Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
iMac vs custom built pc
- Thread starter Dsr1205
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
If you're buying a machine for the main purpose of gaming, it seems rather silly to even consider an iMac.
Agreed. In about a year you will want to upgrade the video card. Can't do that in an iMac.
Get the iMac because you want to:
- run the Mac OS.
- be able to dual boot, and run regular PC type applications.
- save on desktop space.
well gaming is one of many things i will be doing, word processing, webbrowsing, and ichat, and photo and movie **** is what im gonna do too, i want to play old games like warcraft 3 and counterstrike source (bootcamp) my curent dektop runs a x1800xl radeon so im wondering if 2600 pro is better
also, baseline macpro (2300) + macbook (1500) or Macbook pro(2500) + imac(1500) what is better chioce, i want a dektop and a laptop for college.
a imac would be good well im not sure it has a 256mb radieon peice of crap (no offence people) and a macbook would be fine depends what ur doing my brothers just gunna get a normal blackbook for his graphic arts i belive an imac would be good enough for those games cause i ran those on a p4 1.4 or so and 64mb vidcard on my macbook and that pc im talkin about just fine
You're brother is buying a blackbook with a piece of crap intel GMA for graphics card and you call the 2600 crap... rofl.
Tell your brother to forget true colors. I'm a designer and I own a macbook. It's awesome for daily tasks but fails big time with any graphics as the card simply sucks.
Eh? The 2600 iMac will run those in its sleep.
The iMac is a reasonable machine for gaming, but better to purchase it for OS X and the style and quality.
Also consider that your Vista machine will be worth relatively little in 3 years, whereas the iMac will be worth a lot more. Selling your iMac every three years and putting the money towards a new one isn't a bad plan at all.
I was custom building PC's for 10 years. My most recent custom built PC before I purchased the iMac had the best of just about everything and it still was not as fast as the iMac for every day tasks. The iMac really shines when it comes to web browsing, ichat and word processing.
As far as games, the older games you mention should run fine on the iMac with bootcamp.
Another thing to consider is that if you build a PC. You will be upgrading the parts from time to time just to keep up with Vista or whatever else comes up down the line. At the end of 3 years, you probably would have put more money into the PC than if you purchased the iMac.
Vista is a beast and very bloated. I kept having to throw hardware at it just to keep it running at a decent speed.
As far as games, the older games you mention should run fine on the iMac with bootcamp.
Another thing to consider is that if you build a PC. You will be upgrading the parts from time to time just to keep up with Vista or whatever else comes up down the line. At the end of 3 years, you probably would have put more money into the PC than if you purchased the iMac.
Vista is a beast and very bloated. I kept having to throw hardware at it just to keep it running at a decent speed.
Dear God, sir, try punctuation. And actual words.
You are talking about two completely different issues.D4F said:
adequate? war3 runs at 60-80 fps with full resolution, with every setting maxed, on my parents' 20" imac with the radeon 2400. The 2600 is vastly, vastly more than powerful enough to run the games he wants to run.
dude do u think i care u know what im talking about im 15 and its the flippin computer punctuation and real words are for school
You might not care but if you want other people to read your posts and answer your questions, you should learn to write a more readable post.
That may be your view, and that is okay from your perspective.
However, don't expect many to value your opinion if you represent yourself as such. Just some words to the wise.
Oh, fie... Would being banned make you care? Computers are the future of society. If communication on computers degrades, then society degrades.
Real words are for school? Welcome to three years from now. Will you pronounce "lol", "rofl", "ttyl", and the like in the real world when you grow up? You'll be laughed out of your workplace.
Oh, yes. If you have Leopard, you have system-wide built-in spelling and grammar checking. USE IT.
What he said. 100% agree.
MayIMommadogfaceto thebananapatch. Exactly. Now do us a favor and learn english, use at least basic punctuation and grammer or don't post.
Are they still shipping those $1500 20" iMacs with TN screens? Wouldn't bother myself, especially if you have a large range of intended uses inc. gaming.
Could always go with the Hackintosh route, but if you prefer to stay on the legal side you'll be able to custom build a quad core something, 8800GT and a 24" PVA screen for that money. You do unfortunately pay a lot for a nice case/package with an iMac, which doesn't sit well with everyone.
If you were getting the 24" however, they have H-IPS screens. And although i absolutely hate the gloss, they're really nice.
Could always go with the Hackintosh route, but if you prefer to stay on the legal side you'll be able to custom build a quad core something, 8800GT and a 24" PVA screen for that money. You do unfortunately pay a lot for a nice case/package with an iMac, which doesn't sit well with everyone.
If you were getting the 24" however, they have H-IPS screens. And although i absolutely hate the gloss, they're really nice.