Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: Get the Right Memory for Your Mac Top Quality, Competitive Price, Lifetime Backed Free Expert Support + Installation Videos too! MacBook & mini 8GB, iMac 16GB, Mac Pro up to 32GB. Click here

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Used Intel Mac mini vs. 867 MHz Power Mac G4 Dual

- 2008.04.07

Bookmark in del.icio.us

My Turn is Low End Mac's column for reader-submitted articles. It's your turn to share your thoughts on all things Mac (or iPhone, iPod, etc.) and write for the Mac web. Email your submission to Dan Knight .

I have just purchased a used Mac mini via LEM Swap List and would like to present some comparison between the mini I got and my Dual 867 MHz Mirror Drive Door Power Mac G4. I have long searched for a site that would provide some practical comparison that average Joe could use to decide if it's right to move from their G4 to an Intel-based Mac.

Data collected includes some most common applications that I use, and I would hope it would help some folks out there to make a decision. This does not include any other reasons that people may have, like needing to run Windows or desperately wanting a quiet machine that cannot be heard in the middle of the night running in a room on the opposite side of the house.

Both systems are quite close in value (I paid $450 for MDD and spent $50 on RAM and $499 shipped on mini), which should make it an interesting shootout.

PowerPC Mac: Dual 867 MHz G4, 2 GB RAM, 250 GB HD 7200 RPM, Pioneer DL SuperDrive, stock video card, AirPort, Bluetooth, USB 2.0 card
Intel Mac: Intel Core Duo 1.83 GHz, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB HD 5400 RPM, SuperDrive, AirPort, Bluetooth.

Both systems run Mac OS X 10.5.2 with all latest updates installed and the same versions of software used during testing.

Tests Performed

1. Extracting five chapters from a DVD movie to the hard drive using MacTheRipper (I own the movie)

mini: 3:34 seconds

MDD: 2:36 seconds

2. Encoding those five chapters (22 minutes and 31 seconds) to MP4 to be played on Apple TV, average bitrate 1500 kbps, framerate 23.976 FPS, input resolution 720 x 480, output 720 x 478, 2 pass, video format MP4.

This was a sad one for PPC, while it was trying to keep a constant rate of 10 fps, mini was hitting 47 fps, with constant rate of about 42-43.

mini: 38 min total (12 min first turbo pass)

MDD: 162 minutes total (57 min first turbo pass)

3. Importing 13 track CD to iTunes

mini: 6:32 seconds

MDD: 6:20 seconds

4. Opening Firefox to the Google homepage

mini: 7 seconds

MDD: 17 seconds

5. Opening Safari to Apple's website:

mini: 4 seconds

MDD: 20 seconds

6. Opening Mail:

mini: 3 seconds

MDD: 6 seconds

7. Launching iTunes

mini: 5 seconds

MDD: 15 seconds

8. Launching MS Word (Office 2004)

mini: 12 seconds

MDD: 6 seconds

With the exception of video encoding, both systems appeared to perform very closely in most applications once they were launched. Although launching browsers took twice as long on the MDD, once they loaded, changing pages seemed just about the same.

Mirror Drive Door Power Mac G4 It was hard for me to make a choice between the two. Video performance and whisper quiet operation is what made me go with mini, yet I keep looking at the MDD sitting right next to it waiting to be packaged and shipped away to it's new home, and I can't help but feel a bit sad.

MDD in my opinion has one of the nicest looking cases in Apples desktop history; it looks rich, classy, and hip even though it's a 5-year-old machine. You can pack 4 hard drives inside, 2 optical drives, there are plenty of PCI slots to install whatever one may desire.

I'm going to miss you, old friend, and I hope that your new owner will enjoy you as much as I did.

Share your perspective on the Mac by emailing with "My Turn" as your subject.

Recent My Turn articles

Using Low End Macs for Internet Radio, 08.18. When the local public radio station moved classical music to HD radio, it was time to find another way to listen. An old iMac with iTunes solved the problem.
'That's Not a Computer', 07.30. Salvaging a broken PowerBook by turning it into a desktop computer.
Upgrading a Digital Audio G4 to work better in Leopard, 06.02. In its original configuration, the dual 533 MHz Power Mac G4 was slow with Mac OS X 10.5, but add the right upgrades, and it runs Leopard quite nicely.
My 4 favorite PowerBooks, 05.28. The PowerBook 150 has a big screen for a vintage PowerBook, the 165c has color, the 100 is diminutive, and Lombard has USB and a great keyboard.
More in the My Turn index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: Power Mac 4400, Nov. 1996 - Apple does cheap to compete with clones - and nobody is impressed.
Group of the Day: LisaList supports Lisa users.
November 7 in LEM history: 00: PowerBook Lite dreams - Our first Macs - 01: OS 9, OS X, or Linux? - 02: Xserve for the classroom - 03: Panther on slot-loading iMacs - High capacity Lombard/Pismo battery - 05: Clean keyboard residue from laptop screen with ROR - SeaMonkey - 06: Dan Bricklin, inventor of the spreadsheet - Turn any Mac into a gameshow buzzer - 07: The transforming PowerBook 1400 - PowerBook 540 on Compact Flash
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999.
Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589.
Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990.
Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498.
Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.