021 5:05 PM
292 Comments
Quote from gldoorii View quoted comment :
Thanks to the countless reviews and explanations about how the RAM works with everything being unified now I have a much better understanding why 8GB on the M1 performs closer to 16GB on Windows. My only concern about buying one is that I still use a 1080p monitor and from what I've read there was something disabled in an OS version awhile back that ended up making 1080p look a lot blurrier than it used to. Unfortunately I can't figure out if this was fixed with the latest OS or if I'll need to add a 4K monitor on top of this, which in that case I might just buy the new iMac. Does anyone have a Mac paired with a 1080p monitor that notices this?
I have a 1080 Monitor as well, and it works fine.
1
May 19, 2021 5:07 PM
54 Comments
Joined May 2021
LarrySWMay 19, 2021 5:07 PM
54 Comments
Got one, thanks OP!

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May 19, 2021 5:21 PM
552 Comments
Joined Jun 2012
Hefewe1zenMay 19, 2021 5:21 PM
552 Comments
Quote from GizmoDVD View quoted comment :
M1 isn't heavily reliant on RAM like many think. 8GB is pretty damn good
The OS is the same. Memory management hasn't changed afaik and the amount of memory requested by an app is largely subject to how it's programmed. What IS different is how RAM is implemented with relation to the other components at the HW level. Look up unified memory architecture. In which case, with being able to take advantage of this new paradigm, it would behoove you to actually get more RAM.

Is it worth 200$ more, vis a vis what Microcenter is offering? No not in my opinion.
May 19, 2021 5:21 PM
593 Comments
Joined Oct 2009
feldz23May 19, 2021 5:21 PM
593 Comments
I always wait till August to buy a new computer. In Missouri we have tax free weekend for going back to school. Tax kills this deal for me.
May 19, 2021 5:26 PM
153 Comments
Joined Jul 2016
mkie.csMay 19, 2021 5:26 PM
153 Comments
8GB ram is not good. I have the MB Pro M1 and boy that thing drives me nuts with the stuttering once you load up a few rosetta driven apps. Bear in mind, you WILL end up running lots of Intel architecture apps at least for the foreseeable future and the 8GB ram is not optimal. M1 and the ram usage can easily get overloaded.
May 19, 2021 5:37 PM
89 Comments
Joined Aug 2013
SamerHMay 19, 2021 5:37 PM
89 Comments
I feel a bit "icy'' about this being an ARM-based chip. I am not a fan of ARM chips in general, due in part to limited compatibility with software. Say what you will about intel/AMD and Windows, at least I can run a native version of Office, Visual Studio, or Xilinx software without emulation or translation. (Added bonus I run a Windows Server 2019 Active Directory domain and it provides several advantages. I know some of those can be attained on Mac/Linux, but would involve a significant learning curve)

Furthermore, my experience with the ARM architecture is that it tends to be more ram-hungry than wintel (or MacTel for that matter).

For example: I have a 2011 mac mini with 16GB of ram and a quad core (ancient generation) i7 and I consider myself to be a "heavy user" yet I usually consume 10 to 14GB or so worth of RAM (due in part to me "offloading" most busy work to a windows vm farm. Anyways, I am not convinced that a 16GB M1 would have anywhere near 2GB of ram free with similar usage, let alone the software compatibility problems.

Can someone help dispel my assumptions here ?
Last edited by SamerH May 19, 2021 at 10:39 AM.
1
May 19, 2021 5:40 PM
89 Comments
Joined Aug 2013
SamerHMay 19, 2021 5:40 PM
89 Comments
Quote from feldz23 View quoted comment :
I always wait till August to buy a new computer. In Missouri we have tax free weekend for going back to school. Tax kills this deal for me.
Looks like I have to "move" to Missouri for a week. 10.5% sales tax over here makes me feel asphyxiated.
May 19, 2021 5:42 PM
140 Comments
Joined Nov 2016
PizzatasticMay 19, 2021 5:42 PM
140 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.
Enough for today? Or enough that you have to buy another for $600 in 2 years?
May 19, 2021 5:43 PM
2.5K Comments
Joined Jul 2006
abstraxionMay 19, 2021 5:43 PM
2.5K Comments
Quote from SamerH View quoted comment :
I feel a bit "icy'' about this being an ARM-based chip. I am not a fan of ARM chips in general, due in part to limited compatibility with software. Say what you will about intel/AMD and Windows, at least I can run a native version of Office, Visual Studio, or Xilinx software without emulation or translation. (Added bonus I run a Windows Server 2019 Active Directory domain and it provides several advantages. I know some of those can be attained on Mac/Linux, but would involve a significant learning curve)

Furthermore, my experience with the ARM architecture is that it tends to be more ram-hungry than wintel (or MacTel for that matter).

For example: I have a 2011 mac mini with 16GB of ram and a quad core (ancient generation) i7 and I consider myself to be a "heavy user" yet I usually consume 10 to 14GB or so worth of RAM (due in part to me "offloading" most busy work to a windows vm farm. Anyways, I am not convinced that a 16GB M1 would have anywhere near 2GB of ram free with similar usage, let alone the software compatibility problems.

Can someone help dispel my assumptions here ?
There is no compatibility issue here at all unless you're talking running Windows, in all but the fringest of edge cases. The benchmarks should assuage fears about performance. If you're curious, just get the cheap one and return it if it's not good enough, but I suspect you'll be pleasantly surprised.

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May 19, 2021 5:44 PM
1.4K Comments
Joined Aug 2010
JohnRamboMay 19, 2021 5:44 PM
1.4K Comments
Seems like it will be an improvement on my 2013 iMac 3.1 ghz, which would sell for $300-400. Should I invest the $600 into a better photo editing macbook pro etc? My main use...

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