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Any hardcore PC owners moved over to an iMac here?

SpitUK

SpitUK

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 5, 2010
904
851
East Yorkshire, UK
Would really like to move over to an imac 27" i7. My 1st Apple product is an iphone and I really love it. I have been into the apple store and fallen in love with the imac 27, its a thing of beauty!

I use my PC for the usual:

web browsing
creating documents
photography
Burning dvd's
World of Warcraft, casually.

My PC spec is a core i7 clocked at 4Ghz, 6Gb ram, 128Gb SSD, Dell 24" monitor and a ATI 5870. Pretty powerful machine.

Not so bothered about the cpu not being clocked as high but the 4850 in the imac is stopping me taking the plunge. Anyone else moved from a top PC to an imac 27 and been ok? Does warcraft run ok at the high res of the 27" screen?

I would put my SSD in the imac (been reading the thread) and upgrade to 8Gb. 1TB drive would be for photos etc.

I actually want to get this year an imac 27, MBP 13" and an ipad. I want to get more creative for my business and feel the mac will help me with this plus the ipad can be used to show clients work etc on site.

Sorry for the long post, im new here and want to make the right choice :)
 
SpitUK said:
web browsing
creating documents
photography
Burning dvd's
World of Warcraft, casually.
Click to expand...

thats what "hardcore PC" users do? pfft.

You could always just install Window on the iMac if you need it.

WoW doesnt really need anything special in terms of specs.

43 FPS at 2560 X 1600 http://www.barefeats.com/imi7g.html

The 4850 was no slouch 6 months ago -- I bet the only reason the current iMac didnt get the 5XXX card was that last October is that it wasnt out yet.
 
"thats what "hardcore PC" users do? pfft. "

LOL

Thanks for that. The benchmarks look OK. Can you run WOW in a window at a smaller res to speed things up?
 
I have to agree, that sounds like pretty light PC usage to me.

On top of that....doing all that surgery to an iMac and still having a worse machine? Bad news IMO. If you even got a good iMac, you could end up breaking it and ruining your warranty, getting dust under the glass etc. And this is coming from someone who is quite skilled at doing machine work. I've modified a few mac mini's, but an iMac's a different thing.

And one more note...a Mac will not make you "more" creative. These are just tools to get the job done, and frankly, the PC has better tools for the stuff you mention. If you are creative, you are creative. Buying things does not change that in either direction. You want to be more creative? Start working at it, and don't expect a machine to give you any magical results (despite Apple's marketing).

I would think long and hard about what you are considering doing. The grass is not always greener. Take it from an OSX user who has owned two 27" i5 iMacs.
 
Hey everything is your choice, and the iMac 27 inch is a beauty, and if you want it, then get it. THe only things is while you can upgrade the ram to 8gb yourself. I agree with the other person that you don't want to be upgrading the HD or anything internal yourself. Its hell. Unless you get a Pro to do it. If you want an SSD you might as well order it from Apple with and SSD. and if your worried about graphics, the one it has is fine, but it probably will get a better GPU the next Spec bump which will come at the earliest in june, but it could be as late as september.
 
tac22 said:
upgrade the ram to 8gb yourself. I agree with the other person that you don't want to be upgrading the HD or anything internal yourself. Its hell.
Click to expand...

Actually, you can go to 16 gigs, its just a lot of cash.

Clearly you have never opened an AL iMac. Its not "hell". Its not even "hard".

I could replace the drive in a 27" iMac in about 15 minutes, tops.
 
Used to be hardcore. My last pc was a q6600 quad core OC @ 3.6Ghz with 8GB of ram. The chip has done 4Ghz on No2.

Had enough of playing around with PCs. Just want stuff to nicely and work effortlessly :)
 
I run Windows 7 Ultimate in Boot Camp on my i7 and while I don't play WoW, I don't see you having any problems at all. As mentioned above you can run Boot Camp for any apps you need from Windows.

I think you will love the iMac.
 
with that usage scenario, you'd be fine even with a baseline 27" imac. Reviews have said that Wow will run smoothly at native resolution (which is huge) with graphics settings reasonably high. Unless you're playing more demanding games with that, you'd be fine with the C2D (unless you'd like to futureproof more, then go with the i5. i7 is a waste of money at this point)

RAM is upgradeable, but you wouldn't even need more than 4GB right away, and it's easy to upgrade later on. Same w/HD.
 
For the task you have listed I dont even think you need quad core. However, in your position I would get the quad core anyway because the C2D is badly outdated for a high end desktop machine. Im getting a 21.5 as soon as they get icore.
 
