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Just to pass time until my Mac Mini arrives...

F

Firefly2005

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 15, 2007
6
0
I ordered a new mac mini 2 days ago
2.6 i7 quad core
4GB of RAM (but 16GB from crucial sat next to me waiting to go in)
Fusion drive - 1.12TB

It's going to replace my beloved powermac bought in 2004
2.0GHz G5 dual processor
5GB RAM
512MB X850XT (that I had JUST acquired and never got the chance to install! Actually survived with the 64MB basic one for 9 years)
1TB HD
Sadly it died 3 months ago and my local Mac guru cannot figure out what's wrong with it. 3 flashes on the LED but all the RAM checks out.

Now, it's hopefully a good answer, but will I notice a difference in 10 years of development? Mac Pros seem to have got silly expensive, and given that I was surviving with a 9 year old Powermac I think that's evidence enough that I don't need that kind of power. But Mac Minis have always seemed a little bit rubbish to me. But I was seriously impressed by the specs, and seeing as I have a 20inch apple display, a keyboard, a mouse... buying an iMac didn't seem like I'd get much of a better computer even accounting for the discrete graphics card...

Is a mac mini a sensible option if you have all the peripherals? I know this has been answered a dozen times in these forums, but it's always nice to be told you made a good decision :) And I just like a chat sometimes...

Also just a quick shout out to say I hope Apple still make decent computers! My first Apple was a clamshell graphite 466MHz iBook, and then I got the titanium powerbook 1.0Ghz by chance a year later in 2003 I think (still going strong - typing on it now). Then the Powermac. Bit scared about buying a new one! These old ones have been amazing. Though the clamshell is a little slow now... I'm guessing I probably won't be able to expect 12 years of faithful use out of the Mac Mini?

Anyway, thanks in advance who can be bothered to reply to my rambling post which basically consists of
1. I got a new computer - tell me it's good because I'm really excited!
2. I miss my Powermac - tell me it did well!
3. I love my old Apple computers and I'm scared of leaping into the unknown Intel world where I can actually run current programs... will I enjoy it?

Thanks for reading if you got this far :)
 
foofan said:
what kind of deal did you get on the ram and where?
Click to expand...

£60 from crucial - that translates into about $90 - way way less than at the Apple store. I think it was at least £200 for the upgrade as BTO.
 
The 2012 mini will run circles around anything from 2004. Heck, the quad core minis are nearly as fast as the 2010 mac pro's in processor power. With the inclusion of the FW800 port, the mini is one of the better equipped computers for peripherals. If your powermac still was suitable for your needs today then the mini will be just fine.
 
COrocket said:
The 2012 mini will run circles around anything from 2004. Heck, the quad core minis are nearly as fast as the 2010 mac pro's in processor power. With the inclusion of the FW800 port, the mini is one of the better equipped computers for peripherals. If your powermac still was suitable for your needs today then the mini will be just fine.
Click to expand...

Thanks that's nice to know. There was part of me that was tempted to just go through and replace every component of the Powermac until it worked again... but it was just beginning to get a bit stupid. I always hate wasting hardware unnecessarily but even though the numbers are still reasonably good specs wise on the surface they kind of mask the fact that it's an ancient processor, the RAM's slow compared to modern stuff, the drive is only 5400RPM etc etc... it was beginning to show its age - especially with the orphaning associated with the powerpc-intel transition.
 
The new minis are sweet. You'll notice a massive lift from where you were, if for no other reason than jumping in with the SSD inclusion in Fusion.

That said, you might have wanted to build your own Fusion drive - it's really very easy. I was surprised how easy actually; my 2009 MBP now has a 800GB Fusion drive (160GB SSD + 640GB HDD).

Nice work on looking after your computer. Too many people now are buying into the disposable notion of their devices these days. A few simple DIYs can keep a computer viable for quite a while.

Congrats on your new purchase.
 
third Mac Mini

I got a replacement about 5 months to replace a replacement
I got from Apple in June. That unit replaced one I got in 2009.
The mini's were so screwed up, Apple said we are not going to fix it again so they replaced them. You MUST buy the Apple Care
program...if you are smart...its the best investment I made.
I would have been screwed without it.
 
I bought the same configuration mini a month ago. I moved from a 2007 Mac Pro 1,1. The mini is massively better in every way. I had the same number of processor cores, but the new mini has SSD (Fusion), hyper threading, much faster RAM, and a much more streamlined OS (I had Leopard). I can only imagine how much better the mini will feel for you. You didn't even have an Intel processor! You should be very happy with it.
 
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