Buy used 11 mini or new 12?

Droidrage729

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May 31, 2012
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Ok so I sold my mini 2007 model to upgrade to a newer version. I'm on a budget so I'm leaning more towards getting a used mini. What is the difference if any between a 2011 mini and a 2012? The 2011 minis are significantly cheaper and I also need a keyboard and trackpad. My 07 mini was used and I have nothing but great things to say about it.

Edit: I looked the specs up online and I can't see a difference. There may be something else I'm missing? They seem the same.
 

RoboWarrior

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Aug 18, 2012
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There are several main differences. The 2011 Mac mini's use an older Core i7 based off of the Xeon architecture. The 2012 edition uses a vastly superior Ivy bridge architecture. The 2011 has a discrete AMD graphic card while the 2012 has a integrated HD 4000 but the superiority of them are much debated with the 2011 supposedly better but user experience has put the HD 4000 in similar or better performance. Unless you need to save [̲̅$̲̅(̲̅5̲̅)̲̅$̲̅] and don't need the extra horsepower, the 2011 is the way to go. Vice versa for the 2012.
 

Droidrage729

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May 31, 2012
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There are several main differences. The 2011 Mac mini's use an older Core i7 based off of the Xeon architecture. The 2012 edition uses a vastly superior Ivy bridge architecture. The 2011 has a discrete AMD graphic card while the 2012 has a integrated HD 4000 but the superiority of them are much debated with the 2011 supposedly better but user experience has put the HD 4000 in similar or better performance. Unless you need to save [̲̅$̲̅(̲̅5̲̅)̲̅$̲̅] and don't need the extra horsepower, the 2011 is the way to go. Vice versa for the 2012.

Went with the 2012 couldn't be happier with it. Thanks for the input.
 

Algus

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Apr 22, 2013
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I've had really good luck with legacy compatibility with the HD 4000. Obviously gaming isn't my main interest since I went Mac, but I still do a LOT of PC gaming via a Windows partition and the 4000 has done a really good job of running early to mid 2000s games without issue whereas with discrete cards I've had all kinds of oddities happen when I try to play some of my older games.

I'm really surprised we didn't get a refresh for the holidays. Maybe in Q1 2014? Anyway, the base unit of the 2012 is a very good deal for the money. It may not be the most powerful computer I've ever owned (relative to the competition) but it is by far my favorite. Lots of style points in this little guy.