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cant decide between new imac or gaming pc

M

macall75

macrumors member
Original poster
Dec 18, 2006
73
0
N.Ireland
iam really looking forward till macworld so i can decide between a new 24inch imac or a customised gaming pc,ive always been a macuser,theres a few things putting me off the new imac tho,not good enough graphics card for games ,reflective screen,i can get a much better machine with gtx280 and i7 and
24inch matte monitor for around £400 more,but would lack the stability of the macos and i heard now that mac was better at running windows,is this true
 
Have you considered getting a used or refurbished Mac Pro (4 core or 8)? You can put a GeForce 8800GT or Radeon HD 3870 in the Mac Pro.
 
iBookG4user said:
Have you considered getting a used or refurbished Mac Pro (4 core or 8)? You can put a GeForce 8800GT or Radeon HD 3870 in the Mac Pro.
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I think this is a good suggestion for your needs.

An iMac could run Windows but you wouldn't be able to swap out the graphics cards as your demands increased. I do shudder at the idea of running Windows on a Mac but it can be done.
 
Cynicalone said:
I think this is a good suggestion for your needs.

An iMac could run Windows but you wouldn't be able to swap out the graphics cards as your demands increased. I do shudder at the idea of running Windows on a Mac but it can be done.
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yeah iam thinking this could be a really good idea,though i like to get my i like my products new,dont mind forkn out the extra money,i could get the best of both worlds here,do u think that the macpro might get an update at macworld,what advantages is the 8 core? over quad,i wuld ave a budget of around £1500 on the tower plus 200-300 on the monitor,was thinkn of gng for tge samsung 24inch 2493hd,is this compatbile,wud be using this system mosty for graphic design,web,games and windows
 
New iMacs will have better NVIDIA chipsets, so 24" will have 512mb or even 1GB video card for an option. It depends on your needs, do you play more or use Mac stuffs. You can always buy a PC and turn it to a Hackingtosh (not recommended).

Think what you need and what you do with your computer...
 
macall75 said:
iam really looking forward till macworld so i can decide between a new 24inch imac or a customised gaming pc,ive always been a macuser,theres a few things putting me off the new imac tho,not good enough graphics card for games ,reflective screen,i can get a much better machine with gtx280 and i7 and
24inch matte monitor for around £400 more,but would lack the stability of the macos and i heard now that mac was better at running windows,is this true
Click to expand...

Hmmm...refurb macpro...or look at the voodoo computer, almost as sexy as macs.
 
Hellhammer said:
New iMacs will have better NVIDIA chipsets, so 24" will have 512mb or even 1GB video card for an option. It depends on your needs, do you play more or use Mac stuffs. You can always buy a PC and turn it to a Hackingtosh (not recommended).


Think what you need and what you do with your computer...
Click to expand...

yoyo5280 said:
Hmmm...refurb macpro...or look at the voodoo computer, almost as sexy as macs.
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i think a mac is still the wat to go,those voodoos are very expensive,wud like to ave macos x as my main os,then just use windows for games etc..i wud be using the mac mostly for work as iam a graphic designer,i wud like to put the best graphics card in it,wud it be worth waiting for i7,cant see the imac gettin 1gb card,prob just update like macbook pros,does anyone know best lcd monitor 24 inch to get for graphic design and games for macpro for gd price
 
I think the Mac Pro will be updated in the next few months. This has been an ongoing discussion around MacRumors for a while now. If you wait for the update, then you will have a machine powerful enough to meet your needs for many years to come. And add to that the expandability of a Mac Pro and you can't really go wrong no matter what configuration you start with.
 
I'd go for the gaming PC unless you absolutely want OSX. I used to dual boot OSX ("Hackintosh") and Vista on my PC and eventually went back to just Vista because it was too much hassle to switch between the two systems. Windows 7 is right around the corner and should bring usability and performance improvements, though I have no problems in that department with Vista either.

The iMac is convenient and pretty, but you'll easily get a more powerful regular PC for less money. If you can wait, do that because the Core i7 stuff will most likely get a lot cheaper in a few months.

The Mac Pro isn't a great idea because you pay a lot extra for what is essentially just a PC tower with a fancy design and OSX. 8 cores is totally useless for gaming at the moment, most games are only beginning to really use 2 cores properly at the moment.

As for the display, for graphics design you want something that doesn't have a TN panel, so the Samsung 2493 is out of the question. Also you want something with a low input lag (not to be confused with response time) for gaming so some monitors with better panels will still be out of the game. HP has the LP2475w and LG has some models with good panels and low input lag. See http://prad.de/en/monitore/reviews.html for starters.
 
kasakka said:
I'd go for the gaming PC unless you absolutely want OSX. I used to dual boot OSX ("Hackintosh") and Vista on my PC and eventually went back to just Vista because it was too much hassle to switch between the two systems. Windows 7 is right around the corner and should bring usability and performance improvements, though I have no problems in that department with Vista either.

The iMac is convenient and pretty, but you'll easily get a more powerful regular PC for less money. If you can wait, do that because the Core i7 stuff will most likely get a lot cheaper in a few months.

The Mac Pro isn't a great idea because you pay a lot extra for what is essentially just a PC tower with a fancy design and OSX. 8 cores is totally useless for gaming at the moment, most games are only beginning to really use 2 cores properly at the moment.

