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eMac vs Mac mini

quidire

quidire

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Am I entirely off, or are these entirely equivalent, in price and in power? (And if so, if one doesn't care about desktop size, why wouldn't one get an eMac over a Mac mini other than wanting the newer toy?)

Edu pricing:

eMac
• 1GB SDRAM DDR333 - 2 DIMMs
• 80GB Ultra ATA drive
• AirPort Extreme Card
• Bluetooth Module + Apple Wireless Keyboard & Mouse + Mac OS - U.S. English
• 1.25GHz PowerPC G4
• Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW)
Subtotal $1,156.00

Mac mini
• 1GB DDR333 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
• 80GB Ultra ATA drive
• Combo Drive
• Internal Bluetooth + AirPort Extreme Card
• Wireless Keyboard & Mouse Set - U.S. English
• 56K v.92 Modem
• Mac OS X - U.S. English
• 1.25GHz PowerPC G4
Subtotal $1,004.00

(well $150 difference, but surely a 17" CRT costs more than that?)

-RS
 
$150 is a reasonable price for a nice-ish 17" CRT, but they can be had for less, even for a name-brand.

Some people would say the Mini is better still since you're not 'stuck' with the eMac's display should it be faulty or you want to upgrade. The Mini does offer that added flexibility ... you can hook it up to a TV as a set-top box, or to a nice LCD to save a lot of desk space, though of course that costs more than $150. And I wouldn't discount the real appeal to many people of paying a slight premium just for its size.
 
The memory is probably what drives the price so close. Two 512 sticks are a lot cheaper then one 1GB.

Are you unspeakably terrified of opening up a computer? If not, downgrade the Mini to 256MB and buy a 1GB stick elsewhere. You'll save about $200.
 
Personally i would say go for the emac. it is much easier to expand the ram and other innards, the other thing is the mac mini uses a laptop HD, so its going to cost you a Sh** load of money to get the anything over 80. the emac comes with a monitor, which is flat, not CRT if i am correct. you will be completely set with it right out of the box, the mac mini needs a monitor.

thats just my $0.2
 
wnameth said:
Personally i would say go for the emac. it is much easier to expand the ram and other innards, the other thing is the mac mini uses a laptop HD, so its going to cost you a Sh** load of money to get the anything over 80. the emac comes with a monitor, which is flat, not CRT if i am correct. you will be completely set with it right out of the box, the mac mini needs a monitor.

thats just my $0.2
Click to expand...

"flat" but still a CRT; the emac does not have an LCD.
 
quidire said:
Am I entirely off, or are these entirely equivalent, in price and in power? (And if so, if one doesn't care about desktop size, why wouldn't one get an eMac over a Mac mini other than wanting the newer toy?)...
Click to expand...

it's all about the consumer having a choice

Apple's entry level systems are all something like 1.25GHz, 40GB HD, with a max of 1G of ram

there's a laptop, the iBook... an "all-in-one", the eMac... and a "bring-your-own", the Mac Mini

if you already have your keyboard, mouse, monitor ad stereo speakers....then get the Mini

if you don/t have those things and like the concept of an "all-in-one", the eMac is for you
 
quidire said:
Am I entirely off, or are these entirely equivalent, in price and in power? (And if so, if one doesn't care about desktop size, why wouldn't one get an eMac over a Mac mini other than wanting the newer toy?)
Click to expand...

- eMac uses full desktop spec 3.5" ATA/100 hard drive, mini uses slower laptop spec 2.5" hard drive
- eMac has 8x Superdrive, mini has 4x Superdrive.
- eMac has 3 USB 2.0 ports, mini has 2
- eMac has 2 FireWire 400 ports, mini has 1
- eMac has an audio-in port, mini does not
- eMac has built-in microphone, mini does not
- eMac has built-in stereo speakers, mini has only mono speaker

So apart from the blatantly obvious things (like form factor, display flexibility, price), there are quite a few differences between the two systems.

(Edit: A few other things I just thought of. The eMac has the hard drive and the optical drive on separate IDE channels. As far as I know (mini owners, please correct me if this is wrong), the mini has the hard drive and optical drive on the same IDE channel. This means that disk performance will be degraded on the mini if the hard drive and the optical drive are being accessed at the same time. The other thing I remembered is that the eMac can actually be expanded to 2GB of RAM, using 2 1GB DIMMs. There is a report at xlr8yourmac here: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/archives/apr04/042904.html#S17348)
 
More info for thought:
https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=1245986#post1245986

Pasted and summarized (I'm allowed since it was my post 😉 ):
"eMac has several advantages over the mini... Much more RAM friendly (2 slots, user-accessible, and cheaper to upgrade since you can keep the standard RAM and add to it, instead of having to "swap" it), faster optical drive, more ports, Mac-branded keyboard, mouse, and 17" monitor included..."

