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Just bought a mini to replace my G5!

bzollinger

bzollinger

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Aug 1, 2005
542
3
So I needed something now and couldn't bring myself to buy the super outdated MacPro, so I jumped on a refurbished 2.53GHz '09 Mini w/ 4GB RAM, and the 320GB HDD. At the same time I ordered a seagate momentus XT from NewEgg.:):D

The Mini was $589 and the hybrid HDD was $142 shipped. So for ~$731 I'll have a pretty smokin' mini that SHOULD run circles around my old G5.

My plan when the new MP comes out is to pull the momentus XT, re-install the 320GB it came w/, sell the mini, and install the hybrid in the new MP!

That ought to make the new fast MP even faster!:D

Oh, and I'll be able to recoup a little $$ from selling my G5 locally.

The best part is I don't need the HDMI, or the better graphics of the new mini (Which I think looks awesome!), so the refurb is perfect!

Another funny thing is back in the beginning of '05 when the first mini came out, I bought it as my first mac and loved it. So I sold it and spent $2200+ on the G5, now here I am buying a semi-new mini that will out pace the
G5!!:eek:
 
When I get it all setup and running next week I'll check back in to give a little report on how it runs vs. the G5.

Has anyone else here in the Mini camp switched/upgraded to a mini from a
G5? I'd like to hear your experiences!
 
i made pretty much the same change as you, just my G5 was the dual 2.3 version with 4G of RAM, but i went to the same mini you did(without the momentus tho :( ). I love the little guy! No doubt a Mac tower would be faster, but the mini is enough of a jump from the G5 i am happy. I even got the latest one for home and wub the thing to death lol.

I hope you get much use out of the mini!!!
 
Awesome good to hear another success story! Considering my G5 is slower with less ram and the mini will have the momentus xt I'm feelin pretty good.

Also today I ordered the quad interface hard drive dock from OWC with the 2tb drive. So I'll put my LR cat and all my tunes on there connected via FW800. I figure it won't get much better and it'll mesh with a MP too if/when they come out.
 
oh yeah sweet plan! To make you feel even better, we paid $799(it was still current at time of purchase) for the mini i use at work, so you got more for less money haha. I too am waiting on the new macPro but man the G5 was killing me, and then when CS5 came out I had to do something lol.

I am trying to decide how i will upgrade the latest mini i have at home now. I am thinking SSD for the Boot/App drive, a dual bay(mirrored) firewire 800 for storage and time machine for the SSD. It needs more RAM but i am torn between going for a straight 2x2 gig upgrade, or getting one 4 gig chip and adding it to one of the existing 1 gig chips for a total of 5 gig. I lose dual channel, but I think that would be OK since i can later jump to 8.
 
MikieMcBikie said:
oh yeah sweet plan! To make you feel even better, we paid $799(it was still current at time of purchase) for the mini i use at work, so you got more for less money haha. I too am waiting on the new macPro but man the G5 was killing me, and then when CS5 came out I had to do something lol.

I am trying to decide how i will upgrade the latest mini i have at home now. I am thinking SSD for the Boot/App drive, a dual bay(mirrored) firewire 800 for storage and time machine for the SSD. It needs more RAM but i am torn between going for a straight 2x2 gig upgrade, or getting one 4 gig chip and adding it to one of the existing 1 gig chips for a total of 5 gig. I lose dual channel, but I think that would be OK since i can later jump to 8.
Click to expand...

If u r going to get an MP then I'd get the momentus xt now for the mini then put it in the MP later. Cost per GB just isn't there with SSDs on my budget. Who knows when the MP will be released. By then SSDs could be triple the size for the same price! the momentus xt, a dock and a 2tb drive is the price of an SSD with 2.5tb of space with scalibilty for the MP. Besides the dock can be used with 4 different interfaces and wih any sata drive. Flexibility, future proof and scalibility is what I'm looking for.
 
I upgraded my 1.6Ghz Powermac G5 to an early 2009 Mac Mini last year. The difference in speed is astounding. The mini runs rings around the G5. I'm completely happy with it. It does everything I need in a home computer.

I'd love a Mac Pro, but I'm not made of cash, presently. Hopefully someday.
 
Some things better, others not so much, upgrades req'd for actual use

I bought the new mid-2010 Mini to replace my oh-so-long-in-the-tooth Dual 2.7 G5 PowerMac. Overall I am satisfied with mine but my real experience with it has not quite been the "It totally smokes any G5 out there" experience. Some things are faster and some are definitely slower but the prerequisite for owning a Mini should be adding plenty of ram and a faster disk.

When I start an app for the first time, it takes so long I could rewrite the code and start it up on my old PowerMac faster than the Mini. However, re-starting the app is quite snappy and this is where ample ram and a faster disk is required. My old PowerMac had raid-0 and it absolutely smoked the Mini but that isn't a fair comparison. If your budget can afford a SSD I would get it, otherwise a MomentusXT should run great for the money. An XT is what I plan to get also.

Graphics are overall better than my old 6800; video seems to run fine. In actual gaming, not by a lot. I will get flamed for saying that but that is MY experience. We are talking about 320m graphics not HD high end dedicated cards.

In light usage the Mini seems to run cool. I haven't really checked it using iPhoto or iMovie yet. Gaming gets my Mini quite warm and I have a small fan the blows across the top and reduces the temp to cooler than light usage.

Overall I like my Mini but I think 4GB or ram and a faster hard drive is a basic requirement to being happy with it.
:)
 
QuantumLo0p said:
I bought the new mid-2010 Mini to replace my oh-so-long-in-the-tooth Dual 2.7 G5 PowerMac. Overall I am satisfied with mine but my real experience with it has not quite been the "It totally smokes any G5 out there" experience. Some things are faster and some are definitely slower but the prerequisite for owning a Mini should be adding plenty of ram and a faster disk.

