> Executive summary: have the money, get a PowerBook, want portable for
> less get the iBook. Nothing against the Mac mini, but as it's only
> got a G4 I'd go with the iBook or the PowerBook (if you have the
> money). Once Apple starts making G5 PowerBooks, though, the equation
> changes as the extra power of the G5 over the G4 will make a big
> difference.
There's some information on today's Macintouch (www.macintouch.com)
comparing what it would cost to buy a complete Mac mini system (monitor,
keyboard, etc.) vs. buying an iMac. Of course anybody with older hardware
that they can press into service would have to do their own calculations,
but the Mac mini isn't quite as cheap as it first seems, it appears.
Another drawback with respect to using it for music is that it has a 2.5"
hard drive, which is not likely to have the throughput of a larger 3.5"
drive. It also apparently has a slower system bus speed than other Mac
models.
But in any case it will be interesting to see how it fares in real-world
performance situations, once people get their hands on them. Personally I
think the best uses for the thing would be as a headless server for media
and other stuff (like my CVS repository), and as part of a CPU farm for
taking advantage of Cubase's and Logic's ability to use several machines at
once.
--Adam