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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 09:19 PM
2,371 Posts
Joined Jul 2007
eko427Jan 17, 2023 09:19 PM
2,371 Posts

Our community has rated this post as helpful. If you agree, why not thank eko427

Quote from NSN07 :
+$200 for 16gb memory ; +$200 for 512 ssd and $100 for 10gig ethernet… is this worth $900 ?
You probably don't need 10 gig ethernet. Spend that $100 on something else.
1
2
Pro
Jan 17, 2023 09:21 PM
3,162 Posts
Joined Jul 2020
ThirstyCruz
Pro
Jan 17, 2023 09:21 PM
3,162 Posts
Not an apple fan, but its quite something you get entire mini mac for less than many PC motherboards! Just sayin
Jan 17, 2023 09:22 PM
19,859 Posts
Joined Feb 2006
tenderidolJan 17, 2023 09:22 PM
19,859 Posts
Quote from F-Zero :
I read 8gb and will hit the back button. Thx.
Typical knee jerk reaction with zero real world data.

I use a Lenovo Yoga 9i (i7, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) and MacBook Air (M2, 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD) interchangeably throughout the day performing similar tasks. There has been zero issues with 8GB on the M2 Air, and for some of the tasks it's even faster than 9i. Very happy with both machines.
2
Pro
Jan 17, 2023 09:25 PM
3,162 Posts
Joined Jul 2020
ThirstyCruz
Pro
Jan 17, 2023 09:25 PM
3,162 Posts
Quote from drachen9d8 :
The ram and ssd upgrades would be essential for me. However $899 vs $499 to start makes it a lot less attractive, IMO.
If they made these upgradeable, it would put so much pressure on intel, and pc components! Still good value, but what a force apple could be for competition, if only
Jan 17, 2023 09:28 PM
256 Posts
Joined Aug 2015
slvrscoobieJan 17, 2023 09:28 PM
256 Posts
Quote from StefanoM3235 :
They're actually about half of that
https://www.theverge.com/23220299...-benchmark
They are slower, but only for small transfers, as once the buffer fills out it drops to 1500MB/s anyway. really not much in terms of day to day use. weird that the WRITE speeds aren't effected.
Jan 17, 2023 09:34 PM
3,259 Posts
Joined May 2020
HE1Jan 17, 2023 09:34 PM
3,259 Posts
$200 for 512gb? lol rape
2
2
Jan 17, 2023 09:37 PM
640 Posts
Joined Sep 2014
acbharath14Jan 17, 2023 09:37 PM
640 Posts
Quote from HE1 :
$200 for 512gb? lol rape
and $180 more for 16gb ram
1

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Jan 17, 2023 09:39 PM
3,259 Posts
Joined May 2020
HE1Jan 17, 2023 09:39 PM
3,259 Posts
Quote from acbharath14 :
and $180 more for 16gb ram
I bet the 256 is a single nand chip which are the slower ones
1
Jan 17, 2023 09:40 PM
640 Posts
Joined Sep 2014
acbharath14Jan 17, 2023 09:40 PM
640 Posts
Quote from Apk07 :
You can easily sell an M1 Mini for 2x that on eBay or Swappa
Not after m2 releasing at this low of a price. It still may be higher than 270 but definitely not 2x
Jan 17, 2023 09:44 PM
316 Posts
Joined Aug 2011
EdWrapJan 17, 2023 09:44 PM
316 Posts
If you need to ask whether you need 16GB over 8GB ram, then you're almost certainly fine with 8GB. macOS with the Apple Silicon is a lot more memory efficient than a Windows PC. And whenever Apple sunsets macOS support for these, they're not going to cause confusion and say >16GB will get an extra year or whatever - the entire M2 mini line will lose support at the same time.

As for the $200 for 256GB more storage (lol), if you really need more space, use that $200 and buy a 14TB external drive.
1
Jan 17, 2023 09:44 PM
135 Posts
Joined Dec 2010
hellomeitisJan 17, 2023 09:44 PM
135 Posts
Can anyone suggest a quality mic/speaker and webcam that works with this? Thanks
Jan 17, 2023 09:46 PM
137 Posts
Joined Jul 2014
DidloesJan 17, 2023 09:46 PM
137 Posts
No way this can run Steam VR games right?
1
Jan 17, 2023 09:47 PM
444 Posts
Joined Dec 2009
Apk07Jan 17, 2023 09:47 PM
444 Posts
Quote from acbharath14 :
Not after M2 releasing at this low of a price. It still may be higher than 270 but definitely not 2x
For starters it's only this cheap from the education discount, which not everyone can take advantage of. Without this discount, that puts the base model @ $600.

Second, you are not accounting for the traded M1 being upgraded past the base model, either, which makes them worth quite a bit more. Just check eBay's recently sold M1's and they are going for a pretty penny still even with the M2's release.

Lastly, the M2's don't benchmark that much better than M1 except in the GPU department, so the M1's are still worth a lot... they're not suddenly antiquated.

To sell your M1 back to Apple for only $270 is crap in virtually every scenario.
Last edited by Apk07 January 17, 2023 at 02:54 PM.
1
3
Jan 17, 2023 09:49 PM
1,597 Posts
Joined Dec 2006
xxirish83xJan 17, 2023 09:49 PM
1,597 Posts
Quote from seanisbomb :
"M2 version apparently still uses HDMI 2.0, whereas the M2 Pro Mac Mini has an HDMI 2.1 port."
Ugh that's a bummer!

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Jan 17, 2023 09:52 PM
836 Posts
Joined Apr 2012
TozmoJan 17, 2023 09:52 PM
836 Posts
Quote from EdWrap :
As for the $200 for 256GB more storage (lol), if you really need more space, use that $200 and buy a 14TB external drive.
Correct answer above.

Or be an adult and use a NAS.
3

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