Is a $75 Mac mini still good in 2022?

[@lukemiani]

Did I get a good deal on this 2012 Mac mini? What upgrades would you give to a machine like this?

[@KanwarAnand]

dear luke after about a decade away from windows, IM using a Lenovo All in one desktop form a year back and i must say windows aint bad at all. Been 30 daysof moderate usage as a home desktop. Satisfying. Plus I got xbox pass for AOE 4. Average specs on this Raizen processor but dude im no (hardcore) gamer. Windows 10 on ssd loads in 8 seconds, no joke.

[@miguimau]

Come on, Luke, that´s a great deal! :) Upgrading with a SSD, max RAM, fair enough.

[@primate_0]

Thats what I like to call.. A Sore-Dick-Deal

[@Bayshore958]

I picked up the same a couple years ago and upgraded to 16gb ram and added a 500gb ssd and left in the 1tb spinner. It hangs on the back of a 27" monitor with a Vesa mount, which is a great pairing. My investment was a great deal more than yours, so you certainly got a good deal.

[@controlport2]

Definitely! I bought mine here in Germany for 177 EUR (197 USD) just to have an up-to-date machine now with running Catalina natively (and it's just an I5). Since I was using my Mini Mid 2011 for a while and was watching your videos, you made me "want more Apple"... so I went for a 2012 Mini to have Catalina. In the end of this year I will decide if I upgrade. But as I am no gamer and no graphics artist, the Mac is my daily driver for web, KZbin and so on. Thanks to you I am now a "little fan boy" - and you made me buy a Macbook Pro 2012 i5, thanks to your very informative video about these machines. 🙂 Got it for just 160 EUR (178 USD) and it's a real beauty. Keep up the good work - your videos are really entertaining and they contain really useful and well-founded information!!

[@SciFlyGal]

Based on the missing ram, and the different CPU, I wonder if the seller grabbed the wrong unit to ship to you.

[@idkjuststop]

seller himself got scammed while selling it 😂

[@kaluimoku2467]

@@saurabhjitsingh7137 how do you know its not?

[@jonvincentmusic]

@@saurabhjitsingh7137 It's not even fucking relevant. He. She. It. 'He' in this context was just some random pronoun for 'the seller' and in any case is likely to be accurate considering most people selling I.T. kit are MALE. Get over your over-woke self!

[@sillyslayer_]

@@jonvincentmusic damn looks like someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed today LOL

[@lukemiani]

That seems pretty likely, often times bulk sellers will mix up little things like that

[@a_3x]

I'd be interested in a video about the monitor, specs like that from 2004 sound crazy!

[@stevenbenson9976]

I had a cinema display I turfed because it was 19 inch. There are hacks and mods people have done to get a native dvi port out of the back and add in a power plug so no crazy adaptors are needed

[@redsell7320]

I have a 23" Cinema HD from 2004. It is my facourite monitor. I also use an 4K Dell, but i have to say that the Cinema Display has better colors. In Europe it costs jus 100€. (130$)

[@carlleavey]

me too :)

[@iFuff]

Not compatible with streaming services as they need an hdcp connection.

[@redsell7320]

@@iFuff It is, but only with PC or Mac

[@Seb512]

A quad-core i7 Mac Mini at that price is an absolute steal - great job Luke!

[@ru55ells]

It's honestly not as exciting as it sounds fella. I get 1950 in cinebench r23 on 1 core vs the 3200 score he got on 4 cores. I nearly fell asleep waiting for it to complete. Luckily I have 9 more cores, but you don't have that option with this.

[@Seb512]

@@ru55ells True, but you'd be lucky to get even a dual core in that condition under $100

[@ru55ells]

@@Seb512 oh okay mate. How about. Comparatively good value, but not a sensible purchase for those on a busy schedule or without a truckload of patience?

