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

Mac Mini vs Powerbook

slipper

slipper

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Nov 19, 2003
1,563
44
OK i know the title is a no brainer but there is a twist to it. I dont need the portability of my Powerbook anymore so i was goign to sell it and buy a Mac Mini instead and connect it to my LCD television. Would a 1.42ghz Mac mini with a 2.5 to 3.5 IDE adapter and a 7200rpm 3.5" and 1gb RAM outperform my 12" Powerbook 1.5ghz 1gb (the most current revision).

And another question, can the Mac Mini utilize a 10,000rpm Raptor?
 
I'm not sure what you mean by a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter, but there's no way to put a 3.5" drive into a mini. If you want a faster drive, then you'll need to get an external firewire 400 drive that utilizes a 3.5" drive. And no, a mini cannot use a WD Raptor. (EDIT: internally, that is; you could use an external drive case)

I'd stick with the PowerBook, it's faster. You can still connect the PowerBook to your LCD television.
 
forget the mini
stick with the powerbook, it can do every thing a mini can but faster
 
I will be using an adapter to connect a 3.5" HD to the 2.5" IDE connector in the Mac mini. The harddrive will not sit in the case. Personally i highly doubt a stock 1.5Ghz Powerbook would match the speed of a 1.42Ghz Mac Mini with a 3.5" 7200rpm HD.
 
slipper said:
OK i know the title is a no brainer but there is a twist to it. I dont need the portability of my Powerbook anymore so i was goign to sell it and buy a Mac Mini instead and connect it to my LCD television. Would a 1.42ghz Mac mini with a 2.5 to 3.5 IDE adapter and a 7200rpm 3.5" and 1gb RAM outperform my 12" Powerbook 1.5ghz 1gb (the most current revision).

And another question, can the Mac Mini utilize a 10,000rpm Raptor?
Click to expand...

Yes the mini can utilize a 10,000rpm drive. However there is no room in the MacMini for a 3.5" drive so you will need to sort out a new case for the mini/drive combination.

The MacMini will feel noticably slower since the video card in your current powerbook is significantly better than the video card in the mini. For example, on my 15" Powerbook 1.5GHz, 1.5GB RAM I have an ATI mobility 9700, 128MB graphics card. This machine runs Sims 2 smoothly at native screen resolution (1280x854) with several of the game video settings set to medium settings. My MacMini with a 1.5GHz CPU, 1GB RAM and a ATI 9200 64MB graphics card runs Sims 2 slowly with jerky zooms and jerky scrolling at 800x600 with the game video options set to the lowest levels.

Using the finder on the MacMini is about the same as using the finder on my Powerbook, Mail and Safari are also about the same. But anything that is hitting the video card hard is much, much slower.
 
Right now i have ZERO games installed on my Powerbook. Games will not be a problem. What i do mostly is Photoshopping large print files.

My Go5200 is almost the same as a Radeon 9200 except i have 64mb and the Mac Mini has 32mb. But again, i do not play games.
 
Well, that TV he's talking about isn't going to have the greatest resolution, so it's not really a big deal-especially if he gets one of the silent-upgrade minis. I say go for it, if you're absolutely sure you don't want the mobility anymore.
 
Stick with the PBook! You have a DVI connector on there and you can always hook up an external 7200 rpm drive to it! Plus! If you decide that you DO want portability ever again, you can just unhook it no problem.

EDIT: even if you don't play games, the more VRAM you have the better, especially with OSX.
 
slipper said:
I will be using an adapter to connect a 3.5" HD to the 2.5" IDE connector in the Mac mini. The harddrive will not sit in the case. Personally i highly doubt a stock 1.5Ghz Powerbook would match the speed of a 1.42Ghz Mac Mini with a 3.5" 7200rpm HD.
Click to expand...

Well, that sounds like a bit of a kludge to me, so I still say don't do it! The 7200 rpm drive will be a tiny bit faster than the powerbook's drive (probably an 80gb 5400rpm?), but the powerbook is still faster in every other area than a mini. I suspect you'll be disappointed if you decide to go with the mini.
 
