Apple Mac Mini Desktop Intel Core i5 2.6GHz (MGEN2LL/A ) 8GB Memory, 1TB Hard Drive, ThunderBolt (Renewed)

I bought this refurb as a replacement for a file server that had given up the ghost after 12 years. I had been using a Windows (consumer level) machine as a basic file server in my home. It (and Windows) had slowly become problematic over the years.My wife and I have both converted to MacOS (MacBook Pro laptops), so I thought a MacOS-based machine would make sense.I was looking for an inexpensive MacOS machine (of any type) to do the job. I run my file server "headless" (no monitor, keyboard, or mouse....just a network cable connecting it to my home network).This 2014 model of MacMini is too old to update to Ventura, but it did update to Monterey just fine. It's a little slow in terms of interacting with it. But, that is not a problem as I only interact with it very occasionally. It delivers up (and stores) files--in its role as a file server--very quickly (faster than the Windows file server that it replaced). It sits there silently in my home office, working exactly as desired.It came with a 1TB hard drive internally. I bought a low cost 2TB external hard drive separately. My strategy is:* If a laptop dies, but I keep my files on the file server, I just have to replace the laptop and reinstall apps, and I'm good to go* if the MacMini dies, I have to only replace the MacMini, and plug the external hard drive (with my actual files on it) into the replacement MacMini, and I'm back in action* if the external hard drive dies, I have a cloud-based backup service that I can afford (with unlimited backup storage) that I can restore everything from, and I'm back in business.Would absolutely do this again if/when the need arises.If I were in the market for a MacMini to actually interact with (as my own operating machine) I'd still consider a refurb from this company, but might spring for a newer model that is faster and can update to Ventura.

FedEx delivered to the wrong address, but they were willing to open a claim with FedEx to resolve the issue. In the end I ended up receiving the package from a neighbor. Upon setting up the Mac I was surprised by how fast it ran after the initial setup. Very happy as this is a gift for my father. Amazing value for money, especially for a Mac. They also offer assurance that they make sure your product gets to you even if the delivery service is at fault.

Update: it’s been 2 years and this machine has limited my use on programs for editing, I can’t run things I used to be able to run and it seems to be crashing at this point. Ive used an external hard drive this whole time and have around 75% of storage on machine free but it still runs like a 1996 desktop at this point. Time for an upgrade! Also, I did not know that this was from 2014, had I know how old it was I would not have purchased it!This machine is beautiful, it looks brand new, they did a good job. It is not loud either, only thing is it gets pretty hot, not sure of this is just a Mac thing. My dinosaur iMac get really hot too, but for this reason it loses a star. I have not used my DAW yet for recording music and have not run a bunch of plug-ins yet but I was able to hook up my Universal Audio interface so that's the biggest plus. I'll update the rating after more use.

the macmini arrived with a lot of dust inside, I had problems booting because the system was not installed. I had to pay a technician to solve these problems. the computer is slow after installing some programs too, I had to buy an SSD.

So I needed a solution for a desktop, I'm a pro Apple and all my computer devices are Apple. While I did little research the Mac Mini was what I needed. After looking around I came across this, when I opened the box I was impressed my Mac Mini look brand new, I plugged it all up and fired it up. While it was slow to boot it ran for what I needed it to do. I realized that I had an extra SSD Drive sitting around and a handful of extra ram. I upgraded the SSD and I was baffled as to where the ram went, upon further inspection this model is the year where Mac soldered their RAM into the mother board which really bummed me out. It would have been nice to upgrade the RAM but after installed an SSD and updating this to the most recent MacOS I'm very happy. While I purchased the 8gb Ram this unit runs great for what I need it to do, so far I've ran SAS programing on there and it's smooth and way quicker than my company laptop, which was hard to believe. If anything else pop's up I'll update this review but for now I'm very happy. If your looking for a simple solution to everyday web browsing and/or student/corporate work you will not be disappointed.

The media could not be loaded. UPDATE!!! I got another machine, and this one works well. But when I do things inside iTunes/Apple Music, it tells me "this machine is associated with another Apple ID. The previous owner hasn't "de-authorized" this machine from their list, so I'm hoping that this will just be an annoyance. My guess is, there's no way for a second owner (Amazon Refurbishing?) to disassociate a machine. Apple suggests that original owners "sign the machine out" from their Apple ID before trading or selling their machine(s). But the Apple Support appears to have no support for used (Late-2014) Mac mini machines, or a means to disconnect a previous user's Apple ID from a machine that has moved on to a third party (me).We'll see how this goes....- - - - -The first purchase::: It spends a few minutes with the Apple logo and progress bar. But when the O/S tries to start and prompt the user past the initial setup screens, it won’t connect to the mouse or keyboard, and the picture goes from white to black and an occasional flash of the Mac O/S setup screen. Sending this one back to try again.