imac G4 vs mac mini

[dpopiz]

what are the key differences I would notice?

I was going to get a mini, but it seems like the imac g4 is similar and since it has a built-in display, that's one less thing to carry around.

 

[SCOTTYV]

 

[SCOTTYV]

mac = garbage

 

[chcarnage]

Err key differences? They are really different animals... The stuff you can look up at Apple's website aside, some key differences are:

G4 vs G5 CPU
167 vs 600/667 Mhz FSB
PC2700 SDRAM vs PC3200 DDR

They are so different, price- and performance wise... Compare them on Apple.com or Apple-History.com by yourself!

 

[remagavon]

Originally posted by: SCOTTYV
mac = garbage

Troll.

OP: I'd wait 2 weeks or so until after Macworld San Francisco. If you don't want to wait then I'd suggest an ibook simply because it would be about the same speed as the mini or g4 imac but in a portable form factor.

 

[phaxmohdem]

Well they are equally sucky as Macs go. The mini would be ideal if you alrady have a monitor/UBSKybd &moues laying around, or if you are willing to lug them around. The Imac is useful as an all in one device, since as you stated it has a monitor built in already. However neither one of them is very upgradable, I personally think that the G4 Imacs are some of the slowest POS's I've ever used. The mac minis won't be any faster either as they are basically a powerbook shoved in a desktop chassis.

 

[Oyeve]

Originally posted by: phaxmohdem
Well they are equally sucky as Macs go. The mini would be ideal if you alrady have a monitor/UBSKybd &moues laying around, or if you are willing to lug them around. The Imac is useful as an all in one device, since as you stated it has a monitor built in already. However neither one of them is very upgradable, I personally think that the G4 Imacs are some of the slowest POS's I've ever used. The mac minis won't be any faster either as they are basically a powerbook shoved in a desktop chassis.

QFT. I hate my mac mini, but unfortunately I have to support them at work. They are the slowest pieces of junk out there. Slow laptop HD, POS cdrw/dvd system that constantly gets jamed. 1 memory slot and to get it up to a decent spec you need to drop another few hundred bucks. Garbage. I was in a meeting at work with a company I cant name for legal reasons, but can only say it is put together by A-Open, that has a mac mini wanabe PC. Small as the mini but has MUCH better specs, it will use mini-pci Nvidia 6800U in its base system and, IMO, looks much cooler than the mini. Has some real potential to be a mac-mini killer. And it cost the same as the mini.

 

[0roo0roo]

the g5 is better.. g4 mini is low end entry level stuff

 

[remagavon]

Originally posted by: Oyeve

Originally posted by: phaxmohdem
Well they are equally sucky as Macs go. The mini would be ideal if you alrady have a monitor/UBSKybd &moues laying around, or if you are willing to lug them around. The Imac is useful as an all in one device, since as you stated it has a monitor built in already. However neither one of them is very upgradable, I personally think that the G4 Imacs are some of the slowest POS's I've ever used. The mac minis won't be any faster either as they are basically a powerbook shoved in a desktop chassis.

QFT. I hate my mac mini, but unfortunately I have to support them at work. They are the slowest pieces of junk out there. Slow laptop HD, POS cdrw/dvd system that constantly gets jamed. 1 memory slot and to get it up to a decent spec you need to drop another few hundred bucks. Garbage. I was in a meeting at work with a company I cant name for legal reasons, but can only say it is put together by A-Open, that has a mac mini wanabe PC. Small as the mini but has MUCH better specs, it will use mini-pci Nvidia 6800U in its base system and, IMO, looks much cooler than the mini. Has some real potential to be a mac-mini killer. And it cost the same as the mini.

It can't run OSX. Hardware doesn't matter for low end macs, it's the same as having a celeron with only pci slots on the PC side. It's meant to run the OS and a few programs, nothing more. You don't need a high end video card in a mac mini. The only problem is that they crippled the OS performance on them by alloting 32mb for the graphics chip whihc is too low for anything above 1280x1024 when using Expose.

 

[chcarnage]

The Mac Mini is an iBook in disguise, so to speak.

If no surprises happen, the AOpen Mac Mini clones will go down with all flags flying in a price comparision:

Mac Mini 1.25 Ghz G4, 512 MB L2 Cache
512 MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM
ATI Radeon 9200 32MB
40 GB
1 FireWire 400, 2 USB 2.0, 1 10/100BASE-T Ethernet
DVD-ROM/CD-RW
OS X and some Apple software
56k Modem
$499

Mac Mini 1.42 Ghz G4, 512 MB L2 Cache
512 MB PC2700 DDR SDRAM
ATI Radeon 9200 32MB
80 GB
1 FireWire 400, 2 USB 2.0, 1 10/100BASE-T Ethernet
DVD-ROM/CD-RW
OS X and some Apple software
WLAN 802.11b/g
Bluetooth
$599

Barebone MP915-C (Celeron edition)
roughly 320 Euro = $379

Cheapest possible system, proposition of heise.de, early November:
"PC Mini" 1.4 Ghz Celeron M 360 1 MB L2 Cache
512 MB SO-DIMM PC2-4200
GMA 900 Graphics Chipset w/ shared memory
40 GB
1 FireWire 400, 1 USB 2.0, 1 10/100BASE-T Ethernet
DVD-ROM/CD-RW
no OS and Software
roughly 595 Euro = $706

Until proven otherwise, I think it is possible to put a faster clone to gether but it will cost more than the Mac Mini. Got to pay the form factor, heh.

Sources:

http://www.apple.com/macmini/specs.html
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/65660