450Mhz Cube or 500Mhz Tower?

cyclyst1964

cyclyst1964

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Here's my situation.
Each of these is available to me at a very reasonable price.
I can only have one of them.

Assuming the same price, would you purchase a 450Mhz G4 Cube (w/o speakers) , or a 500Mhz G4 Sawtooth?

The Cube is small, stylish, and quiet, not expandable and uses an external power supply that is bound to become difficult to replace in the future. But man is it quiet or what?
The Tower is big, bold, a tiny bit faster, and more easily upgraded or expanded, but noisier and not quite as elegant.

What would you folks do?
 
i would go with the tower because it is more upgradeable, and therefore, be a longer lasting investment. but those cubes sure are tempting, aren't they, i want one some day.
 
The tower is probably your best bet for a more predictable future, with upgrades, etc. I had a cube, although I have no complains, it never failed to impress me or marvel visitors. There are upgrade options for a cube.
 
Really depends on what you intend to do with it in the future. If the current specs of the machines look like they're enough to live with, the Cube's certainly the sexier alternative. If, however, you guess that you'll want to upgrade the harddrive and the graphics card and the processor as well as the RAM rather sooner than later, it's a clear choice to go with the tower. I personally can't stand big towers like the G4 or G5 anymore. They waste much too much space on the desk or below it. The Cube is a marvel. However: Are you sure you won't find an older Mac mini for only a _little_ bit more? I haven't looked around, but they can't be _too_ expensive when bought used... And the Mac mini certainly goes a step further than the Cube, and it already _has_ that processor upgrade inside. ;)
 
Personally I'd buy the Cube. Quiet running means a lot more to me than internal expandability, and I'd rather have a silent 450mhz Cube in my study to work on than a humming, whirring 500 anyday. I'd probably never, ever sell it myself, but I'd expect that the Cube would be the one with the most resale value ten years from now since it is quite collectable.
 
I would go with the tower myself, even though I do covet the Cube. :D

As for noise, there are ways of reducing the noise in those older Macs. Even replacing the fans with some of the newer fans that are out there (preferrably those used by PC gaming enthusiasts) would be enough to quell the noise. I remember reading a thread in here about a user that replaced the fan in his iMac and it was quieter than he ever imagined. Mind you, he had to modify the fan a little, but nothing out of the ordinary. And for him it was well worth the trouble in order to have a more silent iMac (it was a Rev. A, IIRC).
 
I'd go for the cube, without a doubt. You CAN upgrade them, ive heard of a 1.8ghz G4 upgrade you can get. They are much more of a collectors item, a beautiful bit ok kit. If you decide to get the G4 tower, I'll have the cube, no worrys.
 
my humble opinion: get the cube, make due with it till u save up enough for a mini, then cram the mini's innards into the cube casing :D

Not that the mini isnt stylish-- but the cube just looks cool! hehehe ;)
 
10.4.7 you mean, not 10.7. and no, not much difference. back on topic now. ;)
 
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