12" PowerBook v Mac Mini

hi folks,

first time post...and a quick question. Whilst I realise that no-one will have had their hands on the Mac Mini yet, does anyone have some thoughts on the following dilemna?

I have a PC (bored of it, but kind of a necessary evil, due to work and a horrible gaming addiction) and 12" PowerBook. I've got the LittleMac hooked up to a bluetooth keyboard and mouse and the PC monitor when it's at home, and , surprise surprise, when it comes to mail, web and general computer use, I much prefer the mac, switching it on as a preference to the PC. But, of course, this isn't an ideal solution. It's untidy, requires messing with cables and mean that the other half gets upset, because she like to use it to check her email from the living room (we're AirPort wireless round the house). So... I want to add a Mac to the family. A Mac Mini seems like a lovely solution, as it is cheap, tidy, and requires very little wiring up, but my concern is that the 12" PowerBook can chug a little when using iMovie or iPhoto and running a 1280x1024 (native) display on the monitor. Will the Mac Mini offer much of an improvement? The PowerBook is maxed out with options (bluetooth, extra RAM (768Mb), airport, etc)... I would spec the Mini to be about the same (1Gig or 512Mb).

OR

Do I go the whole fat boy hog and think about a PowerPC G5 1.8 or Dual 1.8 Ghz? This would mean ditching the PC completely (for space reasons), and losing quite a bit of money (Athlon XP 2400, 1.5Gig RAM, Geforce 5 Ultra, 2x40Gb HD, etc), which I wouldn't be able to flog for all that much, I wouldn't have thought.

I really don't know which way to go, but am leaning towards the Mini, as budget is important, and I get to keep the PC. But, will it be a waste in terms of processing power improvement?

Cheers
Pete

Hi,

here's a link that maybe not exactly answers your question, but gives an impression of mini Mac's performance compared to an iBook 14", which, apart from video specs and lack of FW 800 option, comes close to a PB 12".

http://www.macintouch.com/perfpack/comparison.html

Hope this helps!

Yikes... one extreme to the other... what about a compromise?

AFAIK the Mac Mini is the same as a 12" iBook iniside so it'd actually be slightly lower in performance compared to the Powerbook. Perhaps the ideal answer would be an iMac?

you could do the KVM setup and a mac mini next to your computer, or go with teh 14'' iBook? Sounds like you have a decent PC, and if you want to keep it do a KVM setup or the ibook, IMO

maz94protege said:

you could do the KVM setup and a mac mini next to your computer, or go with teh 14'' iBook? Sounds like you have a decent PC, and if you want to keep it do a KVM setup or the ibook, IMO

Click to expand...

pssssst..... 11 month old thread, no need to resurect it now....just let ones this old go, my friend......:black:


hehe, j/k... but you might want to check the dates of the last post on threads just to make sure that they are still valid issues for the OP.

what is up with all of the resurections lately? my goodness..

It's all by the same member too. Mod's, please take some sort of action.