[skacoreimplore]

Realistically with everyday tasks and gaming, will the Mac Mini REALLY be faster than my Power Mac G4 MDD dual 1.25/1gig/80gig HD/64mb ati 9000. I know the video card in mine is not that great, but if it was replaced with maybe a 128 mb ati 9800 or 9600 how would it compare to the mini? Even if the Mini is faster, is it worth the upgrade.
I mostly use:
WoW
Warcraft III
Diablo II
Unreal Tournament
(plan to play some more FPS)
imovie
maybe iphoto later
and the normal every day stuff like itunes, safari, aim, ect

I guess im asking, would a mini with similar specs really outperform my MDD and if so would the increase be so small that the upgrade is not worth it.

I do a lot of gaming, and the video card on the mini is integrated, will this slow me down a lot. Maybe i should be looking at getting the iMac with the dedicated vid card? Those are a little more pricey though

I would be selling the MDD to put towards a newer mac, but I think the most I would be able to get for the MDD is 700-800.

[cgc]

Screw the Mini for gaming, sell the MDD, and buy the 17" 2GHz iMac or better (to get the real video card).

[Waragainstsleep]

The Mini will beat the MDD at iMavie I expect.
Maxing the RAM and putting a SATA card and HD in the G4 will help a bit.

[skacoreimplore]

Originally Posted by Waragainstsleep 

The Mini will beat the MDD at iMavie I expect.
Maxing the RAM and putting a SATA card and HD in the G4 will help a bit.

Yeah I was thinking about that. Maybe putting a SATA controller, another gig of RAM, new video card, and maybe 2 HDs in raid 0 to gain some performance. Does anyone know where i can get an ATI 9800 256 MB the cheapest? I have heard of the flashed PC versions, but where can I buy those?

[Mac Write]

I have an MDD fully loaded (2GB RAM, Radeon 9800Pro 256MB Mac:Edition, USB2 PCI) it flies which is scary for a 4-year old system. All settings World of Warcraft are maxed out running at 1600x1200.

[imitchellg5]

I had the same exact question as you only I didn't have a MDD. I went with a Power Mac G4. I'm very happy with it. The only real issue for me is that the size of the mini would come in handy instead of the giant Power Mac tower not to mention noise.

[skacoreimplore]

Originally Posted by imitchellg5 

I had the same exact question as you only I didn't have a MDD. I went with a Power Mac G4. I'm very happy with it. The only real issue for me is that the size of the mini would come in handy instead of the giant Power Mac tower not to mention noise.

Well the noise and the size don't bother me so those are not issues. I have also been leaning towards my powermac, which I will be upgrading. My grandfather told me he would buy me 3 512 sticks of RAM from Crucial the other day as well ^_^! I usually like to go all out on things, not only for performance, but becuase its fun. So I was thinking this so far:

2gigs pc-3200 RAM from Crucial
2 Superdrives (I have an external Lacie, but its not being detected )
SATA Adapter (Which one of these is best, not sure if i want to do 2 or 4 drives)

My last thing to do would to add HDs. Here is my biggest question! If I am running 2 HDs in raid 0, which would be better over all?

2 7200 RPM 500-750 gig HDs
2 10,000 RPM 150 gig HDs
Combo of both?

[imitchellg5]

2 10,000 RPM drives would be faster and better if you don't need a terabyte of storage.