Pawnshops don't seem to know what they have

"Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing." (granfury)
07/22/2017 at 15:31 • Filed to: None

I’d like to get a new(er) Mac mini, but I’m a cheap bastard and want to buy used. Today I stopped by a pawn shop that actually had two of them, and they had the same model number and looked almost identical (one had an extra Thunderbolt port). Both were priced at $320. The first one was a 2010 Core 2 Duo model, and as such was probably overpriced. The second one is a Core i5 1.4 GHz model, which is still current and still selling for $500 new.

I was planning on purchasing something faster than my old 2009 mini in a few months when the Mazda5 is paid off. The 1.4 GHz unit would probably suffice for now, and for the price I could probably resell it in a few months and get my money back.

EDIT: I just read that this thing is stuck at 4GB and cannot be upgraded. WTF Apple? Umm, no thanks. That technique is barely acceptable on a notebook, but is an unforgivable sin on a desktop. Will there be another Mac mini update? With every passing day it looks less likely. What’s a poor Apple user to do? They probably doesn’t want to hear this, but my i7 Windows 10 desktop is probably good enough to keep me from buying another Mac in the near future, and I may just build a newer i7 or Ryzen machine instead of buying another Mac. Once again, WTF Apple?

DISCUSSION (12)

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/22/2017 at 15:36

I bought a MacBook (2013) with the full intention of putting more RAM in it because it’s not soldered to the board. Yeah the OS won’t recognize it.

Chinny Raccoon > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/22/2017 at 15:39

The 1.4 mac mini is really slow- mostly down to hard drive performance. The RAM is really limiting if you want to use it for more than really basic use.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
07/22/2017 at 15:40

Oh, that sucks. Almost bait and switch. That sounds like a Toshiba notebook that I acquired recently that won’t recognize a better CPU, even if that same CPU was available on a higher-spec model. Or Dell rewiring standard ATX power supplies for no logical reason that I can think of.

Hey computer manufacturers - staaaahp it!

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Chinny Raccoon
07/22/2017 at 15:43

Even my 2009 mini has 8GB in it. My MacBook Pro only has 4GB and is fine, even running Win7, but I don’t push it as much as I would a desktop. I would go to 6GB but the price of 4GB DDR2 SODIMMs is incredibly stupid and I refuse to pay nearly $100 (at last check ages ago) to get one.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/22/2017 at 15:47

Damnit i paid for it i should be able to do what i want. And that doesn’t include all the nannies in the OS.

Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
07/22/2017 at 15:54

Edit: Sorry it is soldered to the logic board. The storage is not but that’s when you run into problems with the OS I think.

TheBimmerGuyWhoNowOwnsAChevy > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/22/2017 at 16:09

So you thought about trying to upgrade hardware on a mac? I’m sorry but I kinda have to laugh because macs have been locked down for years now.

That Bastard Kurtis - An Attempt to Standardize My Username Across Platforms > Daily Drives a Dragon - One Last Lap
07/22/2017 at 16:18

That’s weird. I put 16gb in my late 2011 MBP with the issue being that it would only read/use it as 12gb and on a recent update it started reading/using it as 16gb. I hate when things are made purposely unupgradeable. Basically a big middle finger to your fans.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > TheBimmerGuyWhoNowOwnsAChevy
07/22/2017 at 16:37

Well, my current Macs are an early 2008 MacBook Pro and a late 2009 Mac mini. I’ve upgraded drives and RAM on these, and even made a matching enclosure to hook up a 4TB drive to the second internal SATA port on the mini. I had an earlier mini in which I swapped the CPU, but I know that hasn’t been possible for ages. I realize that as the years have progressed there are fewer things that the user can change, and in some ways I’m kind of OK with that. I generally like to run software of the same vintage as the hardware, even if that means giving up features, in order to maintain performance.

The computer that I’m using right now is an old Dell Inspiron 530S I snagged at the Goodwill Outlet for a couple of bucks. The RAM has been maxed out and I’ve installed the fastest CPU I could get for it. It’s OK, and it was OK in stock form. The various upgrades really haven’t transformed it into a monster, just coaxed a little more life out of it. Even if I could swap CPUs and memory on the Mac it wouldn’t change the fundamental operation of the machine, so having it locked down with few, if any, internal modifications isn’t a deal-breaker for me.

I had Android phones in the past but just wanted something that worked quickly and reliably for an extended period of time, even if that meant manufacturer’s lockdowns, so I switched platforms and bought an iPhone 6S Plus. I know what I’m giving up in these situations and I’m willing to accept that because to me it made for a better user experience. Sure, I can’t do as much customization, but that doesn’t really bother me. There are people working day and night trying to make a better user experience as a profession, and they are doing things that I couldn’t even think of in order to improve the experience, subtle little things I’ve come to appreciate over time. Having a higher count of options doesn’t necessarily make for a better product, kind of like buying things based on a spec chart and ignoring reviews, something I have been guilty of in the past. I can recall one Samsung phone that I had a decade ago that was best in class, spec-wise, but was an annoying piece of crap when it came to usability. Never again.

I’ve modified a number of cars over the years, and despite throwing cubic dollars at them, the end result was decidedly ‘meh’. The Rabbit Pickup was scaryfast, but I could never make it handle worth a damn. The 525i and 320i cornered great after my suspension mods but were kidney pounders. I’m perfectly content to leave my current Mazda in near stock form; I may switch out the 16's for 17's if I find a nice deal, but I’m in no great rush to do so. I didn’t do many mods to my old Rabbit GTI. That was a surprisingly well-balanced car, and I was afraid I would wreck that balance. The manufacturer got it right straight out of the box, albeit with lots of trial and error before the model went on sale. Once again, I’ll leave that kind of stuff to the experts.

Tripper > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/28/2017 at 15:23

Know what year/model? I’ve upgraded my late 2012 mini to 16gb and an SSD.

Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing. > Tripper
07/28/2017 at 15:40

It’s a current model, introduced in 2014. From what I’ve read this was the first model so crippled.

Tripper > Full of the sound of the Gran Fury, signifying nothing.
07/28/2017 at 15:55

That’s whack. I almost chucked mine, but decided to upgrade it and build it into my workbench. I’m considering setting it back up in the office because its so quick haha. You get get 2012's $200-300 on ebay.