Next Gen Mac Mini OR PowerMac G5

[Theirishjoey]

Hi Guys,

I have the opportunity to buy a powermac g5 with reasonable specs (better than the current minis) and it is only £450. I was wondering if I should get this or wait for the new Mini to come out.

Extra info
The powermac has dual 1.8ghz, 3gb RAM, 700GB HDD and an ati radeon X800 gfx.

I would be using it for surfing the web, listening to music, ripping cds, watching movies, some video editting and Office computing.

I would also like to use dual monitors and run windows xp in boot camp.

This will be my first ever mac.

Can't wait to hear your thoughts!

Thanks.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Mini is a better choice almost allways. better OS, better cpu, plus Apple is walking away from PPC in future OS updates then throw in G5s poor reliability record and its a no brainer.Plus G5s cant run windows.
A better choice though would be a refurbished iMac if you will just because of the video system. Its hard to say what Mini will get gpu wise.

 

[Scarlet Fever]

i wouldn't be surprised if the Mac Mini is faster than the G5 in every regard except for graphical work.

No one knows what the specs of the next Mac Mini will be like, so if you're interested in getting the revised version, you're best to wait to see what it'll be like.

 

[Theirishjoey]

Thanks!

Thanks for the response guys I guess I'll just have to wait and see what comes up in the new mini or invest in an iMac.

 

[Benjamindaines]

I'm going to go the other way with this, I think the PowerMac is the better choice. Especially for video editing (even more so if you're going to be using FCP), I am willing to bet that the next Mini won't have FireWire which is essential for capturing DV. The poor reliability Dont Hurt Me is talking about mainly affects the Dual 2.5 and 2.0 G5s, I have never heard of any issues with a Dual 1.8 (especially if it's survived this long), it should be fine.

The expandability of the G5 is reason enough to get it (you can put pretty much as much hard drive space as you need to into it) and if you need PCI cards for your video editing (capture cards, etc.) there will be no problem adding them. The only reason to get the Mini would be to run Snow Leopard (Intel only next version of OS X).

Also, do NOT get an iMac for editing work. Especially if you are working with HD video and want to capture to an external drive (the single firewire bus and lack of option to add another or eSATA will give you dropped frames).

 

[Theirishjoey]

The only reason to get the Mini would be to run Snow Leopard (Intel only next version of OS X).

Ironically this is one of the main reasons I intend to get the new mini's! And also the fact that the g5 can't run Windows OR Snow Leopard kicks it out of the equation.

The iMac isn't much of a problem because the camera I use at the moment uses USB and my hard drive is also USB. Unfortunately I don't really have that much cash to fork over at the moment.

I guess that just leaves the Mini in the deal...unless apple releases a totally new cheap desktop machine just for snow leopard? OK, I'm just speculating now!

Thanks for answering all my questions and I can't wait to get my first mac!