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  • Apple Education Discount: Apple Mac Mini w/ M2 Chip Pre-Order: 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD $499 + Free Shipping
frontpage Posted by Undisclosed almost 2 years ago
frontpage Posted by Undisclosed almost 2 years ago

Apple Education Discount: Apple Mac Mini w/ M2 Chip Pre-Order: 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD

+ Free Shipping

$499

$599

16% off
Apple Store
876 Comments 282,747 Views
Get Deal at Apple Store
Deal Details
Apple via Apple Education Store is offering eligible Students/Educators: Apple Mac Mini Pre-Order w/ M2 Chip for $499. Shipping is free.

Thanks to community member Undisclosed for sharing this deal.

Note, this item will be available starting 1/24/23. You must qualify for the education discount (more information) to get this price.

Specs
  • Apple M2 Octa-Core Processor (4x high-performance + 4x high-efficiency)
  • 10-Core Integrated GPU
  • 8GB Unified Memory
  • 256GB Integrated NVMe PCIe Solid State Drive
  • 802.11ax WiFi 6E / Bluetooth 5.3
  • Ports:
    • 2x USB Type-A
    • 2x Thunderbolt 4
    • 1x HDMI
    • 1x Headphone Jack
    • 1x Gigabit Ethernet

Editor's Notes

Written by qwikwit | Staff
  • About this deal:
    • This offer is $100 lower (16.69% savings) than the $599 list price.
    • See forum thread for additional discussion.
  • About this product:
    • Mac mini with M2 supports up to two displays.
  • About this store:
    • You have 14 calendar days to return an item from the date you received it. See the return policy details here.

Original Post

Written by Undisclosed
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
Apple via Apple Education Store is offering eligible Students/Educators: Apple Mac Mini Pre-Order w/ M2 Chip for $499. Shipping is free.

Thanks to community member Undisclosed for sharing this deal.

Note, this item will be available starting 1/24/23. You must qualify for the education discount (more information) to get this price.

Specs
  • Apple M2 Octa-Core Processor (4x high-performance + 4x high-efficiency)
  • 10-Core Integrated GPU
  • 8GB Unified Memory
  • 256GB Integrated NVMe PCIe Solid State Drive
  • 802.11ax WiFi 6E / Bluetooth 5.3
  • Ports:
    • 2x USB Type-A
    • 2x Thunderbolt 4
    • 1x HDMI
    • 1x Headphone Jack
    • 1x Gigabit Ethernet

Editor's Notes

Written by qwikwit | Staff
  • About this deal:
    • This offer is $100 lower (16.69% savings) than the $599 list price.
    • See forum thread for additional discussion.
  • About this product:
    • Mac mini with M2 supports up to two displays.
  • About this store:
    • You have 14 calendar days to return an item from the date you received it. See the return policy details here.

Original Post

Written by Undisclosed
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Top Comments

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
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I have a M1 Mac Mini with 16GB Ram, I'm a photographer and I've been running out of system Memory fairly often recently due to working between several applications. I'll have Adobe Bridge open with a session open, will open the a few raw files in Photoshop. I might be doing a head swap so there's 3 files open, in Photoshop, then I want to do a few face edits in Portrait Pro Studio Max, so I open that and I get an error that I've run out of application memory (RAM) oh and I have FIrefox open with 56 tabs open as well. So I usually either close Bridge until I'm done working in Portrait Pro, and then after I've saved the file I'll close Portrait Pro and re-open Bridge, and that works, but it's mostly just due to my messy multitasking workflow running multiple RAM intensive programs while shooting RAW files with a 50MP sensor.

So, as for me, I just ordered a Mac Mini M2 pro with the RAM upgraded to 32GB.

So if you run programs like I do, and you have Illustrator, InDesign, and Premiere or Final Cut Pro all running simultaneously with chrome or firefox and perhaps a music streaming service open too, then you might want to go for the 32GB option. If however, you work in a only 2 or maybe 3 programs simultaneously you should be fine, the most bang for your buck is gonna be the M2 with the 16GB RAM option, and just close the extra programs you're not working if you should ever run out of RAM. The Video programs can be kind of RAM heavy so if you or your church has the budget I'd go with the M2 pro with the 32GB of RAM, but you could probably do what you want to with the M2 with 16GB so long as you only work in Premiere and and After Effects and don't have Photoshop and InDesign also running, because I think each of those programs requires about 4GB of RAM when you have a project open in them.

Okay so I just checked my activity monitory and with Photoshop minimized and running in the background with no open projects it's using 1.35GB of RAM. I opened one 13MB (yes megabyte) JPEG file and the RAM use for Photoshop jumped to 4.24GB. I've closed that 13MB file and Photoshop is still using 4.14GB of RAM. I also have a session open in Bridge, and just looking through the photos in the session it's using up 3.45GB of RAM. Now I like to open a Raw image in Camera Raw before opening it in Photoshop. So if I open up one of my RAW files in Camera RAW (which is still a subprogram of Bridge) Bridge's RAM jumps to 6GB, if I pull a few sliders and do a single subject selection Adobe Bridge then takes up 8.94GB of RAM So you see where I can quickly run out of RAM.

