New Mac gaming rig

[trip1ex]

$440 is all you need. Add it to a Mac Mini (or any other Mac) and game to your heart's content.

460gtx is fast. Plays BF:BC2 on high settings at 1920x1200 with super smooth frame rates. Just got done playing.

Downsides are bulk and noise. It's about 30x (the size) of a Mac Mini. And a bit louder than an old model xbox 360. And you need a copy of Windows laying around.

If you spend another $300ish or so you can get a better power supply(pc power cooling 500w silencer,) vid card (quieter less thirsty radeon 6850 gpu,) cpu (quad core 2500k sandy bridge,) and (lga 1155 sb) motherboard.


SKU DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE PER TOTAL
048140 4GB DDR3-1333 (PC-10666) CL9 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Two 2GB Memory Modules) 1 $39.99 $39.99

261503 PHENOM II X4 840 Boxed Processor HDX840WFGMBOX 1 $99.99 $99.99

140442 A780L3G AM3 760G mATX Motherboard 1 $0.01 $0.01

063891 eXtreme Power Plus 460W ATX Power Supply 1 $24.99 $24.99

473454 Three Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case 1 $52.99 $52.99

646901 Barracuda 1TB 7,200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ST310005N1A1AS-RK 1 $59.99 $59.99

421008 GH22NS50 22X Internal SATA Super Multi DVD Drive OEM 1 $17.99 $17.99

788091 GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 PCIe 2.0 x16 Video Card 1 $149.99 $149.99

Subtotal »
$445.94
Tax » $27.87

RESERVATION TOTAL » $473.81 minus $30 rebate = $443.81

 

[Ace134blue]

So what was the point of this thread?

 

[bluebomberman]

So what was the point of this thread?

If you find it pointless, ignore it and move along.

 

[dimme]

$440 is all you need. Add it to a Mac Mini (or any other Mac) and game to your heart's content.

460gtx is fast. Plays BF:BC2 on high settings at 1920x1200 with super smooth frame rates. Just got done playing.

Downsides are bulk and noise. It's about 30x of a Mac Mini. And a bit louder than an old model xbox 360. And you need a copy of Windows laying around.

If you spend another $300ish or so you can get a better power supply(pc power cooling 500w silencer,) vid card (quieter less thirsty radeon 6850 gpu,) cpu (quad core 2500k sandy bridge,) and (lga 1155 sb) motherboard.


SKU DESCRIPTION QUANTITY PRICE PER TOTAL
048140 4GB DDR3-1333 (PC-10666) CL9 Dual Channel Desktop Memory Kit (Two 2GB Memory Modules) 1 $39.99 $39.99

261503 PHENOM II X4 840 Boxed Processor HDX840WFGMBOX 1 $99.99 $99.99

140442 A780L3G AM3 760G mATX Motherboard 1 $0.01 $0.01

063891 eXtreme Power Plus 460W ATX Power Supply 1 $24.99 $24.99

473454 Three Hundred ATX Mid Tower Case 1 $52.99 $52.99

646901 Barracuda 1TB 7,200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive ST310005N1A1AS-RK 1 $59.99 $59.99

421008 GH22NS50 22X Internal SATA Super Multi DVD Drive OEM 1 $17.99 $17.99

788091 GeForce GTX 460 768MB GDDR5 PCIe 2.0 x16 Video Card 1 $149.99 $149.99

Subtotal »
$445.94
Tax » $27.87

RESERVATION TOTAL » $473.81 minus $30 rebate = $443.81

Link please

 

[bmb012]

Still unclear how this is a 'Mac' gaming rig?

 

[Jason Beck]

I'm confused..

Ima go game on my phenom quad right now and think about this post.

 

[Ace134blue]

If you find it pointless, ignore it and move along.

Not that, OP gave a 440$ slowish PC and puts mac in the title. I just dont get it.

 

[Hastings101]

Not that, OP gave a 440$ slowish PC and puts mac in the title. I just dont get it.

I don't either... I thought he was talking about a hackintosh at first but then he mentioned using an AMD processor, I guess I don't understand the point of this post

 

[0186279]

yeah not sure I understand this either : o

 

[Jason Beck]

he/she drank the bongwater.
Although I think he could hackintosh said specs. I was looking to do my Phenom but don't think my radeon 5750 has a kext for it. Add 400 to any mac? What about a laptop? lmao.

