[MORT A POTTY]

so, what will be the impact of the Mac mini in terms of PowerMac G4 (and others) resale value (if any)? say a standard 800Mhz* PowerMac G4 w/ 512MB RAM, nVIDIA GeForce 2 MX, 80GB HD, combo drive... I don't think that after this announcement it would fetch even half of what it did about three months ago before the xMac rumors were in high gear.

just a though, but could it be that the legendary Mac Resale Value is going to take a hit because Apple is now willing to cater to the low end of the spectrum?

*- I say 800Mhz because there wasnt a single processor 800Mhz system, meaning this example could be applied to a 733, 867, or even 933Mhz PowerMac In short, 800Mhz is a meaningless number just for the sake of using a number.

[Lateralus]

I don't think the Mac Mini is going to affect the resale value of Power Macs much. Expandability will always command a premium.

Where I do think the Mac Mini will have an affect is on the Cube, and eMacs/iMacs. The Cube more so, though.

[Chinasaur]

This thing's a blast. I forsee used prices taking a nosedive.

For $700 (1.42G/512MB) you can have 80% the power of an iMac for a little over 50% of the cost.

Even the 1.25/256 ver will run OS X faster than P4/256MB P4 combo.

I don't know about expandability commanding a premium but I bet a lot of users take their existing 80-120 drives in their B&W's, Sawtooths, etc and pop them in a FW enclosure, buy the $600 version with extra RAM and call it even.

YMMV.

Good show Apple!

[barang]

I don't think that it'll make that much difference, considering the fact that you've been able to get an eMac 1 ghz for 549 refurb for a while now, and that hasn't seemed to affect Powermac G4 pricing a whole lot.

[MORT A POTTY]

Originally posted by barang:
I don't think that it'll make that much difference, considering the fact that you've been able to get an eMac 1 ghz for 549 refurb for a while now, and that hasn't seemed to affect Powermac G4 pricing a whole lot.

well considering this is more powerful than an eMac* and you can use a much better display... it might.

*-the 599 model

[Krypton]

I would hope second-hand prices would come down, but I think it's unlikely.

However, anyone who is upgrading to a Mac mini could probably make up most of the cost with an old Mac sale, and still have a nicer machine.

[Big Mac]

The mini has no user expandability, so I too doubt that it will impact G4 resale value. It may have an effect on sales and resale value of the eMac, possibly the iBook, but other than that its impact should be negligible.

[Leonard]

It'll have a bit of an impact, but not much, because as others have pointed out the Power Mac towers have always been highly expandable and upgradeable. The iMac mini is even worse than an eMac or iMac in a way, in that it only has one DIMM slot, likely little CPU upgrade path as it has no cooling, it sounds like it may have a laptop HD which is also limiting, etc. Probably could point out quite a few differences between it and any other product. It truly is an el-cheapo Mac.

[Krypton]

I don't know about the US, but here the Mac mini is a similar price to what you can pick up an original AGP G4 for on eBay - thus I think those will see a valuation drop.

[dav]

Originally posted by MORT A POTTY:
*- I say 800Mhz because there wasnt a single processor 800Mhz system, meaning this example could be applied to a 733, 867, or even 933Mhz PowerMac In short, 800Mhz is a meaningless number just for the sake of using a number.

[tooki]

Originally posted by MORT A POTTY:
*- I say 800Mhz because there wasnt a single processor 800Mhz system, meaning this example could be applied to a 733, 867, or even 933Mhz PowerMac In short, 800Mhz is a meaningless number just for the sake of using a number.

But there was a single-processor 800MHz Power Mac G4. (Just making that point, since the above screenshot could have come from a non-Power Mac.)

tooki

[dav]

Originally posted by tooki:
(Just making that point, since the above screenshot could have come from a non-Power Mac.)

true, i hadn't thought of that, but it is indeed a powermac g4 single 800mhz quicksilver. and i didn't mean to derail, the disclaimer just struck me odd when i know i'm using a single g4 800mhz powermac.

[Krypton]

There are a lot of Cubes on eBay UK now.

[action]

i think the mini will cause huge drop in g4 prices. the only reason to have a g4 tower is if you absolutely need a pci slot. otherwise the price structure of the mini makes it a no brainer.

instead of upgrading the older g4 towers you can just keep buying new mini's and selling your old mini's as the new ones come out. the cost of upgrading to a new mini is so cheap this computer will have a very long run.

the prices of g4 towers are already coming down and i predict in the next 12 months non dual g4 towers will be right in line with mini prices. if you don't need a pci slot then all the other upgrades can be external with no issues. if you have a g4 tower and thought about selling it i would sell it now to maximize your money. after one revision cycle of the mini i think you will lose at least half of your tower value.

just my opinion.

chung lee

[MORT A POTTY]

Originally posted by tooki:
But there was a single-processor 800MHz Power Mac G4. (Just making that point, since the above screenshot could have come from a non-Power Mac.)

tooki

well poo.

was it a Quicksilver 2002? I forget what speeds those came in, but the 2001 AFAIK was 733, 867, and dual 800.

[Lateralus]

Yes. '02 was 800, 933, Dual 1GHz.