Fresh Clean Install of MacOS v10.13 High Sierra

The Mac mini "Core i7" 2.7 (Mid-2011/Aluminum Unibody) technically is a "configure-to-order" configuration of the MC816LL/A Mac mini "Core i5" 2.5 (Mid-2011/Aluminum Unibody), but also is documented as a separate model for reader convenience. Other than processor (and the corresponding larger level 3 cache), these two models are identical.

The Apple Mac mini "Core i7" 2.7 (Mid-2011/Aluminum Unibody) features 
a 32-nm "Sandy Bridge" 2.7 GHz Intel "Core i7" (2620M) processor with 
two independent processor "cores" on a single chip, 
a 4 MB shared level 3 cache, 
8 GB of 1333 MHz DDR3 SDRAM (PC3-10600) memory, 
a 256 GB SSD, 
and AMD Radeon HD 6630M graphics with 256 MB of dedicated GDDR5 memory. 

Connectivity includes 
a Firewire "800" port, 
four USB 2.0 ports, 
combined "audio line in (digital/analog)" and 
combined "audio line out/headphone (digital/analog)" minijacks, 
a 10/100/1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet port, 
802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi, 
Bluetooth 4.0, 
an SDXC card slot and 
an HDMI port as well as 
a new "Thunderbolt" port that is backwards compatible with Mini DisplayPort and likewise supports an external display at 2560x1600 and passes an audio signal as well. 

Thunderbolt also supports other peripherals that use the Thunderbolt standard which provides up to 10 Gbps of bandwidth in both directions.

Compared to its non-server predecessor, the most obvious external difference is that this model lacks an optical drive, but it also has the aforementioned Thunderbolt port and is a bit lighter. 

Internally, it also has a faster processor, architecture, RAM and graphics as well as improved wireless capabilities.

Maximum MacOS: X 10.13. This model is not compatible with macOS Mojave (10.14) or later versions of the operating system.

Please note that stock images are used