[@Seb512]

@@ru55ells I'll agree with that mate, as if you have the time and patience to fix these Mac's, then go for it, but like you said, if you are busy or don't have a lot of experience, then don't bother

[@ru55ells]

@@Seb512 I was thinking patience in operation. But that's a good point

[@Wordsnwood]

I was surprised yesterday to discover that Monterey is still supported on the 2014 Mac Minis. 8 year old machines, upgraded to the current OS in about 45 minutes.

[@InstantLuc]

Support for them has been great by Apple. This is because there's a ton of Mac Mini's kicking around in schools!

[@RHMreborn]

@@opikafafa5974sus

[@egbront1506]

@@InstantLuc More likely because it took Apple forever to update the Mac Mini so it couldn't drop support just like that. Ditto the trashcan Mac Pro.

[@galindomenafrancisco3187]

I don't know if we should be surprised, Windows can be installed in very old computers. I can run the newest version of Void Linux and all of the newest BSDs on my 2008 Macbook

[@Wordsnwood]

@@galindomenafrancisco3187 The surprise is that *Apple* supports it, not that the hardware supports it! 😇

[@watercannonscollaboration2281]

I found a 2011 base model thrown out by my school w/ 16gb of ram and a 500gb hard drive. I didn’t use it that much apart from installing a SSD to just test if it worked, but it’s surprisingly alive and well. Something I learned that 2 very skinny screwdrivers that comes with m.2 heat sinks is a viable alternative to the ifixit pry tool in a pinch

[@encinobalboa]

I just scored a 2012 i7 "Server" for $60. It came with 16GB RAM. It got a 1TB SSD. It is driving a Cinema Display 27 and plays 60fps 2.5k video with ease. I wish it was the 2.6GHz version which would have made this the most optioned Mini for 2012.

[@davidm.d.hyskell8983]

Still my favorite kind of vid on the channel. Thanks for still including these older upgrade budget style vids every once in a while.

[@urk5204]

We used those studio monitors in the print shop at my old college back in '09. They looked great for the time and had a distinct smell to them that was a little different from other Apple products. Not Retina or anything, but paired with a Mac Pro and Photoshop, they were amazing

In this video the monitor just doesn't deliver - the colors look overblown and faded, but Luke is cheering about it like some overly cool innovation.

[@JeffWaynee]

I'm still using a late 2009 mini with a 2.26GHz P7550 C2D, 8GB RAM and an SSD with High Sierra. Great machine, even in 2022. It would be useless for any type of professional work, unless it was writing or other light things, but it's still great for web, email, and 720p KZbin.

[@glujaz]

Use the same one, but it's running under Debian ^^ However, I don't really know why, but Ethernet is 100mbit only, whatever câble or port I use on my router (AirPort Extreme AC)

[@transitengineer]

My main desktop is even older a 2010, mac mini (the last model with a built-in DVD super-drive) paired with an Apple 27-inch (none thunderbolt) display and, is also running OS X 10.13 High Sierra (smile...smile).

[@jos_t_band3912]

Same here. We use it for a crypto node. And for Popcorntime.

[@nicholasheltzel7439]

Heck the new Mac Mini is still base at 8gb RAM, is what sells me the idea to buy a used 16gb RAM mini…. Like $600 for 8gb of ram, vs $175 for a refurbished with 16gb of ram….

[@mattpipes5106]

I think the most impressive thing to me is that you found an OEM power brick for the 30” display! I hope it wasn’t more expensive than the mini and the monitor combined… But the mini seems like a pretty sweet deal!

[@epictoons8948]

I am so glad that you bring these types of video back awesome work.

[@iRichardi]

This Mac mini (server version) became my main driver during lockdown despite having 2 other more powerful Macs - paired with GTX Black Titan eGPU, 24” Apple Cinema Display (2006) and 24” 4K NEC, dual booting to Windows 10 for work and macOS 10.14 for after work it still is an amazing workhorse. Next step will be Big Sur upgrade due to security upgrades so looking forward to your experience with that 👌🏻

[@keine_ahnung_wie_der_heisst]

Thats a shit setup for the money

[@Martin_from_SC]

The ports on the adapter are not thunderbolt, it's a mini-display port. And the power plug on the monitor did not plug into a G5, it always needed the power brick that you showed.

