imusicians... need advice?!

[travism]

hey guys... i dunno whether to put this here but i was wondering if you guys can help me out. as everyone knows, i plan to get a desktop soon. (within this year..) here is my dilema:

"should i go for an imac G5 set up or mac mini G4 set up?"

i know most of you would say G5 but my budget is not big. though i might be getting it late this year... (i hope the prices really go down but that time) i'll be doing most of my music production on this and leaving the performance part to my trusty powerbook. i'll also be sharing this desktop with my wife who just surfs the internet, writes documents and organizes our pics. i'll also be doing graphics and basic video stuff on this baby. i don't wanna spend too much since i'm still paying for my car but i want to get a dependable deskktop... i've seen a couple of mac minis going for less than 20k here and they seem tempting. couple that with a 19inch monitor, wireless KB and mouse and ok na di ba?!

i want to hear feedback from peeps with imac G5s and mac mini G4s on how the performance of music software are... i know of a couple of imusicians running imacs and mac minis. please help me make up my mind. if their is an already existing thread about this topic, forgive me for re-posting... hehehe

good day to all and cheers

[travism]

i'd like to add pala... i might be leaving this thing on for a coouple of days so any input on the heat issue is welcome.

[hitman]

Bro if you have the luxury of time, I would advise that you to wait and save up for a G5 rather than a mini. A desktop G5 offers you a lot of advantages:

*Obviously there's the 64-bit power advantage that a G5 can offer over a mac mini. You might be able to maximize this power should you want to migrate to leopard later.

*You can further maximize your G5 by pairing your memory modules to 2Gb enabling its dual channel capability. (This works for my 2nd rev G5.)

Avoid getting those 1st generation G5 (1.6-1.8ghz) though and go for the second rev up.

Except for the crappy superdrive that came with my Imac, I'm really surprised that it can handle heat quite well and have left it on for more than a week. Sometimes I would render video files overnight without turning my aircon on and still it managed to do its job.

I'm sure the mac mini option is pretty tempting, there are a lot of good deals out there (i know, ive been tempted and bought one). If only the mac minis came out with G5 processors...

[hitman]

Uhmmm one more thing, you also have the option of screen spanning-- using another monitor as an extended desktop with an imac G5. This might come pretty handy in your future upgrades.