Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

joecool85

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 9, 2005
1,355
4
Maine
If the mac mini ever gets to:
- 1.7/1.8ghz or so
- 5400rpm drive or better
AND
- 64mb graphics card or better

If those three things don't happen I just can't buy one...I really need it to work PS and illustrator. Granted it would kill my current PB. It has twice the amount of L2 cache as my rev a has, and the same speed hd...and my pb stops at 640 ram as opposed to 1gb. But even so, I won't bother buying unless those three things happen, and man would it kick ass if it did.
 
ha, when do you plan on seeing this?

At 1.7 GHz you might have to wait until the mini is a G5 which probably won't happen until the PowerMac line goes dual core....which means it won't happen until 2006 at the earliest.

D
 
So what are you running PS and Illustrator on now? I run them on a 1GHz G4 PB, and while not blazing, works fine for the majority of tasks.

The mini as it stands would work fine. If you really need power, move to a G5 iMac or a PowerMac - the extra few hundred MHz you're talking about would be negligible in terms of performance.
 
I'm running it on my rev a PB. I know the mini would be faster than that, its just a matter of I don't keep buying machines. I've had this (PB) for almost 2 years and plan on keeping it, I just want a machine to do stuff on (like PS) thats a little faster, not so much for now, but for the next couple years. I'll be in college for another 3 years and I don't want to buy more than one more system...maybe two if I really need it. But the thing is, this is a want not a need. And I won't bother buying it unless it can meet what I want. And if I have to wait till 06, so be it...it'd be worth it. My PB has yet to let me down, it does everything I ask of it.

**edit**
btw, if they didn't update the hd, I could always swap one in. You can get a 40gb 5400rpm drive for like $100 or so.
 
I should have specified. I don't do hardcore imaging. I am a New Media major and if I need to do stuff like that, there are 5 different labs, one of which has 8 dual 2.5 PMs w/2gb of ram. I'm not worried about that. I just want to be able to do simple stuff with a couple filters and things like that. I know the mini will be able to do it because all of its ratings meet or exceed the speeds of my current PB. It's just a matter of I won't spend the money unless I can get something worth getting. To me its not worth getting right now, after it gets upgraded (whenever that will be) we'll see. I don't have the money for a PM, I'm in college and paying for it by myself.
 
I would just like to see the mini be able to compete (when fully loaded with BTO options) with the iMac...or close to it. I like the tiny case, and I like the style. There is NO reason I can think of for it to NOT have a 5400 rpm drive, thats what the rev d PBs have. Its only a couple extra bucks, and its worth the speed increase IMO. The vid card should be optional to get it to 64mb and regardless what anyone says, I still won't buy one until they can get their CPU speed to twice what my pb is (867.) So I want min. 1.7ghz out of it. Thats not too far off, and I think it can happen within a year or so. In which case, I will wait for it.
 
I can understand that you have a certain level of performance that you are looking for in a new system. Currently there is a big jump from the mini to the low end PM. The iMac's are very attractive, but do not offer the ability to be upgraded that I would like to see & I do not want an AIO that locks me into purchasing the LCD with the system.

The mini is a great system for what it is intended - but I would love to see Apple bring out a "big brother" for the mini.
 
joecool85 said:
I would just like to see the mini be able to compete (when fully loaded with BTO options) with the iMac...or close to it. I like the tiny case, and I like the style. There is NO reason I can think of for it to NOT have a 5400 rpm drive, thats what the rev d PBs have. Its only a couple extra bucks, and its worth the speed increase IMO. The vid card should be optional to get it to 64mb and regardless what anyone says, I still won't buy one until they can get their CPU speed to twice what my pb is (867.) So I want min. 1.7ghz out of it. Thats not too far off, and I think it can happen within a year or so. In which case, I will wait for it.


If Mini ever compete with iMac, Mini will simply canibalize it, and nobody, just for aesthetic matter, will buy an iMac... they are Macs focused on very different types of consumers... I'm buying my Mini this month (it will be my first Mac!).

I believe that Mini will reach this speed and setup, but, at this time, the iMac will be a lot faster than that...
 
If they only have an option to ugrade the video card to 64MB, I'd buy it right now. I'll hold out as long as I can for the next revision. Hopefully it happens within 2 months because I'll have $750.00 to spend by then...
 
No they don't, I have a rev A pb...tops out at 640 mb. If you have a link that can prove otherwise and goes against what Apple says, give it to me, I'm interested.
 
joecool85 said:
No they don't, I have a rev A pb...tops out at 640 mb. If you have a link that can prove otherwise and goes against what Apple says, give it to me, I'm interested.

I'm pretty sure Apple always goes with the minimum rated capacity. But if you have a friend with an extra module sitting around, heck, give it a shot.
 
well it has a 128mb soldered in, and one free slot, in the manual it says it will support 128,256 and 512 chips. Thats it. The logicboard just isn't made to take a 1gb. I even called the apple store and they said that "it probably wouldn't work." I dunno, if I had a 1gb chip sitting around I would try it for sure, but all myself or my gf have are a couple 256's and 512's.
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.