[@mattalki]

I actually run a 2014 Mac Mini with a 30" ACD. The 30" is still a helluva nice monitor. No, it's not 4K, but it still looks GREAT!

[@EugWanker]

I also bought a 2014 Mac mini to use with my 30" Cinema HD Display, until the Mac minis with the new form factors come out (M1 Pro/Max and M2 in 2022). I got an 8 GB with dual-core i5-4278U, which is more than sufficient for business applications and VPN once upgraded with an NVMe SSD. I wasn't interested in the 2012 Mac mini, since I wanted full Monterey support. As for the 30" Cinema Display, check to see if it supports HDCP or not. Luckily, mine fully supports HDCP, but the earliest 30" models do not. BTW, in Monterey, if I plug my wired Apple USB keyboard into the display, the brightness control buttons occasionally don't work right after waking from sleep. However, they work perfectly if I plug the keyboard directly into the Mac mini. Also, if I plug my mouse's USB RF transmitter into the display, it won't wake up the Mac, but it wakes the Mac fine if I connect it directly to the Mac mini (or with some USB 3 hubs).

[@mattalki]

@@EugWanker I have the same Mini. I did put in a 1TB SSD at some point, and it runs fairly well - it IS starting to show it's age with Monterey, though. I keep holding out for an M2/M1 Pro/whatever new Mini (the M1 doesn't quite have the graphics performance I'm looking for) and then I'll upgrade. My 30" is NOT HDCP compliant. It's one of the old ones, unfortunately. That said, I can still stream almost anything as long as I use Chrome. Weird.

[@EugWanker]

@@mattalki Chrome limits Netflix to 720p on macOS, which is why you can stream it without HDCP. Safari needs HDCP to stream at 1080p on the 30" Apple Cinema Display.

[@barisibis8778]

Just got a 15 MacBook Pro (2014) , i7, gtx 750M, 16GB RAM, 500GB SSD for 110USD.

[@Pennerman]

I got into MacOS last year in april with this exact machine, though I have the base model. It cost me 170€ which included the Mac with its original hard drive, 8 gigs of RAM, a first gen Magic Mouse and a full size wired Apple Magic keyboard, so I got quite a lot for what I paid back then in my opinion. I have been using it as my main machine, patched it to Big Sur and even used Monterey with it and while it does take a while to load some things it is a great machine! I installed a second drive and I am using the original hard drive for Time Machine backups and I also got 16 gigs of RAM on eBay so I would say it is specd out quite well. Great Mac to get into MacOS and also upgrading and repairing them, it is a lot of fun!

[@birdo6504]

nice! good luck in the future with your little mac project 😄

[@amdeus]

Just got the 2012 mac mini i7 server edition with 10gb ram in perfect condition for $150 Though Haven’t patched mine yet. Is Monterey running smoothly on yours?

[@Pennerman]

@@amdeus There are occasional stutters and of course some things may have to load a little bit longer but other than that no problems really.

[@BensOnTheRadio]

I’ve used a few Cinema Displays through the years, even primarily used a 30” for a while last year. They really are great displays, but the main problem they all seem to have is image retention. I’ve never experienced anything permanent, but it doesn’t take much for something to stick on the screen for a little bit. I believe these displays received a silent refresh around 2006 to update the back lighting to be more efficient.

[@ProduktReview]

Yeah my 30" does that too. I have to power cycle it many times so the ghosting of the image goes away.

[@mizouse02]

Loved my 2012 Mac Mini, I picked up the 2.3 i7 model from Apple refurbished for like $550 back in 2014. It was my first Mac and I upgraded it to 16GB RAM and 1TB SSD. Used it until 2020 when i upgraded to a 2018 i7. A bit disappointed in the performance between the 2012 and 2018 for my day to day use, but appreciate the updated IO and the T2 chip for h.265. Also a bit sour as i got the 2018 model just outside of the return period when the M1 model was announced. Going to stick with the 2018 until maybe the redesigned mini with M1 Pro come out.

