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It's a great machine - I have one.

But remember that it's got a PPC CPU, so it's days are numbered. The latest OS you can put on it is Leopard, so you'll miss out Snow Leopard and all future updates.
 
It's a great machine - I have one.

But remember that it's got a PPC CPU, so it's days are numbered. The latest OS you can put on it is Leopard, so you'll miss out Snow Leopard and all future updates.

thanks for the input, i have a mac pro for snow leo!

i do not think i will need snow leo on this mac mini until later in life? I would only use it for plex and the theater stuff!!

so it is worth the 165 they are asking for the theater stuff i am looking to do?

that is cool!
 
Forget it for a home theatre, unless you are only interested in the audio side of things. The G4 in these is only about as powerful as the current slew of netbooks, so HD of any sort is out of the question. These also had the Radeon 9200 so no QE/CI, either.

Main use is if you have some classic apps you want to run. It is probably worth the asking price if you have modest requirements - a bit of email, light office stuff, none too heavy photoshopping - that sort of thing.
 
Mine does play 720p video pretty well. A little stuttering here and there, but not too bad.

1080p though, you can forget about it.

It works great as a DVD player though, which is what I was mainly using it for! Until the drive broke, anyway LOL :D

And to the above: I'm assuming by QE you mean Quartz Extreme? The 9200 definitely does support Quartz Extreme. Even the 7500 supports Quartz Extreme. You're right about Core Image, however.
 
If you get this model, you WILL need to upgrade the memory. I have a G4 mac mini for a home theater with only 512MB of RAM. It barely keeps up. The model you referenced only has 256 MB of RAM.

I thought Apple only sold a minimum of 512MB in these models back in the day.

Otherwise, I have had my Mac Mini G4 running for at least 12 months without a reboot. It's a nice little computer for limited things.
 
thanks everyone, i actually just got 2 20" apple lcd's off of ebay for $225 a piece, so i will wait on the mini!!
 
Nah, the first batch of Mac Minis had 256mb, but they changed that at the first revision. I have one sitting somewhere, first I used it for a while, then my mom used it, but now it's just collecting dust.

If it was good enough I would definitely use it as a media center PC, but my Popcorn Hour is far faster ;)
 
It's a great machine - I have one.

But remember that it's got a PPC CPU, so it's days are numbered. The latest OS you can put on it is Leopard, so you'll miss out Snow Leopard and all future updates.

I'd also be worried that PPC media applications currently available will wither on the vine as they are no longer upgraded due to lack of interest or market.
 
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