When I start an app for the first time, it takes so long I could rewrite the code and start it up on my old PowerMac faster than the Mini. However, re-starting the app is quite snappy and this is where ample ram and a faster disk is required. My old PowerMac had raid-0 and it absolutely smoked the Mini but that isn't a fair comparison. If your budget can afford a SSD I would get it, otherwise a MomentusXT should run great for the money. An XT is what I plan to get also.

Graphics are overall better than my old 6800; video seems to run fine. In actual gaming, not by a lot. I will get flamed for saying that but that is MY experience. We are talking about 320m graphics not HD high end dedicated cards.

In light usage the Mini seems to run cool. I haven't really checked it using iPhoto or iMovie yet. Gaming gets my Mini quite warm and I have a small fan the blows across the top and reduces the temp to cooler than light usage.

Overall I like my Mini but I think 4GB or ram and a faster hard drive is a basic requirement to being happy with it.
:)
Click to expand...

This is good to hear. I agree (without using it yet) that more RAM and a fast HDD is the way to go. I've used 15K RPM drives at home and work for the last 4-8 years and the thought of using a 5400RPM drives is ugly!

Sounds like your Power Mac was pretty beefy in it's day. Mine is quite a bit slower than the one you replaced. Most everything should be here today, so I hope to have the drive swapped out with the XT and OSX installed from scratch tonight!

When do you plan on swapping out for an XT?
 
Hopefully with in the next few weeks. I am trying to decide between 4 and 8GB or ram. There are regularly four+ users on my Mini and I was thinking I would not be sorry having more resources rather then not enough!

I really hate to plug companies but so far the best deal I've found on the XT and ram is at Newegg. Something like $124 for the XT and $229 for 8GB of ram. I think a 4GB kit was under $100.

Thanks for the nice comment on my old PowerMac. Yes, it was a beastie and it would still be in use had the memory slot solder joints not failed. Many iMac G5's claim the same power of the PowerPC's but they just weren't the same as a PowerMac. Aside from swapping a couple of things out, iMacs have zero expansion capabilities. I had a FW card and a USB card to add more expansion, rather than add hubs, and almost threw in the hdd bracket to add three more disks but I stopped at two disks. Those old PowerMacs could actually have one more drive than the new Mac Pros! That's hilarious!

Btw, after viewing this thread today I just noticed I need to update my signature with my new hardware!
 
All of these posts about upgrading from PowerMacs is making me jealous! ;)
My 2.0 DP G5 shutdown with the red temp light a few weeks ago. Now only half of my ram is being recognized! But I still don't want to let go of the machine because I like it. All this Mini talk is so tempting though......
 
I would have kept using mine had it not developed the hardware error and was able to boot up.

When I first got my PowerMac I was a power user but I just don't do as much hard crunching like I used to. I love the Mini design and had a perfectly good ACD so the decision was easy. The iMac has more power but I don't need it and I have to say I really don't care for the iMac's design; the wide bezel at the bottom of the screen. If Apple made an iMac that looked like my ACD I would've bought one, but they don't, so I didn't. :)
 
Joining the club

I too am awaiting delivery on a late 2009, 2.5 ghz refurb mini to replace an "old" G5. Seems to be more common lately primarily due to Apple not giving us any other options. Like others, I cannot afford the investment in a Mac Pro. Time you figure in adding ram and wireless to the base model, it just does not make much financial sense unless you absolutely need the power and can afford it. I think Apple could do well with a $1,500 i7 Mac Pro but forget Steve Jobs giving it to us.
 
I'm still finishing the setup of the new mini. 99% of the data has been transferred over from the G5. Last night I plucked the 1TB and 500GB drives from the ole G5:(.

So far I've been VERY impressed with the performance of the mini coupled with the momentus XT and 4GB of RAM. I haven't done any heavy lifting yet as the setup/config isn't done yet. I'm confident that when I do get into PS4 and LR2 that I'll be happy with the results.

Another tuesday has come and gone without a new Mac Pro. I'm no longer scouring the Mac Pro forums for news and rumors. I couldn't be happier that I took the plunge w/ the mini for now. Waiting on the new MP was driving me crazy!:mad: Again I'll say WTF :apple:??

If any of you are on the fence about the mini to replace a PPC, I say find a refurb. It kinda sux that you need to upgrade the HDD and have 4GB of RAM, and you only get one internal drive, but it's worth it.

I picked up the quad interface HDD dock at OWC to use the FW800 and it's smoking fast with the 2TB drive! :D
 
The Mini is a great little computer. It replaced a 2.3DC G5 that I had, traded it actually. Don't notice any difference in the normal day to day stuff. It's just so quiet and runs Windows 7 like a champ, something the G5 couldn't do lol. It was my first step into Intel.
 
I have my new (refurb) mini up and running. Pretty impressed so far. I'm actually still using my G5 as a "secondary drive". I was in the middle of a FCP edit and I did not want to mess with transferring files to an external right away. So I just setup the mini and the G5 to share files via ethernet. Works great with FCP and I may just hang onto the G5 for a little while longer because of this. The mini is very quiet with exception to the hard drive occasionally clicking. My only real beef so far are the connections in the back. The power, firewire and mini dvi connectors are rather loose and can be easily jarred if you are plugging and un-plugging cables. I wish Apple could of left a full size dvi port instead of the mini adapter which is rather bulky sticking out of the back of such a small computer.

Too bad Apple doesn't want to give us a slightly larger "mini" with expandable hard drives and i5 processors. I could care less about pci ports.
 
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