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The Powermac G4 option

B

blitzydog

macrumors member
Original poster
Apr 23, 2006
66
0
Hey guys,

So, I need a new mac. Options options options...

I want to spend less money than more - that's a definite.

Here's the question: For the price of the intel core solo mac mini ($700 CAD), I can get a pretty tricked out G4 Powermac, possibly a dual-processor. I'm just wondering.. Lets say I had a dual 1ghz Powermac... 1gb of ram. How would that compare to the core solo 1.5ghz/1gb of ram? Also, in the powermac, I'd be able to have a nice Radeon 9600/9700/9800, and I don't think the Intel GMA one compares to them (or does it?).

Some people try to shy you away from buying PowerPC macs after the intel transition, but they're still good+useful machines, no? I mean, I won't be able to dual boot, which sucks, but I can do everything else. You think Leopard will be available for PPC?

Thanks guys :)

-N
 
blitzydog said:
Hey guys,

So, I need a new mac. Options options options...

I want to spend less money than more - that's a definite.

Here's the question: For the price of the intel core solo mac mini ($700 CAD), I can get a pretty tricked out G4 Powermac, possibly a dual-processor. I'm just wondering.. Lets say I had a dual 1ghz Powermac... 1gb of ram. How would that compare to the core solo 1.5ghz/1gb of ram? Also, in the powermac, I'd be able to have a nice Radeon 9600/9700/9800, and I don't think the Intel GMA one compares to them (or does it?).

Some people try to shy you away from buying PowerPC macs after the intel transition, but they're still good+useful machines, no? I mean, I won't be able to dual boot, which sucks, but I can do everything else. You think Leopard will be available for PPC?

Thanks guys :)

-N
Click to expand...


Well, just to let you know, I have a 1.83 ghz MacBook Pro with 1.5gb of ram and the 5400rpm HD.

Before this I owned a 1.33 ghz iBook with 1.5gb of ram.

I was recently looking for a second mac to use mainly as a file server and occasionally use for web browsing and iTunes.

I picked up a Sawtooth 450mhz with 256mb of ram. I installed tiger.

The first thing I noticed was boot up took nearly 4 minutes. Performance was alright after boot up.

I think installed a 7200rpm HD to replace the stock drive.

Performance doubled, boot up was only a little behind my old iBook at this time.

I think that the powermac will definitely lag behind the mini. These new intel macs are so so so snappy.

I think spending $700 on a G4 powermac at this time would be a big mistake.

I only spent $119 on my sawtooth.
 
Rightright, interesting.

Yah, a cheap Sawtooth is not hard to get, and is inexpensive, but ultimately not powerful enough for me.

To be honest, the high price for G4 powermacs confuses me a little, but we all know Apple gear doesn't devalue as quickly as a Dell would.

Right now I'm using a first-gen G4 iBook (800mhz/256k L2/640mb ram) and I can safely say it's definitely not fast enough for me (but is one hell of a cute mobile machine).
 
For the G4 would you plan on buying it on ebay or would you be buying it from a reseller?

If you're going ebay, I think that it will pretty much depend on your upgradability needs.

If you're going through a reseller just buy the mini.

Either way the mini is going to be faster from the start.

What are you looking to do with this computer?
 
do you play any games on your mac or do anything else that would require a video card better than whats in the mini?

if not, then go with a mini as they are faster and you can upgrade the processor down the road if you want. the powermac G4 is still a worthy computer, but in raw speed it cant compete with the core duo
 
Get the mini without a doubt. They are muuuuch faster, not to mention dual-core, and the GMA graphics compared well against the 9200, and you can always buy a Merom processor from Newegg when they come out and swap it into your mini.
 
Hmmmm, well.

apunkrockmonk:
Definitely ebay. Resellers charge waaay too much. Sometimes I wonder why they're still in business - it's robbery. I plan on doing the usual activities (Web, chat, itunes, etc) as well as graphic stuff (Photoshop and Illustrator, mainly). Quick Handbrake functionality would be nice :) As for games.. not really, never been much of a gamer.. But I really do like Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory :d I'd wanna be able to play that nicely. My G4 iBook runs it quite slow, even on low settings.

jamesi:
As I said above, playing ET would be nice. And btw, the core duo is a little too expensive, I think - I'm leaning towards the solo.

