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Jacob · Sep 3, 2005, 02:19 AM

Alright, so I own a Powerbook G4 at the moment, and I'm really wanting to save myself some money. I got myself into some nasty debt (mostly owing my mom back for the laptop) and car repairs...gas and such. (Gas has gone up almost 30 cents in the last week!!). My situation is...I NEED a computer, I do website work, music, schooling, etc. I was considering selling my book, and getting the Mac mini. It's darn affordable, and I'm wondering if I can get 'similar' performance out of something like that, let's say .... to my Powerbook G4 !5" (current model).

I realise it 'technically' uses laptop components, and the processor, video card and such are not as quite 'up to par' with my model...but would it make that much of a difference? It's 1.4GHZ compared to 1.5GHZ.

So, general questions..for those who own these mini's...how are they? Do they run hot? Are they noisy if/when their fans come on? I am only going to be doing garageband work and dreamweaver sort of applications. I am totally willing to throw a 1GB stick in this thing, if that's what it takes. I just need general info on their performance, ease of use...experiences...positive? Negative?

Thanks!

Randman · Sep 3, 2005, 03:13 AM

I use my 1.5Ghz PB17 for most things and have a Mac mini for family stuff (and it's hooked up to the external HD and monitor so I use it for Unreal Tournament. I have the 1.42Ghz with 1GB of ram.

It's not bad, comparable with an iBook. It's not noisy but the fans do kick on during heavy gaming sessions. It's a little slower than the PB in intensive-labor apps such as PS and GarageBand.

Jacob · Sep 3, 2005, 03:33 AM

Do you think it would do well with an upgrade to 1GB of memory? I heard there is a night and day difference with the Powerbook G4's if an upgrade to more memory is made. Is the same true with these minis?

Randman · Sep 3, 2005, 03:42 AM

I have 1GB in the mini and just went from 1.5 to 2GB on the PB (I do more design work on it and like the extra punch for PS) and it does make a difference.

The mini is basically an iBook without the keyboard and screen. A good Mac but a little slower nonetheless.

Jacob · Sep 3, 2005, 10:48 AM

Oh alright, good comparison. Wouldn't be that bad then. Thanks.

tooki · Sep 3, 2005, 02:22 PM

A Mac mini's performance really is that of an iBook -- which is to say, almost identical to that of a PowerBook with similar CPU, RAM, and hard disk specs. The mini's biggest weakness is its GPU -- it is much less powerful than that in your PowerBook. So don't expect Exposé and the like to be as smooth, and don't try to run Doom 3 on it. Besides that, it'll be dandy!

And yes, it is quiet. Its fans' turbo mode is audible, but not intrusive.

tooki

capuchin · Sep 3, 2005, 04:43 PM

I'll second tooki's judgement on this one - I've used a PB 1.25 and a Mini 1.25 on a daily basis for the same tasks, and the GPU is definitely a lot less powerful in real world application than the powerbook. That aside, it's a nice little machine, and I like it just fine.

Simon · Sep 5, 2005, 02:37 AM

I also think it's a good idea to look upon the mini as very similar to the iBook/PowerBook. If you don't run 3D games or do heavy 3D accelerated stuff, the mini will be just fine. As long as you don't want to use it on the road of course.

jam8 · Sep 5, 2005, 10:03 AM

About the gpu: I have a 1ghz ibook g4 with 256ram and the standard 32mb gpu. Expose only slows down when i'm running 10 or more full pages on the web. This probably does not hold true with other graphic intensive programs, like photoshop. Hope this helps.