[@abdulbasit34310]

Now go and buy m2 mac mini really good offer. just 599$

[@georgwor8955]

I just got me an i7 2,3 GHz, already equipped with 16 GB or Samsung RAM, already swapped HD for an SSD (a 240 GB Kingston) and was running macOS Maverick, from Ebay. Using the famous OCLP (open core legacy patcher), I updated that machine to macOS 14 Sonoma and it works like a charme. The quad-core CPU still is a solid machine in those old Mac Minis.

[@jimcabezola3051]

Yes! More vintage monitor goodness! I could not have afforded that monitor back then... I'm still using my 2011 Mac Mini. It's been such excellent value these past 11 years!

[@nickwort123]

I def wanna see a video on that monitor. It might be cool to do something with the newer Apple Thunderbolt Display too

[@jackspring7709]

I had a mac mini 2011 lying around: upgraded it to 8GB and 1TB SSD and the OS to High Sierra. It's still a very decent machine.

[@Epicgamer_Mac]

What an interesting video! Great job Luke.

[@timg6930]

I still have a 2012 quad core i7, 16GB RAM Mac Mini that I upgraded the HD to SSD. I use it to back up my iPhone and iPad. It's a solid little machine

[@snikeplassken]

The third proprietary connector from the display goes to the power supply not the GPU. It was designed for the MacPro originally.

[@buddykarl944]

I have 3 late 2012 Mac Minis that I picked up used over the years. Mac Mini 1 is running Yosemite so I can run my older PS, illustrator, & indesign for my comic strip, product label design, & self publishing. Mac Mini 2 running Catalina for my wife to use as an email/web browser machine & older versions of MS Office. Mac Mini 3 for my home entertainment system (replacing an old raspberry pi) & webcam for zoom. I paid no more than $150 for them (last one cost me $99) all used. Am quite happy with them in 2022.

[@zmperry1]

Love your repair videos! Please do more. Of any Mac!!! Keep up the great work. Thanks!

[@JeremyPeeples]

I grabbed an upgraded 2012 mac mini with a 512GB SSD and 16GB of RAM and love it - I just wanted it to learn the OS and it's been fantastic for that and even a bit of gaming.

[@cliess]

Great video, Luke! That Mac Mini can easily be upgraded to Big Sur or Monterey. I think your viewers would be super into a pros/cons video of upgrading a Mac to an "unsupported" OS level! Can tell you my late-2013 iMac running Big Sur (via Patched Sur) runs dramatically better than it ever did under Catalina....

[@mxmobile5619]

To be fair Catalina had a ton of performance issues even on top end devices

[@karenweiner1857]

Catalina is still supported though

[@mxmobile5619]

@@karenweiner1857 It only receives security updates. That means its unsupported, plus its nearing the end of its update cycle since we're two new feature updates ahead now and apple usually doesn't support past OSX versions after two years.

[@basilio-7811]

Could you let us know how you did it?

[@cliess]

@@karenweiner1857 And the performance is garbage compared to Big Sur or Monterey on the same hardware.

[@FlanGaming]

Got a 2011 Mac Mini not too long ago for free, a business was going to throw it away thinking it was an old Apple TV. 500GB SSD, put in 8GB of RAM I had lying around, upgraded it to Catalina through the DosDude patcher, and it feels like a new computer and runs really smoothly. Exciting stuff.

[@amdeus]

Just bought a 2012 Mac Mini i7 Server edition with 10gb ram for $150

[@michaelsilverman341]

Great video, highly recommend the OWC kit for dual drives, so easy to do, even for a novice like me. I ended up popping one of the soldered cables off accidentally...and when I turned it on, the only thing that didn't work was the LED on the front showing the computer was powered up. Worked perfect otherwise, for music production. You literally cannot go wrong with these!