As for the display, for graphics design you want something that doesn't have a TN panel, so the Samsung 2493 is out of the question. Also you want something with a low input lag (not to be confused with response time) for gaming so some monitors with better panels will still be out of the game. HP has the LP2475w and LG has some models with good panels and low input lag. See http://prad.de/en/monitore/reviews.html for starters.
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Thanks for letting me know this, really didnt know that, was going to go for that samsung now I know why it was so cheap there crap for graphic design/print, but great for gaming, what one would you recommend then, I want one good enough for print/web and for gaming too, but not too expensive, how do you view the new imac for graphic design or apples cinema displays? I really want a desktop for everything from graphic design to gaming, if I just went for a pc then it wouldnt feel i was getting my money worth as i could only play games on it and i have my ps3 anyway, i just like it to play some fps game like COD4 etc..
 
macall75 said:
iam really looking forward till macworld so i can decide between a new 24inch imac or a customised gaming pc,ive always been a macuser,theres a few things putting me off the new imac tho,not good enough graphics card for games ,reflective screen,i can get a much better machine with gtx280 and i7 and
24inch matte monitor for around £400 more,but would lack the stability of the macos and i heard now that mac was better at running windows,is this true
Click to expand...

Quick question for you. What games do you like to play? I see that you said COD4 well if that's your main game then I think any new iMac will blow your mind on it. Just look at the reviews on the apple site.

http://store.apple.com/us/reviews/TR102LL/A

I have a 24" look at specs below over a year old now. I play WoW every day on that thing and I have the newest expansion and all, all the graphic settings all the way up with no problems at 1900x1200 res. I would assume that any new iMac that comes out in January would be able to run any game out there right now.
 
If you're married, have have kids, have a ton of content, and want a computer that requires very little maintenance and can make quick work of organizing your content and even play some good games and rocks at general computing, get the iMac.

If you're single, have no kids, don't have a lot of content, and primarily want a computer to entertain you with games, get the gaming PC.

Fall somewhere in between? Get both! :)

Seriously, though - you're asking a question that depends less on the available hardware configurations and Mac options out there, and more on your own personal preference and how you use computers. Tell us a little more about that.............
 
If you have enough $$ you should get 1 of each.

If you don't, you get a PC for gaming. Then you can make upgrades much easier when you need them to keep up with the newer games etc.

Simple as that :)
 
czachorski said:
If you're married, have have kids, have a ton of content, and want a computer that requires very little maintenance and can make quick work of organizing your content and even play some good games and rocks at general computing, get the iMac.

If you're single, have no kids, don't have a lot of content, and primarily want a computer to entertain you with games, get the gaming PC.

Fall somewhere in between? Get both! :)

Seriously, though - you're asking a question that depends less on the available hardware configurations and Mac options out there, and more on your own personal preference and how you use computers. Tell us a little more about that.............
Click to expand...

I just think an imac might not be enough for my needs and could outdate quite quickly, the screen on the imac is not good for graphic design/print etc.. and i dont particular want to stare at myself when iam playing games or designing something, if I went with the macpro I would be getting a better graphics card, more ram/storage and the ability to upgrade, and the choice of the best monitor for graphics/games. If I just went for a gaming pc then I would be limiting my options to just games and no design, I have a ps3 anyway and would be like to hook this up to my new lcd monitor.
 
macall75 said:
I just think an imac might not be enough for my needs and could outdate quite quickly, the screen on the imac is not good for graphic design/print etc.. and i dont particular want to stare at myself when iam playing games or designing something, if I went with the macpro I would be getting a better graphics card, more ram/storage and the ability to upgrade, and the choice of the best monitor for graphics/games. If I just went for a gaming pc then I would be limiting my options to just games and no design, I have a ps3 anyway and would be like to hook this up to my new lcd monitor.
Click to expand...

I'm watching my wife play games (Civ 4) right now on our iMac, and I can tell you that she is not staring at herself. I am not a professional designer, but I do a lot of video/photo work on it, and I fine the quality of the screen to be quite good (24-inch version).

I was being half facetious with the first part of my post, but also half true. I am past the point in my life where gaming is all that important. I still like an occasional game, but more important these days are having a computer that does what I want without a lot of hassles, having good tools that are easy to use to organize my video and photos of my kids, being able to get some content on the web with just a few clicks and drag and drops, etc. I absolutely love my iMac for that reason. 15 years ago (b.c. - before children) I would have gone for the gaming rig.

I'm guessing by all your fretting that you are somewhere in between those 2 stages. There are some interesting options for the in-betweener. For example, for the price of the 24" iMac you could get both a Mac Mini and pretty decent PC gaming rig. You could also get the iMac and dual boot to plat the games natively in Windows. As was suggest earlier, a refurb'd Mac pro would be an excellent option, with dual boot for PC gaming, and expandability. That's actually where I started 6 years ago when I can to Macs. I was more in that in-between stage, and the PowerMac towers at the time made a lot of sense to me. Only last year did I go iMac, mostly because the 24" is so beautiful and they are quite enough powerful for my needs (the most intense application I do is HD video editing). Have you gone to the store and seen and played with the 24"? There has been a lot of talk of the potential negatives of the glossy screen, but personally, I find the whole machine to be beautiful and make my content appear beautiful. 8 MP photos and HD home videos really pop off the screen and look gorgeous. Of course, that's what the proud-Dad / home consumer really wants to see. I can understand too how if you are doing professional photography and printing, how you would not want the screen to artificially make your content look over-saturated. I have also listened to enough pros around here to know that they will say that a good pro never relies on just the screen anyway.

So as usual, it comes down to your needs. Best of luck with your choice. Let us know what you come to.....
 
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