Apple 2018 Mac mini Intel i7-8700B 6C 3.2GHz 32GB RAM 128GB SSD

The 128GB SSD is going to be severely limiting. In this era it's hardly any storage at all. If you have no expectations of saving any photos, music, videos or other sorts of documents, the machine will be ok. Be aware that even email can take up significant disk space; and if you use Outlook, MacMail or most other email apps you can no longer move their storage to an external drive.

I'd pass on this machine.

I have the 2018, 32gb ram, same processor. This serves my needs enough not to consider another $3000 on a newer mini, and i do DAW (music production), video (final cut) - relatively demanding stuff.

My only concern in your case is a 128 gb ssd (i have a 2 TB ssd). Depending what you intend to do, you might just be ok with some external drive.

The specs of this mini has 2 usb-3 and 4 usb-c/tb ports, plus hdmi. More generous than many newer macs (again, depends on your needs - for me such a number of ports is great).

At the end of the day it also depends on your budget and at which price you’d get that machine.

If you are upgrading from a 2012 Mac mini running Catalina..? You should skip over the 6 year old 2018 Mac mini or the 4 year old 2020 M1 Mac mini and buy a slightly used 2023 M2 Mac mini or a new 2024 M4 Mac mini.

Mac mini (2023) - Technical Specifications - Apple Support

Mac mini (2024) - Tech Specs - Apple Support

needlemedesign wrote:

Martin R. Thank you if I buy an external drive within the month. Does that change your things for this unit. It is in a sealed box.

External drive are no cure-all for a too-small internal hard drive or SSD. I am are seeing people having issues upgrading their macOS versions because of too-little free space on 256GB SSDs. Yes, some stuff can go on an external, but many apps and some support files MUST be installed on the boot volume to properly function.

Another point: some newer features in macOS require Apple Silicon (M-series) Macs.

Save yourself the grief and buy as new a Mac with much internal storage as you can afford. I won't buy less than 512GB today. History teaches that every iteration of macOS gets bigger. As Weird All Yankovich sang, "When I'm sittin' around the house, I'm really sittin' AROUND the house!"

It’s fine for your needs, go ahead. Avoid Time Machine entirely and use iCloud + external disk for data, which should be backed up periodically.

For context, I have over 100 GB free on my 2018 256 i3 machine, which has never given me any trouble to date. I have over 100 entries in the Applications folder which take up around 30 GB, so that’s one place you can save disk space - install on a need-only basis.

IMO, the 2018 Mac mini is an all-time Apple classic, the 1966 Ford Mustang of computers. You can’t trade it in because it’s priceless 😅. With TLC and conservative operation, it will last for years. Enjoy!

Martin R. Thank you if I buy an external drive within the month. Does that change your things for this unit. It is in a sealed box.