I sold my powermac G5 and bought a mac mini instead.
Of course the mac mini is a less powerful computer, but I wanted to do it, the mac mini is just a fun computer.
I bought the 1.42ghz model (hey, I don't want to truncate off my last .02gh either!)...and I upgraded the RAM to 512mb and upgraded the hard drive to a 7200rpm 60gb toshiba.
My impression is, it is noticeably slower than the G5 it replaced...by that I mean, launching times here and there are a bit less snappy.
However, I'm not disappointed in the machine, not at all. For once I get a new computer and essentially get paid about $500 to buy it (the difference between selling the used G5 and buying the new mac mini)!
for the guy that wants a comparision to an imac, see
www.barefeats.com , they've compared it to all kinds of mac models.
I agree with what others have said...the less than stellar hard drive, doesn't really take away from the enjoyment of the machine.
I would not recommend my 7200rpm toshiba...the fact is, the internal drive interface just isn't going to keep up, and you won't notice the speed up (maybe I do have a 30% speedup, but I added $150 to the price of the machine).
OK, if you want the best hdd for the mini, get a really fast, really big external firewire...as you can see from the barefeats article, the fastest hdd speeds can be obtained via the firewire interface, not via the onboard IDE.
What's great about the mac mini, is it really does parallel an A1200...not just in the use of a laptop hard drive, but already the 'hardware hack' community is out in force, with overclock instructions, replacing hard drives, attaching desktop 3.5" drives, putting it in a new case...and more are being added each day.
