Should I upgrade te CPU or buy a Mac Mini

Well I can't make up my mind on this, so i'll let you guys deside for me.

Should I get a CPU upgrade for my B&W (1GHz)?

Should I just go buy a mac mini?

Hard question, i guess it depends on the kind of upgrades you have in your B&W... The mini has a slower HD (maybe not compared to the b&w's stock ata controller?), and a limited graphics card, but i must admit, it looks really cool

when you say 1ghz do you mean a G3 or G4?

if you get a G3 then the upgrade may be the way to go.

if its a G4 1ghz you have your eye on then get the mini. the sonnet 1ghz G4 for B&W and pci G4's (yikes) lowers the B&W bus from 100mhz to 66mhz. the G3 1ghz and 1.1 ghz upgrades from powerlogix leave the bus @ 100mhz but they are known for many issues.

in the end a mini will give you the most speed all round. the mini's shipping now are actually 1.33 and 1.5ghz and the 1.5 model has 64mb vram.

B&W G4 1ghz with 66mhz bus

B&W G3 1ghz with 100 mhz bus

mini 1.33 or 1.5 with 167mhz bus

those are your spec choices. also, don't forget that a mini will also have a MUCH faster memory controller that runs on a bus that is 67 - 150% faster.

Post edited by: zenstate, at: 2005/11/13 12:11

Post edited by: zenstate, at: 2005/11/13 12:14

get a mini and use the B&W as a media centre or a bit torrent machine. I have 3 systems and easily found lots of work for all 3 to do.

Is your B&W a rev. a or rev. b logic board. It can make a lot of difference in the software upgrade path. Typically we've found in shop that Rev. A machines have trouble making the leap to 10.3 and higher, whereas rev. b machines have less of a time. Personally, I'm inclined to agree that you should seriously consider the Mac Mini as a primary system, and then use the blue for other purposes. However, I'd probably upgrade it regardless, just to get some more punch out of it

Since the best graphics card you can put in the G3 (easily) is a 9200 which is also used in the Mini, the Mini will have a definite performance advantage overall. Unless you have a SATA controller and HD in the G3, then it might compete quite favourably.

It really depends on your intended usage: If you want a single Mac as fast as possible, the Mini wins unless you want more storage, and less multimedia use. If you want to use the G3 as a media server/centre and the Mini for your more heavy duty needs, then I would try to get the Mini and then maybe a G4 upgrade running at 500 or 600MHz for the G3 as well. Best of both worlds. Plus the 600s are the fastest G4s that don't downclock the bus and are supposedly equivalent to the much faster G4s anyway. Something about the pipeline architecture...

modyourmac wrote:


its a 450 so it must be a rev. b. I have a rev. a that I use as a bit torrent machine and it runs 10.3.9 perfectly and it even ran tiger fine for a while. I went back to panther because the system only has 384mb ram and panther is less ram intensive.

Yea I have a Rev b. I think i'll just save up and buy a mac mini.

I would buy the mini.
-maestro

Go for the mini.