Mini vs. G4 400 difference ...need new machine

Question

Hello,
I am looking for real world advice from mini users.
My current machine is a g4 400. Believe it or not I make my living doing imaging, design, web work. My major tools are PhotoShop, InDesign, Illustrator, GoLive, Painter, etc.
As you might imagine my current machine has trouble but being the cheap ******* that I am I have held out. I have been trying to hold out for the new Intel G5 towers but I don't think I can hold out any longer and need to get a machine in the next month or so. I will look at the Intel G5 towers later after they come out. I am not interested in being a guinea pig with the new Intel minis and how they are going to work with my software.
So here is my question-
Will I see significant performance differences between my current machine (G4 400 tower with 1.5 gigs of RAM and a couple of hard drives) and a current Mac Mini?
How does the Mini do with a 20"-24" LCD displays?
Would the Mini be a good interim machine between what I have and a G5 tower in another year or so? Or will there not be any real difference between what I have and the current minis?
Comparision to G5 iMacs?
Thanks for your help.

Answer 1

Of the two systems, the one I tend to pick to use is the upgraded G4. The slightly slower performance is easily offset by multiple, faster drives, two or more more displays, the extra RAM, the ease of adding in Airport, choice over internal optical drive, available slots for expansions cards, audio input, multi-boot capabilities etc. But there ARE downsides to the upgrade path too.
Most obvious is that there's only USB1.1 unless you add a USB2.0 card. That the original video card is woefully inadequate these days without adding a second or replacing it. That the faster the processor upgrade added, the less stable the system tends to be. That however fast and flexible you make it, it's still an old computer with a finite life ahead.
Of the uses that you list, the only one that causes me to doubt the mini's capabilities is Photoshop. Even then, if it's a reasonably casual use, a mini with 1Gb RAM would be perfectly OK... a bit sluggish opening files and in general because Photoshop likes a fast drive with plenty of space, but for the majority of us it would work perfectly well. If you're use is more pro than hobby, that may well not be the case however, and that's where the flexibility of an upgraded G4 might work rather better.
I like my mini and I've used it for a lot of fairly demanding tasks - it's a very capable system that really suffers far less than people generally suggest from it's slower drives etc. Most people - including many who decry it - would find it more than capable of performing the tasks they would need of it. I've certainly been impressed by mine. But the upgrade option for an older G4 does have the benefit of giving you the choice of what aspects of the system you need to focus most upon. For instance, I wanted to be able to run 2 or 3 displays, sometimes a TV, from mine, simply because I find it helpful to have an application's primary window on one screen and the toolboxes on the other, or ethereal on one, an administrator terminal server session on a second, and mail processing on the third - easier to see everything without switching systems or windows.... so I just bought a used Radeon 7500 PCI card and added it - cost $30, and more than adequate. I wanted reliable and fast drives and the ability to multi-boot for testing, so I put three 7200rpm drives in it, each one bootable. I wanted Airport for occasional use, so I put a card in it, but if I need the card for something else (a G4 FP iMac for example) I can easily pull it out again. I occasionally need to back up a directory, but since it's done at 2am, I didn't need anything fast, so I spent $20 on a discontinued Pioneer A104 DVD burner that a dealer had lying around. And while speed is always useful, I knew that a really fast processor wasn't going to be all that important, so I put in a 1GHz unit that does the job exceptionally well and wasn't a silly price. I also had RAM that was out of a couple of disused P3s, and put that in the G4 and it works just fine, maxed out at 2Gb.
Whether to buy a mini or upgrade the G4 depends on a lot of factors - but above all don't forget that your G4 has no warranty whereas a new mini will, and Applecare can also be added to give you 3 year's cover. For business use that could be important too.