Mikemodena: Well, if the GMA compares well to the 9200, that's nice.. but the 9200 in my laptop doesnt run ET well.. Hmm, but I have a 9200 SE 128mb in my 800mhz P3 and it runs ET fantastically.. I've always wondered why. To be honest, sometimes I feel my 800mhz Dell is faster than my 800mhz G4 ibook.
 
blitzydog said:
Hmmmm, well.

apunkrockmonk:
Definitely ebay. Resellers charge waaay too much. Sometimes I wonder why they're still in business - it's robbery. I plan on doing the usual activities (Web, chat, itunes, etc) as well as graphic stuff (Photoshop and Illustrator, mainly). Quick Handbrake functionality would be nice :) As for games.. not really, never been much of a gamer.. But I really do like Return to Castle Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory :d I'd wanna be able to play that nicely. My G4 iBook runs it quite slow, even on low settings.

jamesi:
As I said above, playing ET would be nice. And btw, the core duo is a little too expensive, I think - I'm leaning towards the solo.

Mikemodena: Well, if the GMA compares well to the 9200, that's nice.. but the 9200 in my laptop doesnt run ET well.. Hmm, but I have a 9200 SE 128mb in my 800mhz P3 and it runs ET fantastically.. I've always wondered why. To be honest, sometimes I feel my 800mhz Dell is faster than my 800mhz G4 ibook.
Click to expand...

if you get a mini, go with the single core b/c you can buy a faster core duo chip off of newegg for a whole lot cheaper than apple offers.
 
I think the mini is the way to go dude.

Also take into account that the mini is small and quiet.

A lot of the later G4 towers were loud. I don't know if that matters to you.
 
Don't waste your money on an old powermac. The machine is already outdated.

I stay away from used computers in general, they lose so much value their first 6 months.
 
mikemodena said:
and you can always buy a Merom processor from Newegg when they come out and swap it into your mini.
Click to expand...

Would this work with the MacBook Pros also? Want to get one and was worried about obselescence when Merom comes out ...
 
jamesi said:
if you get a mini, go with the single core b/c you can buy a faster core duo chip off of newegg for a whole lot cheaper than apple offers.
Click to expand...

I just bought a Mac mini Core Duo; I like my warranty and hand installing an aftermarket chip into a non-tower computer...

I might after the warranty runs out; in a year this will be a hobby machine anyway, but really, $200 isn't much to go from 1 to 2 cores...
 
jamesi said:
btw, your 800 mhz dell should be faster than the G4 inside your ibook
Click to expand...

No, it shouldn't. The G4 processor is definitely superior to Pentium 3's even in non-Altivec tasks; the Pentium 3 in his Dell shouldn't stack up well if it were just the processors being compared.
 
blitzydog said:
Rightright, interesting.

Yah, a cheap Sawtooth is not hard to get, and is inexpensive, but ultimately not powerful enough for me.

To be honest, the high price for G4 powermacs confuses me a little, but we all know Apple gear doesn't devalue as quickly as a Dell would.

Right now I'm using a first-gen G4 iBook (800mhz/256k L2/640mb ram) and I can safely say it's definitely not fast enough for me (but is one hell of a cute mobile machine).
Click to expand...

The benefit to the Sawtooth is that, unlike the rest of the G4 Powermac line, you can go up to 2gigs of RAM in it, which makes a huge difference.

I run most of my intensive stuff off a Sawtooth (modded a bit, see my sig). I am very happy with it, and have skipped the G5 line and will probably skip this and the next Intel lines.
 
blitzydog said:
Hey guys,

So, I need a new mac. Options options options...

I want to spend less money than more - that's a definite.

Here's the question: For the price of the intel core solo mac mini ($700 CAD), I can get a pretty tricked out G4 Powermac, possibly a dual-processor. I'm just wondering.. Lets say I had a dual 1ghz Powermac... 1gb of ram. How would that compare to the core solo 1.5ghz/1gb of ram? Also, in the powermac, I'd be able to have a nice Radeon 9600/9700/9800, and I don't think the Intel GMA one compares to them (or does it?).

Some people try to shy you away from buying PowerPC macs after the intel transition, but they're still good+useful machines, no? I mean, I won't be able to dual boot, which sucks, but I can do everything else. You think Leopard will be available for PPC?

Thanks guys :)

-N
Click to expand...

Do you you plan on using this machine for gaming?

If the answer is "no", go for the Core Solo mini, an awesome machine. Upgrade it to at least 1Gb however.
 
blitzydog said:
I'd be curious to see some benchmarks.. hm
Click to expand...
You could take a look here:

http://db.xbench.com

It allows you to compare machines. Note that with any benchmark your mileage may vary, i.e. they're not really an accurate representation of how fast the machine will perform, but rather how fast the benchmarking program will run.

You can see the benchmarks for all my computers by typing "Dr_LHA" into the search box.
 
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