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Power Mac G5 or New Mac Mini

C

canes960

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 11, 2009
326
0
Alabama
What should I go for?
A new Mac Mini 2.26 or a used Power Mac G5 dual 2.0
I have enough only for one of these.
What do you suggest?
 
No brainer...new Mac Mini. PowerPC is archaic architecture (but a perfectly functional computer) not supported by Apple's current OS. Look forward, not back.
 
I thought the Power Mac G5 Would be more powerful. I would upgrade the "guts" and replace everything (except processor and motherboard).
I will be making a Iphone/ Ipod touch/iPad app.
 
Definitely go with the mini, as has been said the PPC is outdated and will make keeping software up to date very difficult. I still have an imac G5 that I use occasionally and its running strong, but things have certainly started getting tougher. Good Luck with your decision!!
 
Short answer: if you have the parts to upgrade it already and you need it for specific purposes RIGHT NOW (like a project, or just for the next 6-12 months), the G5 might be a good option. If you plan on using it for 2-3 years or more, get the mini. Without knowing your specific needs, that would make the most sense to me (the 2X2.0gHz G5 is a great machine and in quite a few tasks will, when beefed up, run rings around the mini, but in a year you won't be able to use half the things you may need, and the mini will still be running strong).
 
My G5 runs just as fast as my Macbook Uni I had before it, its actually better in GFX department.

G5's aren't that much slower clock for clock then Core2's.

Anyway, if your going to be making Apps for the iPhone, you will need an Intel Mac anyway so get the Mini.

Cheers
 
Well If I could get a G5 Dual 2.5 for $400
It sounds like a good deal is it?
Is the G5 still a good computer?
 
canes960 said:
Well If I could get a G5 Dual 2.5 for $400
It sounds like a good deal is it?
Is the G5 still a good computer?
Click to expand...

if the person is selling it for that price i'd suggest asking about any damage, thats really cheap for a dual 2.5 even now,

but for what you want to do, get the mac mini, the app thingy* only works on intel cpu now,

* i know what i mean :p
 
Sipheren said:
My G5 runs just as fast as my Macbook Uni I had before it, its actually better in GFX department.

G5's aren't that much slower clock for clock then Core2's.
Click to expand...

Sadly, thats not true, on either count.

And what every one else said about iPhone development. Intel only.
 
Mac Mini. You plan on writing iPhone apps. The next version of the iPhone SDK or the new iPad SDK may well not support PPC Macs. Your G5 will become useless then.

EDIT: The beta of the next iPhone SDK only supports Intel Macs. In my judgement, buying a G5 at this moment in time to develop for the iPhone would be very very foolish.

EDIT 2: What the 4 posters above me said :)
 
Badger^2 said:
Sadly, thats not true, on either count.

And what every one else said about iPhone development. Intel only.
Click to expand...

It is actually, G5's were a lot faster clock for clock then Netburst architecture, they are not to far behind Core, or at least that's how I have come to understand it (reading about PPC and Intel and looking at benchmarks).

I would actually love someone to run SuperPi on there Intel Mac that's running around 1.8GHz and I'll do the same, would be an interesting comparison :)

Oh and the 9800PRO will still beat the built in 9400M on the Mini, and you can upgrade it to a 6800Ultra or something as well.



Not that it matters anyway, a G5 is a great system to have and will do pretty much everything a normal person wants, but you need to make Apps and that's only for Intel Macs.

/thread
 
Agreed. AFAIK there never was an iPhone SDK that worked with PPC (hell, only the test version of the dashboard one worked with PPC).

In general the comments on the mini simply being faster are wrong, though. In some tasks yes. In others, no. Benchmarks will tell you nothing other than the mini will process faster and the G5 will read/write faster, but in real terms there are plenty of places where the mini will win out, and PLENTY where the G5 will. But for long term purchase, yes, buy the mini, because even as a future slow machine it will still work with newer software.
 
disconap said:
Agreed. AFAIK there never was an iPhone SDK that worked with PPC (hell, only the test version of the dashboard one worked with PPC).

In general the comments on the mini simply being faster are wrong, though. In some tasks yes. In others, no. Benchmarks will tell you nothing other than the mini will process faster and the G5 will read/write faster, but in real terms there are plenty of places where the mini will win out, and PLENTY where the G5 will. But for long term purchase, yes, buy the mini, because even as a future slow machine it will still work with newer software.
Click to expand...

What are things that are faster on the G5 than the Mini?
 
For starters, anything that requires a scratch drive. I've found Photoshop CS4 to be much faster with my rig than with my partner's mini. Plus having an esata card helps tremendously, FW800 is good but never really cut it, and there are just too few externals, even now, that have true FW800 capabilities. Plus the 6GB of RAM helps out with running a large amount of windows in an app, especially InDesign where a lot of the work is actually linked visual and kept in RAM...

For audio they seem on par, the mini wins out with compressing but the G5 wins out slightly with some plug-ins and load times. For video the mini is on par or better. It's 6 of one, half dozen of the other; I see zero reason to replace my G5 with a mini, but if I was purchasing right now and only had that small a budget, I'd likely buy the mini.
 
Also note that my G5 is a 2X2.0gHz from 2003. A last gen G5 would perform much, much better, especially a quad. But again, at THIS point it's a dead technology and IMO not worth purchasing unless it is exactly what you need/will need AND you get a good price. It doesn't make much sense otherwise (especially as a server, as you can build a hackintosh ATOM server for $150 or so that will run on around 20W, while the G5s run up to 650W).

I just enjoy that 2 years ago people on here were telling me that the PPC is not worth keeping, and now 2 years later I still haven't upgraded and my workflow hasn't been negatively effected. This box definitely has earned what I paid for it. :)
 
MacMini2009 said:
Just wondering how much did you buy your G5 for?
Click to expand...

I bought it used so around $850 about 3 years ago I think. I've probably put another $800 into it (more RAM, esata card, new GPU, SSD drives, storage drives, etc.) but more than half of that was drives and they will all go into my next rig, so I definitely feel like it's earned its keep thus far...
 
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