Calling all Mac users… you know you’re out there… 🙂 I need some advice. Two things, really:
1. Do I sell my G4 and get a Mac Mini? I have a dual 800MHz G4. I do love it, but damn is it big. And I have a tiny condo and a tiny office. My PC is a Shuttle, so you know I love the small. I used to do video editing on the G4… but now I have a G5 at work, and well, with school, I barely have time to do much else.
If I sell the G4, I could offset the cost of a sweet little mini that would look great on my desk, and use my existing monitor, etc. However, I would like to occasionally run Final Cut Pro and DVD Studio Pro on it. What do you think?
2. Does anyone know of a good KVM switch for USB devices?
Okay, not necessarily Mac specific. But I have a USB Keyboard and a USB mouse that I would like to use for both my Mac and my PC. Most of the KVM switches I’ve seen are for PS/2 devices. I have found a few, but none that look, well, very good. Any pointers?
Wish I could help but this mac user is surviving on a 600 Mhz G3 iBook, so your G4 is so far ahead of me it’s not even funny. This is a tough choice, though, b/c the G4 probably still could do all you’d want from a computer for a few more years, plus it’s expandable/upgradeable, plus you already own it. The mini only gives you …. small. Oh, and a faster processor, but will you notice that difference?
Not helpful, right? I’ll keep my eye out for the USB kvm switch. Apple should just make one b/c lots of people are going to want this…
i would hesitate to run Final Cut on the Mini. I’d say the dual is probably still better for those hard-core apps. Still…the Mini is nice and the dual is big. Are you sure you’ll video edit on it at home? That’s what I said about Quark last year, and I’ve used it once (on a balky Pismo).
As for the KVM switch, we had the same problem last year and ended up buying a switch and a USB adapter. Not elegant, but it works. Don’t ask me how, though
Check out http://www.drbott.com/prod/MSUSB.html; that would be my choice at the moment. Supposedly it handles the keyboard mapping of special keys between Mac OS and Windows!?
If you want the Mini because its kewl, get it. But I would certainly not trade your desktop for it; while that baby’s aging a bit, it still has more power than the Mini by far thanks to the dual processors. Put yourself into the future; now it’s easy to say, ah, well, I won’t do video SO OFTEN… it’ll be okay. But imagine yourself sitting there TRYING to work on a video project, and getting increasingly more frustrated as you’re not getting the performance you want.
I’m not sure just what the performance dif would be; I know your desktop has more juice than the mini at first glance and the dual processors boost that even a little bit (two at X performing better than one at 2x, right?). Your place isn’t THAT small. =-) Just stow it under the desk.
Check out this article in the NYTimes about just this issue:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/10/technology/circuits/10basi.html?ex=1265778000&en=6e8210879dc207ae&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt
The mini has a laptop drive (4200RPM) so you won’t be doing much FCP on it, I suspect.
But the smallness of it makes it infinitely cooler than your tower.
I think you should 1.) Keep your tower
and 2.) Buy a mini (since they’re only $500.)