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2TB Mac mini quietly made its return over Christmas holidays

Following the launch of the current Mac mini in October of last fall, we noted that Apple had removed an option to purchase the entry-level Mac with 2TB of storage. It appears Apple has listened to feedback, and now users can, once again, buy a Mac mini with 2TB of storage. According to our digging into web archives, the 2TB option returned for the priciest Mac mini model in mid-December, right around the Christmas holidays. The 2TB Fusion Drive upgrade costs a $100 more than the 1TB drive, and it requires the machine to be built-to-order. Thanks, Bartosz for the initial find. 

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Comments

  1. Man, I found that yesterday, but didn’t realize it was such big news. If only I had notified someone sooner!

  2. mpias3785 - 9 years ago

    Still no quad core options.

    • Laughing_Boy48 - 9 years ago

      I’m pretty sure Apple considers such an option overkill. I have one of those last model quad-core i7 2.3 GHz MacMinis I use as a media computer for my living room’s HDTV. Almost anything I do on it barely moves the CPU usage percentage. Only when I’m encoding/converting videos does it top out to 100%. I think Apple realizes this and decided to go dual-core on all models. I don’t agree with their reasoning but I feel I understand Apple’s perspective. I don’t know how it hurts Apple to offer a quad-core option even if only a few people want them. They certainly did sell out as fast as they came in as refurbished models. Apple seems to like to remove things from their products they don’t consider necessary for most users. Gainsaver still offers those older quad-core MacMinis and I may decide to get another one if I get a second HDTV for my basement. The quad-core MacMini is a fine little workhorse.

      • mpias3785 - 9 years ago

        I don’t think most mini users use them as media computers but as their main computer. I have a first generation MacBook Pro with retina display. The high-end mini at the time was very similar, just lacking the graphics coprocessor I was thinking of getting a mini as my next computer with an external display but the current Mini doesn’t even come close to be able to do what the 2012 high-end version was able to do. The Mini was once comparable to a high-end 15″ MacBook Pro but now it’s more of a headless 13″ MacBook Pro which is entirely in a different class.

        It’s sad that a 2012 mini can seriously outperform a 2015 mini.

    • Isitjustme - 9 years ago

      I agreed with Laughing_Boy48 it is only good at processing power hungry tasks besides that it is just well like any other low end computers.
      Don’t believe me tryout the mac pro.

    • George Pollen - 9 years ago

      Agreed, quad cores is only good for compute-intensive tasks… such as what my 2011 Mac mini server (mail, calendar contacts, webdav, and motion detection) runs 24×7.

      Quad cores is greatly missed here. The 2TB fusion drive option is NOTHING like the former option of two 1TB drives that could be operated in RAID0. Use of a fusion drive in a server is asking for trouble. The appearance of 2TB fusion drive doesn’t look at all like Apple responding to customer criticism. The new mini has been described as being even worse than before for drive upgrades, so NO THANKS.

  3. nickjeremiah - 9 years ago

    Personally I would only use a mini as a media device. I love my Appile TV but very annoyingly it has no storage, so watching movies and TV shows I have in iTunes through the internet is terrible. I have to wait for it to load, and sometimes pause it to buffer. A Mac Mini used as a media device is very attractive to me. I can download all the content to it and use it just like an Apple TV. Why not just merge the ATV with the mini and have an Apple TV interface option.