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Need some advice

T

tpavur

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 8, 2010
196
0
http://www.overclock.net/full-systems/979113-fs-3000-wcd-premium-gaming-computer.html#post12945984

My dad is selling his gaming WC pc to switch to Mac, after I bought him an iPad 2 and he has seen the things my Mac can do he is a believer. My question is this; he likes messing with hardware and such and he does a little bit of gaming, not a lot. The iMac has perfect screen real-estate for him at 27" but I worry about him not being able to upgrade like he would want to, he will have around 4k to spend on a Mac setup, Mac pro would be perfect for him but I worry after buying the apple CD and 2 apple tv's he will not have the power he would have had if he went with a top tier iMac, once he sells it he is deffinetly going to wait for the refresh but has also considered buying a used Mac pro or trying to trade for one... Again his main uses will be media and rare gaming sessions with heavy multitasking. What do you guys recommend He do all in all?
 
tell him to buy a 2010 2.8 quad mac pro. then tell him to do a diy hex cpu upgrade like I did. read this link on the upgrade



https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1122551/


a high imac score is 10000 or 11000


http://browse.geekbench.ca/geekbench2/view/390108



the gpu and hdd are hard to upgrade

my mod for the mac pro is scoring 15550 on geek bench. it can be done for about 625 and a 2010 quad 2.8 can be had for 2200 or so . so for 2800 you have a beast a real beast.
 
Last edited:
tpavur said:
http://www.overclock.net/full-systems/979113-fs-3000-wcd-premium-gaming-computer.html#post12945984

My dad is selling his gaming WC pc to switch to Mac, after I bought him an iPad 2 and he has seen the things my Mac can do he is a believer. My question is this; he likes messing with hardware and such and he does a little bit of gaming, not a lot. The iMac has perfect screen real-estate for him at 27" but I worry about him not being able to upgrade like he would want to, he will have around 4k to spend on a Mac setup, Mac pro would be perfect for him but I worry after buying the apple CD and 2 apple tv's he will not have the power he would have had if he went with a top tier iMac, once he sells it he is deffinetly going to wait for the refresh but has also considered buying a used Mac pro or trying to trade for one... Again his main uses will be media and rare gaming sessions with heavy multitasking. What do you guys recommend He do all in all?
Click to expand...

If he likes upgrading, and he can afford it, forget the iMac. Even the base Xeons are fast enough for nearly everything (except, for instance, he does ALOT of encoding maybe would you see a difference). If he is gaming, then he will appreciate the upgradablity of the Mac Pro.

I for instance just bought an original Mac Pro and upgraded the CPU to 8 x2.33 Ghz, and I'm getting 8900 in geekbench. I have also upgraded the GPU to a 6870. While I'm not advocating this direct route, a used Mac Pro might be a good idea if you can find a good deal.
 
Judging by the Gaming PC he built he wants the biggest tear arse Mac Pro available to satisfy his need for expansion and lust for power. :D
 
tpavur said:
http://www.overclock.net/full-systems/979113-fs-3000-wcd-premium-gaming-computer.html#post12945984

My dad is selling his gaming WC pc to switch to Mac, after I bought him an iPad 2 and he has seen the things my Mac can do he is a believer. My question is this; he likes messing with hardware and such and he does a little bit of gaming, not a lot. The iMac has perfect screen real-estate for him at 27" but I worry about him not being able to upgrade like he would want to, he will have around 4k to spend on a Mac setup, Mac pro would be perfect for him but I worry after buying the apple CD and 2 apple tv's he will not have the power he would have had if he went with a top tier iMac, once he sells it he is deffinetly going to wait for the refresh but has also considered buying a used Mac pro or trying to trade for one... Again his main uses will be media and rare gaming sessions with heavy multitasking. What do you guys recommend He do all in all?
Click to expand...

I would wait for the iMac refresh as judging by just how much more powerful the new MacBook Pro's have been made with Sandy Bridge, you could end up with an iMac capable of keeping up with the 6 core Mac Pro.
But an iMac is the most unfriendly Mac to upgrade. You have to remove the screen to change the hard drive!!
 
If he likes tinkering with stuff a hackintosh might be the way to go.

OTOH you can buy the base Mac Pro and drop in a faster processor and whatever discs/memory you want. In fact, flashing graphics cards isn't that big of a deal although I'd maintain a seperate computer to deal with that on.

In fact, if you go that route buy one used/refurbished. I bought mine (souped up) used by a member on here and I haven't regretted it one bit, even if it is the "nerfed 2009 model"
 
Where is the best place to go to trade this for a Mac pro?
 
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