macmini or an older powermac?

[Ecodisk]

Ok if I sell my windows PC that I have right now I think That I will make $500 off of it to put towards a macintosh. Should I get a new mac mini or an older powermac? I want to be able to play world of warcraft, listen to music, and browse the web at the same time with almost no slowdown (because thats what my windows pc can do right now without a problem at all). I also want this new mac to last me awhile. Another question I have is how much money would I be able to get out of a Powermac Blue and White 300mhz cpu, 512mb of ram, 30gb hard drive, dvd-rom drive, with osx 10.3 I bought the B&W to play around with before I decided to make the switch.

 

[mad jew]

What do you want to use it for? I'd normally go the new mini route simply because you get the warranty, the latest software, and generally a better performing machine (in most everyday respects). However, I'd wait until after January 10 before making any concrete decisions.

 

[Ecodisk]

What do you want to use it for? I'd normally go the new mini route simply because you get the warranty, the latest software, and generally a better performing machine (in most everyday respects). However, I'd wait until after January 10 before making any concrete decisions.

I want to be able to play world of warcraft, listen to music, and browse the web at the same time with almost no slowdown (because thats what my windows pc can do right now without a problem at all).

What is january 10th?

 

[mad jew]

Yeah, I'd aim at the mini. There's a special Apple event coming up (MWSF) and new products are probably going to be released. Whilst a new mini seems unlikely at this stage, it's probably still worth waiting.

 

[InfiniteLoop1]

would the old PowerMac have similar specs to the Mac Mini as in CPU speed and RAM? The Mini should be able to do all that (especially the intel ones) if you top up the RAM to at least 1GB.

Remember the mini is cooler!!

 

[Lord Blackadder]

I would wait at least until after Macworld San Francisco on the 10th. There may be a new Mini announcement.

Other than that, the Mini's biggest drawback for gaming is the video card. If you really want to play WoW you will probably want to get a PowerMac G4, upgrade the CPU and put in a faster video card like a Radon 9600 or 9800. This will be more expensive than a Mini, but also faster.

Check out these benchmarks of the Mini vs other Macs. Notice that the two PowerMac G4 are a single/dual 1.42Ghz model with a Radeon 9000/9700. The Powermac, with a fast graphics card like the Radeon 9700 or 9800 is much better at gaming than the Mini, but as these benchmarks show the Mini is pretty good at everything else. So you must ask yourself how much you are willing to pay for better framerates.

 

[mad jew]

Check out these benchamarks of the Mini vs other Macs. Notice that the PowerMac G4 is a single/dual 1.42Ghz model with a Radeon 9000/9700

Good point, a good Power Mac G4 will take the mini down every day. However, good G4s are still quite expensive and they generally come with old software licences. It's still something to think about though.