Respect Sakura

So I’ve gone and commited myself to yet another expensive tech path. I’ll be writing another post in a few days about it once it arrives, but yes.. I’ve thrown $1,299 AUD away on a brand new shiny Mac mini Core Duo.

I’ve probably been quoted in the past on how crappy a deal the Intel based Mac mini’s are. Especially considering the price of the iMac in comparison, and the fact that it uses an onboard Intel graphics chip. However, if you plan to make aftermarket modifications to your Mac in future, then the Mac mini is slightly less of a pain in the ass to do that with, as opposed to the new iMacs, which are a nightmare to open, or even worse - the MacBook Pro with its CPU soldered straight onto the board.

I’ve been putting a little money aside for a while now, and preparing to sell stuff off that I would no longer need in order to increase my funds for project Mactel. The original plan, of course, was to go all out on a 20″ iMac Core Duo, that could sing, dance, and do it all. However, I decided to go the more budget consensus path because:

• I already have a 20″ display. In fact, I have a 24″ display as well. Granted, I could sell the 20″, but after seeing the display quality of the 17″ iMac G5 with iSight in person, I wondered if the 20″ iMac would be a downgrade or not. I haven’t found any kind of comparison yet.
• With the iMac, I get 250GB of storage. With the Mac mini, I get 80GB of storage, but I still possess my G5 with 400GB of storage, and greater if I so decide in future. I also have Gigabit Ethernet between the two, so this works out awesomely. I get a huge ass HFS+ fileserver and legacy app box of awesome, alongside the Intel based Mac of new and shiny.
• On the topic of the G5, if I wanted said iMac in a timely fashion, I’d have to sell it off. Despite being an attractive option moneywise (I’m sure I could at least break even on what I’ve invested into it, as I got the thing for an absolute steal), I really do not want to sell my G5 tower. I have far too much of an unhealthy attachment to it.
• CPU speed, integrated display and storage capacity aside, the only difference between the Mac mini and the iMac is the graphics chipset. Aside from not sucking up system memory for video memory, what benefits does the Radeon X1600XT give me? That’s right, GAMES. Oh hay.. there’s this big black tower to my right called Heracles that can do that.
• Space is an issue. My 24″ display takes up an awful lot of room, and if I keep my Apple 20″ display, that’s three big ass widescreen displays on the one little desk. I’d have to give my desk to Braden, and somehow arrange to get my huge ass hulking desk of awesome up the little stairs, breaking my back in the process, and taking up more of what little space I currently have in my room.
• In August, Merom and Conroe makes the old Pentium 4/Pentium M (including Yonah) obsolete. Luckily for us early adopting Yonah people, we’re pin-compatible with Merom CPU’s, and the Mac mini is at least slightly less difficult to upgrade than the iMac will be.
• The Mac mini is a low cost, “disposable” computer. The iMac is a serious investment. When WWDC comes around, we’re all expecting the new big ass Mac towers of awesome and win, and will probably want to sell our grandmothers off in order to get one. Not only does the Mac mini satisfy me for now, but it’s also a little easier to “write off” than the iMac would be in four months time. Yes, call me crazy, but I see my computer gear as a monetary blackhole anyways. These things are not an investment in anyone’s language. For me, I get my returns from the ability to play with new and upcoming technologies.

So, to sum it all up.. the Mac mini has all the basics of what I need, I don’t have to sell off stuff I’ve grown fond of, and it can keep my mind off of spending serious amounts of money for at least four months or so. This probably won’t occur, because I’ve yet to buy myself a replacement mouse for this fucker of a Mighty Mouse, and I’ve also got to source 2GB of DDR2 667 from somewhere. I’m also starting to run out of space on my second anime volume drive, so it looks like I’ll have to invest in more storage again.

So the probabilty of being able to hold onto enough money within 5-6 months time to buy a big ass shiny new Mac based tower is somewhat unlikely, but I’m still sticking to the plan anyways. In the worst case scenario, I can then use the Mac mini as a server.. an OS X or MCE based HTPC.. or just about damn near anything. I’m sure I can come up with something cool.

Feel free to freak out at my ridiculous spending habits and post comments to that effect, but hey.. it sure beats crack.