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tanveer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jan 2, 2010
10
0
i have the chance to swap my new mac mini its 1 week old for a 2005 powermac with 250gb hd 2gb ram and g5 duo core processor would this be a faster computer than my new mac mini with 4gb ram 2.53ghz processor and 320gb hd..

cheers guys
 
No- it won't be faster- well, it will burn discs faster because of the faster superdrive, but that's it. I have that G5 and it's great, but unless you really need a tower, stick with the Mini.
 
the only reason i was considering the g5 was because i can upgrade it alot more than the mini...
 
the only reason i was considering the g5 was because i can upgrade it alot more than the mini...

The only thing you can upgrade it with is outdated technology. If it was a Quad G5, it might a bit different, but the G5 is dead (unfortunately). Stick with the Mini.
 
The advantages of the G5 are still big for me and I own both.

The G5 runs my 30" Cinema Display no problem, is just as fast as the mini, etc. Easily swappable and upgradable, the G5s are still a bargain. Snow leopard is unnecessary for me and I have it but have not even put it on my Mini.

I dislike the hassle of having to buy the Firewire 800 to 400 plug, the Dual Link Mini Display Port adapter, etc for the mini.

Really the only advantage for me with the mini is saving desk space.
 
The PowerMac should be able to have a good graphics card.

How much RAM can you put in?

Is the mini faster? If yes, don't swap.
 
The G5 runs my 30" Cinema Display no problem, is just as fast as the mini, etc.

Honestly? Hard to believe.

I had a G5 myself (last generation, 2GHz DualCore, 8GB Ram) and that thing was sloooooow. No way it could compete with an Intel Core2Duo. The biggest bottleneck of the G5 is its CPU. My two cores were almost all the time on 100%, even without doing anything that would require much power.

DON'T swap a current gen Mini for a five! year old computer unless you need more than two displays. That's the only reason I could think of were a G5 could still outcompete a current gen Mini.
Even as a server the Mini would do better.
 
Then use its DVI port.

The DVI port (mini-DVI) on the Mini doesn't support the native resolution of the 30" ACD. S/He'd be stuck using the craptacular dual-link DVI to MDP adaptor.

The PowerMac should be able to have a good graphics card.

Not necessarily. It depends on which 2005 version it is. The first version of 2005 had an AGP slot, not a PCI-E slot. Based on recent experience with this issue in the PC world, one will likely have trouble finding recent generation cards built for AGP, especially when you add in the need for Mac compatibility.

Here's another vote to stick with the Mini. For me, the weakest point in the mini is the 2.5" drive. Swap in an SSD, attach your storage drives via FW800, and you'll be in heaven.
 
Mini. I own a 2.5 Quad and prefer it over the Mini, but I got a chance to go to the AIS today; g/f was showing me around and the only available lab had 2.0 duals. Hearing the fans rev up when changing web pages was disappointing (though, if it matters, didn't get a chance to see the amount of RAM they had in them, or if the HD was anything bad, too). Just a thought, since on mine I don't have these problems.
 
Performance wise, any Intel Mac will kick the living hell out of the fastest PPC Mac. But if you want to expand, the Power Mac has more expansion slots, but there isn't much you can upgrade or expand on a 5 year old machine.
 
All the answers to all your questions shall be REVEALED!!! (okay, maybe not, but I can give you a link that'll tell you pretty definitively which Mac will be faster.)

http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/mac-benchmarks/


Mac mini (Early 2009) Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 2.26 GHz (2 cores) = 3019

Power Mac G5 (June 2004) PowerPC G5 (970FX) 2.7 GHz (2 cores) = 2263
 
A 2005, obsolete hardware item for a new Mac Mini? Considering more and more software is going to require newer versions of the OS, I would stick with the mini.

We have a dual 2.3 G5 PowerMac right now and it does what we need. But I would not consider trading newer hardware for older hardware.

Think about it for a moment. The G5 is 5 years old. If something goes wrong it will be more difficult to find replacement parts for a PPC system. There is nothing wrong with the mini, other than it cannot be easily upgraded.

If it were me, I'd keep the mini.

i have the chance to swap my new mac mini its 1 week old for a 2005 powermac with 250gb hd 2gb ram and g5 duo core processor would this be a faster computer than my new mac mini with 4gb ram 2.53ghz processor and 320gb hd..

cheers guys
 
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