Small, but perfectly formed (Power Mac G4 Cube)

Member Name: DoctorDee

Product:	Power Mac G4 Cube
Date:	25/05/01 (124 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Beautiful, Small, Powerful

Disadvantages: Not very expandable

Apple Macs are far from new to me! I used to work on one every single day for 4 years. I used to write about them for Mac Format magazine. I used to own one (or two, maybe four!)

Then I stopped being a journalist and became a developer, and began to use PCs frequently. At first I hated the PC, Windows 3.1 was an abomination, Windows 95 WAS Mac 87 and Windows 98 just crashes! When I installed Windows 2000, my conversion was complete... the PC was as Mac like as it had ever been. Why would I go back?

Then I saw the G4 cube. I was mesmerised. How could something so powerful be so cute? But as a power-user - my work PC has 512MB of RAM, 120Gb of Hard drive space and a P4 processor running at 1.5Ghz - how could I ever make do with something that had a 500MHz processor, a 20Gb drive and 128Mb of RAM? In short, I couldn't! I upped the RAM to 512Mb, but using standard PC-100 SD-RAM DIMMS, it cost me about £140! I also shoved a 60Gb 7200RPM drive in, but because it uses standard IDE-ATA drives, again this cost me about £140.

But that's it, apart from an Apple wireless network card, the machine is full up, completely stuffed in fact. No more expansion is going on in that box!

But what else would I want to add? I have a GForce graphics card, 2 USB ports on the CPU, one on the keyboard and two more on the monitor. The scanner and printer hang happily on these, right where they belong. When I want to use the machine for video editing, it comes with 2 firewire ports, and the awesome Apple iMovie software. When I want to cut CDs it comes with the excellent iTunes software. And for everything else, although the Mac doesn't have the same selection of software as the PC, who needs more then one DTP package (the Mac has Quark and InDesign, take your pick) or Image Editor (Photoshop) etc. The Mac has all the software you'll ever need, and the friendliest operating system on earth. If you don't believe me, stick an unformatted har
d drive in a PC and try to install WindowsME. Now do the same on a G4 Mac and Install MacOS 9.

I'll continue to use PCs, and I'll continue to like 'em fine enough. But I love my Mac!

Summary: