I am just days away from building my mac mini system. There are computer parts everywhere in my house. I have photoshop 5.5 and office 98 and a bunch of other software around, but wonder if it will run on 10.4 ??? I don't know if the new os 10.4 has a " classic " mode ?? my brother in law has a G-3 or G-4 laptop running lots of the same software that I have, but I think he had to switch into classic mode to run it. I think os 9 is in the mix somewhere ???

Without sounding like an idiot ( hopefully ) do I need all new software or upgrades ??? The mini comes with apple life 06 and the stuff I need to mess with a new video ipod.... so that will all be new. I just wonder if my illustrator / photoshop / office 98 can be installed ???

If you don't have Classic, you cannot run them. However, you should be able to install Classic from the Installer DVD that comes with the mini.

Thank you for the reply... another issue is that apple just released it's new mini based on an intel chipset. I am going to return the mini I have had for a day and start over with the intel mini. This is supposed to be about four times faster , and with more usb ports, but without the ability to run os 9 mac classic. I think it is still a good tradeoff and I can them install 2 gig of ram. The video processor should be much better as well although it uses the ram from the mini, not seperate memory.. I guess I will have to buy new software. Having the up to date mini sounds like a better deal to me.

Semi-faulty reasoning..

There IS no separate video card. It's integrated and therefore wastes processor (CPU) time as it devotes to what a GPU does.

Personally, I HATE WinTels with integrated video. Their performance sucks. And if you plan on doing video intensive projects.. well you can see the problem.

That being said, the 32MB video card that was in the PPC mini sucks as well. Just be prepared for a much smaller "jump" in performance than what you think you're getting.

Also, I have no idea about how Classic or Classic apps work under Rosetta. Ask before you buy.

I had purchased the g4 mini with 1 gig of ram, the new one will likely be purchased with 2 gig of ram. You are correct that the processor will use CPU time, but the intel dual chipset is said to be about 4 times faster... so I think it is still a better deal. I do want to know what intel chipset is in the new mini.. I am not a big celery fan...

"Up to 4 times faster".. so says Apple. You can choose to believe that if you want.

In REAL WORLD situations, I have no doubt that it is faster than it's G4 predecessor, but I think 4x is a serious stretch. And then to be hampered by a lack of real video card.. well, anything that uses GPU will be slower than it should be.

However, the POINT of a Mac Mini is to offer a cheap solution to get Windows users into a Mac.

The Intel is not a celeron, it's a Core Duo. More info here:

http://www.intel.com/products/proces...reduo/demo.htm

Thanks for the web site info. Do you feel that this intel processor is a good one ??? I agree that likely it is maybe 1.4 times faster , not 4 times faster. Faster is better , so I like that. I ordered my machine last week ( the new one ) with 2 gig of ram , so I hope that more than makes up for the video processor. I am not sure how that system works... but I can easily dedicate 256 - 512 mb of ram to the video out in my configuration. That should be a lot more than any card out there.


Apple is making some changes in it's products... I don't know if it will be for the better or the worse... but I would rather be on the new end of the technology curve instead of having potential serious OS limitations because I was on the old hardware. I am moving from a 604e chipset at 225 mhz to the intel at about 1.5 GHZ , I had a gig of ram, and now have two... I hope that works out for me. I should have the machine up in a few days... I can figure out then what the real world performance is.

I don't think it's possible to "dedicate" RAM to video. Plus, it's not just about RAM, it's also about the CPU that is being utilized for video. Anyway, 2GB of RAM is definitely going to help out, no matter what.