I mentioned the other day that I was considering buying myself an iMac, to replace my current Mac Mini that is suffering from a lack of memory. The idea behind this was that it would work out cheaper than a full-blown Mac Pro, which would provide far more power than I would really need for my day-to-day work. Looking around on eBay proved that I might be able to stretch to a nice iMac, so all was looking tentatively rosy. Until my Dad left a comment, that is.

He recommended looking at a PowerMac G5, which isn’t brand new but would provide plenty of power and retain the ability to upgrade in the future. I was a little dubious to begin with, but a quick look at eBay showed that a typical PowerMac G5 was actually cheaper than a comparatively priced iMac. Tempting.

(more…)

I’ve finally got to the point where I’m considering upgrading my computer again. Some of you may remember that it’s actually not that long ago that I bought my current computer, a second-hand Mac Mini, to replace the previous G3 tower that died. In all honesty the Mac Mini was only intended to be a short-term solution, as I need to replace the G3 but didn’t really have a budget for it at the time, hence the need for a cheap stop-gap solution.

To be fair, the Mac Mini has been superb. It looks great, does the job very nicely, is blissfully quiet, and has a faster processor than the G3. And for a £260 Mac, it really was a bargain. Unfortunately, however, its power just doesn’t match up to my needs, and I’ve reached the point where I have to seriously consider budgeting for a more powerful alternative.

(more…)