 

[trip1ex]

Just waving my white flag. My only solution to Mac gaming was to do build a Windows box.

I hate to do that, but the reality is you boot into Windows anyway in order to game (with a few exceptions) so why not. And certainly better performance is also had in Windows.

Microcenter is where I shopped. But you can probably do as about as good at Newegg/Amazon. With Microcenter it was about having a local place I could return the stuff if I had problems and because they have a free motherboard with select amd cpu purchase.

It's big and loud, but ....it works.

I think if all games were in OSX I would put up with the so-so gpus in Macs.

Windows ain't too bad. It's faster than OSX for the most part. But it is also alot junkier. It's a messy room vs a nice neat tidy clean room.

This is like my 3rd computer in a week that I've bought. First it was the 15" MBP refurb, but gaming wasn't that great. Then I ordered an HP laptop which ain't shipping for another week. But I discovered gpu is 6570 instead of 6750. DAmn ATI/AMD naming schemes. GPU is still decent for a laptop. So maybe I'll open it when it comes and test it out. But will have to contact HP first to confirm return policy before I open.

Anywayz. Build this thing and add a Mac. Mac gaming problem solved.

 

[Jason Beck]

Just waving my white flag. My only solution to Mac gaming was to do build a Windows box.

I hate to do that, but the reality is you boot into Windows anyway in order to game (with a few exceptions) so why not. And certainly better performance is also had in Windows.

Microcenter is where I shopped. But you can probably do as about as good at Newegg/Amazon. With Microcenter it was about having a local place I could return the stuff if I had problems and because they have a free motherboard with select amd cpu purchase.

It's big and loud, but ....it works.

I think if all games were in OSX I would put up with the so-so gpus in Macs.

Windows ain't too bad. It's faster than OSX for the most part. But it is also alot junkier. It's a messy room vs a nice neat tidy clean room.

This is like my 3rd computer in a week that I've bought. First it was the 15" MBP refurb, but gaming wasn't that great. Then I ordered an HP laptop which ain't shipping for another week. But I discovered gpu is 6570 instead of 6750. DAmn ATI/AMD naming schemes. GPU is still decent for a laptop. So maybe I'll open it when it comes and test it out. But will have to contact HP first to confirm return policy before I open.

Anywayz. Build this thing and add a Mac. Mac gaming problem solved.

When you pop an SSD in a Windows machine, then you can really see the Windows 7 OS shine. It becomes snappy like OSX and is a breeze to use. I am getting a 64 gig boot ssd for my box soon.

 

[0098386]

A good idea, but what if you need a powerful Mac?

 

[whooleytoo]

Fair play to the OP, I went onto a gaming PC site and started picking out components - not even going for the top-end - and at the end of it all it came to > $4,000.

I'd love to buy something like that and try to get OSX running on it, but I can't imagine what kind of issues I'd have with drivers.. Plus 4K for a gaming machine is a biiiit much for me.

 

[trip1ex]

A good idea, but what if you need a powerful Mac?

Well if you truly need a very powerful Mac because you do something for a living in which time is money and having more power saves you time then you buy one.

You can add this gaming pc to any Mac config. Just pretend it's an option on the Apple shopping page when you purchase your Mac. (Someone with Photoshop could help here. )

 

[Jason Beck]

A good idea, but what if you need a powerful Mac?

Then you go onto the hackintosh threads and follow what Cindori and people have done and build something nice, or you buy a Mac with the specs you need.

You can pay under 1500 and get OSX running on something that can game with whatever game you throw at it. Heck my rig (in sig) was less than a grand and in Windows I can play any game on high/ultra. I'm sure if I got an OSX compliant video card I could be gaming in OSX right now. I've hackintoshed before and it isn't that hard. People have already paved they way for everyone else. Plus for the most part they are reliable machines that survive hot updates.

Poster that was paying around 4 grand for a gaming rig: I could throw another stick of ram in mine, a better video card, and an ssd drive and my system would still be under 1500 and run any game on the market in ultra.


But if you want a Mac, get a Mac and get it for OSX and the beautiful ergonomics of the hardware and the support. Apple is nice. I would own both right now if I could!

