Mac Mini G4 to Intel Mini or iMac?

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Greetings.

I recently bougt my self a G4 Mac Mini as an introduction to OS X and Macs in general. The specs are:

1.5GHz CPU
1GB of RAM
80GB HDD
OS X 10.5.7 (Leopard)

I'm very happy with the machine but as most of your are likely aware (I hope), PPC hardware won't be able to run Snow Leopard (10.6) and as such, I need to move to a new machine, but what should I go for? A another Mini, or an iMac?

I'll outline my common usage here, and what I could possibly want to do in the near future. Also, I'd like to state I wont be upgrading to another machine until September/October time.

At present, on the G4 I:

* Browse the internet using Safari. This includes BBC news, YouTube (very slow, sadly), XKCD, etc
* IRC using Colloquy.
* MSN using an MSN client I can't remember the name of (a little bird icon in the dock)
* Play movies, videos, music from my external USB 2.0 drive using VLC.
* Write documents, currently with Office:Mac, for Cadets. Simple documents, nothing fancy.
* A bit of PHP coding here and there.

I want to (but my present hardware limits me):

* Use Photoshop CS?.
* Use XCode and learn how-to write simple OS X applications.
* Play EVE Online (but to be honest, I only want to try it).
* Play WoW (occasionally).
* POSSIBLY virtualize at some point (but only to play around)

My understanding of the Mac ranges (Mini, iMac, Pro) is that the Mac Mini is for daily usage and nothing too intensive; the iMac is for the more "professioanl" user such as a graphic designs and the pro is for your video editors, etc? Is my undestanding accurate?

Any tips would be nice. I was planning, at first, of getting a 1gB Mini and upgrading it to 4gB my self (and possibly upgrading the memory my self too).

Regards.
 
OP
M
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30+ views and not a single opinion. I'll find another forum.

Thanks for nothing.
 
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You're welcome. Get an iMac.
 

CrimsonRequiem


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MBP 2.3 Ghz 4GB RAM 860 GB SSD, iMac 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 32GB RAM, Fusion Drive 1TB
30+ views and not a single opinion. I'll find another forum.

Thanks for nothing.

That is kind of rude and makes people not want to help you.

If you are doing design work and light gaming then I would also agree with DarkestRitual and get an iMac.
 

dtravis7


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MacMini M-1 MacOS Monterey, iMac 2010 27"Quad I7 , MBPLate2011, iPad Pro10.5", iPhoneSE
Yesterday was the 4th of July. A LOT of forum members were celebrating their independence with their family and friends. Surly your question could wait another day?

What is interesting is after reading your post when I got home last night I fired up my 1.5Ghz G4 Mini, made sure all the updates will installed and played many You Tube videos and they were all quite smooth. Maybe something else is wrong.
 

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