How slow is too slow?

In December of 2005, I bought a mac mini. I bought it because of my pervious experience with the complete invulnerability of macs to doltish users like me, and because I just happen to like the way macs run. My mini has been fairly slow the entire time, but because my previous mac was from about 1995 and running OS 8.6, I thought it was simply slow because computers are slow. Lately I've begun to wonder if there is something wrong with my computer, and if it is hardwarde I should have repaired before the warranty is up or if it's software related and something I can fix.
My question: Is my computer functioning below expectations for its specifications? If so, what can I do to fix it?
My computer is runing OS 10.4.7, and its hardware is as follows...
Hardware Overview:
Machine Name: Mac mini
Machine Model: PowerMac10,2
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.2)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.5 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 167 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.9.4f1
My performance; I like to keep Safari, Mail, Microsoft Windows, and Preview open all at the same time, so I can write things about PDFs while keeping an eye on my email and looking up things online. I also have "Google Earth" running fairly often. When typing more than a line or two quickly, I always have the spinning disk of processor busy. All I'm doing is typing. Now, I'd think that I'm simply overloading the processor and I should shut down some programs already, but I get the spinning disk even when just one program is open. In fact, I tried having everything closed (although I can't quit Dashboard: does that slow my computer down?) and typing in Text Edit for the lowest demand possible, and I still get delays. I also tried this after restarting the computer, in case I had serious memory leak problems. Normally, I almost never restart my computer; it starts up very slowly.
I tried a second user account ... the computer was still very slow.
I ran Apple Hardware test from the startup disk, and it didn't find any problems.
I've almost given up on using iCal because I can't add a single event without waiting at least three seconds, usually more.
When I type quickily, the words stop appearing, the pointer becomes a spinning disk, and about two to three seconds later all of the words appear on the page. This is a problem because I'm not as good a touch typist as I wish I were, and if I don't see the words appearing, my typing is usually full of errors.
With presumably processor-intensive programs such as Google Earth, the computer will pause for 30 seconds or more on a regular basis, even if Google Earth is the only program running.
Mac Mini Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Hello,
It does sound like you have unusually slow performance in some areas.
I think it would be worthwhile to have it examined and just get a professional opinion on it if it is still under warranty.
But, it could be software causing the problem as well.
So, you may actually find that a fresh installation of OS X might bring your performance back up.
Personally, I think it is more likely that software would be affecting the performance than hardware.
Hardware tends to break completely rather than just work slowly.
The only area that tends to cause slow performance is over-heating.
So, you might check that.
Does your fan spin-up when you do more intensive things (graphics, etc.)?
If you never ever hear the fan, then it may not be working.
Unfortunately, most of the temperature monitors don't get a CPU and system reading from the Mac Mini G4. I think they just don't have the same sensors as the other systems.
But, if the system over-heats, then it will typically run slow. But, it's not likely that it's over-heating because Macs usually shut-down when they get too hot as a protection mechanism.
So, I would personally first try running the maintenance routines in OnyX as I proposed previously.
Then, if no improvement is observed, then try a completely fresh installation of OS X. And, by that I mean formatting the hard drive and installing completely from scratch. Be sure to archive anything important to an external drive, another computer, or a CD-R or DVD-R disk.
Then, if the machine is still too slow after a fresh install, then take it in for examination.
Until you try installing fresh, that's going to be the first thing they tell you to do anyway. So, you might as well try it first.
As for the benchmark results, the areas you reported are explaining the performance of the graphical user interface (the interface you are working with when you click on stuff), and the performance of the hard drive when it is dealing with fresh information that it hasn't had a chance to pre-cache or hasn't handled before.
But, if you want a detailed explanation of how X-Bench works, they have a user-forum here:
http://spiny.com/forum/
Perhaps those more familiar with the program could offer better analysis.
But, since the hard drive is working, I think you have something that is otherwise inhibiting it's performance. It could be the system just not working properly. But, I would first rule-out software / Operating System.
It would be extremely unusual for a hard drive to just perform slow. Their failures are usually complete failures.
Anyway, let me know if you have other questions. I'll check in with the discussion tomorrow.
I hope this helps.

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Date: Thu, 4 Nov 2010 09:22:05 -0600
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Subject: How to change too less than 4seconds...
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