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gusping

macrumors 68000
Mar 12, 2012
1,834
1,968
How does one get a good deal on the new M2?
Student discount and an £80 AMEX cash back offer. It came to £840 for 16GB/512GB. Costco UK also has great deals on the base M2 and M2 Pro configurations, e.g. £135 discount on the M2 Pro mini.
 
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carylee2002

macrumors regular
Jul 27, 2008
228
59
Writing this on my day-old M2 Pro mini, 10CPU/16GPU, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD.

The main thing I was hoping for was an increase in graphics capability over my Intel i7 mini's eGPU. And the answer is: yes indeed.
What videocard was in the egpu?..my 2018 Intel i7-8700B with egpu can play up to 93% of all the games I need on stream and it has 32gb ram.
 

mavis

macrumors 601
Jul 30, 2007
4,734
1,452
Tokyo, Japan
Ordered a BTO 512/16 mini 2/22.

Expected delivery 3/3-3/7.

Apple updated the delivery today to 3/9-3/13.

Order went from Preparing to Ship back to Processing.
Odd. I ordered the same thing on 2/28; the original delivery date was 3/13-3/15 but it's already shipped and now is supposed to be delivered on the 7th. So, basically the opposite of your experience, and ordered almost a week later. 🤔 Odd.

Anyway, I hope you get yours soon!
 

tubular

macrumors 65816
Oct 19, 2011
1,293
3,111
What videocard was in the egpu?..my 2018 Intel i7-8700B with egpu can play up to 93% of all the games I need on stream and it has 32gb ram.
Whoops, typo. I meant iGPU -- Intel UHD 630. I didn't go for an eGPU because I also have a gaming PC, and it didn't make economic sense to add an external GPU for gaming when I could buy a whole PC for the same price.
 

carylee2002

macrumors regular
Jul 27, 2008
228
59
I went Egpu because Im setting up a 2 pc OBS setup and space restriction is a factor. So my gaming mini needs the egpu while my streaming mini can get by with it's internal HD 530 since no games are played on it.
 
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SteveWorks85

macrumors newbie
Feb 24, 2023
6
19
After weeks of researching, watching video reviews and analysing benchmark scores, I finally bit the bullet! Just ordered my Mac Mini M2 Pro.

Specs:
Apple M2 Pro with 12‑core CPU, 19-core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
32GB unified memory
1TB SSD storage

I'm a 2d animator using the Adobe Creative Suite. Setting up artwork in Illustrator and doing animations in After Effects. Currently working on a 2019 Macbook Pro with 2,8ghz i9 and 32gb ram. That machine cost me $3,900 back in the day and it's insane that I just bought a machine that's less than half the cost and so much faster. And quieter!

The Mac Studio was on my list, but seeing all the benchmark scores (especially the PUGET benchmark scores) the difference in performance was minimal, not worth the extra $$$.
 

August West

macrumors 6502
Aug 23, 2009
341
385
Land of Enchantment
Odd. I ordered the same thing on 2/28; the original delivery date was 3/13-3/15 but it's already shipped and now is supposed to be delivered on the 7th. So, basically the opposite of your experience, and ordered almost a week later. 🤔 Odd.

Anyway, I hope you get yours soon!

Mine ended up arriving Tues the 7th so it was at the end of the original estimated delivery date window they quoted.

Set it up from scratch yesterday since I had over 10 years of kludge accumulated on my 2012 mini and thought it be best to get a fresh start on the new machine even though it is a hell of lot more work. But, everything is up and running with no major glitches. It even runs my ancient 24" Cinema Display fine which was a concern since it is my only monitor.
 

odblnt

macrumors newbie
Jan 21, 2020
17
12
After weeks of researching, watching video reviews and analysing benchmark scores, I finally bit the bullet! Just ordered my Mac Mini M2 Pro.

Specs:
Apple M2 Pro with 12‑core CPU, 19-core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
32GB unified memory
1TB SSD storage

I'm a 2d animator using the Adobe Creative Suite. Setting up artwork in Illustrator and doing animations in After Effects. Currently working on a 2019 Macbook Pro with 2,8ghz i9 and 32gb ram. That machine cost me $3,900 back in the day and it's insane that I just bought a machine that's less than half the cost and so much faster. And quieter!

The Mac Studio was on my list, but seeing all the benchmark scores (especially the PUGET benchmark scores) the difference in performance was minimal, not worth the extra $$$.
I ordered the same configuration with 10Gb Ethernet on March 6th. Original expected delivery date was March 24 which changed to March 14 after a few days. Looking forward to it since I will be upgrading from a 2010 15" MacBook Pro. I even ordered a Studio Display off the Refurb Store which will be in on the 15th. Now I just have to prep my computer table to receive these massive upgrades.
 

udflyer

macrumors 6502
Jan 3, 2011
424
104
After weeks of researching, watching video reviews and analysing benchmark scores, I finally bit the bullet! Just ordered my Mac Mini M2 Pro.

