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.
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.
