Is this Mac Mini useful for anything?

[lafinfil]

silvarios wrote:
[quote=lafinfil]
There is one on craigslist for $100 with a keyboard and mouse that I can't convince myself to buy.

I would. I could replace my girlfriend's old G3 iMac with something much smaller. She has a MacBook, but still keeps that G3 iMac hanging around.
Correctiny myself - it is $100 without KB & mouse. Just power & video cable
but it is the same specs as the one rich listed.

[Wailer]

Not great for a file server. No gigabit. Expensive PATA 2.5" drives. These older mac minis consume probably 30 watts idle vs 15 watts for the new HDMI mac minis.

However, you can stream almost anything over 100BT though. I stream 720p from a Pismo (with your old drive!) with no problem.

sekker wrote:
How good are these as servers? Would they stream movies from an external USB hard drive to an ATV2?

I have one unused I could setup this way.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

Do not bother, a G4 mini is obsolete. If someone gave me one, I would sell it to whatever chump paid the most.

[silvarios]

Filliam H. Muffman wrote:
Do not bother, a G4 mini is obsolete. If someone gave me one, I would sell it to whatever chump paid the most.

My iBook G4 streams ripped DVDs from my server to my TV just fine (a little slow to load then scale full screen, but works pretty well after the initial "hiccup" ). I would imagine a G4 Mac mini would be as good as my iBook. Assuming RAM and processor speed are specced the same.

For free, I would take the chance.

[silvarios]

lafinfil wrote: Correcting myself - it is $100 without KB & mouse. Just power & video cable
but it is the same specs as the one rich listed.

I think I already have a 1GB RAM module for it, but if not…OWC lists a price of $41.79 for a 1GB stick. Less than $150 for a classic Mac gamer system and video streamer. That might be alright. $200 for a Core Duo or $250 for a Core 2 Duo would be better. Not the deal of the century, but respectable. I have two iBook G4s (basically a mini with a battery, screen, and keyboard), and they keep ticking. I am hoping to get another year of life out of them.

[silvarios]

sekker wrote:
How good are these as servers? Would they stream movies from an external USB hard drive to an ATV2?

I have one unused I could setup this way.

I use an iBook G4 as a client to stream ripped movies. Works pretty well after the initial load and scale to full screen hiccup (30 seconds to a minute of startup and you should be fine). My best guess is that streaming from a G4 server would be easier on the system than decoding the video for playback.

[silvarios]

Wailer wrote:
Not great for a file server. No gigabit. Expensive PATA 2.5" drives. These older mac minis consume probably 30 watts idle vs 15 watts for the new HDMI mac minis.

Depends on the type of files your are serving. Most will be smaller than video and as you noted…

Wailer wrote:
However, you can stream almost anything over 100BT though. I stream 720p from a Pismo (with your old drive!) with no problem.

Older Macs can serve videos from iTunes to other clients just fine.


Nathan

[Mini 9]

To me, Intel is the price of admission now.
That buys me Leopard and Snow Leopard.

Any PowerPC (unless Apple goes BACK to them) is just nostalgia at this point.

[Filliam H. Muffman]

silvarios wrote:
[quote=Filliam H. Muffman]
Do not bother, a G4 mini is obsolete. If someone gave me one, I would sell it to whatever chump paid the most.

My iBook G4 streams ripped DVDs from my server to my TV just fine (a little slow to load then scale full screen, but works pretty well after the initial "hiccup" ). I would imagine a G4 Mac mini would be as good as my iBook. Assuming RAM and processor speed are specced the same.

For free, I would take the chance.
Sorry, I would not take hardware that I had to coddle and constantly settle for old software. Just a difference of opinion.

[silvarios]

Coddle? You install software, run updates, and then let iTunes take an extra 30 seconds to load the video. If you find a Mac mini for free, let me know, and I'll pay for shipping to my place.