On Jan 26, 2005, at 3:16 PM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
I purchased a g3 700 iBook 6 months ago and have been very happy. With the tax return coming I am looking to purchase a desktop to replace my aging 1ghz athlon. The new mac mini has caught my eye because I love its pricepoint. Only thing I do not like is its limited upgrade path. I have noticed that people can squeeze years out of a powermac, yet the iMac etc. seem to fall behind quickly.
There are thousands of iMacs toiling away out there; you're seeing people *talk* a lot about their Powermacs, but in truth, the vast majority of macs, both PowerMac and iMac never get upgraded at all.
Indeed. The iMac and Mac Mini can both take the two most important (well two out of three maybe) upgrades, memory and disk drive. My experience has been that memory and disk drive are the two most cost effective.
I got two old Wallstreets with 4Gb/64Mb and 2Gb/32Mb Disk/RAM. They both have 40Gb/256Mb now. Big difference in them now.
Seeing as how I have a limited budget im looking for recommendations. I don't want to spend more than 600-700 dollars if possible, yet I want as much machine as I can get. The dual g4 machines seem pretty interesting, but will they be fast enough to enjoy for years to come? I am pleased with my iBook but I want something to do video editing, photoshop and various college projects.
My opinion is that for that kind of money, get the fast Mini.
The lowest cost G5 Tower costs as much as three of the lowest cost Mac Minis. So if you buy a Mini now then one a year from now and another one a year after that you've spent the same amount of money (not counting inflation / interest) and have a machine that, while not the most powerful is still up there in power.
Odds are a Mac Mini you buy in 2 years will be more powerful than todays Tower with upgrades from two years from now. In two years your Tower may have been upgraded to a faster processor but it will still have the same bus, memory speed and mass storage interface speed. The Mini on the other hand probably will never have state of the art speed but will improve steadily.
Oh and on this plan in two years you will have two Mac Minis to either use or sell. A used Mac Mini will sell a lot better than the base model processor card. Those almost always go for $10-20 or so. The only market for them is either upgrading a lesser machine (a speed bump), replacing a failed card or when you get a computer
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