Mac Mini vs. the Cube

[Sun Baked]

I don't think it will be customizable as the cube.

One reason everything is soldered on to the logic board, so you can't upgrade the cpu you have to upgrade the entire logic board

The cube was more akin to a PowerMac stuffed in a tiny Kleenex Box -- not only the chipset, but the CPU and video cards included.

The Mini is a lot more like a repackaged iBook.

Couldn't really expect them to bring back the old cube, since Apple killed the last G4 PowerMac-based machine when they revamped the eMac in the last round (on 4/2004) and switched to the G4 consumer chipset.

 

[maya]

The Mini is a lot more like a repackaged iBook.

I believe I already stated that waaay before MWSF 2005.

Look at the cost alone for the iBook 12" and the eMac. Strip both of them down and mix the internals and you have Mac mini. The cost is not too much to produce since Apple already buys these components in bulk for the other line(s).

 

[QCassidy352]

i'll stick to my cube due to the fact that i can upgrade it to be much much faster than the new mini mac, www.powerlogix.com dual 1.7GHz upgrades

Yes, but you're still on the same 100 mhz bus that you always were. AND, that little upgrade will cost you $729. The cubes were great for their time, but upgrading them in an attempt to keep pace with newer macs is not only futile, it's so expensive that you're practically to a new mac by the time you're done (this upgrades alone costs a lot more than a mac mini, though the cube will be considerably faster).

 

[Lord Blackadder]

Advantage: Cube.

Costs aside, the Cube can accept G4 upgrades as previously pointed out, as well as Radeon 9800 video cards (with a little modding). For the upgrade junkie, the cube wins.

The Mac mini is cheaper than a USED cube(!), faster, and comes with new software. However it is impossible to upgrade since the CPU and GPU are soldered on to the logic board.

What the Mac mini MAY do is kill the used prices on cubes, which is good for those of us who want one .

 

[panphage]

and I was simply listing hard drive speeds since maybe you weren't aware of the various speeds that exist. I don't see any evidence of 5200RPM eMac anywhere. Tyler

The drive speed was a typo, and it was MY typo, not maya's. Sorry for the confusion.

However, I'm sure now it's a 2.5 drive. A 3.5 drive is 5.75" long and 1" high. Doesn't leave a lot of room for anything else (including the "tiny little fan" or airflow). Plus macintouch asserts a 2.5" drive.

I'm a cubeowner, and I'm sorely tempted by the mini but I don't know why. I've got a gig of memory and a 120GB HDD. I could, if I chose, get a much better video card than the Rage 128 I've got now and finally get quartz extreme. I could, if I chose, get a dual 1.7 G4. Of course, by the time I've spend that money, I could have gotten a G5 tower.

 

[TyleRomeo]

The drive speed was a typo, and it was MY typo, not maya's. Sorry for the confusion.

However, I'm sure now it's a 2.5 drive. A 3.5 drive is 5.75" long and 1" high. Doesn't leave a lot of room for anything else (including the "tiny little fan" or airflow). Plus macintouch asserts a 2.5" drive.

Yeah I called apple today to find out about the drives. The sales guy had no clue but one of his technicians said it's a 4200 RPM drive. Which then the sales guy should have figured that its a 2.5 inch drive. So if the 40GB is 2.5 inch 4.2K and the upgrade is $50 to an 80GB 2.5 inch 4.2K then apple is hardly making a penny by giving customers the option to upgrade the drives they install for basically no profit. I don't get it. Apple is smarter than that.

Tyler

 

[Mord]

Yes, but you're still on the same 100 mhz bus that you always were. AND, that little upgrade will cost you $729. The cubes were great for their time, but upgrading them in an attempt to keep pace with newer macs is not only futile, it's so expensive that you're practically to a new mac by the time you're done (this upgrades alone costs a lot more than a mac mini, though the cube will be considerably faster).

the bus dose not make much of a difference testing a 133MHz bus overclock on a cube it only yeilds a 3% boost.

upgrades i'm going to buy

memory: 1x 512MB dimm £40
new graphics card radeon 9700 pro £80 (buying one of a cubeowner mod)
new cpu: £400 dual 1.7GHz powerlogix

for that i get a mac that is quieter faster and cooler looking


the mini has a 2.5" HD so it will be slower.

it's cost effective for me to upgrade my cube compared to getting a 1.8GHz g5 (which even a dual 1.5GHz g4 is faster than for most things, a dual 1.8 would be closer to the dual 1.7)

now lets see the price of single g5 which is slower cpu wise.

now a g5 is about £1,200 to be nearly equaly speced (still slower as it's a single and the 9700 is faster than the 9600xt) comared to my cube upgrade cost of £520 plus the £300 the cube i will be doing all this too cost so that is £820 plus the fun i will have putting it together.

i'd go with the cube any day of the week over the g5 even if they were the same price.

comapreing an upgraded cube to the mini is even worse.

cpu upgrade £200 to 1.4GHz to match the the £400 mini.
ram no change as the mini has less than that of my cube
gpu i have a radeon 8500 in there currently that cost me £20
HD 80GB HD's cost about £45

so that is £265 sunk into a cube to make it faster than a mac mini.

no one can mess with my cubes, i will only get a g5 when my cubes are maxed out with dual 2.5GHz 7448B's and radeon 9800 pro's and 500GB HD's.

(if you going to whine about the lack of ddr the g4 dose not support it so it go's to waste on newer macs, the comaprison between a dual 1.5GHz g4 and a single 1.8 was on an imac g5 (the cube had a geforce 2mx) and was done by the mod of www.cubeowner.com on video encodeing.)

it's plain fact that it's worth my while to keep my cubes going for a while yet