MacPro G5 or Mac Mini

[lhoffstadt]

Hi all, I want to ask for your advice on buying a desktop Mac.
What I want to do is to run Mavericks and also be able to used Autocad, Photoshop, etc.
Maybe the graphics cards in the MacPro G5 is old and I can increase the DIMM but I will want to ask for your opinion and recommendation on which would be best, is the G5 to old and I will spend more money buying parts?

Please help me on this, thanks.

I have two options.

MacPro G5 (1.1)
-2 x Intel Xeon 5150 Woodcrest 2.66GHz 4MB L2 Cache LGA771 40W Dual-Core Xeon
-8Gb RAM comprising of 8x 1GB
-1 x 250Gb HDD
-SuperDrive DVD RW
-Nvida GeForce 7300GT DVI dual head graphics card

or

Mac Mini

Macmini4,1 - A1347
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
3 MB on-chip L2
4 GB (2 × 2 GB) 1066 MHz
Nvidia GeForce 320M
1 TB 5400 rpm SATA HDD

 

[lhoffstadt]

for what a I read, with this card I can run Mavericks

http://www.ebay.com/itm/nVidia-Gefo...raphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item3a990d5eab

any idea if this really works?

 

[MacVidCards]

for what a I read, with this card I can run Mavericks

http://www.ebay.com/itm/nVidia-Gefo...raphics_Video_TV_Cards_TW&hash=item3a990d5eab

any idea if this really works?

Time for more research

That is NOT a G5, and if you are considering G5s or buy one you will be sorely disappointed. This is worth looking into before dropping $$$

 

[lhoffstadt]

Sorry, Mac pro 1.1 is the correct name?

 

[lhoffstadt]

Time for more research

That is NOT a G5, and if you are considering G5s or buy one you will be sorely disappointed. This is worth looking into before dropping $$$

you are correct, is not a G5, is a Mac Pro 1.1.
Based on your experience what do you think it would be best?
1.1 or the Mac mini?

thanks

 

[NOTNlCE]

I wouldn't buy either, to be quite honest. Unless you are literally constrained to these two machines, I would look into getting a Mac Pro 4,1 for your type of work. However, if you must choose between these two, I think the Mac Pro 1,1 will be much better than Mini, by far. Plus the Mac Pro can be upgraded to an 8 core, use better graphics cards, and take much more memory. But still, both machines are less than optimal if you're doing serious Autocad and Photoshop work. Perhaps you can provide more details? What is your budget? How heavy is your workload? What are you currently using?

 

[rei101]

The Mac Pro, but that model is from 2006. Mine is from 2008 and is around $400. Yours should be like... $100?

An Auto Cad will run soooo slow! It will take for ever!!! Like any good render will take at least a week.

 

[lhoffstadt]

hi, Im from Chile and here the price are expensive, the Mac Pro 1.1 is about 500 USD and for the Mac mini around 440 USD.
I know that for the Mac Pro I will have to spend another 150 USD to upgrade to a Radeon HD 5770 1GB.
Im not really a heavy user for photoshop or autocad, but this are my only two options due to my budget.

Thanks for the help

 

[lowendlinux]

Mac Pro because the hackery to get it to run the lastest OS just requires time. The new MM is completely non-upradeable, but faster and will have a warranty.

 

[NOTNlCE]

hi, Im from Chile and here the price are expensive, the Mac Pro 1.1 is about 500 USD and for the Mac mini around 440 USD.
I know that for the Mac Pro I will have to spend another 150 USD to upgrade to a Radeon HD 5770 1GB.
Im not really a heavy user for photoshop or autocad, but this are my only two options due to my budget.

Thanks for the help

The Mac Pro is a better selection, then. You can eventually throw 8 cores in it, it will run the latest OS, you can use multiple hard drives internally, it will take more memory, and has an upgradable video card, as you have stated. It may be less than ideal, but it will be worlds better than the mini.