[@DummiBoiii]

Is a $35 Mac mini 2010 in great condition worth it? Only problem is that it doesn’t have a os

[@iPelaaja1]

2012 Mini is the best Mac there is, cheap, quiet, small and most importantly, upgradeable. It fits two drives which are easy to swap, memory is easy to add and with those upgrades it’s fast enough for normal usage, web browsing etc.

[@gonzalogomez8508]

How much time would be usable as a professional computer?

[@MrCed122]

A few months ago, I bought 3 "untested" Mac Mini 2011 for 100$ CAD. Two of them didn't had fans, one didn't had the SATA cable, they all came with 2GB of RAM and none had the bottom cover (annoying, but not neccesary to run). I bought the fans and cables on eBay for really cheap, used RAM I had lying around (and bought a 16GB kit on one of them for myself), put almost brand new 500GB HDD I got from work (all replaced by SSD really quickly, so they're basically waiting to be recycled) and I sold two of them on Marketplace for really cheap. All in all, I spent like 225$ on everything (and that's because of the 60$ RAM, the fans and cables cost like 40$) and sold two of them for 225$ (so probably around 175$ USD, that includes 8GB of RAM, an 500GB HDD for one and an old 120GB SSD for one the other), so the last one was essentially free. Even with a measly dual-core i5 and an Intel HD Graphics 3000, those old Mac Mini are really usable machine, then can even run Monterey with OpenCore Legacy Patcher (not that I would recommend it, it doesn't really add anything on that hardware over Catalina). They're certainly not that fast, but I wouldn't complained if I had to use one, it's still a lot better than an iPad for me.

[@transitengineer]

This is a great post. This is the kind of thing that Luke used to do all the time, to pay his way through college. He would buy older Apple computers fix them up, and then selling them for a profit so way to go (smile...smile).

[@jas_bataille]

I'm a pro drummer and I kept my 2012 to run in my studio even tho I own an M1. At the end of the day the M1 is for streaming concerts and browsing the web as well as some video and photo editing. Because my audio interface, which is still great, doesn't work with Apple silicon, I striped my 2012 down, changed drive, and upgraded to the latest possible OS. It runs my multi-track recording needs like a charm!

[@junihh]

Last year I bought precisely that model on eBay for $190, but mine did include RAM (8GB), hard drive (500GB rotational) and 2.5 GHz Dual Core i5 CPU. Then I upgraded to 16GB of RAM and a 500GB SSD. Both drives remain installed, but the SSD is primary.

[@DingusYi]

I bought a fully working mid 2010 mac mini with high sierra preloaded for $80 Also i have a 30” cinema display myself. I’m lucky enough that my main pc has a dual link dvi port. my monitor was given to me by my brother in law, as well as the power brick, so if i wanted to i could use it with my main (windows) pc. I’m also lucky enough to have a 2008 mac pro so i can use it with that as well.

[@tbray]

I found a 2012 Mac Mini on ebay for $95 Canadian. I doubled the ram to 8gigs and it's my favourite thing - i have it connected to my drawing monitor using Krita, and it's great. Can't say the same for most Windows machines from 2012...

[@grahamo22]

I have a second-hand 2010 Mac Mini to which I added an 8Gb memory upgrade and an external hard drive. Its been my media centre for almost a decade now. Th existing HDD is old, but works and the CD/DVD drive is dead, but the Mini works and its more than good enough for video conversion offline/overnight.

[@nicbeatsyall]

I'd also be interested in a 2004 Monitor Video

[@NormanF62]

Impressive set up for around $350! I would have installed a 1 TB SSD and called it a day. Macs hold their value quite well and this 2012 Mac Mini Is no exception.

[@smashedlegends]

$75 mac book mini? Fake. Obviously. You will not find Mac books mini with less than $300. Does. Does not matter the year.

[@CL-kx5tn]

I bought two late 2014 Mac Minis from eBay with free shipping. The first one is an Intel Core i7 with 256gb SSD and 8gb RAM for $175. Second one is Intel Core i5 2.8GHz, 8gb RAM and 1tb fushion drive for $150. Bought 2 Apple thunderbolt displays (27”). One for $170 and the other for $175 from local FB marketplace. I think I got a very solid deals here.

