🔹 Product: Mac mini M2 Pro (10-Core CPU, 16-Core GPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD, Silver)
🔹 Price: $1294
🔹 Shipping: Additional cost may apply (check with Officeworks)
🔹 Merchant: Officeworks
🔹 Availability: Limited stock – check online or in-store
This is a great deal for those looking for a powerful and compact Mac desktop with the M2 Pro chip. Perfect for professionals, creators, and power users who need high performance in a small form factor.
I think it's the previous gen Mac Mini. Current gen is M4.
thanks
No, this is a 2 year old model
damn that's pricey
Given a Mac Mini M4 Amateur has 10C CPU in base spec, I think you'd be better off with that and then you can stack discount gift cards and cashback promo to get the 16/512 model for approx $1000.
Yeah I don’t think this is a deal
Was coming in here to say the same. Grab a M4
I agree partly with you.
Only because the base model has 16gb of ram now. Buy that and manually upgrade the storage yourself for a fraction of the cost (not literally) and also enjoy faster read/write speeds. You'll need a silicon Mac to restore via DFU, that you can easily borrow.
It's cheaper to buy two base M4 Mac minis, plus a 2tb chip, then it is to buy the 1tb upgrade alone. The Apple tax is ridiculous.
I joke that someone from Right To Repair, or Alphabet or a competitor double agented their way onto the design team to allow the change of the chip. Apple tried to make it a little tedious via software complications but it's still easy.
An Apple Silicon mac is not required, a 2018+ Intel mac will also work fine.
This isn't a simple 2018+ Intel Mac works fine. Depending on the use case.
In short: Basic browsing/YouTube/Netflix/word doc is fine with the intel iMac.
Photoshop/lightroom/multi tasking with multiple tabs/heavy usage -> potential struggle.
I have a iMac intel 2020 with 32GB ram / 512GB on Mac OS X 15.3 (latest), it is buggy and locks up randomly. Trying to run Lightroom on it is becoming a pain as it constantly freezes. If you're on the last intel iMac , I think the last stable one Mac OS for me on the iMac Intel was Mac OS 12 (Montery). It is downhill after that and the reason I have been upgrading as they been random graphic glitches with photoshop/lightroom.
Mac OS X Monetary is no longer receiving security update, Mac OS X Sonoma (14) and Sequoia (15- latest) have weird memory/CPU usage bugs/ (where I have to constantly reboot even after a fresh install).
I guess if you have no need for Intel applications specifically, than get the latest apple silicone. Don't forget, intel chip during those era are so thermal intensive that it get throttle really quick (Using TG Pro to manually control fan speed to prevent thermal throttling). I feel Apple is optimising software for the M chips more than supporting legacy chip :(
I had a MacBook Pro M1 till I got rid of it due to a seperate issue but running that thing was night and day difference compare to my Intel iMac. No maxing out on the CPU/RAM on that. I think from memory it even barely thermal throttled.
I'm sure there's people happily using PowerPC based Macs too.
This one has 16 GPU cores in this case, so if you're planning to do some light gaming on this through Whisky/CrossOver/VMs, or you want twice the starting storage on the Mac Mini M4, this is a decent option.
Also, this has more memory bandwidth than the M4 if you want to run LLMs and other AI models on this.
I agree with you that the M4 Amateur is not strictly better than the M2 Pro.
SSD storage is somewhat of a wash given that the M4 16/512 model is also $1299 RRP.
M4 and M2 Pro would be comparable in many workloads but then the M4 gets a big win in single threaded IPC. I’d take the M4.
Is m1 still a good buy if found at good price?
Depends. Is it 25% of the cost? Then yes, cos it's 25% of the performance of the M4. Not literally, but why would you buy outdated hardware?
False. The M2 is barely much faster than the M1. Check your facts there buddy
The '4' represents the generation, not how many times faster it is.
400ish for a 16gb m1 is what I would call a good buy
I am getting m1 macbook air 8gb but 512ssd for $600
I think the price is fair If you need mobility.
But I highly recommend you to get 16gb ram if possible.
IMO 16gb ram is more important than 512gb storage. You have various options when your storage is full but there is nothing you can do when you run out of ram and it will impact your day to day experience
@bri11iant-y: I disagree with this. Been using 8GB M1 Mac mini for 3 years and have never run out of ram. Quickly filled up the 512GB SSD though.
I’ve got the exact same machine, it’s fine for light browsing and doing one task at a time etc. But if you’re running demanding programs or multitasking, the memory gets eaten up quickly.
