2011 vs 2010 mac mini review install#
2011 vs 2010 mac mini review upgrade#
2011 vs 2010 mac mini review pro#

If both systems were outfitted with 2GB of memory, the dual 2.5GHz G5 was 11% faster than the Mac mini. Power Mac G5ДЄpple Mac mini (Mid 2010) - Core 2 Duo 2.40GHzДЄpple Power Mac G5 (Early 2005) - PowerPC 970FX 2.5GHz x 2

2011 vs 2010 mac mini review upgrade#

This isnвЂ™t the most fair comparison, but it does give you an idea of how much of an upgrade youвЂ™d see as a G5 user if you wanted to replace your aging machine with the most affordable Mac: Mac mini vs. Snow Leopard is faster so thatвЂ™s another mini advantage. Leopard is the best the G5 will run, while Snow Leopard comes standard with the 2010 Mac mini. And thereвЂ™s no reason to assume that a G5 owner would have a 2.5вЂќ 5400RPM laptop drive in their system so thatвЂ™s just going to have to be an inherent advantage over the mini. Most G5s would probably have a slower spinning, but potentially faster overall drive by now. I ripped out all but 2GB of memory from the G5 system, but left the 3.5вЂќ HDD in place. I tried to level the playing field as much as reasonably possible. Adobe Photoshop CS4 and AppleвЂ™s Aperture 2, both OS X benchmark favorites of mine, fully support the Power Mac G5. While many modern OS X applications are now Intel-only, there are a surprising number that will run on PowerPC systems.

I updated the OS to 10.5.8 and went about installing applications. This time around Leopard installed just fine. I went back to something more 2005: a 150GB Raptor.

2011 vs 2010 mac mini review install#

I couldnвЂ™t get Leopard to install to the drive without errors. Despite being a SATA drive, the G5 was very unhappy with the new VelociRaptor. I popped in a 600GB VelociRaptor and was quickly reminded that I was using a 5 year old machine. Running at up to 2.7GHz, there was enough IPC on the table for the Power Mac G5 to at least remain competitive with the Core 2 Duo in the new Mac mini. Unlike the Pentium 4, the 970 was a very shallow (9 stage integer pipe) and wide microprocessor (5-way instruction dispatch). The PowerPC 970FX, a 90nm version of the original 970, was a very impressive architecture. I was curious to see where the performance of a high end G5 fit in todayвЂ™s Mac lineup. I stopped using the G5 during 10.4 (Tiger) and hadnвЂ™t tried anything newer, until now. Like all PowerPC Macs, the G5 wonвЂ™t run anything newer than OS X 10.5 (Leopard).

ThatвЂ™s an amazing resale value for a five year old computer based on a seven year old platform. Today you can find slower G5s on eBay or Craigslist for around $400, and faster dual dual-core models going for as much as $800. Brand new, this system cost $2699 (not including the memory upgrade).

2011 vs 2010 mac mini review pro#

While not my original Power Mac, I do still have an early 2005 model with a pair of 2.5GHz PowerPC 970FX processors, 4GB of DDR-400 memory and an ATI Radeon 9600 Pro video card (AGP 8X of course). The Apple IIe was the first Apple I ever owned, and the Power Mac G5 was the first Mac I ever owned.