Power Mac G4 Cube versus Mac mini shootout

I have a G4 Cube (450mHz) and I am just now upgrading the RAM from a measly 448MB by adding a 512MB card and removing the original 64MB memory module. I am running Panther and can do many many things with my lovely Cube and I don't want to give it up. I would like to network it with a new Mini. Does this sound like a good idea? I'm not much of a techie. Can I do that? Does it make sense? I don't feel comfortable upgrading my Cube's processor and graphics cards. Basically, I just want to be able to burn home movie DVDs and have a faster processor. I suppose I could just replace my Cube but it's almost like a member of the family! I have to find a use for it. Heck! I still have a PowerComuting PowerCenter Pro tower sitting in another room and when the mouse broke from my kid playing with it I bought a new one - even though I never use the computer anymore! I'm a hopeless collector of all things Apple and cancelled!

maybe 19-22db it does not make much noise at all. Mine is next to my bed and i will be on it sometimes when my wife sleeps and believe me she is a light sleeper. She would not allow me to have it on if it made a lot of noise. Get the mini.

I am looking at buying a used G4 cube to replace my noisy PC home music server. I'm also considering a mac mini but I'm concerned about noise levels. I am looking for quiet (although it needn't be silent). I will be purcahsing over the net and don't have any where to go to listen to one first. How much noise does a mac mini make? Can any one advise? Thanks

Lets see the powermac g4 cube sold for about $1500 when it first came out in 2000, and now you can get a smaller more powerful computer for $499-$599. I will admit that I have always liked the g4 cube. In fact I brought one off ebay last September. I upgraded it with a 160 gig hard drive, 4x superdrive, Oem ge force 2mx graphic card, and 512 of ram. It is without a doubt a great machine. I went to NY and saw it when Steve Jobs showed it to the crowd. With my upgrades I was able to run itunes, iphoto, imovie, idvd, and garageband. Keep in mind Apple says you need a 733 mhz g4 to run garageband and idvd. I did it on an old 450mhz G4!!!! However, there are some things you should consider. Even though I could run ilife, the machine was very very very very slow in doing it. to encode a dvd in idvd took a very long time and I was only able to get about 6 streams in garageband before running into problems. i tunes encoded my cds in an average of 6.3- 6.5x. Even if you buy a g4 cube off ebay it still sells for around $450-$550. For that you could get a new Mac Mini. I brought myself a new Mac Mini last Sunday and I brought the tricked out one, 1.42 ghz G4, 512mb of ram, bluetooth, airport card,80 gig hard drive, and a superdrive. I paid a little over $800.00. so how does it stake up? Well the Mini has a faster G4, graphics card, system bus, ram, then the G4 cube. It encoded my cds in itunes with an average between 15-16.5x. Thats considerable faster then the cube. There are some things the cube has that the mini lacks. The cube has a larger cache, faster hard drive, and is easy to open up to change internal components, and also holds more ram. The mini lacks a fast graphics cars. Apple should have put a 64mb card in the Mini just for the fact you cant upgrade the graphic card. at all..... Over all I recommend the mini over the cube. Out of the box it can hand the G4 cube its ass on most applications. If you are wanting to upgrade there have been people who have over clocked the mac mini to 1.58 ghz and I know you can also change the hard drive to a faster one. You can with out a doubt do more upgrading in a Cube but be ready to fork over some major cash. an upgrade G4 chip costs about the same as the mac Mini itself. About $450 and up for the faster ones. AN upgrade graphic card if you dont already have one is at least $100.00, and a Super drive is over $200.00 all this on top of what you have already paid for the cube. Also remember internal parts do die after while and the cube is going on its 5th year. Something to consider. for me Mac Mini is the way to go. take care

I own a 500MHz Cube, souped up with a 2xSuperdrive from FastMac, a 80GB disk and a ATI Radeon 7000 64MB DVI+VGA+video-out and with 1GB RAM. I just added a LaCie Photon20Vision (1600x1200) and it is a great machine except for the processor speed. (I sold my QuickSilver G4 which was faster but was extremely noisy). What I haven't seen mentioned yet is the *no* fan situation of the Cube. Most upgrades, sadly come with a fan. But my system is still fanless and the only thing I wish for is a quieter drive. Gigadesigns has a 1.3GHz G4 upgrade for the cube which is certified to run fanless. But that one costs around $400 and at that cost, a base miniMac will be a more attractive option. The miniMac will have a fan and with that small enclosure will need it. It would be interesting to see noise differences.

Glad you chimed in! I'm not offended at all. I've done most of things already to my Cubes... of course that's why I have so many spares :) There are so many fun things you can do with a Cube (dead or alive), it would be a shame not to explore them all. The Mac mini will have some mod potential, but once it's dead, it won't be useful as much of anything other than maybe a large firewire drive enclosure, a mood box (if you light it right) or a kid's booster seat. While I don't object to the G5's overall looks, it is way too big, heavy and noisy for me to ever own or use in my home. I'd put one in my office if I needed it, but only as a workhorse that no one would ever see - specifically because I don't spend very much time in my office.

I feel compelled to share my opinion. I always wanted a Cube, but feared the heat distribution. Still--and don't take offense to this--I've also always wanted to gut a non-functioning Cube and turn it into some kind of dispenser--tissue box, toaster, shredder, or maybe just a huge ViewMaster. I'll probably be branded as a heretic, but I think G5s are ugly and klunky in their design. Pragmatically speaking, it's too damned big. It doesn't fit well within pre-existing computer cabinets and desk enclosures. It's too industrial, with hard metal all over it, and little style; it doesn't fit with Apple's track record of elegant, minimalistic industrial design (Cube, iMag G4, iPod, etc.). The G4 Quicksilvers were the best looking tower cabinets of the Jobs 2.0 era, IMHO. I speak specifically of the first generation, the one without a front-mounted make-up mirror.