All this for $275? Is it really worth it?

[Jerry®]

Saw this local add on Facebook:

Mac mini bundle $275
What year Mac mini tho?

[hal]

I've seen better at ebay - that 500gb fusion drive would be a concern - probably the original drive + a tiny SSD fused to make the drive. You don't want a 9 year old drive in your new computer

[richorlin]

I don’t believe Mac Minis ever had stock fusion drives. If it is a fusion drive, it’s homemade and I wouln’t trust it.
However, that’s a late 2012 Mac Mini. The latest OS you could put on that is Catalina. Should run well. Offer $175 without all the other equipment.

[Robert M]

Jerry,

Looks like a mid-2011 or Late 2012 model. Just the Thunderbolt dock by itself is worth more than half of what they're asking. Even used.

I wouldn't worry about the drive. Don't use it. Invest in an NVME based external and use it as a boot drive. If the internal drive ever goes bad, ignore it (if possible) or remove it entirely.

Robert

[STL]

Oct 23, 2012, 1:42pm EDT
Apple adds new 'fusion drive' to iMac and Mac mini, combines SSD and standard hard drive
https://www.theverge.com/2012/10/23/3543...c-mac-mini

[PeterW]

That dock is probably TB 1 as is the 2012 Mini. Its value is damn near zero unless you own some Thunderbolt 1 equipment. Hard pass.

[Gareth]

Yea, should be a Late 2012 with the Intel graphics.

I'm betting it's a "SSHD" - one of the hybrid drives that's a 2.5" hard drive with about 8GB of SSD storage (not an Apple option, so it's been "upgraded" at some point).

[Gareth]

STL wrote:
Oct 23, 2012, 1:42pm EDT
Apple adds new 'fusion drive' to iMac and Mac mini, combines SSD and standard hard drive
https://www.theverge.com/2012/10/23/3543...c-mac-mini

Looks like that was an option on the i7's https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_m...specs.html but not the i5's https://everymac.com/systems/apple/mac_m...specs.html (depending on how accurate EveryMac is). Plus, Apple's version was a 1TB Fusion drive, not 500GB.

[Robert M]

Peter,

Nope. An older flavor of Thunderbolt doesn't equate zero value. Just dandy when used with that machine and machines of similar vintage. Used, they're still going for over $100 bucks.

Robert

[Jerry®]

I own a late 2012 mini. How come I can’t run Big Sur on it?