[@frankiepavinato]

Typing from a late 2012 Mac mini i5 with 10gb of ram and duo hard disk combo (Samsung 860 Pro 250gb + Hitachi 1,5 TB). Still using this machine in 2022, I received Catalina updates just yesterday. I use it for browsing the web, watch KZbin contents like this one, sending emails and listening to music. Got it for 400€ back in 2014...I think it's one of the Best Buy of my whole life. PS: definitely interested in that 30" Cinema Display video

[@matthewroberts1569]

I'm running a pair of 23" Cinema Displays on my M1 Mac Mini. The cables are a bit obnoxious but the displays are great performers and look great! It's amazing how they can still function so well after like 18 years.

[@TheSulross]

bought a 2011 MacMini, has 64-bit dual core Intel cpu @ 2.3 GHz, 16GB memory (max possible), and upgraded to SSD storage. Also clean install of 2017 MacOS High Sierra, which still gets security patches. Installed latest Brave browser, LibreOffice, and Spotify. Is now the daily driver for the spouse and guarantte that this 20011 computer, as speced, is more than sufficient daily driver computer for probably over 80 or even 90 percent of home computer users.

[@aelaan12]

Oh man, that keyboard totally triggered me.

[@kerningandleading]

I still love the 30”

[@mauricesoffer8936]

I would love a video on the monitor and how to use it with modern macs

[@daveedwards6727]

You’re confusing Apple Display Connector with Dual-Link DVI. DVL-DL was a standard port used on a lot of higher end workstations and monitors for high-resolution displays. ADC was a proprietary connector that carried USB, FireWire, DVI and power to the monitor. That was discontinued when these aluminum displays came out. The aluminum displays CAME with the power brick, but because they are so easily misplaced they end up selling for more than the displays sometimes making it more lucrative to sell a small power brick on eBay and send the display to eWaste.

[@daveedwards6727]

Once Apple moved away from ADC, DVI became the norm. Once they moved away from AGP on the PowerMacs in 2005 they stopped supporting monitor power through the video card. All PCI G5s and Mac Pros are incapable of supplying monitor power. There was no connector on the video card for power ever I might add, only the all in one ADC port provided power but again that used one cable for everything and was only on AGP G4s and G5s.

[@Slurkz]

Great one, luke! 💜

[@DesdinovaCrux]

My 2012 Mini I bought from new and is still going - use it for music. I exchanged the HDD for a SSD and upgraded it to 12gb and it's still going strong nearly a decade later with OCLP giving me Monterey!

[@DesdinovaCrux]

And it's the 2.5Ghz I5 not the I7 too

[@Stop4MotionMakr]

The end card music is ALWAYS so on point.

[@willm5032]

The cine displays are surprisingly good even these days, I currently am using a 27" one and its been awesome. Big ol chonky boi it might be but its done me proud considering how little I've paid for it.

[@dragonballjiujitsu]

I love refurbing the old minis. I install a 240GB boot SSD and a secondary 1TB rotating rust drive for time machine backup. 16GB of RAM and you have a very nice little self contained package. Total in invested is normally $150-230

[@quentinbertrand4831]

I always enjoy the twists in your videos, when you encounter a hitch. I love what you do. Thanks for all your work and passion

[@hastingb]

I paid 60 bucks for my 2012 Mac mini. I upgraded the memory to 16GB and installed a 1TB SSD and connects to my NAS. Now it's a Plex server.

[@accordinglyryan]

I have a mid 2010 in my room I use exclusively for web browsing. Works just fine!

[@indytim]

My nephew recently picked that monitor up from a seller on Facebook Marketplace for $25. I kid you not. He now uses it with his Mac Mini as you have here.

[@flaviusbelisarius3240]

Just picked up the same model Mac mini, added 16 gigs of RAM and 500 GB SSD, all Crucial, for $54 in 2023. Will try connecting it to two Thunderbolt Displays.