However, the two machines are really close in comparison. I should definitely say the Mac mini is MUCH smaller and MUCH lighter, which is are two important advantages if they'll be more convenient for you...
 
Woodley said:
Go with a Mac Mini. Why? They're cooler.
Click to expand...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------
and they are smaller and more portable than the eMac
 
Mac mini is cooler and would be my choice since they both share ati's 9200. I wonder how long Apple will continue Emac. Might not be very much longer till they are killed off.
 
Wise Words.

The eMac might not be with us for much longer..

or

Steve might shove a G5 under the bonnet at WWDC.

Depends how long your willing to wait, at the very least wait untill Tiger is out.
 
Seems to me that there's room in G4 specs for two more updates for the eMac.

Still, what I'd like to see Apple do is introduce a 15", cheaper LCD iMac and a sort of Super Mini that would be faster, have a 64MB graphics card, etc. It could be the sort of boutique Mini for all those who miss the Cube.

Then they could drop the eMac
 
It's mostly a form factor difference.

You might count the iBook into the equation too, since it is functionally similar to the eMac/Mac mini, though a bit more money.

Performance-wise they are all very similar.
 
I don't think you are going to get a better spec mini for a while - Apple wants to appeal to Windows Users with iPods, and they can only do that if the computer is *very* cheap.

Also, I honestly don't see why adding a G5 to an eMac would be an issue - it's got fans, and plenty of room.

Infact - I don't see why they couldn't have added a G4 processor to the original snow iMac?

I first switched to a G3 600Mhz Snow iMac, with 640 MB of RAM and 16MB video card. I have recently sold my iMac and bought a new eMac - 1.25Ghz G4 processor and 512MB of DDR Ram and a 32MB video card. I love it, I think it's great

I suppose it is up to Apple if it wants to completely eradicate CRT monitors from it's product line - after all "some" people do prefer them.

There is going to be some clash between the Mac Mini and eMac as the run at the same speeds and have the same video card. I think Apple should perhaps upgrade this G4 processor (perhaps 1.6Ghz (if it exists!)) which is still faster than the top model Mac Mini.

Converting the eMac to a G5 processor, or discontinuing the eMac will cause problems as there will be clashes between the iMac and eMac if the processor if changed to G5 (just like there was with the last G4 iMac).
Discountinuing the eMac would leave nothing for the education market. Lets put it like this: I wouldn't want to trust people with LCD iMacs in my school!
 
True, but I think most consumers think within a desktop/laptop paradigm. These things are opposites, not substitutes.

I realize many don't think that way and do see them as substitutes, but I think they are a minority.
 
It is possible that Apple plans to phase out the eMac in favor of the Mac Mini for edu sales. There are some advantages - potential low cost since "switcher" schools can use existing displays.

I'm not saying they will but the two computers are so similar in capability that it seems unlikely that they will co-exist for long. Either the eMac will go G5 (it can already be done but it has no place in Apple's lineup), or disappear, or be offered only to schools, like it was originally.
 
The big advantage of the eMac for me is the dual-monitor support. I use my emac with a 19" monitor as a second display (used the "screen-spanning doctor" applescript from http://macparts.de/ibook to enable spanning). A mini is a slower, less expandable system in every way compared to an emac - its main advantage is being small and cute.

-vga4life
 
Lord Blackadder said:
It is possible that Apple plans to phase out the eMac in favor of the Mac Mini for edu sales. There are some advantages - potential low cost since "switcher" schools can use existing displays.

I'm not saying they will but the two computers are so similar in capability that it seems unlikely that they will co-exist for long. Either the eMac will go G5 (it can already be done but it has no place in Apple's lineup), or disappear, or be offered only to schools, like it was originally.
Click to expand...
I agree with you 100%. Im sure they have a large pile of Emacs for schools but are on the way out for the consumer. I have stated it before but shipping crt"s is a pain in the arse and they really are about obsolete when you compare new Lcd performance and low power consumption. CRTs are a dinosaur. By the way iam looking again at my 17"crt studio display connected to my quicksilver now that my wife has the mini.
 
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