Refurbished Mac minis return for $479

That Core Solo machine is still too expensive to upgrade to a decent Core 2 Duo machine. An Intel T7200 2.0 GB processor is about $315 which makes it a much quicker machine at a cost of $749, but you'd still need to add some memory and a bigger hard drive. Not worth the effort and expense.

Yeh… trying to add memory to the mini is enough risk and headache.

Apple claims that their computers are user-friendly, and it's obvious that the imac and mac mini are aimed at the home-user, yet Apple turns the mac mini into their toughest machine to upgrade. It is much easier to add memory to the MacPro and the MacBookPro than adding memory to the mac mini. Does that make any sense?

Apple claims that their computers are user-friendly, and it's obvious that the imac and mac mini are aimed at the home-user, yet Apple turns the mac mini into their toughest machine to upgrade. It is much easier to add memory to the MacPro and the MacBookPro than adding memory to the mac mini. Does that make any sense?

As people would argue about how its Apple right to choose to make the iPhone without a user-changable battery, just because others all allow you to do it. Why should Apple make a computer with user-servicable parts? Who wants to upgrade memory or hard drives (although I'd argue that a replacable harddrive is much more useful than memory). Just because everyone else does it?

This is just another case of Apple's insistence on design over substance. Slow harddrive, hard to upgrade, lousy video. How hard would it have been to have a couple of screws on the bottom of the device to keep the lid on. But, no, they use a design that makes it a computer person's joke. Desktop computers tend not to need anything to open. At worst a screwdriver. But a PUTTY KNIFE????? It reminds me of a time I was at a friends house, and the guy working on his computer comes into the kitchen and asks if he can have some aluminum foil.

The min. With no keyboard, no mouse. All in all, overpriced and underpowered.

But it looks good. That's all that's important.

Makes you wonder if it was Steve's idea to design the machine with the intention of it to fail, to say "See, no one wanted a cheap mac!" It reminds me of the single 1.8GHz G5 tower they used to sell for $1500, which was such a poor deal you'd have to really, really, really not be able to afford the extra $500 to buy that machine, and then scrap it because it was a poor seller.

Of course, we are talking about Apple, whose tower weighs 50 pounds for no other reason but to make it out of aluminum (which also requires external antennas for bluetooth and wireless because it blocks all signals).

Looks like Apple is currently out of stock of the used Mac Mini's. Can someone recommend a third party reseller of refurbished Mac Mini's that use either the Intel Core Duo or Core 2 Duo processor? I'm interested in purchasing a few of these for a small render farm.