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Upgrade CPU card, or buy Mac Mini?

MacAztec

MacAztec

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Oct 28, 2001
3,028
1
San Luis Obispo, CA
Hey there, I have a serious question. I have a PowerMac G4 500MHz (AGP Graphics), with a Radeon 8500 Pro, 768MB RAM, 80GB HD, SuperDrive, Iomega ZipDrive (Built-in).

Should I buy a CPU upgrade for the machine, a 1.2GHZ for about $260, or should I sell it, and upgrade to the Mac Mini? I could sell the video card for $120 alone, and the machine for around $400 I think. What would you do?
 
MacAztec said:
Hey there, I have a serious question. I have a PowerMac G4 500MHz (AGP Graphics), with a Radeon 8500 Pro, 768MB RAM, 80GB HD, SuperDrive, Iomega ZipDrive (Built-in).

Should I buy a CPU upgrade for the machine, a 1.2GHZ for about $260, or should I sell it, and upgrade to the Mac Mini? I could sell the video card for $120 alone, and the machine for around $400 I think. What would you do?
Click to expand...

I'd go with the Mini... if you can get $400 for the computer, and you are already to spend $260 on an upgrade CPU, you could get a 1.42ghz Mini with SD and 512mb RAM for only about $15 extra... but you're getting a faster CPU with a faster FSB, a better video card, and a new warranty. Unless there was a reason that you want to have extra upgrade room (for more internal HDs or PCI cards) seems like the mini would be a good choice in this case.

Rob

PS If you upgraded the RAM yourself you chould probably come close to even with the cost of the upgrade route.
 
You can always upgrade your G4 with the open pci slots. If it were me I might upgrade the G4 and wait a year or two for rev B of the mini or iMac.

You presently have a much faster hard drive, more flexibility to upgrade ram and you can even put a dual layer DVD in your G4. I think your existing graphics card is better. Anyone know how the radeon 8500 compares to the graphics card in the mini? You can get a radeon 9800 for $250. So for less than the price of the mini you can upgrade to essetially the same processor and get a much better graphics card.

But the mini is soooo cute :rolleyes:
 
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