[Dexdexter]

Hello,

Having gotten a taste of Apple with my MacBook, I'm looking to rid myself of Windows entirely by replacing my desktop PC.

There are two interesting options so far:

1) iMac G4, model PowerMac 4.2, 800MHz

15-inch display
L2-cache 256MB
768 MB RAM
hard disk 60GB
superdrive
video card NVidea GeForce MX 32MB
airport card
Apple speaker-balls

MacOS X 10.4.9

350 EURO

2) Mac Mini G4 1.42 Ghz

256 MB RAM
80GB hard disk

350 EURO

Are the sound cards on these equivalent?

I like the form factor of the iMac, but I wonder if they are robust. The Mac Mini of course would also require a monitor and keyboard.

Are there likely to be better options in this price range?

I'm not into gaming and don't need any heavy graphics power, just something that can network with my Airport Extreme, for use with internet, e-mail, word processing, and iTunes.

Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance!

 

[lowmagnet]

I have a G4 iMac 800 like the one you listed. If I try and stream lossless files over the network, there are significant delays between songs. I think if you are hard-wiring the systems to 100-BaseT it'll work OK, since I was using 11Mb connection at the time. If you can find a used G5 iMac you'd be better off, since the G4 800 is a 6 year old machine.

The minis are sorta weak in general. I have an Intel mini and it's a slowpoke at doing some things because it has a low-power laptop style hard disk in it.

 

[modShade]

I had a 700MHz iMac G4. As far as how robust it is, by the time I sold it the arm that held up the monitor couldn't really hold itself up unless it was perpedicular with the rest of the computer. It was certainly a pretty neat design though. I would say for what your going to do with it it would fit the bill nicely. Ideally if you could get any Mac with an intel processor you would be rockin' but in your pricerange that isn't really plausible. If you go with the mac mini option you have to get a monitor like you said which would drive the price up above what it's worth really when you compare it to the iMac.

Enjoy,
Shade.

 

[Oliver :)]

Neither sounds like a good option. The iMac is a wonderful piece, yet the it is plenty old and the backlight in the display might be fading already. You would have to look at it personally. Assuming from the size of the HDD it is the early 2003 model and therefore only has slow 11b WLAN (will slow down the whole network) and no USB2. The mini has too little RAM to be any fun at all. As a rule of thumb, your Mac should have 1GB RAM at this point, the more the better. You can live with 512MB, but things might be slow. Both still run on PowerPC chips. If you check out this buyersguide you will see that both model lines are overdue for an update, which will likely allow you to pick up intel-based machines at better 2nd-hand prices.

Why don't you just invest the €350 in a external display & maybe a keyboard for the Macbook? It is faster than both the stationary machines you are looking at, and it does have a DVI-port. If you like "robust" stuff, you can get an iMate ADB->USB adaptor for about €20-30 off ebay plus an Apple Extended II keyboard (€5-20) - best keyboard ever, just doesn't fit the current design

Oh, and download the "Mactracker" app, it tells you all the tech specs, very handy.

 

[Dexdexter]

Thanks for all your replies so far, you're giving me plenty to think about!

 

[lowmagnet]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oliver /img/forum/go_quote.gif only has slow 11b WLAN (will slow down the whole network) and no USB2.

Yeah, that's a significant problem that precludes doing lossless audio streaming at all. Not good. (Now I'm sounding like a broken record) USB is fine for USB audio, since there's no USB 2.0 spec for audio anyway.

 

[recca]

recommend macmini with intel chipset. Even if you get the lowest model (1.5ghz) you can upgrade the hardware (RAM, Hard drive, and CPU) with relative ease and increase the performance. I've been researching quite a bit as I've been very interested in doing some low end video editing. The MacMini with Intel hardware is probably the best deal out. The only thing you can't upgrade is the Video Card.
http://www.macintouch.com/specialreports/minimonster/#intro

 

[bigshot]

The Mac Mini has optical out, so it can resolve DTS 5:1 sound, which is a big advantage if you plan to use it with your video and audio setup. I would recommend the Mini.

See ya
Steve

 

[Uncle Erik]

Yes, I use an Intel Mini to serve music through a DAC via TOSLINK. It works great, and you'll also love the remote they come with.

 

[Dexdexter]

Great, I'll hold out for an Intel Mini!

Thanks again, everybody!

 

[Musiq]

Mac Mini is OK if you're just going to use it for music,but if you're replacing your desktop PC and you do other things with it, an Intel iMac would be the way to go.