[@Kevin69x96]

I know you might not see this. But since you’re good with tinkering. What if you like do a build where throw an m1 behind that. Like Remove the panel. Get a display adapter for that ribbon cable. Or something of the sort and custom build your own “iMac Pro”

[@nigelholland1811]

My favourite type of video from you Luke. I really enjoy your upgrade and tear down video’s. Thanks.

[@CommanDOH-JKU]

I still have an Apple Studio Monitor from the generation before that one (23" 1920x1200, w/ the plastic bezel/leg, Circa 1999). Over 22 years old, not a single pixel has gone dark and it works fantastic. Apple Monitors last Forever (at least the older ones)...

[@gitarremitmarkus8834]

the fact that you can add a second drive is amazing!

[@NoahAviation09]

These are my favourite of your videos

[@mehere8-32]

My 2012 Mac Mini, i7, 16gb, 1tb ssd. is running well with 13.4. It is my everyday computer. 27" curved Monitor. Cheers.

[@rockingupthewrongtre]

Just got my t9500 in the mail today. Gonna do a CPU swap on an iMac 2007. Love the old upgrade aspect of this channel.

[@transitengineer]

Yes, me too Luke please keep the vintage Apple computer upgrades coming.

[@bryans8656]

I did a similar upgrade to a 2012 Mac mini and upgraded the OS to Catalina, which is officially supported on the 2012s. Despite it's age it's very snappy.

[@LeeStewart]

I had this Mac mini a couple of years ago and then the 2014 version a year later. 2012 Mac mini is storage and RAM upgradable, the 2014 is storage upgradable only.

[@smallmoneysalvia]

Clean out the dust and swap out the thermal paste and it’ll run a lot faster, those tend to get super hot after a couple of years of dust buildup

[@kalimaa999]

Would deffo love to see an episode on the monitor

[@iSpoof]

I payed $220 for a 2014 Mac mini which was 'untested' because it was missing power cord. When I got it, it had i7, 1TB Flash, 16GB ram and the box. not sure if it was worth the price, but its still really usable.

[@louis487]

The 30inch cinema display was never intended to be powered by a G5 or Mac Pro, the power supply came with it. Also the adaptor is not thunderbolt, it's just displayport so you can use it on older mac or even a windows PC

[@jennyaspin8598]

I have an Apple Cinema 20” which is all my space will allow but I really love it. I’d be really interested in seeing a video about any of these in the future.

[@ScottPickettUT]

I found a 30” Cinema Display for $15 with a bad power supply. I modded the power supply with a $20 Amazon power supply and it works. Great display still.

[@darrelltaylorjr.5775]

Yes 30" display video please, still my favorite display. Been looking for one for years

[@sbrave]

Just upgraded my 2012 Mac mini with an SSD and Catalina. Night and day difference from the 5400speed 1TB drive it came with!!! Already had 16GB ram. Thanks for the suggestion!

[@stephensteck]

The 30" Cinema Display pretty much just works with modern Macs. I have mine as a tertiary monitor plugged into my 16" M1 max laptop and it works really well for that. It does push out a lot of heat though. Just a note that with the adapter, the USB must be plugged in, as the adapter draws power over USB. Out of curiosity I even managed to get the firewire port working on my m1 with a USB4 ->Thunderbolt 2 -> Firewire 800 -> Firewire 400 chain of adapters.

[@justinmilum2638]

I love these types of videos. Please don't stop posting videos like this!

[@Marc-io6pv]

Hey Luke, can you do a video for past Macs that can entry into editing 4k...even with some mods... like cheapest way in etc... like Minis, iMacs, Macbooks please?

[@MSG685]

I ran a 2012 mac mini until the M1 chip came out. I didn't have any real issues with it but the M1 was only $500 so it was time. My buddy has the 2012 connected to his tv for streaming and whatnot. Still running fine. edit I5 processor.

[@David-wb1vw]

I got the Mac mini 2014 with i5 and 4gb ram (not upgradable) for 160€ last year. In rund absolutly smooth but I also only use it for office work. But some days ago I also was able to edit a video with also some effects. Completely cranky for a 8 year old machine.

