Mac Mini Performance vs old G4

Hi everyone,

We've recently done some upgrade to some of our PowerMac G4's and our main machine is:

Dual G4 450Mhz
1Gb RAM
30Gb SCSI 180
128Mb ATI Radeon 9200 (dual screen)
OS Tiger.

However we are finding its struggling to keep up with the load (PS CS2, Illustrator, In Design, Entourage mainly but always all at once!).

So does anyone have experience of using a similar G4 in comparison to a Mac Mini?

We just don't have the budget ATM for a PowerMac G5 and may be willing to compromise on the dual screen as well as the SCSI drive... oh and also 128Mb video (which seems important as we are using 21" 1600x1200 times two!).

TIA

I'd look into maybe getting a new iMac instead: It'll have something closer to the power you're going to need and isn't as costly as a Powermac.

Perhaps you could then sell your old rig to get the extra cash to make the price difference between the mini and the iMac.

But I don't think the Mini is really going to cut it for what you're looking to do.
Have you considered a refurbished or second hand powermac? (Stay away from the Single proc 1,8 Ghz model though).

Aptmunich said:

I'd look into maybe getting a new iMac instead: It'll have something closer to the power you're going to need and isn't as costly as a Powermac.

Perhaps you could then sell your old rig to get the extra cash to make the price difference between the mini and the iMac.

But I don't think the Mini is really going to cut it for what you're looking to do.
Have you considered a refurbished or second hand powermac? (Stay away from the Single proc 1,8 Ghz model though).

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Hi, iMac just wont do for several reasons:

1. We already have 2 decent 21" monitors and it would be a waste
2. We could not use SCSI drives
3. No dual monitor
4. It costs the same as an old G5!

I'm now thinking towards an old PowerMac G5 as you mentioned but why should I stay away from the single 1.8Ghz? How about the single 1.6Ghz?

Thanks

One of the single processor Powermac G5 models has a serious bug that sends it into a kernel panic every 20 minutes or so. As of yet there is no solution (though 10.4.3 is supposed to have a fix when it is released).

Thought I'd mention it - do a search on the web for more information on the current status of the issue before buying anything.

I realize that it is a pain to have old equipment go to waste, but I really feel the bottleneck in your system is the processor speed. That's why I'd definitely recommend one of the G5-based machines.

Considering your SCSI drive is only a 30GB model, would you really mind "losing" it that much if you got a new Powermac or iMac with several times the amount of capacity? In your original post you also said you could live without your dual monitor setup...

Then sell the whole rig and get an iMac G5 or sell just the G4 and get a Powermac G5 and hook up your monitors to that.

have you thought of upgrading the processors on your PMG4? i think you can up them to dual 1GHz G4's.