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frontpageUndisclosed posted Jan 17, 2023 04:29 PM
frontpageUndisclosed posted Jan 17, 2023 04:29 PM

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

+ Free Shipping

$499

$599

16% off
Apple Store
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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

Community Voting

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Top Comments

Fortnite
282 Posts
66 Reputation
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
StrongCaption2242
51 Posts
34 Reputation
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. 😊
santy83
2389 Posts
572 Reputation
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.

875 Comments

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Jan 17, 2023 07:33 PM
6 Posts
Joined Jun 2012
r0wdyJan 17, 2023 07:33 PM
6 Posts
Quote from 404user :
Not that it makes this at all a bad deal, but do keep in mind that this is limited to 1 monitor
Per Apple, it supports 2 monitors:

Simultaneously supports up to two displays:

One display with up to 6K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt and one display with up to 5K resolution at 60Hz over Thunderbolt or 4K resolution at 60Hz over HDMI

https://www.apple.com/mac-mini/specs/
Jan 17, 2023 07:33 PM
1,889 Posts
Joined Jun 2014
gorillatechmanJan 17, 2023 07:33 PM
1,889 Posts
Quote from nba2k18 :
apple sheeps find this AMAZING
This is a great machine at a great price.

My wife has an M1 Mac Mini which I bought for her a while back at Costco on sale, and it's a great machine. Will last her many, many years.

Buying the best and most powerful machine somebody can get for their money doesn't make somebody a sheep, it makes them smart.
1
Jan 17, 2023 07:36 PM
15 Posts
Joined Jan 2021
FlexrJan 17, 2023 07:36 PM
15 Posts
Wondering how low the price for mac mini M1 will go now that this M2 base model price is already so amazing.
Jan 17, 2023 07:37 PM
204 Posts
Joined Jan 2023

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

Jan 17, 2023 07:43 PM
15,496 Posts
Joined Feb 2005
thund3rcatJan 17, 2023 07:43 PM
15,496 Posts
This release came out of nowhere. Sucks Apple is still playing the inflated RAM game.
Jan 17, 2023 07:44 PM
2,179 Posts
Joined Apr 2009
ashhongJan 17, 2023 07:44 PM
2,179 Posts
Quote from BeautifulWallaby506 :
You can't really add RAM to these
Pretty sure they mean through Apple. You can upgrade the RAM when purchasing
1
Jan 17, 2023 07:44 PM
1,476 Posts
Joined Apr 2016
StefanoM3235Jan 17, 2023 07:44 PM
1,476 Posts
Quote from mars_88888 :
I wonder if this has the same problem as MacBook Air 256gb with 8gb.
I'm ready to bet money on it. Single controller is what allowed them to keep the price so low.

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Jan 17, 2023 07:45 PM
2,371 Posts
Joined Jul 2007
eko427Jan 17, 2023 07:45 PM
2,371 Posts
Quote from tgenius :
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
Don't the Costco models only have 8gb RAM?
Jan 17, 2023 07:46 PM
2,270 Posts
Joined Sep 2006
tgeniusJan 17, 2023 07:46 PM
2,270 Posts
Quote from eko427 :
Don't the Costco models only have 8gb RAM?
That's correct!
Jan 17, 2023 07:46 PM
2,371 Posts
Joined Jul 2007
eko427Jan 17, 2023 07:46 PM
2,371 Posts
Quote from StefanoM3235 :
I'm ready to bet money on it. Single controller is what allowed them to keep the price so low.
In layman's terms, what's the issue?
Jan 17, 2023 07:47 PM
640 Posts
Joined Sep 2014
acbharath14Jan 17, 2023 07:47 PM
640 Posts
Quote from augielicious :
A bunch of people here (or local CL/Mercari) would probably take the M1 off your hands for more than $270
I would
Jan 17, 2023 07:47 PM
1,889 Posts
Joined Jun 2014
gorillatechmanJan 17, 2023 07:47 PM
1,889 Posts
Quote from thund3rcat :
This release came out of nowhere. Sucks Apple is still playing the inflated RAM game.
True dat.

This is the first time I ever first found out about a new Apple release from reading Slickdeals.

As far as the RAM game goes, Apple has always been like that, even going back decades, so I don't expect that to ever change.

If somebody can get by with the minimum spec'ed machine, then great for them, but for those who do need a little bit extra, or if anybody has special needs or desires, they will need to pay extra for their extra needs.​
2
Pro
Jan 17, 2023 07:48 PM
1,774 Posts
Joined Oct 2008
kenkaniff
Pro
Jan 17, 2023 07:48 PM
1,774 Posts
is everyone commenting have access to apple education? or is there some kind of trick?
1
Jan 17, 2023 07:50 PM
15 Posts
Joined Jan 2021
FlexrJan 17, 2023 07:50 PM
15 Posts
Will Costco reduce the M1 base model to below $499 ?
2

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Jan 17, 2023 07:52 PM
4,125 Posts
Joined Oct 2004
mrstangblbJan 17, 2023 07:52 PM
4,125 Posts
Quote from TheNarratorr :
Nobody will be able to find an equivalent machine more capable than this for less than $1000 minimum

This edits Pro Res, 8K, dominates photo shop etc for $499. It's insane.
I'm a Graphic and Video Designer for our church, and I will need a new Mac this year. Would a 16GB M2 run Premiere, Photoshop, After Effects and InDesign well enough, or should I gear up for 32GB of RAM in their higher end computers?

I've been looking at a new Mac Studio [apple.com], and if they update it in March, that's probably what I'm going with.
Last edited by mrstangblb January 17, 2023 at 12:56 PM.

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