What to do now?

[crazyfortech]

Hi,

I have a Powermac G4 Dual 500mhz running tiger with 512mb of RAM. I'm amazed at how fast it is, really it seems faster then my windows computer wiht 2gb of ram! I'm really not sure what to do now,

I was thinking of selling the mac, and then buying a mac mini intel.

Now I might sell it and get a nice g4 maybe a 867 dualie.

I could buy a 1.5ghz mac mini powerpc.

OR I could just keep the powermac g4 for a few more years.

I purchased this in August for 264.00 off of eBay. I never used a mac before in my life, I had an iPod so this made me buy a mac. I really wanted to get a mac just becuase of the operating system. Now I'm not sure what I should do with this Powermac.

MY TASKS:

ilife 2006
final cut express
photoshop
finale notepad
office
IM
surfing

Like photoshop and final cut I don't do anything like High-tech, I just will play around with it. I haven't bought ilife yet b/c I'm not sure if I will buy a mac mini.

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

I really like those dual 867 powermacs, I think Imight rather have one of then a mac mini.

WHAT SHOULD I DO?

Thanks

 

[ipacmm]

The nice part about the Dual 867, 1Ghz or any of the other MDD/Quicksilver PowerMac's are that you can easily upgrade them, the Mac Mini is nice if you don't have the space and if you really do not need all the upgrades the PowerMac offers you.

I would buy an MDD PowerMac and upgrade it, that should last you longer then the Mac Mini.

 

[jsw123]

if you are thinking long term use, i would buy the intel mini, because the ppc mini is going to be outdated quickly. but, intel minis run photoshop and final cut very slowly because theyre not universal. your call.

 

[crazyfortech]

well I mean like 2 1/2 years. I'm just worried that the MDD will get outdated easily, I know I can upgrade it,

(but then Apple still makes PowerPC computers so they must make G4's last more then 2 years?)

I really love those MDD powermacs, I think I'm going to sell the Powermac G4 Dual 500 and buy a MDD?

 

[Eidorian]

Final Cut Express and Photoshop really benefit having a PowerPC processor right now. The Intel Mac Mini is nice but it can't run them very well. (I'm not sure it can run Final Cut EXpress at all.) I'd wait a few more weeks and see if a Universal version of Final Cut Express come out and the requirements for it.

Apple has a few professional applications promised to be Universal on March 31st.

 

[crazyfortech]

I don't need the pro applications to be blazing fast, I only will like play around with them, not 100 layers on a photoshop picture

 

[Eidorian]

I don't need the pro applications to be blazing fast, I only will like play around with them, not 100 layers on a photoshop picture

Well if they put out a Universal version of Final Cut Express running it on the Mini shouldn't be that bad. You'll just need lots of RAM since it's shared with the video. Quartz Extreme appears to be on of the major requirements after the CPU.

 

[crazyfortech]

well I REALLY want a MDD they're so sexy!

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

A core duo mini will certainly run apps through rosetta at a faster speed than a Dual 500 would and it won't become outdated in a hurry. I agree that the MDDs sure do look lovely though!!

 

[crazyfortech]

which do you think would be faster?

core duo mini

1.25 ghz powermac mdd

 

[Eidorian]

which do you think would be faster?

core duo mini

1.25 ghz powermac mdd

The Core Duo mini.

 

[Spanky Deluxe]

The Core Duo mini.

Although for Rosetta run applications the 1.25 Ghz Dual G4 will probably a bit faster but then of course as soon as universal binaries of the relevant applications come out the Core Duo mini will be way faster again.

 

[munckee]

If you find your current mac to be "amazingly fast", why are you even worrying about upgrading it? What is it lacking that you need?

Maybe you'd be better off just saving some cash for a while until you have a better sense of what you want (and until this computer can't hack it for you)?

 

[trogdor!]

if your going for a mini, definaly the core duo would do the best job and have the longest life. It will also just get better as more apps become universal.

 

[MacHarne]

I've had my PM MDD (in sig) for a few days now and it is incredibly fast for most tasks in comparison with my current PowerBook. I haven't had a chance to mess around with an Intel Mac mini yet, but the Intel iMacs are unbelievably fast in comparison to my PM MDD. The only serious business I do on my MDD is video encoding (HandBrake) and then the great deal of Photoshop work I do, both of those tasks being highly multi-proc aware.

However, I personally wanted a machine that could be upgraded (more RAM and a USB2 card are to be delivered tomorrow; a SATA controller, SATA drive, and OWC OEM video card are in planning), so the MDD was a nice bet. Plus, a friend gave it to me for almost nothing. If I was going to decide between an MDD without mega-discount or an Intel Mac mini Core Duo, I would have certainly gone with the mini for the longevity of the device and Front Row.

It's almost an unrelated rant, but since all of my media runs from my Macs, Front Row is such a wonderful application. When I played around with a MBP earlier this month, I finally realized the benefits of having that technology on a laptop. Anyways, I thought it was spectacular when running natively on the machine.

As a data comparison, my PM MDD gets about 45 fps in running a HandBrake encode (mmpeg? full-scale, 128aac audio) and the HandBrake forums show almost the same number for the Intel Core Duo minis (something closer to 50 fps, though).

Edit: and also, from using my PowerBook, I was used to the slight wait every time I did a Spotlight search. With the MDD, it is almost instantaneous. Being honest, it's so nice to have that extra half-second when searching for a file or app. Just another way my smiles get bigger with the MDD. I can only assume, though, that the Core Duo minis are even better; someone else may want to support that with their experience.

 

[DCapple]

if your gonna use it for photoshop and other designing tools you better keep the G4 cause the intel mac mini is not for this kind of things....

 

[crazyfortech]

well know I know I'm going to buy a intel core duo mini, well maybe if I really like the Mdd I can fint the mini inside of one ? well maybe new technology is better then cool design