01-21-2007, 11:23 PM

My girlfriend's PC is getting pretty outdated and it's time she got a new machine. Her birthday is coming up and i'd like to try to pick something up for her. I'm debating weather I should be looking around at PC's, or if a low end/refurbished Mac would fit the bill.

She basically uses her computer for web browsing, and listening to music. Right now she has XP on her machine without much more than iTunes and the usual Windows software and it's more than enough. She has no need for a blazing fast computer, though i'd say minimum of 40GB HD, so she can store some music on the thing. I'm kind of on a limited budget for a few reasons and i'd like to keep it under $500, $600 tops (I know, I know, but think about it...that's still a pretty big birthday gift tag! ).

I guess have a few options:
-Get a new Mini 1.66 CD, 512MB, 60GB (Macconnection has them for $579 after rebate).
-Get a refurb Mini for a bit cheaper, maybe even find a 1.83 at the apple store.
-Get a refurb Power mac G4 (there seems to be a number of different versions floating around).
-Get another PC. For instance, I bought a Dell about a year and a half ago, NIB on eBay. Celeron 2.4GHz, 512MB, 40GB HD, for about $300. I'm sure I could find something comparable, or even a bit better in that ballpark.
-Give her a gift certificate to the Apple store and let her kick in the rest to get something better.

How expandable are the Minis? Seems like they only have one RAM slot, true? How do the G4 processors compare with the Mini's CD, or a 2GHz+ PC if she's pretty much going to be using Firefox, iTunes, and maybe an instant messenger program 90% of the time?

I just bought her a brand new 17" flat panel for christmas, so no worries about a monitor (thought that also means an iMac would make the new monitor obsolete). She does have an iPod configured for the PC though.

Any suggestions?

-Nick

01-21-2007, 11:25 PM

Oh...BTW, her current machine is a Dell with a P3...1.25GHz if I remember correctly. 128MB RAM...but she has an 80GB hard drive in the thing. If my budget really isn't going to cut it for something that will be decent, would it make more sense to swap out the processor and upgrade the RAM?

-Nick

01-21-2007, 11:26 PM

Get the mini, for now, and then for your anniversary get her a ram upgrade and something not computer related to go with it.

01-21-2007, 11:32 PM

Check the apple.com for a refurbished 1.83 mini. I've got a 1.83 with 512MB RAM, 80GB HDD, and a SuperDrive. My only complaint as far as performance is concerned is with RAM. I do a lot of Photoshop work, and I have to shut down everything else to apply filters with any reasonable speed. As far as day to day use, the Mini will do fine, but a Mac is best with at least 1GB RAM, but that could wait for a while if it has to.