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Undisclosed 297K Views
Jan 17, 2023 4:29 PM

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

$499

$599

16% off
+ Free Shippingat 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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+252
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875 Comments

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Jan 18, 2023 1:33 AM
408 Comments
Joined Sep 2011
coldfusionJan 18, 2023 1:33 AM
408 Comments
Quote from IntelligentPerson View quoted comment :
you're given me a grand total of ZERO reasons for why ARM ARM ARM ARM ARM windows 11 on your m1 mac has any use to you. all you've told me is that you do low level office work and using this as justification for being able to run ARM ARM ARM ARM ARM windows 11 on your m1 mac. if people feel the need to run windows 11 on an m1 mac, they actually have a specific reason for it.
No offense dude, but I don't need to tell you Jack. The person I responded to said windows couldn't be run, which is obviously false. Would I run this if I primarily ran windows programs? No, that would be stupid. You can say ARM 100 more times, Microsoft has gotten windows ARM to 99.9% compatibility by working directly with Parallels. Why? Probably because Intel is getting its lunch eaten in power per watt and they'll be moving to ARM as well if they want to stay competitive.

Games? Stupid on this. Crazy custom hardware drivers? Also dumb.

But you know this. You just want to argue at this point. This is a fantastic price for what it is. Afraid that youll have to run Mac Excel vs Windows Excel? Fear not. Need to test things on Windows and Linux and Mac? Also great.

Arm arm arm. Lol, now you don't need to reply.

And for what it's worth I'm a developer. I have to test my code against a multitude of platforms and browsers. Unless you write .NET code all day, this is a great platform for developers.

I would buy as much RAM as your budget allows.
1
Jan 18, 2023 1:48 AM
1.3K Comments
Joined May 2010
XxAuReaLxXJan 18, 2023 1:48 AM
1.3K Comments
Quote from coldfusion View quoted comment :
No offense dude, but I don't need to tell you Jack. The person I responded to said windows couldn't be run, which is obviously false. Would I run this if I primarily ran windows programs? No, that would be stupid. You can say ARM 100 more times, Microsoft has gotten windows ARM to 99.9% compatibility by working directly with Parallels. Why? Probably because Intel is getting its lunch eaten in power per watt and they'll be moving to ARM as well if they want to stay competitive.

Games? Stupid on this. Crazy custom hardware drivers? Also dumb.

But you know this. You just want to argue at this point. This is a fantastic price for what it is. Afraid that youll have to run Mac Excel vs Windows Excel? Fear not. Need to test things on Windows and Linux and Mac? Also great.

Arm arm arm. Lol, now you don't need to reply.

And for what it's worth I'm a developer. I have to test my code against a multitude of platforms and browsers. Unless you write .NET code all day, this is a great platform for developers.

I would buy as much RAM as your budget allows.
+1 Nice informative post and also for taking the high road
Jan 18, 2023 1:50 AM
2.5K Comments
Joined Feb 2014
elefante72Jan 18, 2023 1:50 AM
2.5K Comments
Quote from coldfusion View quoted comment :
No offense dude, but I don't need to tell you Jack. The person I responded to said windows couldn't be run, which is obviously false. Would I run this if I primarily ran windows programs? No, that would be stupid. You can say ARM 100 more times, Microsoft has gotten windows ARM to 99.9% compatibility by working directly with Parallels. Why? Probably because Intel is getting its lunch eaten in power per watt and they'll be moving to ARM as well if they want to stay competitive.

Games? Stupid on this. Crazy custom hardware drivers? Also dumb.

But you know this. You just want to argue at this point. This is a fantastic price for what it is. Afraid that youll have to run Mac Excel vs Windows Excel? Fear not. Need to test things on Windows and Linux and Mac? Also great.

Arm arm arm. Lol, now you don't need to reply.

And for what it's worth I'm a developer. I have to test my code against a multitude of platforms and browsers. Unless you write .NET code all day, this is a great platform for developers.

I would buy as much RAM as your budget allows.
Rant aside the WDK is probably a better platform for writing Windows ARM code, however the Snapdragon SOC is nowhere near the M silicon. I will admit for now ARM isn't going away and I type this on an ARM machine. I remember the old days when Apple moved from Moto processors to Intel x86. Times change, the world moves on. I think Apple's choice was good, now they need to unify MacOS and iOS versus forcing everyone to compromise. Perhaps touch Macbooks is the turning point Smilie
Jan 18, 2023 1:51 AM
991 Comments
Joined Jul 2007
phatparentsJan 18, 2023 1:51 AM
991 Comments
Quote from fyt01 View quoted comment :
Trying to buy it with Apple Account Balance, it allows me to apply balance, but after "Submit Order" it shows authorization declined and "item not eligible for this payment method".

