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Buy G5 OR ((Upgrade Yikes OR Buy Mini) AND wait for rev C)

redeye be

redeye be

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Hi all,

Been reading up on Mac stuff the last few days.
Interested in upgrading my Mac experience to X.

Currently i own a Yosemite G3 300 Mhz 512Mb Ram running OS 9. I use it for Photoshop, illustrator and Golive Mainly.

In recent times i've come to the conclusion i would like to upgrade my Mac. What do you guys/girls think?

Should i buy a G5 now (no money to spare, but since it's my birthday today i could scrape out enough for a dual 2 Ghz)
I could also go for a Mini, and wait another year for the next generation G5(-6)
Last option: upgrade the Yosemite (up the RAM and install X -> will this work?), and sit it out until june to see what steve has up his sleeves

I want to take my daily computer usage (as well as the web authoring) back to the mac, mail and browsers reside on PC for now.

?
Thx in advance for your comments.

Cheers
 
buy a 1.25ghz mini with 512ram, and you will be set for at least one year for your uses.
 
I've been going through the same thought process and have decided to get a mini and wait until summer/autumn. I might even hold off enough the see a G6 or a G5 powerbook!

The mini can then become my music/video/web/ftp/anything-else-i-can-think-of server!
 
littlejim said:
The mini can then become my music/video/web/ftp/anything-else-i-can-think-of server!
Click to expand...

Was going more in that direction as well. It just would hurt me to much (i think) to buy a G5 now and see it upgraded within 6 months, not to mention pricedrops. And i think a mini would look cool in the living room.

thx for the comments so far ppl!
 
Check out the apple refurbs you can get a dual 1.8 for $1699 of a 20" imac for the same. Just a thought.

redeye_be said:
Was going more in that direction as well. It just would hurt me to much (i think) to buy a G5 now and see it upgraded within 6 months, not to mention pricedrops. And i think a mini would look cool in the living room.

thx for the comments so far ppl!
Click to expand...
 
ive also been considering this but more for some light video editing and graphics work also.

However, in order to get the most out of..say...The production suite (final cut pro, dvd studio pro and motion) I'd have to max out the ram on the mini plus get the mouse and keyboard and small things. This would bring it up to like 900 bucks (edu discount).
but then, you can get a dual 1.8 for 1700, and the performance will be a lot better.

oh well, this is driving me crazy. id rather wait for the new powermac upgrade! maybe i'll just get a bare mini and deal with it!
 
Mini rules all, what else to you need? Apple is giving away these things. Buy a mini with enough ram and enjoy. Face it a MIni can outperform a powermac of just 2 years ago folks and costs less then 1/2. Become a poweruser with the MacMini 😀 Iam.
 
I'll second that.

Dont Hurt Me said:
Mini rules all, what else to you need? Apple is giving away these things. Buy a mini with enough ram and enjoy. Face it a MIni can outperform a powermac of just 2 years ago folks and costs less then 1/2. Become a poweruser with the MacMini 😀 Iam.
Click to expand...

I upgraded from a Beige G3 to a Mini 1.42 w/512. I've had to borrow a MDD for webdesign in the past month (The beige's Mobo was DOA as of Dec. 23rd)

I can say that the only difference in performance I've noticed between the dual 1.25 MDD and the Mini is that the Mini has 1/4 as much RAM so I can't be on P2P while running Photoshop, Golive, iTunes, iChat, Safari, Word,Stuffit Deluxe and Toast 6. 😛 Other than that it's a newer generation of mobo than the MDD, has a faster processor and sits comfortably on top of my stereo.

It most certainly does look good in yer living room. 😀

The best part is that I now have a machine I can do more serious consulting which would raise the $$$ for a PowerMac/ACD. 😀

*cue cheesy monster movie music*

Joiiiinnn Usssss......
 
Think i know what to do

Thx for all your thoughts and finger-time ppl.

Getting ready to push the order button 😀 .

just a few more things on my mind:
1.25 or 1.42 Ghz. difficult one, with different HD speeds, Bah!
Super or Combo drive (maybe - prolly - will need double layer later)

Getting a tad excited about this! Did not check this yet, but it would be cool if it would fit under the tripod 21" apple CRT i got.
jeej!
 
redeye_be said:
Thx for all your thoughts and finger-time ppl.

Getting ready to push the order button 😀 .

just a few more things on my mind:
1.25 or 1.42 Ghz. difficult one, with different HD speeds, Bah!
Super or Combo drive (maybe - prolly - will need double layer later)

Getting a tad excited about this! Did not check this yet, but it would be cool if it would fit under the tripod 21" apple CRT i got.
jeej!
Click to expand...