Just bought my iMac 21.5" today to replace my Dell XPS M1530. I've been a hardcore PC user for close to 15 years. It took me all but 1 day to decide in favor of the Mac after tinkering around with my wife's new Dell Win 7 PC yesterday.

Anyway, I have a pretty serious side business going as a webmaster...and the transition has been pretty seamless so far. Only hiccup I've run in to so far, is, Google Chrome for Mac does not have flash.
 
I'll echo what a couple others have said - ditching your perfectly great, current PC for an iMac doesn't really make sense. Unless there is a piece of professional Mac-exclusive software you really must have. OS X has its strengths as an operating system, but it's just an OS...with it's own quirks. Be happy that you enjoy a pretty high-end PC and wait till it craps out on you someday, then consider switching platforms.
 
I was about as anti-Apple as it got until i saw the Leopard guided tour video over a year ago. Bought my first Mac on March 12, 2009 and haven't looked back. I'd never own another PC. I'd go computerless first. Do yourself a favor, buy a Mac!
 
cocky jeremy said:
I was about as anti-Apple as it got until i saw the Leopard guided tour video over a year ago. Bought my first Mac on March 12, 2009 and haven't looked back. I'd never own another PC. I'd go computerless first. Do yourself a favor, buy a Mac!
Click to expand...

Yes you will, you just do not know it yet. And then you'll be passionately praising PCs again :D
 
I consider myself a pretty hardcore PC user... mainly because i enjoy the benefits of being able to build my own system exactly to MY spec. This was mainly because i use to play a lot of games.

Now that I play games on my PS3, im more open to buying a mac... From what i have read, the idea is that all the components are picked to work well with each other... no more research to find out what kinda ram works best with what mobo, what video card, processor, psu, etc..

Also, ive been doing more photography and wanted a nicer monitor. The imac monitor looks SWEET and its an IPS panel so it should be decent. My only reservation now is the yellow tinge issue which by all accounts does not seem to be fixed completely.

I may just wait it out for the next revision of iMacs before taking the plunge.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys!! Awesome.

Suppose using the words more creative was wrong. Better tools for the jobs I need doing?

Just been watching some of the guided tours and im even more impressed. The iphoto program looks great for my line of work. Also being able to create albums and have them made at the click of a button seems great.

My PC is over the top but i have always built my own and like to have a decent spec. I had windows mobile phones for the last 8 years and was always reluctant to change as i liked to tinker. Got my iphone and well what a revelation. Easy to use, quick and just gets the jobe done even though it isnt the best hardware out there anymore. I still wouldnt swap it for anything.

I suppose I am trying to talk myself into believeing the same will happen if i switch from PC to Mac. Hardware not quite so good but the software far outweighs the loss.

It seems to me that the applications are more tightly integrated and I will be able to organise my life better.

Sorry for waffling, maybe I just need a change.
 
i can manage to play WOW with some lowered settings on my eMac G4 1.42 from 2006 not very fascinating the gaming experience, but it is playable , so for the iMac i7 ,you should be able to play WOW on it too if you so wish , a mate does heavy video editing on his one with avid nearly 24/7 which puts a lot more pressure on the gpu and cpu and ram and it just performs well
for the other things , i am not sure because i dont have one ,but i guess the imac 27" i7 could be used to do some emailing and general web browsing , it may also be able to write some word documents and doing some photoshop work , and as it has a dvd writer inside , it may well be able to burn a dvd too :D
 
SpitUK said:
Thanks for all the replies guys!! Awesome.

Suppose using the words more creative was wrong. Better tools for the jobs I need doing?

Just been watching some of the guided tours and im even more impressed. The iphoto program looks great for my line of work. Also being able to create albums and have them made at the click of a button seems great.

My PC is over the top but i have always built my own and like to have a decent spec. I had windows mobile phones for the last 8 years and was always reluctant to change as i liked to tinker. Got my iphone and well what a revelation. Easy to use, quick and just gets the jobe done even though it isnt the best hardware out there anymore. I still wouldnt swap it for anything.

I suppose I am trying to talk myself into believeing the same will happen if i switch from PC to Mac. Hardware not quite so good but the software far outweighs the loss.

It seems to me that the applications are more tightly integrated and I will be able to organise my life better.

Sorry for waffling, maybe I just need a change.
Click to expand...

I'm in the process of fully switching over from PC to Mac. When my iMac i7 comes in, I'll be retiring my beloved Q6600.

