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G4 - Mac Mini vs iMac 17"

N

nater.

macrumors member
Original poster
Jul 11, 2006
92
0
Alright,

I could aquire one of the following machines:
a mac mini 1.42 1gb ram 80g hard drive

or

a imac 17" 800 768 ram 80g hard drive...


Okay, both are decent older macs.
I really like the all in one design of the imac and it's got a decent screen with it - something I don't really have...

But would the mac mini be much faster? Any opinions? I wouldn't mind it lasting a while yet too...so would the mac mini be more future proof?

Thanks a lot,
-Nate
 
Well the iMac just looks so sexy! But the mini is definitely the better of the two. If it's a second computer you're looking for than personally I would go for the iMac just because of what it is but if you need the power than the mini for sure!
 
Well, it wouldn't be mine...

It's to replace my girlfriends G4 PowerMac DA 733...Im too lazy to get it working or figure out the problem...

So I have the choice of the imac or mac mini.

She won't use it for much - very light photoshop work and doing normal web stuff.
 
nater. said:
Well, it wouldn't be mine...

It's to replace my girlfriends G4 PowerMac DA 733...Im too lazy to get it working or figure out the problem...

So I have the choice of the imac or mac mini.

She won't use it for much - very light photoshop work and doing normal web stuff.
Click to expand...

Well since it's for a woman I think she'd personally prefer the iMac and it should be faster than the PowerMac so it's still a speed boost of some sort.
 
Thanks for all the quick replies.

She kind of wanted the iMac just becasue she likes how it looks...good call Jasonbot.

I just wanted to make sure --

1. It would be a speed boost
2. it would handle some light photoshoping
3. Am I going to be disappointed of the speed if I coulda gone for the mac mini?

Thanks again guys.
 
nater. said:
Thanks for all the quick replies.

She kind of wanted the iMac just becasue she likes how it looks...good call Jasonbot.

I just wanted to make sure --

1. It would be a speed boost
2. it would handle some light photoshoping
3. Am I going to be disappointed of the speed if I coulda gone for the mac mini?

Thanks again guys.
Click to expand...

1. if the old Powermac was a dual processor there might be some lag, also check the OS X version on it.
2. Indeed it would
3. It might, if you are looking for speed then go for the mini. Upgrade the RAM to the max and it should fare well.
 
Jasonbot said:
1. if the old Powermac was a dual processor there might be some lag, also check the OS X version on it.
2. Indeed it would
3. It might, if you are looking for speed then go for the mini. Upgrade the RAM to the max and it should fare well.
Click to expand...

Just for some real experience with Photoshop on the G4s, I've used Photoshop (light work, a couple filters, less than 10 layers) on them and it works fine. Not extremely quick, but certainly more than workable.
 
Just curious,

What are these things worth now a days?


Ill be putting tiger on it when i get it..


The mac mini already has 1g of ram .. so it's maxed.
They have the same HD size so thats not a worry.

The iMac has only 768 ram, but I may be able to upgrade that easy/cheap.

Hmm, I really like the design to the imac but I love how small the mac mini is!

Thanks again
 
nater. said:
Just curious,

What are these things worth now a days?


Ill be putting tiger on it when i get it..


The mac mini already has 1g of ram .. so it's maxed.
They have the same HD size so thats not a worry.

The iMac has only 768 ram, but I may be able to upgrade that easy/cheap.

Hmm, I really like the design to the imac but I love how small the mac mini is!

Thanks again
Click to expand...

eBay says your specific iMac would go for around $500.

Remember, the Mac Mini is small but you do need to get a monitor for it.
 
wow 500 bucks...

Hmm cool.

Yeah, monitor wise, I have an old LCD but it's kinda junky...not very clear. How are the screens on the iMacs?
 
$500 bucks? yeah right. That imac is about 5 years old. It's cool, but you could get a low end G5 or a decent dual g4 for that money.

go for the mini, and don't pay more than ~$350.
 
Im actually not paying 500 bucks...


The deal is like 250 - 300 ish...

That a good price?

Could someone like point me in the direction of some benchmarks or something comparing the 2? It would be me decide...or if someone knows about how much faster the mini is compared to the imac.
 
Thanks!

Still though...I havent made up my mind...

Hmm, I personally like the mini - it's pretty quick and extremely small...

I dunno - I guess I'll have to talk to the ole lady about this one haha

thanks again for all the help.
 
I bet the MacMini would blow away the iMac!

Faster Processor

Faster BUS

Bigger L2 Cache

Faster (and more) RAM

Better Video Card (higher resolution)

The ONLY advanteges I can think of are the iMac has a screen, it has an extra USB and FireWire port and the hard drive is 3.5" instead of the slower 2.5" drive on the Mini...
 
Thank you Unspeaked!

That's exactly what I am thinking...

This is a tough one!

Only disadvantage is reallly, the screen...but maybe I can convince her - later I will buy a nicer display for it!

I personally like the mini all the way...

Wish me luck on this! haha
 
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