Mac Mini to replace vintage G4 MDD ??

[AlexMaximus]

Dear guys,

I am usually on the PowerMac / Mac Pro section all the time, but here I have a question for you:
I still have my old school PowerMac G4. But now I am running out of options and think about to buy a new Mac Mini. However I have heard that the mini doesn't really work for new games. How about "older" ones?
I have Windows games such as the Tiberium Wars and the Add on. I also would love to play Fallout3 on boot camp. Would that be too much for it, considering a maximum configuration of the mini.
Regarding a faster HD, I personally wouldn't like to open the mini. However I have seen the mini stack V3 on OWC. Going for a large 1 gig drive for booting, would that speed up things a little bit, or would I need a WD Raptor in it to make those games possible ??

Thanks guys for your feedback

 

[stridemat]

Not sure about specific games, but its not the hard drive which is the deciding factor for playing games its the Graphics card.

The one in the mini is a NVIDIA GeForce 9400M (if you get a new one, and not a refurb) A general rule of thumb would be games made in 2008 and before.

 

[JamesGorman]

The 9400M is a great chip that people generally underestimate. With my 9400 I can play games such as WOW, or Cod4 at medium-high settings with decent FPS. You should be fine with this card.

 

[300D]

A Mini will be much faster than your G4. If the HD is a worry, get an SSD.

 

[QuantumLo0p]

A Mini will be much faster than your G4. If the HD is a worry, get an SSD.

I second that. It's up to you if want to open a mini to install a drive but the performance gains can be impressive. I have friends who use SSD's and they love them. Boot times are much shorter as well as program launching and file copying and transferring. You will still need ample ram. Don't buy an early SSD as there were some problems with them.

You won't be able to play Crysis on high but I've hear WoW, and the like, run just fine. Should work much better than the 6800 in my old Powermac!

At this point in my computing needs I don't need a Pro and I really, REALLY am not an iMac fan. IMO my 23" ACD still looks great and I can imagine a Mini hanging off the back out of sight. Probably my biggest hangup with the iMac is the bezel width at the bottom looks so wrong and flat out ugly to me. I can't bring myself buy something I feel that way about.