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expiredLaotzu3 posted Mar 03, 2023 11:16 PM
expiredLaotzu3 posted Mar 03, 2023 11:16 PM

Select Costco Stores: Apple Mac Mini: M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD (Late 2020 Model)

(In-Store Only)

$400

$599

33% off
Costco Wholesale
341 Comments 204,545 Views
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Deal Details
Select Costco Wholesale Stores (link for reference only) [store locator] offer Costco Members: Apple Mac Mini Compact Computer w/ Apple M1 Chip (Late 2020 Model, MGNR3LL/A) on closeout for $399.97 valid for In-Store Purchase Only where stock permits (request item # 1486314).

Thanks to community member Laotzu3 for finding this deal.
  • Note: Inventory availability nay vary by location.

Specs:
  • Apple M1 Octa-Core Processor (4x high-performance + 4x high-efficiency)
  • 8-Core Integrated GPU
  • 8GB RAM (onboard)
  • 256GB Integrated NVMe PCIe Solid State Drive
  • 802.11ax WiFi 6 / Bluetooth 5.0
  • Ports:
    • 2x USB Type-A (USB 3.1 / USB 3.2 Gen 1)
    • 2x Thunderbolt 3 USB Type C (supports DisplayPort / HDMI / VGA & Power Delivery)
    • 1x HDMI 2.0 (output)
    • 1x 3.5 mm Headphone
    • 1x Ethernet

Editor's Notes

Written by RevOne | Staff
  • About this deal:
    • Offer valid at participating locations while supplies last.
  • Ratings & Reviews:
    • Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars based on 1,423 customer reviews.
  • Additional Note:
    • Please refer to the Forum Thread for further discussion regarding this deal.

Original Post

Written by Laotzu3
Community Notes
About the Poster
Deal Details
Community Notes
About the Poster
Select Costco Wholesale Stores (link for reference only) [store locator] offer Costco Members: Apple Mac Mini Compact Computer w/ Apple M1 Chip (Late 2020 Model, MGNR3LL/A) on closeout for $399.97 valid for In-Store Purchase Only where stock permits (request item # 1486314).

Thanks to community member Laotzu3 for finding this deal.
  • Note: Inventory availability nay vary by location.

Specs:
  • Apple M1 Octa-Core Processor (4x high-performance + 4x high-efficiency)
  • 8-Core Integrated GPU
  • 8GB RAM (onboard)
  • 256GB Integrated NVMe PCIe Solid State Drive
  • 802.11ax WiFi 6 / Bluetooth 5.0
  • Ports:
    • 2x USB Type-A (USB 3.1 / USB 3.2 Gen 1)
    • 2x Thunderbolt 3 USB Type C (supports DisplayPort / HDMI / VGA & Power Delivery)
    • 1x HDMI 2.0 (output)
    • 1x 3.5 mm Headphone
    • 1x Ethernet

Editor's Notes

Written by RevOne | Staff
  • About this deal:
    • Offer valid at participating locations while supplies last.
  • Ratings & Reviews:
    • Rated 4.7 out of 5 stars based on 1,423 customer reviews.
  • Additional Note:
    • Please refer to the Forum Thread for further discussion regarding this deal.

Original Post

Written by Laotzu3

Community Voting

Deal Score
+124
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Top Comments

Laotzu3
16 Posts
58 Reputation
According to most reports M2 is 20% faster but it's disk access is 50% slower while the price is 33% more.

To get disk access on par with M1 you need to pay $200 to upgrade to 512gb ($799 or $699)
Laotzu3
16 Posts
58 Reputation
Recent mac's are not upgradeable in either ram or sdd unfortunately.
chi
6243 Posts
1380 Reputation
There's a slow SSD controversy on the M2 base models. The M1 base models have 2 SSDs while the M2 base models have only 1 SSD so there can be data bottlenecks.

https://youtu.be/bF_Lbdqfowo

341 Comments

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Mar 05, 2023 01:34 AM
572 Posts
Joined Feb 2011
patrickbateman1Mar 05, 2023 01:34 AM
572 Posts
Quote from ElatedHealth6110 :
Will it work as a Plex server? I've never owned an Apple product.
Quote from starcaptor :
Hella good deal in terms of $ per performance proportion. I don't expect to get 25% more Machine for the 25% extra $ with an M2.