 

[whooleytoo]

Then you go onto the hackintosh threads and follow what Cindori and people have done and build something nice, or you buy a Mac with the specs you need.

You can pay under 1500 and get OSX running on something that can game with whatever game you throw at it. Heck my rig (in sig) was less than a grand and in Windows I can play any game on high/ultra. I'm sure if I got an OSX compliant video card I could be gaming in OSX right now. I've hackintoshed before and it isn't that hard. People have already paved they way for everyone else. Plus for the most part they are reliable machines that survive hot updates.

Poster that was paying around 4 grand for a gaming rig: I could throw another stick of ram in mine, a better video card, and an ssd drive and my system would still be under 1500 and run any game on the market in ultra.

But if you want a Mac, get a Mac and get it for OSX and the beautiful ergonomics of the hardware and the support. Apple is nice. I would own both right now if I could!

For the record - I didn't buy it. I was just a typical Mac gamer with no experience of 'building your own rig', and that was my first attempt at pricing the bits needed. I'm impressed that the OP was able to build any kind of gaming rig for that price.

It'd be great to low-cost expandable gaming Mac - as you say the Mac isn't just about the OS but also the design of the device. Sadly there's probably a better chance of a G5 iPhone than a hardcore-gaming, expandable Mac.

 

[mosx]

Not that, OP gave a 440$ slowish PC and puts mac in the title. I just dont get it.

"Slowish"? That CPU is faster than any of the dual core Macs and will give any of the Core i5 Macs a run for their money. The GPU is faster than any current shipping Mac GPU.

Anyway, I did something similar to what the OP did.

With rebates, I spent less than the cost of a Mac mini. Without rebates taken into account, I spent the same amount.

I built a full system. AMD Phenom II X6 1055T which runs stable 3.4GHz. Thats six actual cores at 3.4GHz. Stock cooler keeps temps no higher than 50c under full load, which is significantly cooler than the Core 2 Duo in my MacBook. 8GB of RAM, 1.5TB HDD, DVD writer, all the other necessary stuff for a fully functional computer, including Windows 7 Home Premium x64 OEM.

Also bought a GeForce GTX 460. But I went with an overclocked 1GB version, which can still be overclocked further, be completely stable, and no affect on temperatures.

For a little over $600 after rebates, I have more GPU power than any current shipping Mac in its default configuration. I have more CPU power than all but the two more expensive Mac Pros.

It's simply amazing what kind of hardware you can get when you look outside Apple's walled garden. It's a perfect example of choice. You can build something cheap that is extremely fast, 100% stable, and absolutely no problems at all. Driver issues? None. I ran the DVD that came with my motherboard and it auto detected and auto installed all of the drivers for all of the hardware it included. Downloaded the GPU drivers from the nvidia website. That was it. Done.

As far as overclocking goes, there was an option in the BIOS to auto overclock. Enable it and it runs a few stress tests to see what the best settings and such for your hardware are then it auto sets all of them. The GPU shipped with a similar Windows software utility.

I really am amazed at how much power I have now for so little money.

As far as how Windows runs.. well, I've run Windows 7 on my MacBook (2008 unibody, 4GB RAM, 320GB 7200RPM HDD) along with Snow Leopard and Windows 7 was always faster than OS X. This system now is faster than any Mac I've ever used, save for the boot time on the new MacBook Air. Even though real world use, this PC is significantly faster.

 

[Jason Beck]

"Slowish"? That CPU is faster than any of the dual core Macs and will give any of the Core i5 Macs a run for their money. The GPU is faster than any current shipping Mac GPU.

Anyway, I did something similar to what the OP did.

With rebates, I spent less than the cost of a Mac mini. Without rebates taken into account, I spent the same amount.

I built a full system. AMD Phenom II X6 1055T which runs stable 3.4GHz. Thats six actual cores at 3.4GHz. Stock cooler keeps temps no higher than 50c under full load, which is significantly cooler than the Core 2 Duo in my MacBook. 8GB of RAM, 1.5TB HDD, DVD writer, all the other necessary stuff for a fully functional computer, including Windows 7 Home Premium x64 OEM.

Also bought a GeForce GTX 460. But I went with an overclocked 1GB version, which can still be overclocked further, be completely stable, and no affect on temperatures.

