Is the Mini already outdated?

I have a Mac mini and I'm using Tiger. The video card is only "too weak" for CoreImage, which means I miss the ripple effect. That's the only thing you will miss. Everything else (flipping, cubes and genies) show up. And the Mac mini hasn't been updated yet, so it's technically not outdated yet.

Hearsay says that the mini would be updated in the next few months though.

I would keep the LCD and get a mini. I tried the 1.25 GHz version and it smoked my 18 months old iBook G4. The iBook having more RAM a bigger HD but 50% slower CPU. The difference was much bigger than I expected...

Then if you want to upgrade later sell the mini and get the newest model later or even "upgrade" to an iMac or Power Mac... The LCD should not drop that much more if you wait for another 6 months before selling... or you could sell the 15" and get a cheap 1280x1024 17" to go with your mini...

Just remember to get at least 512 MB RAM BTO in the mini from Apple (or get it with the base 256 and get a cheaper 3rd part 1 GB chip and a putty knife if you're up for it ).

When will people realise that CorreImage is about more than the "Ripple Effect"?

Mitthrawnuruodo said:

Just remember to get at least 512 MB RAM BTO in the mini from Apple (or get it with the base 256 and get a cheaper 3rd part 1 GB chip and a putty knife if you're up for it ).

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If you get a Mac mini - I strongly second one of these two options.

MacSA said:

When will people realise that CorreImage is about more than the "Ripple Effect"?

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You are quite correct, but out of the box the most notable thing missing from the OS X experience with the mini is the lack of the ripple effect.

What are you going to be using this second machine to do? if you are just going to be doing email, web browsing, IM and light iLife I'd go with the Mac mini as it is cheap and you have a decent monitor and keyboard/mouse - this would be the cheapest Mac replacement for you. If you are looking for something with more power and/or that will be better future-proofed you should probably go with another iMac or a PM (just don't get the single-proc model, horrible value right now).

Ive got the newest iBook model with 768mb of ram and it is very sufficient at running Tiger, in fact some applications and the finder are more responsive. Sure the graphics card is not good but keep in mind most budget pc's use onboard graphic cards.

The main reason you should consider a iMac over a mini is for the G5 processor, 7200rpm hard drive and the 2 ram slots. Then the graphic card upgrade will suffice for your purposes.

Hope this helped and remember osx likes ram.