Anyone else having the same issue or knows anything about this?
That is my fear…. Have you solved this? I wonder if it is a problem because the item won't be available until the 24th?
Jan 18, 2023 1:56 AM
408 Comments
Joined Sep 2011
coldfusionJan 18, 2023 1:56 AM
408 Comments
Quote from elefante72 View quoted comment :
Rant aside the WDK is probably a better platform for writing Windows ARM code, however the Snapdragon SOC is nowhere near the M silicon. I will admit for now ARM isn't going away and I type this on an ARM machine. I remember the old days when Apple moved from Moto processors to Intel x86. Times change, the world moves on. I think Apple's choice was good, now they need to unify MacOS and iOS versus forcing everyone to compromise. Perhaps touch Macbooks is the turning point Smilie
It's starting to converge and definitely will more so going forward. The biggest hurdle will likely be capability parity. iPhones have gps chips, LiDAR, touchscreen etc and macs don't. But apple still makes some dumb decisions like a really crappy FaceTime camera. But sidecar and handoff are steps in the right direction.
Jan 18, 2023 1:58 AM
1.1K Comments
Joined Jun 2022

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

Jan 18, 2023 2:09 AM
78 Comments
Joined Nov 2022

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Jan 18, 2023 2:11 AM
11 Comments
Joined Jul 2011
david600rrJan 18, 2023 2:11 AM
11 Comments
Quote from elefante72 View quoted comment :
I upgraded to 13.1 no issues. I am not using rosetta as it runs in a JVM that should not be an issue. As for displaylink I don't particularly like it. I have 3 external monitors. My main I use through thunderbolt. My other 4k monitor and 2k monitor I use through DL. If you run 13.1 and the latest synaptics driver there is a experimental 3000x which will bring back the old scaling menu on 4k monitor. It makes it more usable. The 2k monitor scales perfectly well on displaylink. I do have a macbook pro with the m1 pro w/ 16gb and it is very good. I am actually considering the new mac mini m2 pro because it natively supports 3 monitors and I can deep six my docking port. I also find running 4k monitor on displayport is better than HDMI with displaylink (text is much better).
Right on, thank you for all the input! I really appreciate it! I just might have to try that.

I just downloaded tos and it's still kind of "laggy" on my m1 mini. I'm getting lots of pin wheels. I've tried this method of running tos and it seems to be a bit faster and a little better on cpu resources. Here's a link If you want to check it out

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s...MichaelMoy
Jan 18, 2023 2:17 AM
901 Comments
Joined Oct 2013
LordKelJan 18, 2023 2:17 AM
901 Comments
Quote from vsauce View quoted comment :
Will this run Cyberpunk 2077 at 60 fps?
I don't think God can run that at 60fps at any resolution.
Jan 18, 2023 2:21 AM
5.5K Comments
Joined Dec 2005
mrmochiJan 18, 2023 2:21 AM
5.5K Comments
Quote from kevzz01 View quoted comment :
Not a mac user, is this a good alternative for plex server?
This will punch Plex into a new dimension, shattering space time and the cosmic constants of the universe. My Mac Mini 2012 (16GB,2TB SSD) runs Plex flawlessly even running as a server.
1
1
Jan 18, 2023 2:22 AM
249 Comments
Joined Dec 2007
nilusprotocolJan 18, 2023 2:22 AM
249 Comments
Quote from acbharath14 View quoted comment :
Hi, I am kind of ok with 8gb, but comments from some of the folks here makes me a little nervous. I know the deal here is for 8gb and the moment I upgrade to 16gb ram, I kind of feel that its kind of diluting the savings. Any thoughts? I just need a final inspiration to go with base model before i pull the trigger.

I have been a windows user all my life and this is the first time i am going to be dabbling myself into macOS but want to make sure I start with adequate config so that I don't end up repenting later
Same situation and concerns. I was in for the 8gb Mac mini until I started reading here and now kind of talking myself out of it at $680 if I need the 16gb
Jan 18, 2023 2:23 AM
2K Comments
Joined Aug 2010
NowItsTimeJan 18, 2023 2:23 AM
2K Comments
Gonna wait for the m4 version to match my bmw.

Also if all you do is browse web this is a waste of $. If you are going to edit videos and pictures then ya it's a good deal.
1
Jan 18, 2023 2:24 AM
2.3K Comments
Joined Sep 2006
tgeniusJan 18, 2023 2:24 AM
2.3K Comments
I would like to know if Best Buy will match education pricing since I have totaltech and 2 years of applecare would be sweet
Jan 18, 2023 2:30 AM
5.5K Comments
Joined Dec 2005
mrmochiJan 18, 2023 2:30 AM
5.5K Comments
Quote from phatparents View quoted comment :
To those who are adding more RAM… is it also worth it to increase the size of the SSD to 512 Gb? Or is RAM the only upgrade worth getting?
Not worth it IMO. 16GB RAM is a must for any power user so there's no compromise there. There's a fast 4TB SanDisk SSD on clearance for cheaper than than upgrade to 1TB! Highly recommend going this route as it's what i've been planning to do for years.
https://www.costco.com/sandisk-nv...93882.html
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Jan 18, 2023 2:32 AM
164 Comments
Joined Aug 2012
terryjohnson16Jan 18, 2023 2:32 AM
164 Comments
Quote from mars_88888 View quoted comment :
I wonder if this has the same problem as MacBook Air 256gb with 8gb.
What issue?

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