For a little over $600 after rebates, I have more GPU power than any current shipping Mac in its default configuration. I have more CPU power than all but the two more expensive Mac Pros.

It's simply amazing what kind of hardware you can get when you look outside Apple's walled garden. It's a perfect example of choice. You can build something cheap that is extremely fast, 100% stable, and absolutely no problems at all. Driver issues? None. I ran the DVD that came with my motherboard and it auto detected and auto installed all of the drivers for all of the hardware it included. Downloaded the GPU drivers from the nvidia website. That was it. Done.

As far as overclocking goes, there was an option in the BIOS to auto overclock. Enable it and it runs a few stress tests to see what the best settings and such for your hardware are then it auto sets all of them. The GPU shipped with a similar Windows software utility.

I really am amazed at how much power I have now for so little money.

As far as how Windows runs.. well, I've run Windows 7 on my MacBook (2008 unibody, 4GB RAM, 320GB 7200RPM HDD) along with Snow Leopard and Windows 7 was always faster than OS X. This system now is faster than any Mac I've ever used, save for the boot time on the new MacBook Air. Even though real world use, this PC is significantly faster.

Nice. Going to be getting a 6 core here soon to replace my 965. I am curious if I can push it to 3.6-3.8ghz on my h50 water cooler

 

[voyagerd]

I like the all and one Mac OS/Windows dual boot of my hackintosh.

 

[Ace134blue]

"Slowish"? That CPU is faster than any of the dual core Macs and will give any of the Core i5 Macs a run for their money. The GPU is faster than any current shipping Mac GPU.

A PHENOM II X4 840 will not give any i5 desktop CPUs a run for the money. The 840 is a slow quad core budget CPU. If anything its slightly faster than the i5 650, the slowest one there is. And yes the 460 is the only good thing in this build.

 

[Jason Beck]

I don't know about the 840, but the Phenom II 965 BE is comparable to a Intel i5 760. If you overclock this beast you can match it in benches and go over it in some areas. If you notice the links I have attached go to a few different sites that have benched the two chips. The AMD offering is $50 cheaper on average (from sites like tigerdirect), and I suspect an even deeper discount with coupons etc. Overclocking is also easy and if you overclock to the average 3.8ghz@1.4volts, you will have very good performance.

I wouldn't immediately rule out AMD with the Phenom II, especially with the overclocking ability of the unlocked 965. Pair that sucker with a Radeon 5850/70 whatever, and you have something that can play any game on ultra high. I can personally play any game on high/ultrahigh with my 9750. I am overclocked right now to 3.9ghz for stability under 64 bit Windows (which has a dislike of overclocks over 4ghz on 64 bit Windows , source: Google.com).

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-x4-965,2389.html
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Phenom+II+X4+965
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=phenom+ii+black+edition+965
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=intel+i5+760
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&...=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=e7001256e1a8e03c

So with the discount I can get (I can get the chip a full $100 off), the system is that much more viable for me. I can put that extra $100 into a video card.

So in short, price / performance comparisons, on paper the AMD 965BE will in fact give the i5 760 a run for it's money. It will compete in overclocked mode versus the i5, but if you overclock the i5 it will go ahead of the 965 again. But as I said, if you are building a system, a bill extra into your video may yield superior performance in gaming and longevity of the game compatibility.

Or you can get more ram, SSD, or whatever you want to. I saved money with AMD an am pretty satisfied. (I have owned hundreds of computers over the years) This is my favorite purchase. Well, besides the Pentium 75.

 

[Ace134blue]

I don't know about the 840, but the Phenom II 965 BE is comparable to a Intel i5 760. If you overclock this beast you can match it in benches and go over it in some areas. If you notice the links I have attached go to a few different sites that have benched the two chips. The AMD offering is $50 cheaper on average (from sites like tigerdirect), and I suspect an even deeper discount with coupons etc. Overclocking is also easy and if you overclock to the average 3.8ghz@1.4volts, you will have very good performance.

I wouldn't immediately rule out AMD with the Phenom II, especially with the overclocking ability of the unlocked 965. Pair that sucker with a Radeon 9850/70 whatever, and you have something that can play any game on ultra high. I can personally play any game on high/ultrahigh with my 9750. I am overclocked right now to 3.9ghz for stability under 64 bit Windows (which has a dislike of overclocks over 4ghz on 64 bit Windows , source: Google.com).

