Spanky Deluxe said:
If you can afford it I'd go for the Mac Pro. I've had a Core Duo Mini for a while now and it seemed just a little bit slow at times. IPhoto isn't as much hampered by the CPU speed as it is the hard drive imo. The 5400rpm drive in there is considerably slower than a desktop variant. Even if you put in a 7200rpm drive you still will not be at the same level of speed as a 7200rpm desktop drive. Sure you could put in a 7200rpm drive, attatch a firewire external hard disk, max out the ram at 2GB and upgrade the CPU with a Merom part at some point and you'll have a good machine. Don't expect any gaming miracles though and once you've done those upgrades there's nowhere to go from there. Besides which, the cost of those upgrades probably = the amount needed to go Mac Pro.
As far as FrontRow goes, well its not too hard to 'find' a copy of it, especially if you have a FrontRow enabled machine lying around and then you can get bluetooth remotes specifically for FrontRow. The remote won't look as pretty as the Apple one but it''ll work through walls!
Yes, you're right, and I was thinking that for durable investment, the mini isn't quite the right thing, isn't it? Neither is an iMac...
I'll just persuade my mom to go for a MacPro, and if she says "no", then I'll wait and get the base line mini (C2D or not...) when they are updated. I think I'll forget about the self-upgrading part, where I'm not too confident on thermal paste & stuff...
Keep giving your impressions please. So far, I come to the conclusion that the Core Solo is insufficient, and the Core Duo is OK, but perfectible.
On the other hand, the MacPro isn't a great investment, and quite toxic, as for gaming habits...I mean, even a 7300 GT is better than my FX5700 Ultra, which is way enough to have a flat life, nerd-like entertainment, without enjoying the daylight, for example...