I echo many others sentiments. Apple silicon is objectively the best way to experience OSX these days. It's one of the few situations where the vertical integration benefitted the user... Apple forced ARM support by changing their whole hardware portfolio wholesale. It doesn't hurt that their translator for x86 apps is quite quick.

I still have a hackintosh haswell rig running High Sierra. It has no issues, but I expect updates to eventually break the setup...and when it breaks... Its near impossible to fix without spending hours on tonymacx86 forums to find Hopefully one other person who fixed your exact problem. All the rig does now is serve as an Imessage and torrent server.

I used to prefer OSX for mundane work tasks where stability was more important than speed. The UI had never turned me on. But I've not had a crash in well over two years in my thinkpad running windows 10 workstation,within any app or the os itself. I installed some cheap ECC memory from ebay recently so I expect even more stability on my xeon (for that one time a year where you get a bit-flip error).
Would you recommend this as an upgrade from a 2010 MacPro Westmere? I'm stuck on Mohave and starting to get a lot of beachballs.
Mar 05, 2023 01:43 AM
2,493 Posts
Joined Dec 2007
luv2chillMar 05, 2023 01:43 AM
2,493 Posts
Quote from patrickbateman1 :
Would you recommend this as an upgrade from a 2010 MacPro Westmere? I'm stuck on Mohave and starting to get a lot of beachballs.
If you're savvy enough to be running a Mac Pro on Mojave (meaning you had to at least upgrade the video card) then you should check out opencore or OCLP (google should bring up helpful results). You can currently run Monterey with pretty much no issues (might need to change your Airport card if you want Wifi/continuity features). There are currently issues getting Ventura running fully on these systems but even that is being worked on.

That said, this is a really good deal and will only suck down a fraction of the wattage of your Mac Pro. So if you're willing to spend $400 this is the best bang for your buck. But if you don't want to spend anything you don't have to keep using Mojave on your Mac Pro (in fact you really should not be using that OS anymore since it is no longer being patched).
Mar 05, 2023 01:46 AM
572 Posts
Joined Feb 2011
patrickbateman1Mar 05, 2023 01:46 AM
572 Posts
Quote from luv2chill :
If you're savvy enough to be running a Mac Pro on Mojave (meaning you had to at least upgrade the video card) then you should check out opencore or OCLP (google should bring up helpful results). You can currently run Monterey with pretty much no issues (might need to change your Airport card if you want Wifi/continuity features). There are currently issues getting Ventura running fully on these systems but even that is being worked on.

That said, this is a really good deal and will only suck down a fraction of the wattage of your Mac Pro. So if you're willing to spend $400 this is the best bang for your buck. But if you don't want to spend anything you don't have to keep using Mojave on your Mac Pro (in fact you really should not be using that OS anymore since it is no longer being patched).
Thanks. I'll poke around. Things were so much easier before 3 kids!
Mar 05, 2023 02:19 AM
2,493 Posts
Joined Dec 2007
luv2chillMar 05, 2023 02:19 AM
2,493 Posts
Quote from patrickbateman1 :
Thanks. I'll poke around. Things were so much easier before 3 kids!
Truth! Honestly, I think the best advice would be to get this Mini. I have a soft spot for the old cheese grater Mac Pros but they are getting very long in the tooth at this point and even with the incredible effort being expended to keep them running the newest software there are still things you need to troubleshoot, work around, etc. They still have their uses and are great if you need to add a ton of storage or need a mega GPU for FCP or something. But for almost everyone else, you can't go wrong with an M1 mini--especially at this price.
Mar 05, 2023 02:28 AM
708 Posts
Joined Oct 2022
HappyDome8591Mar 05, 2023 02:28 AM
708 Posts
This is a good deal. M2 isn't a big upgrade to M1, mostly in the video encoding cores (for doing video edit stuff), and more energy efficiency cores (longer battery life for laptops). Saving $100 on a $500 computer is still significant, and not everyone qualifies for EDU.

