First Mac... help please

[marcs]

Hi guys and gals,

I'm a pretty serious power user and I currently have two machines: a Windows box which I use mainly for gaming and the odd media file, and a FreeBSD box (which Mac OS X has under it's hood) for my development stuff.

I'm looking at buying my first Mac and need some advice on what to purchase. I was looking at the Mac Mini as it's the most affordable for me (I'm in South Africa and Apple kit is fairly expensive here), but was wondering if perhaps the iMac G5 is something I should also be considering.

As I'll be doing development on here (and hopefully playing the odd game or two) I was hoping to get some advice on what I should be thinking of purchasing. I know very little about Mac's in general, so any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Marc

[kretara]

I believe that either would be fine for you.

I have a Mini (and a DP G5) and I love it!
I'll list some pro's and con's for both and I'll try to address them to your situation.

Mini Pro:
1. its tiny (really, unless you see one you can't grasp how truely small it is)
2. quite
3. inexpensive
4. runs OS X perfectly
5. will work with your current keyboard/mouse/monitor

Mini Cons:
1. no upgradeability (well, you can upgrade the ram and if you are brave you can replace the SLOW HD with something faster)
2. did I mention that the HD is either 4200 or 5400 RPM
3. only 1 firewire port
4. video card might be weak for games. I can say that the Mini runs Diablo II just fine.
5. does not include keyboard or mouse

iMac Pros:
1. has monitor built in (don't need to buy a monitor)
2. G5 processor (compared to the Mini's G4)
3. comes standard with 7200 RPM HD (I believe)
4. better video card
5. faster BUS (the Mini only has a bus of 167mhz)
6. slightly easier to upgrade HD and RAM

iMac Cons:
1. has monitor built in. What if you want to use your current monitor? What if the monitor in the iMac dies (in 4 years), the CPU is fine but where do you store the big iMac?
2. more expenseive than the Mini
3. much larger than the Mini (due to the monitor)
4. very little upgradeability

Neither of these computers are very upgradeable. If you want to add extra cards for video/audio/whatever work then you would be better off with a G5 Powermac.

The lowend Powermac should cost about the same as a low end iMac. You don't get a monitor, but you do get lots of expandability.

All that aside. I'm a "power user" (web developer, coder etc..) and I find that the Mini is just as useful for those jobs as my DP G5 is.

[marcs]

Thank you very much, that's quite helpful.

If I may throw one more spanner into the works: how about a Powermac G5; what sort of application/uses would you suggest a user purchase that for? Is this likely to be something I'll want to move to at a later stage, or should I looking to stretch my budget to fit this in?

[kretara]

Truthfully, it depends on your needs.
Below are some reasons that you would need a Powermac:
If you need dual processors (ex. high end graphics work, video capture/encoding etc.. AS YOUR JOB, NOT AS A HOBBY)
If you need to have more than 1 internal HD or want internal RAID.
If you need lots of upgrade potential (you want to add audio or video capture/processing cards, a RAID card, more firewire/usb ports etc...).
If you want to run more than one monitor.

My current setup at work is a Dual 2.0 G5 Powermac at work running 4 monitors (I had to add a PCI video card for this) and 2 250GB internal SATA HD's along with 1 external (firewire) 250GB HD. I use this Mac for web development, coding, database testing and very lite image stuff. Its way overkill for what I do, BUT I can't live with only a single monitor at work so I got the Powermac.

At home I have a Mini 1.42. I currently am booting off the internal 80GB HD and using my dual firewire enclosure (with 2 250gb HD's) for music and movie storage.
I use my Mini for general surfing and as a movie/music server around the house. I also do occasional coding on it. If it could use more than 1 monitor it would be perfect for all the work I currently do with my Powermac.

If you are just starting with an Apple (to see if you like it etc) I would get the Mini. Otherwise, I would go for the Powermac IF you can afford it.
I would suggest the Mini. It will do almost anything you need.