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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
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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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Pro
Jan 17, 2023 09:54 PM
3,162 Posts
Joined Jul 2020
ThirstyCruz
Pro
Jan 17, 2023 09:54 PM
3,162 Posts
Quote from acbharath14 :
and $180 more for 16gb ram
Agree but still nice value v PC equivalents. 8gb ram in 2023 should be illegal

Just raise base price to 799 for 16gb.
2
Jan 17, 2023 09:54 PM
958 Posts
Joined Apr 2014

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

Jan 17, 2023 09:55 PM
1,470 Posts
Joined Nov 2015
Doug5421Jan 17, 2023 09:55 PM
1,470 Posts
Happy I got rid of my M1 when I had the chance.. Killer deal.
Jan 17, 2023 09:56 PM
247 Posts
Joined Apr 2009
BobbinsJan 17, 2023 09:56 PM
247 Posts

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

As much as I hate the apple tax on SSD upgrades, it's not expensive to buy an enclosure that fits the footprint of this and holds M.2 and/or 2.5 SATA drives depending on the model and connects via USB-C. It's not like a laptop from them where you're really forced to buy a SSD upgrade. I got my coworkers a few of these for his cheap mac minis he bought for his lab a few months back.

https://www.amazon.com/Enclosure-...P33S1?th=1
1
Jan 17, 2023 10:02 PM
307 Posts
Joined Dec 2008
andrep182Jan 17, 2023 10:02 PM
307 Posts
dude, I just bought M1 Mac Mini last weekend for my wife's bday next week. Will be returning it and get M2 instead. Talking about perfect timing, thanks Apple for releasing it early this year!
3
Pro
Jan 17, 2023 10:03 PM
540 Posts
Joined Sep 2014
hotgrease
Pro
Jan 17, 2023 10:03 PM
540 Posts
Ordered the base model for $499 and I'm sure it will be just fine for me. Thanks!
Jan 17, 2023 10:07 PM
94 Posts
Joined Jul 2017
SurgeArrestJan 17, 2023 10:07 PM
94 Posts
I Wish Apple was "green"- in deeds and not just words - and provided a retrofit for older retina 5k iMacs to be used as screens for these new Mac Minis...
Such a waste - an excellent 5K screen but a really slow computer by now and Apple quietly removed remote display capability in 2017 I guess to improve their future sales projections.
1

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Jan 17, 2023 10:07 PM
2,304 Posts
Joined Aug 2011
anerdnamedjoshuaJan 17, 2023 10:07 PM
2,304 Posts
Bummed that the HDMI port is only upgraded to 2.1 on the "Pro" model, but this is still a killer machine for an incredible price.
Jan 17, 2023 10:09 PM
1,898 Posts
Joined Aug 2004
raspinoJan 17, 2023 10:09 PM
1,898 Posts
Quote from phatparents :
How did u apply the Apple gift cards to your purchase? Add them to your Apple wallet and use Apple Pay on checkout?
Right on the payment page.
Jan 17, 2023 10:10 PM
609 Posts
Joined Feb 2006
mookothekingJan 17, 2023 10:10 PM
609 Posts
Can this mac mini run my monitor at 4k 120hz?
Jan 17, 2023 10:10 PM
6,671 Posts
Joined Jul 2015
Quality-LearingJan 17, 2023 10:10 PM
6,671 Posts
Quote from SurgeArrest :
I Wish Apple was "green"- in deeds and not just words - and provided a retrofit for older retina 5k iMacs to be used as screens for these new Mac Minis...
If they were really green they wouldn't come out with 4 models of the same phone each year and like 6 different ipads
2
Jan 17, 2023 10:11 PM
45 Posts
Joined May 2016
superben79Jan 17, 2023 10:11 PM
45 Posts
this is crazy that the latest mac mini cost $300 less than the apple watch ultra after the discount
Jan 17, 2023 10:13 PM
1,486 Posts
Joined Jan 2011
mrcloseupmanJan 17, 2023 10:13 PM
1,486 Posts
ugh...no sd card slot....
1
2
Jan 17, 2023 10:14 PM
1,150 Posts
Joined Feb 2009
spec2Jan 17, 2023 10:14 PM
1,150 Posts
Quote from pfukjobydn :
It's going to have the same issues as the entry level M2 air, they'll use a single 256 gb SSD and not two 128s, effectively limiting the SSD speed
Limiting the speed...as compared to a spinning platter 5200 RPM hard drive that use to go in the base models only a few years ago? Haha. You guys will always find something to complain about. At $500-600 this is a heck of an entry level computer let alone Mac. No one is buying this model to edit 4K RAW video or a stack of 45mp photos in Lightroom.
1

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Jan 17, 2023 10:14 PM
1,486 Posts
Joined Jan 2011
mrcloseupmanJan 17, 2023 10:14 PM
1,486 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.
Yet has no sd card and can't upgrade ram...
6

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