iMac, right for me?

[Knqui]

I'm sure you guys get a hell of a lot of these posts around here, but I've been someone who's struggled to take the dive for... well years I guess!

I've always been pretty fascinated by Macs, my biggest turnoff has always been the fact that I am what you'd probably consider a "hardcore gamer", not so much in the amount of games I play but the time I invest in a few.

Anyway without baffling you with my story, the addition of Bootcamp has began to edge me towards the purchase of a Mac, specifically the highest end one, this would allow me to play the one game that isn't on OS X, Lineage 2, the other three I currently play are BF2142, WoW and WC3 which all work I believe.

I recently (end of January) built a topend Custom PC that cost me around £1100 total w/ Monitor, however after a month of using Vista (64bit Business Edition) I'm almost deadset on getting rid of this thing on eBay in short order, I'm just sick to death of Windows and seriously wondering if there is something better.

So I'm posed with the choice of after selling this PC of what to do next, right now I've narrowed it down to either buying a lower-end PC from somewhere like Dell, and getting a Console to compliment it, or buying a Mac, on which the iMac seems to suit me best for price-performance.

My questions are as follows:

1. Are Macs/OS X just a novelty? Does the shininess and "newthinking" wear off quickly and leave a bitter taste of regret in your mouth for buying one?

2. How easy is it to expand the memory in an iMac, and would I just remove the Apple memory that comes with it and replace the whole thing with 4GB?

3. Is AppleCare worth it? Is it true that if I don't spend £170 on the thing that if my Mac breaks after 90 days that I have no recourse for having it repaired/replaced?

4. I've tried to sift through the massive speculation thread on the iMac update here, but what is truly most likely? A Graphics update would probably seal the deal for me, but even then I don't want to wait much longer than June (which is when it's supposed to be updated?).

5. How exactly does Bootcamp work, is it as simple as Dualbooting with an XP install? Or is it full of bugs/annoyances?

6. Will OS X see a new version any time soon? (10.6?), is there any news on this?

I realise some of you might think I'll get a heavily biased opinion on some of those questions, but it's a 1000x more impartial than if I posted on a PC Tech forum and get 100 people telling me how Macs are a joke.

hmm this got much longer than I intended, but I'd appreciate any answers and extra advice you can give me, thanks a lot for your time either way!

 

[VoodooDaddy]

I am what you'd probably consider a "hardcore gamer",

Dont buy one.

No need for me to read the read of that post.

 

[Knqui]

Dont buy one.

No need for me to read the read of that post.

Well, like I said earlier, Bootcamp covers the one game I'd need Windows for, so what other reasons are there to shy away from a Mac in this respect?

 

[VoodooDaddy]

Ok, Ill take them 1 by 1. First off, 2 years ago I have NEVER used a Mac. I built my own stuff all the time, knew XP back and forth, but when the intel chips came out for Mac I had a really big interest in getting one. I needed a new computer and just didnt have the desire to research what to buy, order, then put together. So I bought a mac mini honestly with the intentions of just continuing to use XP in bootcamp, but messing with OSX a little bit. Well, I never installed bootcamp and the rest is history. I will NEVER use Windows again.

1. Are Macs/OS X just a novelty? Does the shininess and "newthinking" wear off quickly and leave a bitter taste of regret in your mouth for buying one? - No regrets whatsoever. I wasnt totally blown away like some people are. It took me several months before I began to see the differences and really appreciate how much better it is

2. How easy is it to expand the memory in an iMac, and would I just remove the Apple memory that comes with it and replace the whole thing with 4GB? - Its as easy as removing 1 screw on the bottom of the screen, pulling a tab out, and inserting the new stick. I replaced my 1 stick with (2) 2gb sticks

3. Is AppleCare worth it? Is it true that if I don't spend £170 on the thing that if my Mac breaks after 90 days that I have no recourse for having it repaired/replaced? - Your first year of Applecare is included. The 90 days is just phone support. The computer is fully covered for a year though. I would recommend buying Applecare, but you dont have to purchase it right up front. You have up til the initial year is gone to buy it

4. I've tried to sift through the massive speculation thread on the iMac update here, but what is truly most likely? A Graphics update would probably seal the deal for me, but even then I don't want to wait much longer than June (which is when it's supposed to be updated?). - your guess is as good as anyones. Could come next week, next month, or 2 months

5. How exactly does Bootcamp work, is it as simple as Dualbooting with an XP install? Or is it full of bugs/annoyances? - It creates a partition on your hdd and you install XP on that partition. When you boot you select which OS you want to use. Is it full of bugs and annoyances? Well thats Windows for you

6. Will OS X see a new version any time soon? (10.6?), is there any news on this? - I dont know about this. Leopard (10.5) was my first OS upgrade so I dont know the life cycle of these things. They have yet to come out with 10.5.3 so it will likely be a while before 10.6 gets here

Hope it helps some. Prior to buying my first, I had clicked around on a mac maybe 5min in a store so I really knew NOTHING about them. It was a big step but Im glad I did.