Don't worry about drive speed. It seems Panther's drive handling is good enough that it isn't an issue unless you're serving to a busy network or some other goofily cumbersome file transfer action.

Do the 1.42. Inevitably, if you get the base model on a machine with no processor upgrade path you feel like an idiot in 18 months or so. I always advise that when people are waffling on which one to get: always get the faster one and worry about the RAM and adding a SuperDrive later.

Ask yourself: Do you need to be burning full length movies?

External HD's are better for backup and iDVD will create VCDs for you with the Combodrive that are more than adequate for short home movies and such.
 
Done, jeej!

It's done
It's ordered

I went for the
Mac mini 1.42GHz
80GB Ultra ATA drive - slower drive, i went for CPU speed
Combo Drive 065-5329 - I'll prolly buy me an external double layer DVD-r later
512MB DDR333 SDRAM - I'll update this when needed
AirPort Extreme Card - 😎

It should ship between 3 to 4 weeks (here in Belgium). I'll let u know here when i got it.

not to use any clichés: i can't wait.

JEEJ!

thx for the advice everybody!
 
redeye_be said:
It's done
It's ordered

I went for the
Mac mini 1.42GHz
80GB Ultra ATA drive - slower drive, i went for CPU speed
Combo Drive 065-5329 - I'll prolly buy me an external double layer DVD-r later
512MB DDR333 SDRAM - I'll update this when needed
AirPort Extreme Card - 😎

It should ship between 3 to 4 weeks (here in Belgium). I'll let u know here when i got it.

not to use any clichés: i can't wait.

JEEJ!

thx for the advice everybody!
Click to expand...
I'm just back from the Apple Store in London.

I couldn't believe it ... they had Mini's in stock ... and I picked a 1.42 model.
I'm convinced this'll keep me going for at least 6 months!

Enjoy yours when it arrives, it truly is a thing of beauty that is only really appreciated when you hold one.
 
are you all happy with your mac mini?

any regrets on not getting the powermacs now and being stuck with a mac mini for next year or so?

thanks,
 
mak said:
are you all happy with your mac mini?

any regrets on not getting the powermacs now and being stuck with a mac mini for next year or so?

thanks,
Click to expand...
No regrets at all.

It's running perfectly. It's a good deal faster than my powerbook 12" Rev A. It runs iLife, Adobe CS Studio and everything else I throw at it with aplomb ... and I've got acres of desk space to boot!

Not to mention the fact that anyone who sees it is envious 🙂
 
hi littlejim,

"No regrets at all" - 🙂

"It runs iLife, Adobe CS Studio and everything else I throw at it with aplomb"
- Wow, serious?
- So no ripping your hair out scenarios with it being slow?
- what spec have you got?
- does london store upgrade it onsite? or did you upgrade at home?
- will it be fine to run those intensive kind of programs for next 12 months or so and then go fully blown for a powermac if need be?

anything else you can think of to convince me to go out and get this friday instead of shooting myself in the foot and getting a powermac with updates on the way? i can run the mac mini for a year or so and then afterwards sell or use as media center.

thanks,
 
mak said:
hi littlejim,

"No regrets at all" - 🙂

"It runs iLife, Adobe CS Studio and everything else I throw at it with aplomb"
- Wow, serious?
- So no ripping your hair out scenarios with it being slow?
- what spec have you got?
- does london store upgrade it onsite? or did you upgrade at home?
- will it be fine to run those intensive kind of programs for next 12 months or so and then go fully blown for a powermac if need be?

anything else you can think of to convince me to go out and get this friday instead of shooting myself in the foot and getting a powermac with updates on the way? i can run the mac mini for a year or so and then afterwards sell or use as media center.

thanks,
Click to expand...

No hair ripping yet - but I don't do anything too intensive, have no real need of a huge amount of power or disk space. I'm not talking 100Mb images here, just mainly web stuff. I can have illustrator, photoshop and golive working in harmony with no problems (if you can use the word 'harmony' and 'golive' in the same sentence 🙂 )
iMovie HD is somewhat slow and frustrates me, but I think that is more a problem with that app.

I got the the faster model mini and upgraded the memory (myself) to 1Gb. When I bought it, the Apple Store guys told me to go to the online store if I wanted any sort of customization. They may well fit extra memory for you now ... give them a call.

Who knows what this little machine will be capable of this time next year ... but at £520 (including the extra memory), it'll do me until the next G5's come out. And then I can find lots of uses for this mini!
 
first post!

first post with my mini! jeej.

1.42 Ghz, 512 Mb, AE, BT, ... i'll post a picture in some picture thread as soon as i get this desk cleaned and set up.

😀 😀 😀
 
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