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Sell Powermac G5 for Intel Mini?

S

simplymuzik3

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 29, 2009
590
1
Hi, I'm thinking of selling my dual processor 1.8ghz, 1gb ram, 80gb sata hdd, powermac g5 for an intel mini. I would be looking at the last gen refurb mini.

http://store.apple.com/ca/product/FB139LL/A?mco=MjE0NDk5Mw

its only $550 CAD, and I think thats a pretty good deal. I checked out some geekbench scores, and the mini scores about 1000 higher than the g5. the only problem i have is the mini only has a 5400rpm drive in it. i plan on using it for iphone development, photoshop, and illustrator. my current g5 has a 7200 rpm drive. will there be a noticeable decrease in speed? or will it sill be a lot faster because of the intel processor, faster ram etc? Also, the mini has wifi (g) and bluetooth. I REALLY need the wifi because right now i have a wire that goes from the main floor to upstairs. I currently have BT on my powermac so theres no change for me there. Dual monitors is the only upset for me, but i think i will survive with 1 monitor. It just gets really crowded sometimes when working on iPhone apps. And dont forget about power consumption, and quietness, although i dont consider my g5 loud, since its under my desk. And a new warranty would be pretty nice as well =) I got the g5 for $400 CAD, about 3 months ago, which was a steal. I think i could sell it for about $550 and use all that money for the mini.

Please let me know what I should do! Oh, and 1 last question. The mini comes with 1gb ram, so is that 1x 1gb stick or 2x512 sticks? Thanks for your help!

EDIT: also what about going from the stock geforce fx 5200 to the integrated graphics on the mini. both are 64mb vram.
 
simplymuzik3 said:
Hi, I'm thinking of selling my dual processor 1.8ghz, 1gb ram, 80gb sata hdd, powermac g5 for an intel mini. I would be looking at the last gen refurb mini.

http://store.apple.com/ca/product/FB139LL/A?mco=MjE0NDk5Mw

its only $550 CAD, and I think thats a pretty good deal. I checked out some geekbench scores, and the mini scores about 1000 higher than the g5. the only problem i have is the mini only has a 5400rpm drive in it. i plan on using it for iphone development, photoshop, and illustrator. my current g5 has a 7200 rpm drive. will there be a noticeable decrease in speed? or will it sill be a lot faster because of the intel processor, faster ram etc? I got the g5 for $400 CAD, about 3 months ago, which was a steal. I think i could sell it for about $550 and use all that money for the mini.

Please let me know what I should do! Oh, and 1 last question. The mini comes with 1gb ram, so is that 1x 1gb stick or 2x512 sticks? Thanks for your help!

EDIT: also what about going from the stock geforce fx 5200 to the integrated graphics on the mini. both are 64mb vram.
Click to expand...

The mini sounds like a good idea for you.

I don't think that you will notice much speed decrease with the slower HDD, but you can always change it out if you like.

You may be able to sell the PM for ~$1000 CAD, and then if you pop in a bit more money, get an iMac.

The RAM should be 2x 512 MB, DDR2.

My mini's got the integrated graphics and it does just fine, though it won't run FCS 2.
 
If you are patient you can score the current gen mini for CAD$599 on refurb. Its graphics card is 10X faster than the last gen, it uses DDR3-1066 vs DDR2-667 memory and can use up to 4GB vs 3.3GB. It supports dual monitors and has n wifi vs g in the old one. It also has an FW800 port so external disks run twice as fast. IMO, the last gen mini is no longer a good deal, even in refurb. As the previous poster mentioned, a little more and you could get an iMac.
 
flopticalcube said:
If you are patient you can score the current gen mini for CAD$599 on refurb. Its graphics card is 10X faster than the last gen, it uses DDR3-1066 vs DDR2-667 memory and can use up to 4GB vs 3.3GB. It supports dual monitors and has n wifi vs g in the old one. It also has an FW800 port so external disks run twice as fast. IMO, the last gen mini is no longer a good deal, even in refurb. As the previous poster mentioned, a little more and you could get an iMac.
Click to expand...

when do you think the current mini will go to the refub store? if it was there by now, then I would get that if it was less than 600 CAD.
 
Shake 'n' Bake said:
The mini sounds like a good idea for you.

I don't think that you will notice much speed decrease with the slower HDD, but you can always change it out if you like.

You may be able to sell the PM for ~$1000 CAD, and then if you pop in a bit more money, get an iMac.

The RAM should be 2x 512 MB, DDR2.

My mini's got the integrated graphics and it does just fine, though it won't run FCS 2.
Click to expand...
thanks for your help! so will FCE work on it? i want at least final cut express and maybe adobe AE. Also are you 100% sure about the ram being 2x512? i though i herd from someone that it was 1x1gb?
 
flopticalcube said:
If you are patient you can score the current gen mini for CAD$599 on refurb. Its graphics card is 10X faster than the last gen, it uses DDR3-1066 vs DDR2-667 memory and can use up to 4GB vs 3.3GB. It supports dual monitors and has n wifi vs g in the old one. It also has an FW800 port so external disks run twice as fast. IMO, the last gen mini is no longer a good deal, even in refurb. As the previous poster mentioned, a little more and you could get an iMac.
Click to expand...

+1.

The 2009 is a good update the mini. I am very happy.
 
Is the mini better than the G5? What are the pros and cons? I've got a G5 tower, but if the new mini is really more powerful i may switch too....
 
masterjedi73 said:
Is the mini better than the G5? What are the pros and cons? I've got a G5 tower, but if the new mini is really more powerful i may switch too....
Click to expand...

A new Mac Mini is significantly more powerful than the G5 listed in your sig. You're talking something like at least 50% faster at a guesstimate. Get a base spec new Mac Mini (upgrade it to the 2.16GHz processor if you want) and then buy 4GB of RAM from somewhere like Crucial and get a 7200rpm 500gb 2.5" Seagate drive from somewhere like Newegg and you'll be absolutely laughing. Installing the RAM and hard drive really isn't very hard at all.

Go and download and run Xbench and see what it says.

The results from my 2009 2.0GHz Mac Mini which has been upgraded to 4GB of RAM and has a 250gb 7200rpm drive in are as follows:

Picture 18.png

If you put in a 500gb 7200rpm drive then it would be even faster, of course, but mine's mainly a media streamer and so I just put in the hard drive that originally came in my MacBook Pro. My score would probably also be higher but I ran it over Screen Sharing since I couldn't be bothered to go upstairs and turn the TV on. :eek:
 
masterjedi73 said:
wow. i just ran that. i didn't know it existed.

wow.
Click to expand...

What were your results? Its not the best benchmarking tool but it can give you a rough idea. A better way to compare would be to do a photoshop benchmark if you mainly do photoshop work or an iMovie encode if you mainly do video work etc. Still, I'd be willing to bet that a Mac Mini would be faster for you in nearly everything.
 
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