Mac Mini: Worth it?

I'm really wanting to get into the world of Macs. My only mac that I've owned was an iBook that I was sort of happy with (not enough speed and the OS actual looks didn't do much for me.)

I'm really tired of my desktop computer having problems. All I use it for is downloading music/movies, syncing iPod(s), surfing web, doing homework. Thats it. So I figured I'd check on eBay for Mac Minis, and they're fairly cheap.

Would it do me any good to get a G4 Mini, upgrade it to 2GB RAM or whatever the max is (its 1.42GhZ) and use that instead of my faster PC? Or will it do more harm than good?

Also, will the processor be able to handle even a Youtube video? My iBook didn't and its a really big no if it doesn't.

I've got a mac mini
Its an intel dual core 1.83GHZ 1GB of ram

Handles youtube videos just fine.

More apropos to the OP, I got into the world of Mac with a G4 Mini. I upgraded it to 1 gig, but still have my wife's 1.42GHz G4 with 512MB RAM. My original 1.2GHz Mini went to my parents to get them to the light side.

Not only did it handle YouTube videos just fine, it's currently serving as my media center to play videos downloaded from, uh, the other iTunes Store and hooked up to a 37" HDTV for video/DVD/iTunes with nary a hiccup. Plays a pretty okay game of UT2004 as well.

It has also served for those few times I've had to take my Macbook in for service. Even used it as a test bed to do a Leopard upgrade.

An intel would kick the proverbial behind, but a G4 works just fine.

I've got a mac mini 1.8GHZ upgraded to 2GB of ram. It's amazing, runs everything soo smothly.

I highly recomend them, but I would say go with Core 2 rather than G4

I replaced my older Athlon XP 2.0GHZ desktop with 1GB of RAM with a Powermac G4 that had Dual 533's and 896MB RAM. Seriously, I couldn't see much of a difference, it was still a pretty dang fast machine. You'll be fine with a 1.42GHZ G4 and 1G of RAM.

mac mini's are nice i would say ya you should get one but they are really ment to be portable full desktops imo. i recently got a macbook with 2.1GHz, 2GB of ram

and its pretty fast lol sorry it enter

A G4 Mini will only take ONE PC2700 DDR DIMM of 1GB. It will not take 2GB RAM.

Profile: Mac mini (Late 2005)

Even my 1.25Ghz Mini did You Tube videos very smooth. That was with Tiger though and not leopard. My 1.5Ghz G4 Mini works fine with Leopard and You Tube videos.

I would still suggest getting at least a used 1.66 Intel Core Duo mini though as it's so much faster and will run the newer apps that will be Intel only.