[@BrinkWeb]

I just upgraded my in-laws' 2012 mac mini to the new M1 base model. Huge difference!

[@transitengineer]

That sounds so cool. If Apple ever decides to sell a mac mini model with either a M1 pro processor chip or a M1 max processor chip, I will be buying it (smile...smile).

[@budgetkeyboardist]

It's 2023 and I'm watching this video on my Sony TV using a 2012 Mac Mini. It's a great Mac for Amazon Prime, KZbin, Disney +, etc.

[@amithras]

I bought the i5 model a couple of years ago upgraded to ssd and it still runs lovely! I did build as Fusion Drive, but lost my config after a power cut (thank goodness for Time Machine!) I would certainly be interested in how to upgrade to big air and beyond!

[@Philipp01]

It would be great, if you would make a video about the upgrade process to Monterey!! I bought for Christmas an Mac Pro 4,1 and updated the firmware to 5,1 , installed an nvme ssd and swaped the graphic card and the CPU but i couldn´t install Monterey with a patcher. So now i run the latest version of Mojave. I also bought the 20´´ cinema display so it would also be great if you make a video about it.

[@mckorr2116]

I have that Mini, the 2012 with quad-core I7. A major issue is that the stock 5400 RPM drives bottleneck the system, causing sporadic crashes. I bought the server version, so I replaced both hard drives with terabyte SSDs, and I've never had a problem since. The spinny drives got moved to an inexpensive dock for an additional two terabytes of storage. If you don't get the server version you can buy the mounting hardware for a second internal drive cheap: the only difference between the "desktop" and "server" versions is the mounting brackets, and there are good guides on installing them. Catalina is the latest version that will run on it (although I believe it can be "tricked" into using more recent versions). With SSDs and 16 gig of RAM it is plenty responsive enough even today. I mostly use it headless as a media server but maintain normal desktop productivity apps on it to use if my daily driver is out of commission for some reason. Ports are sufficient to run two monitors, possibly more (I don't have any more lying around to check lol). You aren't going to run many games on it, but it easily handles day to day tasks.

[@logan3087]

finally a repair video. I love to see it, great job as always Luke

[@moehoward01]

**RATTLE, RATTLE** Must be Dynamic Ram.

[@tararira73]

I’m sill using diary this little monster, UPGRADED with 512 SSD and 16GB RAM. I love it

[@iman2341]

I used a 30” Cinema Display as my main monitor from about 2011 to 2020. Unbelievable colour and good sharpness. Really solid monitor, just hope the PSU doesn’t go. Oh and the Dual Link DVI is all it needs for a display signal, the USB and FireWire are just pass throughs for the ports on the back.

[@GordonBraicks]

As a MacBook M1 user I’m jealous of all the connection possibilities of this machine.

[@darijoe1]

Luke I love these kinds of videos and seeing your upgrades and fixes is why I originally subscribed to your channel. Nice to see one of these again. Great work!

[@travosk8668]

Video idea: make a video series about the apple ecosystem's evolution throughout the years like, a 2009 eco system, a 2012 etc and review how viable they are for modern use

[@ebenhcf5261]

Can you please do a video of upgrading it to big sur and also do a full review of the monitor based on these day's task, color accuracy, and stuff like that. I always enjoy your video, thanks for the content.

[@barathkannan217]

Hell yeah please talk more about the pro display

[@LaskyLabs]

I got a 2012 base model Mac mini for $75. I use it as a machine for syncing my iPods and soon a home server. I wish it was one of the better skews, but it's not so bad.

[@RandyRydberg]

I currently use two of those 30" displays. They are great! Yes, do a review on them! (You are totally correct on the wiring of those things; if one doesn't seem to work right, it means it has a loose cord connection. One was giving me trouble for a while before I figured I just had to wiggle the wire a little bit at the connection and then it was fine!) I did buy a third one off Craigslist though, that was claimed to be working but it won't stay on.