Upgrading from 1.5GHz PPC Mini to 1.83GHz Intel Mac Mini...

[Kung]

I'm one of those 'lucky' ones who had their PPC Mac Mini silently upgraded upon purchase....a week before the new Intel Mac Minis went on sale.

Well, for any number of reasons, I'm finding it necessary (ok, maybe necessary's not the correct word - how 'bout 'beneficial') to upgrade.

My PPC has the following specs:

1.5GHz
80Gb 5400rpm IDE hard drive
512Mb RAM
64Mb VRAM

I'm purchasing a Mac Mini with the following specs:

1.83GHz Core Duo
80GB SATA drive
512Mb RAM

etc. etc.

I normally use my Mac Mini for some light graphics editing, a lot of surfing, some desktop publishing, etc.

My question is, what kind of difference in speed should I expect? More or less stable than my PPC was? That sort of stuff.

 

[JAT]

It will be much faster, if you are using native apps. If you use PPC apps, it may actually be a bit slower for some things. You should upgrade the RAM to at least a GB. Stability shouldn't be any different.

 

[Kung]

It will be much faster, if you are using native apps. If you use PPC apps, it may actually be a bit slower for some things. You should upgrade the RAM to at least a GB. Stability shouldn't be any different.

Other than freeware, the only things I've purchased were

- Office 2004 & Virtual PC bundled together for cheap (I know someone ) - not worried about speed on that
- iWork - not too worried about speed on that either - but that's native, I think.

In the beginning I can't afford it - I'm getting a good deal buying it from the Army Exchange ($50 off, no tax, no shipping, plus 6 months same as cash); but I plan on upgrading memory soon, for sure.

 

[elvirav]

Congratulations, Kung! I'm in exactly the same boat as you are. I made a complete impulse buy of a Mac Mini 1.66 this morning. I had no more idea of ordering a Mini today than anything, but I just snapped and did it. I have been lamenting the slowness of my hardware for a while now.

I'm hoping to see the same speed boost as you are. I am currently using a 1.25 G4 Mac Mini with 1 GB of RAM and a 32 MB video card. The 1.66 Intel Mini will have 1 GB of RAM and integrated video. Unfortunately for me, I do use my Mac for a lot of high-end stuff. (Photoshop, Final Cut Pro). I'm just too poor and cheap to get a better Mac at this time. (Maybe next year?)

From what I've been reading here and elsewhere, we're both better off upgrading to the Intel Mac. It sounds like with some things the upgrade will be a lateral move (no better, no worse), but it doesn't sound like overall, the new Mac Mini will be slower. I'm a little ambivalent about running some of my main apps (Dreamweaver 8, Photoshop CS2) in Rosetta, but I've heard that they won't be too bad. If they are no slower than how they run in the G4, I'll be okay with it.

I did get (figuratively) chewed out by the Apple rep I talked to when I ordered my Mini. He said for all the high end apps I was using, I'd need a faster Mac. He's right, of course. It's just that I don't have the money for that just yet. So it's either my little G4 Mini, or an Intel Mini. The Intel Mini sounds better. (Crossing fingers!)

 

[plinden]

- ... Virtual PC bundled together for cheap (I know someone ) - not worried about speed on that

That won't work on the Intel Macs. If VPC came bundled with Windows you might be able to use the Windows install disk with Parallels or bootcamp (I'm not sure), but if I recall correctly the VPC/Windows license specifies you can use it only with VPC.

 

[Kung]

That won't work on the Intel Macs. If VPC came bundled with Windows you might be able to use the Windows install disk with Parallels or bootcamp (I'm not sure), but if I recall correctly the VPC/Windows license specifies you can use it only with VPC.

Sorry, I should have clarified that those are the only things that I've purchased, and of those two, iWork is made by/designed for Macs, Office isn't exactly 'built for speed' (so I'm not worried about speed), and, well, VPC isn't needed. My mistake.

 

[Kung]

From what I've been reading here and elsewhere, we're both better off upgrading to the Intel Mac. It sounds like with some things the upgrade will be a lateral move (no better, no worse), but it doesn't sound like overall, the new Mac Mini will be slower. I'm a little ambivalent about running some of my main apps (Dreamweaver 8, Photoshop CS2) in Rosetta, but I've heard that they won't be too bad. If they are no slower than how they run in the G4, I'll be okay with it.

Yeah, that's me pretty much. I support Windows machines (sob) during the day, so most of what I do @ home is some VERY basic graphics editing (we're talking REAL basic), and then just standard Mac stuff - burning CD's, playing with iPhoto, surfing, etc. So I'm thinking that my experience might be a bit 'better' than yours simply because less of what I use will require Rosetta.

I did get (figuratively) chewed out by the Apple rep I talked to when I ordered my Mini. He said for all the high end apps I was using, I'd need a faster Mac. He's right, of course. It's just that I don't have the money for that just yet. So it's either my little G4 Mini, or an Intel Mini. The Intel Mini sounds better. (Crossing fingers!)

Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. One of my buddies just got a 1.66Ghz Intel Mac Mini, and compared to my G4 it's smoking, so I'm real excited about the 1.83.

 

[MacBass]

I'm trying to decide if I want to wait for the next revision, or if I should go for a 1.66 or 1.83...I think I'll probably wait.