older dual G4 or Mac Mini

I am not sure what i should do. I have a PC and i desperatly want to go to Mac. I am considering buying a Mac Mini, but would it be any good for video editing? I am also considering a Dual G4 from ebay or somewheres, I probably would not want to buy anything slower than a dual 867 G4. preferable a dual !ghz. I am also going to obviously upgrade the ram to 1 gig, probably more if I can. is it worth it to buy a used g4 for expandability options or a mac mini? thanks!

A dual 1ghz G4 is going to cost a lot more than a mac mini. How much video editing do you do?

i will be doing a fair amount of video editing. also maybe some lite graphic rendering and audio editing, playing some games (the few available for macs) too

neither will be brilliant for video editing, but for the video editing of these two i would go for the dual G4 cause it has a better graphics card, and video is better on dual CPU's. However if you are going to be moving ot about and playing games i would get the mac mini as games don't take advantage of dual proccessors.

ok, cool. Video editing takes priority over gaming, thats what i have my PC for primarly. so cool, i will start looking for a dual g4

dragokatzov said:

ok, cool. Video editing takes priority over gaming, thats what i have my PC for primarly. so cool, i will start looking for a dual g4

Click to expand...

check out www.macorfalltrades.com and www.baucomcomputers.com.

There is also www.powermax.com and ebay, but the two above often have good deals that you don't have to bid on and worry about shady ebayers.

You might consider getting a digital audio or newer and getting a processor upgrade. given the tendancy of macs to hold their value in the used marcket you might maximize GHz to $$ that way. Don't get anything older than a digital audio though as it might not take a dual processor upgrade.

good luck.

Im a video editing freak, any qs let me know.

Anyways, in a render, 2x 867mhz is > 1 x 1.25ghz.

If your playing quake 3, and (its assumed) wolfenstein from ID, it will take advantage of SMP.

In Q3 ifyou type sv_smp 1 it activates dual cpu. On a dual g5, its so ungodly smooth!

Id suggest dual monitors too, itll make your life so much easier. ATM, most audio progs dont take advantage of the dual CPUs. So the mini would be better for that, but video, definently go the dual g4.

I dont see any issue with getting the G4, there ARE upgrades out there. I saw some site had a 2.0ghz G4 CPU. I know ive seen on ebay a sonnet card thatll let you cram dual 1.0ghz G4s in it.

The G4 will have much room for upgradability too. Hard drive space is a LARGE issue for videography. Yea, the mini can take Firewire drives, but i wouldnt advise it. Ive done it, and its OK. But atleast youll be able to thro full 7200RPPM drives in the G4, and if you are totally serious get a SCSI/SATA card.

Either systems is fine for video editing. I have a dual MDD 867 G4 with 1.25GB of ram. Upgrade the ram to at least 1GB.

If your thinking about Hi-Def editing, then you should look at what is needed. The minimum for Final Cut Pro 5 for editing HD is a 1Ghz G4. Regardless if it is a dual or not. That according to what Apple says on their page.

Apple has been moving alot of the rendering code to the GPU. So the advantage of an older G4 tower is you can upgrade the card. The current mini can not handle the Motion software package for instance. As I'm sure you know, the graphics card will make a difference wih games.

I've been considering upgrading. This afternoon, just before reading your post, I concluded that for me, a video card (ATI Radion 9800 Pro) upgrade makes the best sense right now. I want to upgrade to FCP5 and would like to try out Motion 2 which I would have the minium for. I was considering selling my machine and purchasing a reburb dual 2Ghz G5. My decision will save me about a grand I shouldn't spend right now.

P.S. I'm currently rendering videos in iMovie 5 and FCP 3. Both programs can use both processors. Very coool!

Good luck.