Specs:
Apple M2 Pro with 12‑core CPU, 19-core GPU, 16‑core Neural Engine
32GB unified memory
1TB SSD storage

I'm a 2d animator using the Adobe Creative Suite. Setting up artwork in Illustrator and doing animations in After Effects. Currently working on a 2019 Macbook Pro with 2,8ghz i9 and 32gb ram. That machine cost me $3,900 back in the day and it's insane that I just bought a machine that's less than half the cost and so much faster. And quieter!

The Mac Studio was on my list, but seeing all the benchmark scores (especially the PUGET benchmark scores) the difference in performance was minimal, not worth the extra $$$.
Just ordered exact config today. 4/4-4/6 is my date.. they fully charged my card today which is strange
 
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skottichan

macrumors 65816
Oct 23, 2007
1,097
1,280
Columbus, OH
Just got myself a M2 Pro Mini (10/16 core 32GB/512GB), got lucky and they had it in the store, it was apparently a special order that had gotten cancelled.

I'm really digging this little monster. I'm pondering a Studio Display, but right now I'm comparing monitors.
 
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adamlbiscuit

macrumors 6502a
Sep 22, 2008
572
1,285
South Yorkshire, UK
Screenshot 2023-03-23 at 10.25.20 pm.png


Buying myself a new Mac mini, and overcompensating for the fact I got the base model M1 last time by speccing the RAM to the max (and upping the storage to 1 TB). I expect this mac to last me at least the next 5 years!

Sadly it might be a bit of a wait till I receive it.

Screenshot 2023-03-28 at 10.54.39 pm.png
 
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Pigstick21

macrumors newbie
Mar 6, 2023
4
2
Just received, and set up, my M2 Pro Mac Mini (base model). Delighted, no issues for the setup. Logitech keyboard and mouse both detected on set up, and got a trackpad which is awesome. Dell 2560 monitor connected perfectly with HDMI no problems. Delighted with the additional ports from base model, all but one occupied and no need for a hub. Everything super fast (though not stretched it yet on video or photos). No noise, no heat and such a small unit!
 
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verm

macrumors newbie
Aug 26, 2022
25
8
HKG
I have just picked up my refurbished Mac Mini 2020 M1 16GB / 1TB today! Really thrilled as I'm upgrading from a >10yr MBA 2012...

Installed smartmontools straight away to check the life of the SSD and found a slightly worrying figure - 71 "unsafe shutdowns".

Does anyone know if this is something I should be worried about? It had OS 13 Ventura installed out of the refurb box (but not the latest 13.3.1). The "power cycles" at 233 seems also a bit high to me, seeing there was only 8 "power on hours". The data written and read seems pretty low (677GB/569GB) which is good. Thanks in advance for any feedback on the "unsafe shutdown" reading!

Screenshot 2023-04-27 at 9.03.35 PM.jpg
 

colinsky

macrumors regular
Apr 3, 2009
170
148
The m2 Mini must be about to appear in Apple's "Refurbished" section: "2023" is now included in the Release Year column, even though it is grayed out. Yesterday the list stopped at 2022.
 
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SkyBell

macrumors 604
Sep 7, 2006
6,603
219
Texas, unfortunately.
Just received my new M2 Mac mini, and wow, what a machine. For context, this is the first brand new Mac I've bought since I got the first Intel Mac mini in 2006. Since then it's been buying 6 or 7 year old Macs on the used market, using them for 2-3 years, sell them and buy another, rinse and repeat. Decided to finally treat myself to a new machine for once. This thing is blazing fast for everything I do, I made sure to upgrade to the 512 GB SSD and 16 GB of RAM so that hopefully it'll serve me for the next 8-10 years.
 

jim0266

macrumors member
Jun 17, 2009
55
26
M2's popped up on the refurb site today. There were no M2 Pro machines unless they sold out before I visited the page. 15% discount on the M2's of interest: 16/512, 24/512, 16/1 or 24/1 variants.
 
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Targ Hunter

macrumors newbie
Jun 16, 2023
4
5
After my entire adult life on windows, I just bought my first Mac. M2 mini base model for $499 with education discount, plus a $100 apple gift card on top of it bringing the net price to $399. I feel like I got a steal of a deal, even if I only have 8gb of ram in it. I’ve had iPads and iPhones forever, and the built-in integration with a Mac is amazing. I am stoked that I can write SMS and iMessage on my computer now 🎉
 
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Nismo73

macrumors 65816
Jan 4, 2013
1,159
978
Well. I went back and forth with getting new Studio or mini pro m2. Been using a M1 air 16/512 refurb with studio display and does just fine with the most demanding that I do which is Lightroom photo editing from time to time, but the Air was sort of my in b/t my late 2012 imac to what I decided to move on to which is:
A refurb mini m2 pro 16gb/2tb
I can finally move what I need to off the imac, wipe it and give it to my parents.
 

Silly John Fatty

macrumors 68000
Nov 6, 2012
1,750
461
I too just ordered a refurbished model from Apple. A Mini M2 Pro with the 12 cores, 32 GB and 4 TB. Saved me some money (~ 3150 € vs. ~ 3750 € brand new), approx. 16% cheaper.

I'll do some tests once it arrives to see if it may not actually be a completely new model that was returned or that was sitting somewhere (I'll run tests to see how much was written to the SSD already – if it's too much I'll return it).

Very curious already.
 
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