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/phenom-x4-965,2389.html
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+Phenom+II+X4+965
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=phenom+ii+black+edition+965
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=intel+i5+760
http://www.google.com/#sclient=psy&...=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=e7001256e1a8e03c

So with the discount I can get (I can get the chip a full $100 off), the system is that much more viable for me. I can put that extra $100 into a video card.

So in short, price / performance comparisons, on paper the AMD 965BE will in fact give the i5 760 a run for it's money. It will compete in overclocked mode versus the i5, but if you overclock the i5 it will go ahead of the 965 again. But as I said, if you are building a system, a bill extra into your video may yield superior performance in gaming and longevity of the game compatibility.

Or you can get more ram, SSD, or whatever you want to. I saved money with AMD an am pretty satisfied. (I have owned hundreds of computers over the years) This is my favorite purchase. Well, besides the Pentium 75.

Yeah, everybody knows AMD is performance on a budget. But people wanting true performance always go for Intel. Look at the i7 2600k. 5.0+GHz easy. As for my 750 im at 4.1 with just 1.35 Volts. Clock for clock 965 is no match for a 760/50 but you are right you could OC it some to get better performance.

"which has a dislike of overclocks over 4ghz on 64 bit Windows , source: Google.com" thats just bollocks. and ive never heard of a radeon 9850/70 gpu

 

[Jason Beck]

Yeah, everybody knows AMD is performance on a budget. But people wanting true performance always go for Intel. Look at the i7 2600k. 5.0+GHz easy. As for my 750 im at 4.1 with just 1.35 Volts. Clock for clock 965 is no match for a 760/50 but you are right you could OC it some to get better performance.

"which has a dislike of overclocks over 4ghz on 64 bit Windows , source: Google.com" thats just bollocks. and ive never heard of a radeon 9850/70 gpu

Bollocks because I mistyped, that should be a 5.
*BUT* You are wrong, there actually was a Radeon 9850. It was agp:
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&sugexp...=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.&fp=e7001256e1a8e03c

 

[Jason Beck]

I would still go with AMD over the i7 you mentioned. If you want to overclock it AMD 1090T in my opinion will give you great performance for cheap. Can never complain about an extra 800~1100Mhz for nothing but decent cooling. The AMD is $200 roughly, with the Intel offering a full $140 more than that.

There are also a few differences between the two chips. The AMD 1090t is a 6core while the i7 you mentioned is quad.. I would get the six core and plan for the future. Many of the games and apps I run take advantage of the six core. Intel i7 2600K can overclock to 4.5 ghz, and that is on air according to funkykit.com, and that is pretty awesome in itself. Also the Intel 980x is what pushing upwards toward a grand for the chip? With the AMD at $180?

I would use that extra money for a GTX 580 which that paired with the 6 core AMD would yield all the performance you would need for a long time too. You won't see much difference right now, and in the near future, with the AMD+580+fast ram/ssd, if any difference in games. Both systems would be beasts, and really if you pop an SSD in, the performance would be incredible. I wouldn't exactly dare call that system a budget PC either. Budget PC's are below 500 bones. You start putting money into something and it grows out of that class quick.

The overclocking of the AMD is good too, netting around 4.11 ghz. That is way decent for a 6 core. I would take a decent look at the bench results at at Overclockersclub.com (in references below). It shows the AMD chip outperforming in a few areas.

Bottom line is todays tasks and games are steadily taking advantage of 6 core or more. If you buy a 6 core, you have more than enough CPU for today's tasks and have a chip that will take you into tomorrow. That extra money spent on the AMD will allow you to have a better video card by far and have one that will last longer, imho, paired with the AMD than the Intel chips.

If you have money to throw around then get the Intel for ($500 extra for the i7 2600k cpu and the 460gtz. I'd rather get the better video card or 500 bucks of SSD. When you get even a core 2 duo on an SSD, it's amazing.



http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/amd_phenom2_x6_1090t/5.htm
http://www.funkykit.com/articles/6925-overclocking-intels-sandy-bridge-core-i7-2600k.html
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9461&CatId=4074
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=7073159&CatId=6991
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=665806