[mr breaker]

I have been using a G4 450 Sawtooth since it came out. It's time for a replacement. I am planning to get a MBP after they release a second revision.

But in the meantime I am thinking about getting the Intel Duo Core mini. The most intensive thing I run is Photoshop 7 on the G4.

How will the performance compare between my old Sawtooth and Rosetta on the new Mini?

[Tuishimi]

This is speculation, but I once had the same, exact computer (sawtooth 450) and I had the old G4 mini and THAT computer blew the 450 out of the water. I have my core duo mini sitting right next to me just waiting for my monitor... I am very excited to see how it performs.

Right now I am on an iMac G5 and it is teh snappy compared to the sawtooth.

My daughter has a G3 iMac and it runs OS X... it's pretty slow tho'.

[D'Espice]

Rosetta needs memory - lots of it! Don't even bother running PS on an Intel Mac with less than 1,5 GB of it. With that it's supposed to run just fine. Unfortunately I can't tell for sure since my new Intel Mini only has 512MB of RAM and there's no money left for adding more right now.
To make a long story short: with enough memory it will blow your old Sawtooth away.

[mr breaker]

Ok, cool. That's what I was hoping to hear.


Do the DIMMs in the mini have to be paired? If possible, I'd like to just replace one of the 256 chips for a 1GB one and have 1.25GB of memory.

[Uisce]

Haha, I thought I was the only one still using a Sawtooth.

I just ordered a Dual Core mini w/ 2gb RAM to replace my PowerMac, and I plan on buying an Intel Mac laptop down the road once Apple has integrated all its laptops into the Intel fold. I've learned from previous iBooks and PowerBooks not to buy Apple's early laptops due to QA issues.

The Intel minis require paired DIMMS, so I ended up getting 2GB from the factory since the installed cost is so close to what I could get at Crucial or OWC. If you're planning on keeping the mini like you kept the G4 450, go with 2GB now.

PM me in a few weeks and I can let you know how Adobe PS7, Illustrator CS, iPhoto, etc work out.

[Tuoder]

Originally Posted by Uisce

Haha, I thought I was the only one still using a Sawtooth.

I just ordered a Dual Core mini w/ 2gb RAM to replace my PowerMac, and I plan on buying an Intel Mac laptop down the road once Apple has integrated all its laptops into the Intel fold. I've learned from previous iBooks and PowerBooks not to buy Apple's early laptops due to QA issues.

The Intel minis require paired DIMMS, so I ended up getting 2GB from the factory since the installed cost is so close to what I could get at Crucial or OWC. If you're planning on keeping the mini like you kept the G4 450, go with 2GB now.

PM me in a few weeks and I can let you know how Adobe PS7, Illustrator CS, iPhoto, etc work out.

They don't require matched dimms to function. They only require it to run in dual channel mode, thereby increasing your memory bandwidth twofold (theoretically). You would probably get better performance out of 1GB matched (512x2) than out of 1.25GB (1GB+256MB). Given that replacing the RAM is not the easiest thing in the world to do on the mini, you are probably better off getting it installed by Apple.

You also don't risk messing it up cosmetically. I believe that there is a thread specifically on the dual channel deal with the intel mini.

[mr breaker]

Well I got the Dual Core mini....and it definitely smokes my old G4 450....even the Rosetta apps.

Wish it had two firewire ports though!

[Tuishimi]

Originally Posted by mr breaker

Well I got the Dual Core mini....and it definitely smokes my old G4 450....even the Rosetta apps.

Wish it had two firewire ports though!

Good for you! Yeah, can you chain what you have?

[mr breaker]

I've got an external hard drive, ipod and isight...so I'm just missing one port. Might have to get a firewire hub.

[MacOS-Fan]

How much RAM did you end up getting?

I went from my QuickSilver Dual 1 GHz G4 with 1.5 GB of Ram to my Intel CoreDuo Mini with 1 GB of RAM and the Mini seems quite a bit quicker. So I am not surprised that it does also in your case.

[mr breaker]

just has the stock 512. I'm going to upgrade it to 1GB or 2GB when the memory prices come down a little bit

[Tuishimi]

Originally Posted by mr breaker

just has the stock 512. I'm going to upgrade it to 1GB or 2GB when the memory prices come down a little bit

$$$ is a pain. I think everything in life should be free. But seriously, the more memory the better it will perform.

[bbales]

Originally Posted by mr breaker

Well I got the Dual Core mini....and it definitely smokes my old G4 450....even the Rosetta apps.

Wish it had two firewire ports though!

I'm upgrading from a G4 400 gigabit ethernet, an am mulling eithe rthe imac or the mini. I take it you're using your mini as a computer, and not an entertainment center? I have a new monitor, so I could get by with just the machine guts, so to speak. I'm not looking to buy for a little bit, so I'm interested in people's experiences.

[Tuishimi]

Originally Posted by bbales

I'm upgrading from a G4 400 gigabit ethernet, an am mulling eithe rthe imac or the mini. I take it you're using your mini as a computer, and not an entertainment center? I have a new monitor, so I could get by with just the machine guts, so to speak. I'm not looking to buy for a little bit, so I'm interested in people's experiences.

I use mine as just a "computer." Performs very well. I am a developer and work remotely... download our sources via CVS do as much work on my mini (Java stuff mostly) as I can then commit it back up to our CVS server.

On my old G4 mini I hosted our websites (family websites that is). They didn't get much traffic of course, but apache, php, python and sqlite worked well, great response time. (Same websites are now on my other mac, iMac G5).

I also play (not too GPU intensive) games on the mini (AOE/AOM).