So I was on the UK Apple Store website, speccing out a Mac Mini.

When you go to the Mac Mini store page, it offers you two base systems which you can configure to your liking – one low-spec, one somewhat higher. We will call them “low” and “high”

My suspicions were aroused by accident, building the “same” system from the two different base systems, but I went back to the beginning and targeted the same configuration, in one tab starting from the “low” config, and in the other starting from the “high”.

Target configuration:

• 2.26GHz processor
• 4GB RAM
• 320GB Drive
• Applecare

Long story short: the two identical systems end up with £30 price difference, depending on what web page you start from, it appears to be a matter of whether the configuration starts with a 320Gb drive, or whether it is an option..

Evidence:

£975 system

£1005 system

I cannot believe – given a bill of materials which has so few options – that Apple would start with a low-spec system and manually upgrade it, rather than build them to order and/or keep a few preconfigured systems ready for sale.

I am astonished.

Caveat emptor, folks: start with higher-spec machines when ordering – don’t work from the ground upwards.