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Mac Mini G4 vs PowerMac G4

MatthewLTL

MatthewLTL

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jan 22, 2015
1,684
18
Rochester, MN
I noticed that G4 Mini's are rather cheap on eBay.

Here is my question:

What is the preformance difference between the 1.25GHz Mini vs a iBook or MDD of the same speed?
 
I would suggest you check the Geekbench scores on everymac.com.

On a hunch I'd say MDD > Mini > iBook. Won't be much between the MDD and mini, but the MDD will edge it due to the 7200rpm HDD.
 
the MDD beats all due to it Having an L3 cache. an iBook G4 and mac mini of the same speed would be mostly identical since they both use 7447A CPUs with no L3 cache. I believe the MDD iBook G4 and Mac mini G4 all use the same Sound chip/card (I know it is the same on my MDD, my G5 and my ibook G4)
 
I have a 2005 mini g4 1.33. Compared to my dual 1.25 MDD, 1.42ghz iBook, and Xserve dual 1.33, it is by far the slowest. Its so slow its the only g4 I installed tiger on.

My guess is the speed problem isnt the motherboard or cpu, I think its just the hard disk it came with, a 40gig 4200rpm one, and its just really slow.
 
It does have 512kb of full speed L2 though...but even then I recall than in general 7447s were 20-30% slower on a clock for clock basis than the 7455s with L3

LightBulbFun said:
the MDD beats all due to it Having an L3 cache. an iBook G4 and mac mini of the same speed would be mostly identical since they both use 7447A CPUs with no L3 cache. I believe the MDD iBook G4 and Mac mini G4 all use the same Sound chip/card (I know it is the same on my MDD, my G5 and my ibook G4)
Click to expand...
 
Would you buy the Mini to replace your MDD.

Isn't your MDD dual processor now? So your MDD with the L3 is going to be faster....

MDD has room for improvement in every sense where the Mini does not. 4 Hard drives vs 1. PCI slots vs no PCI slots. Upgradable video cards vs built in graphics/non upgradable. Lots of ports vs a few. 2 optical drives vs 1 slow slot loading drive. Dual processor option vs single. L3 vs no L3.

The mini is smaller, quieter, and more energy efficient that's about it. The PowerMac is a pro level computer the mini is entry level.

I think your better off with a smaller number of faster computers than a larger number of slower computers. You have a ~1.25 G4 PM DP, ~1.25 eMac, and now another ~1.25 G4 desktop. It's a lot of redundancy when you could try to sell 2 of those and get something faster. Just get a G5 already and call it a day. Just know it's not practical to get a 60 pound hunk of aluminum shipped from Ireland.

Don't you owe people money?
 
Last edited:
A.Goldberg said:
Would you buy the Mini to replace your MDD.

Isn't your MDD dual processor now? So your MDD with the L3 is going to be faster....

MDD has room for improvement in every sense where the Mini does not. 4 Hard drives vs 1. PCI slots vs no PCI slots. Upgradable video cards vs built in graphics/non upgradable. Lots of ports vs a few. 2 optical drives vs 1 slow slot loading drive. Dual processor option vs single. L3 vs no L3.

The mini is smaller, quieter, and more energy efficient that's about it. The PowerMac is a pro level computer the mini is entry level.

I think your better off with a smaller number of faster computers than a larger number of slower computers. You have a ~1.25 G4 PM DP, ~1.25 eMac, and now another ~1.25 G4 desktop. It's a lot of redundancy when you could try to sell 2 of those and get something faster. Just get a G5 already and call it a day. Just know it's not practical to get a 60 pound hunk of aluminum shipped from Ireland.

Don't you owe people money?
Click to expand...

I only have a 1GHz USB 2.0 eMac and my MDD thats it. I have not actually gotten the DP card yet. And this Mini would not be to replace any Mac I have. I'd get the G4 Mini to replace the painstaking SLOW 2002 or 2003 DELL OptiPlex i am currently using for ICS. only thing that PITA about using a nearby business' wifi is the fact that the connection with a "shitdows" computer is a SLOW process. not to mention VARY unreliable. from the time of boot up its a good 10+ minutes before that damn computer shares the internet connection 5 of that is the damn thing BOOTING a pretty much slimmed down version of XP that is only like 400MB installed. the other 5 (sometimes 10) is how long it takes the damn thing to share the connection over Eathernet to the wifi router to feed the rest of the house.... Macs are faster simple as that AND Mini's make great servers.
 
MatthewLTL said:
I only have a 1GHz USB 2.0 eMac and my MDD thats it. I have not actually gotten the DP card yet. And this Mini would not be to replace any Mac I have. I'd get the G4 Mini to replace the painstaking SLOW 2002 or 2003 DELL OptiPlex i am currently using for ICS. only thing that PITA about using a nearby business' wifi is the fact that the connection with a "shitdows" computer is a SLOW process. not to mention VARY unreliable. from the time of boot up its a good 10+ minutes before that damn computer shares the internet connection 5 of that is the damn thing BOOTING a pretty much slimmed down version of XP that is only like 400MB installed. the other 5 (sometimes 10) is how long it takes the damn thing to share the connection over Eathernet to the wifi router to feed the rest of the house.... Macs are faster simple as that AND Mini's make great servers.
Click to expand...

Ugh here we ago again with the illegal internet use, I don't think you can complain too much when your not paying for it.

Anyways, the Mac Mini in that sense may be a good choice since it would be likely running 24/7 and it will consume less energy than the PM. It's also quieter and less bulky which is nice.

On the other hand, I don't believe any of the G4 Mac Mini's have gigabit ethernet but all the newer G4 PowerMacs do. I'm not entirely sure how you have everything wired but up but that could potentially be a factor of concern as Gigabit Ethernet has 10x the bandwidth.

I'm not a networking expert by any means, but this is what I think. If you just have the mini plugged straight into a wireless router then it probably won't make a difference since you're limited by slower bandwidth on either end (wireless you are stealing and your local wireless). If you also have computers wired up via ethernet in addition to the wireless, then I imagine the PowerMac would be more appropriate.

Out of curiosity, since you have two macs, both desktops, why wouldn't you just use one of them to set up internet sharing?
 
MatthewLTL said:
What exactly is the point in L3 cache?
Click to expand...

I learn about CPU Caches as a computer scientist. BASICALLY, it's a type of REALLY fast memory. L1, fastest, then L2, then L3, then RAM, then HDD. For adding 1+1=2 for example might be handled through the arithmetic logic unit, and stored in the L1 cache.

It's very small, but super fast.

In a nutshell, it's a size VS speed trade off as you go up or down the types of memory.

As has been stated, it's a complex subject. That's my basic understanding as a first year Comp Sci student :p
 
Yeah, that correct. To refine it a little cache can hold data and instructions. It's partitioned on some architectures, shared on others. If it finds the item (cache hit) that's fantastic and performance is greatly improved. If the item the CPU is looking for isn't available the small ultra fast L1 cache (cache miss) it then it checks the larger slightly slower L2 cache, then finally the L3 cache (if present) before admitting defeat and going to find it in the comparatively slow to access main memory.

A G4e typically had a 32+32kb L1 cache, a 512Kb L2 cache (on die) and up to 2MB L3 cache externally on the CPU daughtercard.

I'm assuming some basic computing knowledge. If Matthew hits reply and asks what instructions or main memory are I won't be replying. He knows where Google is, and certainly knows how to type with a keyboard.
 
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