Do not buy! 8gb is not sufficient for most machines nowadays. You're better off paying a little bit more for the extra ram so you don't need to upgrade as soon in the future.
yeah this has been going on since christmas they still can't sell them lol
And yet it only has 512GB of SSD storage. I thought at this price point a computer would have at least 1TB of SSD storage.
Do. Not. Buy.
Don't buy this. $900 or so for the 16gb m4 mac mini base model from AOC.
It'll eat this thing for breakfast given the iterative improvements from both m3 and m4 compared to this thing.
Isn’t it 815 on AOC store? I’m very tempted
Yeha agreed, this is not a deal imo
Wouldn't recommend buying a Mac desktop - they have no upgradable storage or ram anymore so you have to pay upfront, and Apple's prices are ridiculously expensive.
You can run an Apple Silicon Mac off an external SSD so no need to pay Apple for it. Base model is now 16GB RAM. [Edit] Also as pointed out above you can in fact now upgrade the internal SSD in an M4 mini with aftermarket module, although I think costs more than just using an external.
There are companies selling mac SSD upgrades :)
Yes about only $200 for 2tb replacing the internal one in m4 mac mini
My AliExpress ads are full of these 2TB drives, and I don’t own a m4 Mac mini. Takes over an hour to replace it though, and seems quite finicky.
@twocsies: Yes, one particular team (technojoy) is mass producing them at the moment but also whom being criticised of over simplifying and not following best practices in their PCB design, mainly to reduce the cost.
There are 2-3 other teams also making their own PCB designs but none were mass produced.
I also see a new 3rd party design which put both NAND chips on the same side of the PCB and claim has better temperature than two-sided clones. Very cheap (2TB for ~AU$220) but seems to be only available on Taobao.
Where would you recommend to get one?
@tunzafun001: https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2025/dont-pay-800-apples-2…
ps. it's $260 US$, plus you need another mac to do a dfu restore
@kogi: The market price in China for those 2TB 3rd party modules is generally in the AU$250 range. Though newer models with better PCB design (a 1:1 clone of the original 10 layer instead of the current 4-layer redesign) and cheaper prices (as low as AU$150) are expected in 2025.
@xmagic: Oh geez…
My parents want a new Mac Mini. An M4 via AOC seems a non brainer…but I thought I could just whack a larger drive in it.
So I will also need another mac with a current OS and a USB C port?
What's the minimum I need to get / hack the current OS on to a MacBook. Got an old Dual core pro lying around and still use my 2017 MacBook Air as my daily (running Mojave…it works perfectly still, battery for days…so never wanted to update it).
.but have a spare drive I could whack in it just to put (hack) the new OS on.
Doesn't have a USB C port though….
@tunzafun001: You don’t.
Techie way would be use a Linux PC and idevicerestore to achieve the same result. No Mac required.
The easy (and way cheaper) way is to get a portable SSD for data. The internal 256GB storage is larger than you think for apps and OS. Just need to train the user a tiny bit to remember to store common data onto external storage instead of internal.
The 3rd party internal SSD upgrade is for those who need the workflow but want to save some bucks rather than paying Apple tax. And most importantly they know exactly what they’re doing. At least at the moment, it’s not for the faint of heart.
@xmagic: No need to "train" the user, just install macOS on the external drive and set it to be the Startup disk ;)
@Mostly Fanless: Quite a few external enclosures (really depends on the firmware settings) are known to disconnect when Mac goes to sleep. Means if the external drive can't properly remount on wake up, it will crash. (one solution would be to keep the Mac awake all the time - not a big issue as it's a desktop and it's as efficient as an average light bulb).
Apple Silicon Macs are practically an iPhone when it comes to its base system like bootloader. Technically it can't boot from external devices and external boot is basically a hack: https://github.com/AsahiLinux/docs/wiki/M1-vs.-PC-Boot
@xmagic: I'm using this enclosure - https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/879667 - with a 990 Pro. It's a bit warm but working fine.
It’s $1299 for the same spec’d M4 mini direct from Apple at full price.
1 less Thunderbolt port and no more USB-A ports.
Still way better than my M2 16/512 deal for $1700 three years ago, and this is M2 Pro version.
The hardware is rock solid, lightning fast, but MacOS is not fast enough on the hardware. I installed a dual boot Fedora Asahi Remix on it, and it's like 3 to 5 times faster than MacOS.
BTW, there is no bootcamp on Apple silicon chips, so it's impossible to install Windows on it. I was disappointed at this.
Do JB Hi-Fi price match the apple edu store?
is it the new mac mini?