Worst case scenario, for any PC stuff I'll still need to use, I'll use Fusion 3 - VMWare. I tried virtual box from sun too, and while it's free, it does chew up extra resources. Fusion 3 has some really nifty features too, that allows you to run windows applications in unity mode. Unity mode displays the window application like a native mac application.

Right now, I'm loving the experience. I just have to check my scanner and legacy usb devices work on Mac or via vmware.

Hope this helps.
 
SpitUK said:
Would really like to move over to an imac 27" i7. My 1st Apple product is an iphone and I really love it. I have been into the apple store and fallen in love with the imac 27, its a thing of beauty!

I use my PC for the usual:

web browsing
creating documents
photography
Burning dvd's
World of Warcraft, casually.

My PC spec is a core i7 clocked at 4Ghz, 6Gb ram, 128Gb SSD, Dell 24" monitor and a ATI 5870. Pretty powerful machine.

Not so bothered about the cpu not being clocked as high but the 4850 in the imac is stopping me taking the plunge. Anyone else moved from a top PC to an imac 27 and been ok? Does warcraft run ok at the high res of the 27" screen?

I would put my SSD in the imac (been reading the thread) and upgrade to 8Gb. 1TB drive would be for photos etc.

I actually want to get this year an imac 27, MBP 13" and an ipad. I want to get more creative for my business and feel the mac will help me with this plus the ipad can be used to show clients work etc on site.

Sorry for the long post, im new here and want to make the right choice :)
Click to expand...


When my Thinkpad started to go, I moved over to a MacBook Pro. It took a few weeks for my mind to make the transition, but I do like the machine as much as I liked my Thinkpad.

So, I transitioned my desktop from a PC to an iMac 24, and now to an iMac 27.

There are some annoyances with iMacs...and with Apple computers generally if you are transitioning...

There are software suites for the PC that have no good counterparts on macs...such as Quicken or MS Streets and Trips. Quicken for the Mac sucks, and most of the other money managers are seriously deficient...most of them can't print checks and one can't sort columns properly. I have yet to find a decent map program for my macs...

Also, the screen fonts on macs are not really adjustable. So, on a 27" iMac what you seen can be very tiny indeed, and mostly not changeable unless you lower the resolution. This is a really boneheaded shortcoming.

No problem burning DVDs, but you'll want to use an external burner...the ones that come with iMacs are slow as molasses.

Good luck.
 
Well first off, WoW runs ALMOST completely fine for me maxed out settings on my server, it is a high pop server so only when i'm running through Dal during peak times do I get hiccups but it's just a little stutter and its fine not a slideshow, very usable.... actually I just turn some settings down midway and I hardly ever notice any hiccup.

If you're saying hardcore as in never touched anything but Windows then that would've been me up until Christmas.

Last PC i Built was a Q9750 CHIP, evga mainboard, 8gigs of dominator 1066, 300gig velociraptor, gforce gtx280, dangerden watercooling on the cpu, video, NB and SB chips in a coolermaster cosmos case.
As much as I liked that PC, I would never trade my iMac for the same thing again.
This one is one of the few "perfect" i5's (no yellow non stuck pixels etc etc etc) and now my office is just much more enjoyable. Very, very quite; takes up almost no space as I have the imac connected to an Ergotron MX arm and it does everything I need it to do.
Movie ripping
Music collection
Ocasional gaming
....and so far after a couple months of owning it I haven't felt like I wanted to format and reinstall Windows due to any slow downs, etc.

So far very happy with the purchase and this thing gets more of a wow factor than the PC did. Mainly from neighbors coming in and just going "WoW that's nice" and asking lots of questions compared to the PC noone noticed and if you pointed it out and started describing everything you feel like a 30yr old super nerd cause they could really care less :D
 
KonichiJ said:
Just bought my iMac 21.5" today to replace my Dell XPS M1530. I've been a hardcore PC user for close to 15 years. It took me all but 1 day to decide in favor of the Mac after tinkering around with my wife's new Dell Win 7 PC yesterday.

Anyway, I have a pretty serious side business going as a webmaster...and the transition has been pretty seamless so far. Only hiccup I've run in to so far, is, Google Chrome for Mac does not have flash.
Click to expand...

Huh? Works fine.

make sure you have the latest version of Chrome?
 
Raises hands.

There are lots of us reformed pc users.

I have built many many systems, worked in a computer store briefly in my youth and do not miss it.

The best part of using macs is mac os. You can really nerd out. Just yesterday night I had a fling as root to fix some stuff. I felt like I should have been wearing a cape. Eeeha

I took the same path as you. iPhone led to an iPhone for my wife. Then to a mac and macbook pro. Pc is in the garage.
 
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