There is this "hardware-photoshop-test"-thread. The results of the PB were slightly better than the one of the Mac Mini. Correct me, if I'm wrong.

Thread
 
aquajet said:
The 7200 rpm drive will be a tiny bit faster than the powerbook's drive
Click to expand...
seriously, where did you get that information?

On a side note please stop referring to the 3.5" HD and it not fitting into the case. I dont care if it fits into the case, i dont mind seeing a bare HD on the side of a bare Mac Mini with no top cover, i dont care how it looks, i dont care if in disecting a perfectly fine brand new mac. What i care about is performance. Back to the topic.
 
slipper said:
I will be using an adapter to connect a 3.5" HD to the 2.5" IDE connector in the Mac mini. The harddrive will not sit in the case. Personally i highly doubt a stock 1.5Ghz Powerbook would match the speed of a 1.42Ghz Mac Mini with a 3.5" 7200rpm HD.
Click to expand...

If you are worried about HD speed, the go and get a hitachi 7k100 7200 RPM. I just threw one in my Powerbook as the original 5400rpm toshiba spat the dummy.

I am assuming that your PowerBook has a 4200 RPM drive. Put a 7200 in and you will definitely notice the difference.

Oh yeah, if you can afford some RAM, put some in it. I just installed 1Gb - total Ram is now 1.25 GB - into my colleagues 12 inch 1GHz. It is a totally different computer.

RAM + 7200 drive = kick a$$ PowerBook


aussie_geek
 
Slipper, it seems from your posts like you've already made a decision - why ask us? It sounds like your psyched to use the mini, so why not get it, sell the powerbook, make some cash, and be happy :)
 
Wouldn't a 3.5" hard drive use more power than the Mac mini can supply?

Also, consider that the PowerBook has a faster system bus and better graphics card, and holds 25% more RAM. Think very carefully about what you're giving up for a faster disk.
 
I will vote for the Mini.

The Powerbook really is not worthy of the word "Power". Pfft, what's so powerful about a system that is at best 10% faster than a consumer mac mini?
 
Talking about hard drive speeds what is the hard drive speed for the mini if you dont upgrade it? what about the iBook. dont mean to take away the original topic, just didnt want to start a new thread for a question that can be answered in one post! is hooking up a external 7200rpm hard drive via Firewire 400 as fast as an internal one? what about firewire 800?
 
Megatron said:
Slipper, it seems from your posts like you've already made a decision - why ask us? It sounds like your psyched to use the mini, so why not get it, sell the powerbook, make some cash, and be happy :)
Click to expand...
THANK YOU!!!!!!! Yes i have made a decision. The thread topic is asking for a knowledgable opinion or and educated guess about what would perform faster on intensive tasks such as photoshop print files.
 
Get a 7200rpm 100 gb HD for your PB, and it will outperform the mini!
jajaja, and the mini has 64 mb card right now
 
slipper said:
THANK YOU!!!!!!! Yes i have made a decision. The thread topic is asking for a knowledgable opinion or and educated guess about what would perform faster on intensive tasks such as photoshop print files.
Click to expand...

you can get more RAM in a powerbook than you can in a mini and for large photoshop files, that could occassionally be a performance issue
 
Part of the reason im considering downgrading right now is cause i would like to sell the G4 Powerbook while it still has value and purchase the Intel Powerbook when it first comes out.
 
slipper said:
Part of the reason im considering downgrading right now is cause i would like to sell the G4 Powerbook while it still has value and purchase the Intel Powerbook when it first comes out.
Click to expand...

That is good. But i suggest using an external Firewire drive. Instead of cracking open the mini. A Powerbook 12" 1.33 (4200 HD) feels much more responsive than my new 1.5 mac mini (5400 HD model). If you want to keep value that is a different issue. But powerbook is definitely faster than the mac mini. That said it takes about the same time encode a DVD -> mpeg4. iphoto and stuff load a little slower.

oh btw check the resolution of the TV if it is lower than 1280x720. Then you are going to have a tough time. Finally ping me if you are interested in a trade :D ;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back