After doing a little digging I’ve come up with these two situations for around $1600.
A) 1.25 GHz G4 Mac mini with super drive, 512mb
memory,40 GB hard drive, bluetooth, airport extreme, bluetooth keyboard
and mouse (not apple), USB 2.0 and firewire hub, and Dell’s best 20″
LCD monitor.
B)1.8 GHz G5 17″ iMac with 1 GB RAM, 80GB hard drive, bluetooth keyboard and mouse, and super drive.
Ok, the iMac is obviously a better computer. Not
only does it have a faster processor, but it has a much better bus
speed and more RAM. There’s no question that it will out perform the G4
chip in the mini, plus there wouldn’t be a hub involved (for now) so my
desktop would be quite a bit neater. That sounds like a minor thing,
but I’m really looking forward to having more desk real estate to work
with… I’m not exactly a power user, I mostly surf, play music, email,
word process, etc usually at the same time… On the other hand, the
monitor with the mini will be a lot nicer. Not only is it bigger, but
it has much better specs and it is separate from the CPU. I’d like to
be able to use this as my TV as well as my computer so the bigger,
nicer screen is a big plus. The other thing is that I could eventually
upgrade the the CPU and use the same monitor. SIGH, I’m going to go
crazy with this, all opinions are welcome, I’m looking for some
guidance…
Isaac