Quote from kevinaaa :
M2 get 2 more years of MacOS update from apple
We don't know that exactly. It is possible it gets 2 more years of MacOS, or it could be 1, or could be 0. (Could even be 3)

Apple sometimes deprecate multiple generations of hardware together. Apple doesn't publish its software support policy. So we don't know what will happen exactly. (My point is you can't make a statement that sounds 100% certain)

If I could guess it would be 0 or 1 (M2 is a very minor upgrade to M1).
Mar 05, 2023 02:29 AM
1,361 Posts
Joined Oct 2018
3pinephrineMar 05, 2023 02:29 AM
1,361 Posts
Quote from ChaoticThrifty :
This is an incredible deal. I'll go out on a limb and say there is not a better computer you can buy for $400*. I do not need a new computer, but if I did, I'd be all over this.

*if you already have an external display, keyboard, and mouse.
I wonder if the M2 for $500 (Apple Edu discount) is a better deal?
1
Mar 05, 2023 03:23 AM
3,532 Posts
Joined Jan 2015
kevinaaaMar 05, 2023 03:23 AM
3,532 Posts
Quote from HappyDome8591 :
This is a good deal. M2 isn't a big upgrade to M1, mostly in the video encoding cores (for doing video edit stuff), and more energy efficiency cores (longer battery life for laptops). Saving $100 on a $500 computer is still significant, and not everyone qualifies for EDU.



We don't know that exactly. It is possible it gets 2 more years of MacOS, or it could be 1, or could be 0. (Could even be 3)

Apple sometimes deprecate multiple generations of hardware together. Apple doesn't publish its software support policy. So we don't know what will happen exactly. (My point is you can't make a statement that sounds 100% certain)

If I could guess it would be 0 or 1 (M2 is a very minor upgrade to M1).
Thanks for correction. I think at least 1, unless you could give an example that 2 year apart models became obsolete at the same time.

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Mar 05, 2023 03:34 AM
1,799 Posts
Joined Dec 2013
JeffJ9000Mar 05, 2023 03:34 AM
1,799 Posts
Apple computers are as is. There is no upgrading them later. It's more anti consumer behavior.
9
Mar 05, 2023 04:14 AM
408 Posts
Joined Dec 2007

This comment has been rated as unhelpful by Slickdeals users.

Mar 05, 2023 04:21 AM
655 Posts
Joined Jan 2019
TravisB7539Mar 05, 2023 04:21 AM
655 Posts
Quote from zyrst :
Tomorrow staples will have visa loaded card for sale without process fee. Buy $500 with chase ink card to get 5% cash back, then use it buy apple gift card in best buy to get $15 x 5 best buy egift card, then buy the $499 M2 from apple. You save $100. Same as this M1 if you are lucky to find one in store.
best buy e gift cards do not equal straight cash.

1
Mar 05, 2023 04:58 AM
1,987 Posts
Joined Oct 2004
SteelgazeMar 05, 2023 04:58 AM
1,987 Posts
Quote from gameson :
can you upgrade SSD yourself or is it soldered on? thanks.
No this is an apple product.
2
Mar 05, 2023 06:53 AM
5,153 Posts
Joined Nov 2011
JayhawkDealsMar 05, 2023 06:53 AM
5,153 Posts
really want that 10Gbe though... But then I'm at $590 on a new one (edu).
Mar 05, 2023 07:31 AM
196 Posts
Joined Oct 2021
TenderTest419Mar 05, 2023 07:31 AM
196 Posts
Quote from SiennaDeer7003 :
not sure if that's a good deal since I can buy the M2 for 499 with my educational discount. i guess if someone really needs one they can get.
Just wait for the M3
1
Mar 05, 2023 12:39 PM
141 Posts
Joined Nov 2003
RussSchultzMar 05, 2023 12:39 PM
141 Posts
Quote from TokenSid :
So people don't want to do hackintoshes anymore?
Its a little harder now that they've moved to Apple Silicon.

Once they retire the last two intel models, it'll basically be impossible.

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Mar 05, 2023 12:47 PM
5,656 Posts
Joined Aug 2016
duckeggsMar 05, 2023 12:47 PM
5,656 Posts
Quote from TokenSid :
So people don't want to do hackintoshes anymore?
wow that's old old haha
1

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