Mini purchase suggestion discoutned 2.26 09 or 2.4 2010

[roybfr]

I am thinking of replacing my 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 with a mini or a MB. I know going from a pro to mini seems odd but out of frustration I built a new PC this weekend so that I could play Starcraft II at 2560 x 1600 on high/ultra settings. My 2006 Pro w/ ATI 3870 was not cutting it even in Bootcamp. Did not want to deal with having 2 different cards in the box so I just built a dedicated game PC. I still would rather use a Mac for the day to day but for just general use the Pro is overkill, plus the thing is a furnace and easily raises temp in my office 10+ deg when it is left on. I am leaning toward selling the Pro for the mini or MB.

I have the option of getting a mid 2009 2.26 mini for $550 or a new 2.4 for $699. Looking at performance graphs of the 2, for what I will use if for (surfing, netflix/hulu, some vmware, private web server) I think the 2.26 will be fine. I know the newer one has better graphics but I have a PC to play games. I have an extra 80gb SSD sitting around so I would probably install that as well as upgrade the memory. So is my thinking right on the 2009 being sufficient, use the extra $150 for more memory?

 

[PowerGamerX]

I am thinking of replacing my 2006 Mac Pro 1,1 with a mini or a MB. I know going from a pro to mini seems odd but out of frustration I built a new PC this weekend so that I could play Starcraft II at 2560 x 1600 on high/ultra settings. My 2006 Pro w/ ATI 3870 was not cutting it even in Bootcamp. Did not want to deal with having 2 different cards in the box so I just built a dedicated game PC. I still would rather use a Mac for the day to day but for just general use the Pro is overkill, plus the thing is a furnace and easily raises temp in my office 10+ deg when it is left on. I am leaning toward selling the Pro for the mini or MB.

I have the option of getting a mid 2009 2.26 mini for $550 or a new 2.4 for $699. Looking at performance graphs of the 2, for what I will use if for (surfing, netflix/hulu, some vmware, private web server) I think the 2.26 will be fine. I know the newer one has better graphics but I have a PC to play games. I have an extra 80gb SSD sitting around so I would probably install that as well as upgrade the memory. So is my thinking right on the 2009 being sufficient, use the extra $150 for more memory?

Well, if you can afford it, just go with the new one. It has HDMI (which will be good if you ever want to use it as a media center) and, you never know how taxing the next version of OS X will be on graphics. If they do something as drastic as the Tiger to Leopard update, then you may want the 320m. Plus, having better graphics gives you the OPTION to play more games, and newer games. Not that you will, but to know that you can if your PC craps out would be a nice thing.

 

[Giuly]

Spend those $150 on the 2.66GHz CPU. If you ever want to resell it again, top-of-the-line models sell better. Do a RAM-upgrade to 4GB or 8GB yourself and install an SSD, and the Mini won't make you miss the MacPro in daily usage, I guess.