My guess is you'll want the 32GB option, but you could make do with 16GB if you have to.

I hope this long winded comment can help you (and other creatives) in your decision making process. 😊
FYI..Base model M2 still supports only 2 monitors , which still should be good enough for most users .Also HDMI 2.1 not supported on base M2.

876 Comments

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almost 2 years ago
833 Posts
Joined Aug 2014
almost 2 years ago
rocketman80
almost 2 years ago
833 Posts
This seems like an amazing deal
1
7
almost 2 years ago
1,006 Posts
Joined Feb 2009
almost 2 years ago
spec2
almost 2 years ago
1,006 Posts
The new M2 mini is quite impressive. Price cut and better features than the M1 model.
1
almost 2 years ago
1,924 Posts
Joined Sep 2012
almost 2 years ago
mars_88888
almost 2 years ago
1,924 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank mars_88888

I wonder if this has the same problem as MacBook Air 256gb with 8gb.
2
12
almost 2 years ago
2,008 Posts
Joined Sep 2011
almost 2 years ago
santy83
almost 2 years ago
2,008 Posts
Apple waited until well after the holidays to clear out inventory before releasing this.

Incredible value for what you get.
1
2
almost 2 years ago
833 Posts
Joined Aug 2014
almost 2 years ago
rocketman80
almost 2 years ago
833 Posts
Quote from spec2 :
The new M2 mini is quite impressive. Price cut and better features than the M1 model.
Yea thats what I'm also comparing it to.
4
almost 2 years ago
6,293 Posts
Joined Jun 2015

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

Pro
almost 2 years ago
605 Posts
Joined Sep 2014
almost 2 years ago
AquafinaNuggets
Pro
almost 2 years ago
605 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank AquafinaNuggets

Add in an extra 8gbs of Ram and you got a beast of a little machine that'll easily last you 5+ years for $680.

Genuinely shocked by this to be honest, I thought after the whole M2 Air situation that they're gonna go back to being stingy but nah this is an amazing deal and it's going to be a huge seller for Apple.
1
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almost 2 years ago
800 Posts
Joined Jul 2007
almost 2 years ago
phatparents
almost 2 years ago
800 Posts
Thanks for posting. Been waiting for this. And for those who are shopping around …. Costco still only offers the M1 Mac mini (Hopefully they will offer the M2 later in the month when it starts shipping)
almost 2 years ago
800 Posts
Joined Jul 2007
almost 2 years ago
phatparents
almost 2 years ago
800 Posts
Trying to figure out a "cashback" deal…. Discover and Chase credit cards both offer 5% back at grocery stores right now… Could you buy an Apple gift card at the grocery store, get 5% back, and use it to buy the Mac mini? Not sure if gift cards get the 5% back…
2
almost 2 years ago
2,083 Posts
Joined Sep 2006
almost 2 years ago
tgenius
almost 2 years ago
2,083 Posts
I think Costco is going to be tough to beat this price. You can imagine Costco will probably list it at $550 or $570, but if you are able to get the $499 pricing from apple education will be tough to beat.

I checked for humors sake and trade in on a Mac Mini is only recycle if its older than the 2018 model hahaha
1
1
almost 2 years ago
1,687 Posts
Joined Aug 2016

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

almost 2 years ago
272 Posts
Joined Jan 2007
almost 2 years ago
slicktomorrow
almost 2 years ago
272 Posts
Quote from mars_88888 :
I wonder if this has the same problem as MacBook Air 256gb with 8gb.
Can you elaborate on what problem?
1
almost 2 years ago
5,835 Posts
Joined Jul 2015

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

almost 2 years ago
1,607 Posts
Joined Apr 2014
almost 2 years ago
gen2
almost 2 years ago
1,607 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank gen2

Quote from slicktomorrow :
Can you elaborate on what problem?
It uses 1 x 256gb ssd instead of 2 x128gb ssds
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almost 2 years ago
195 Posts
Joined Dec 2009
almost 2 years ago
Master_FOB
almost 2 years ago
195 Posts
Quote from phatparents :
Trying to figure out a "cashback" deal…. Discover and Chase credit cards both offer 5% back at grocery stores right now… Could you buy an Apple gift card at the grocery store, get 5% back, and use it to buy the Mac mini? Not sure if gift cards get the 5% back…
I can't speak specifically for buying gift cards from grocery stores, as I have never done that. I looked through the terms, and it doesn't mention anything about excluding gift cards.
Also, I can say that I've had no issues buying Costco Shop Cards, Amazon gift cards, and reloading Amazon gift balance to take advantage of the 5% each year.