 

[clyde2801]

1. No. I went to mac in 03, and started finding functional equivalents of most windows programs for mac. For those I couldn't, I used virtual pc and then parallels. My experience is that you will use windows for that one game or app you can't live without, and use osx for everything else.

2. It's very easy. Small phillips screwdriver and should take 3-10 minutes max. Assuming you're getting a machine with only 1 gig, you'll chuck them both to put in 4 gigs.

3. Yes. You'll get 90 days of phone support and a one year hardware warranty with the mac. You can buy applecare anytime before the year is up to get an additional two years of hardware and phone support. iMacs have cool designs, but they appear to be a b#$<h to work on compared to PC's. If anything goes wrong on it before the end of the three years, you will have been money ahead on the applecare. Plus, you can sometimes buy it for a discount on ebay or craigslist.

4. Understood about the possibility of the update, but who knows when or how it will be updated. Retired Kreminologists now try to ascertain what Apple's going to do next. And like the former USSR, it's just as secretive. As for a massive graphics card update, I wouldn't bet the farm on it. The iMac's form factor doesn't allow for a full tilt gaming video card due to cooling considerations. If what's in the current models won't work for you, you may be waiting until June, July or whenever for an update that may not happen.

5. Bootcamp is essentially dualbooting and works basically the same.

6. Historically, updates to OSX generally come at 18 month intervals, and there's been no rumors or speculation of any kind so far about os x 10.6 to say otherwise.

If you're a tinkering, hands on sort of computer geek, apple may not be for you. Apple is not geared towards the tweaking sort. This is expecially so for an iMac, as the design does not lend itself towards easily upgrading or modifying it.

Good luck either way on your decision.

 

[Knqui]

If you're a tinkering, hands on sort of computer geek, apple may not be for you. Apple is not geared towards the tweaking sort. This is expecially so for an iMac, as the design does not lend itself towards easily upgrading or modifying it.

Actually this is exactly what I'm trying to avoid, I was sick to my stomach start to finish on this last build and I've regretted it ever since. I'm tired of things becoming outdated the week after I buy them and devaluing at the speed of knots.

I'd kinda be relying on Macs good resale value to sell and buy new once every 2-3yrs, which would make me a lot happier than doing the same with a PC and getting a fraction of what I paid for it and need for a decent upgrade.

I've come to appreciate things working perfect right out of the box which is why I miss my X360 so much in terms of gaming

 

[pnyc]

If you are a hardcore gamer an iMac is not for you the video card is simply not good enough to run games like Crysis in native resolution and with high detail.
Your plan to keep the iMac for 2-3 years won't work even if you initially sacrifice the resolution and the eye candy to get some decent fps for the current games the games that come out in the next 5-10 months will completely overwhelm the already underpowered video card.
There really is no reason for a gamer to buy an iMac.

 

[clyde2801]

Or, dare I say it, you could try a hackintosh?

 

[czachorski]

We need more information on your intended use for such a machine. If it is applications that are predominantly windows only, and you would be running them in bootcamp continuously (like games, AutoCad, GIS, or certain accounting packages), then you may as well get a PC.

If it things like video editing, managing your photos, getting creative with music editing, image editing, in a range that does not demand that pro-uber speed, than you are probably in the exact cross-hairs of the iMac target. OS X with iLife on an iMac is one of the premiere consumer-level experiences for the hobbyist / home / pro-sumer.

 

[MacHappytjg]

but isnt a 256 good cause all imac al have them except for the cheapest with a 128 but im assuming ur saying its bad cause there radions or w.e there called honestly i use mine for adobe cs3 premium suite or w.e its called and ms office 2008 and hmm all the new and latest stuff basically

 

[BamaDMD]

Just do it!

I 've been a windows user for years. Loved the building of my own systems. Tweaking things. Did some gaming. Halo was the last serious gaming I did. Don't have time for all that much anymore. If you're into gaming, get a decent system with a good video card and don't worry about upgrading every other week, you don't need to. I know what your going through. Your a computer nerd (same as me). But once you get a Mac, the programs and OS are done so much better and works so much slicker that you will fall in love and find that instead of the need to tweak the hardware, (it always seems very fast and I have an imac), that will be replaced with tweaking the OS. It's fun to mess with. Love Widgets. (nothing quite like them on Windows). Everything is just .......well great! I started falling out of love with computers for the last couple of years (have been a geek since commodore 64 days) and this was renewed with the Mac.

This is what I have always dreamed a computer should be. Windows just is really irritating but you won't realize just how much until you make the switch. Now I warn you, if you do make the jump..... It took me about 3 days to start getting comfortable with using it. Weeks later until I fingured out about 60% of it. Now I still am learning every day but it is fun and it never ceases to amaze me what it can do. I am now a mac addict.

Just my humble opinion. You won't regret though.