Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Seeking Advice

H

Headshots01

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Apr 5, 2011
6
0
I've been saving and waiting and just using my Dell xps m1730 but it died on the weekend and I'm now without a computer. I don't know what to do now so any advice you all could give me would be appreciated. Should I wait for the iMac refresh and suffer without a computer for the next month or so or should I go out and buy either the current 27 inch iMac or get a 17 inch Mac book pro.

I'll be using it for a multitude of tasks including your typical web browsing, email etc but I'll also will be doing some video editing and I'd like to be able to play some games via bootcamp/windows 7. Games such a Rift and the new Star Wars mmo coming out.
*
 
Headshots01 said:
I've been saving and waiting and just using my Dell xps m1730 but it died on the weekend and I'm now without a computer. I don't know what to do now so any advice you all could give me would be appreciated. Should I wait for the iMac refresh and suffer without a computer for the next month or so or should I go out and buy either the current 27 inch iMac or get a 17 inch Mac book pro.

I'll be using it for a multitude of tasks including your typical web browsing, email etc but I'll also will be doing some video editing and I'd like to be able to play some games via bootcamp/windows 7. Games such a Rift and the new Star Wars mmo coming out.
*
Click to expand...

It all depends on how you will be using the system, obviously if you want something portable then go with the macbook pro, the newly refreshed 17" should be able to handle all of your mentioned needs!

On the other hand if your set on an imac then I would definitely 100% wait for the refresh, it cant be long and im sure there are ton's of posts around various specs and release rumours.

What kind of spes are you looking at? will you be opting for the higher spec systems?
 
The higher end bto 27 inch is what I'm aiming for so that it will last me awhile. Portable is not something I really want but I'm without a system right now.
 
Last edited:
Got any family members or friends with a spare computer laying around to borrow for a month?
 
Not really. Right now I'm sort of trying to get by by using my iPad and iPhone. There is a guy at work I might talk to since he has a quad core i7 that he built that he really isn't using at the moment.
 
For Rift, you really want a beefy PC. The current iMac's are nice, but the video card they come with isn't exactly gonna live up well (40+FPS) in Rift. And trust me, you'll want a really nice PC for Rift because it looks awesome when you turn everything on.
 
johnnyfiive said:
For Rift, you really want a beefy PC. The current iMac's are nice, but the video card they come with isn't exactly gonna live up well (40+FPS) in Rift. And trust me, you'll want a really nice PC for Rift because it looks awesome when you turn everything on.
Click to expand...

I was playing Rift on my XPS m1730 that had dual nvidia 8700 gpus and it looked great. Ran it just under medium graphics settings.

Although we dont know the exact specs of the potential refresh want to hazard a guess if if the BTO iMacs will be good enough or am I just better off going with a PC and trying to find some video editing software instead of using final cut express like I wanted to.

This would be my first Mac that Id be buying and the machines are beautiful and the OS is sleek and sexy but this is a very large decision. I know most are going to say go with the Mac but still the opinions are appreciated.
 
I'm no video editing guru, but Sony Vegas and After Effects do plenty from what I've seen. I still prefer Apple when I do attempt video editing, its just much easier to use. :)
 
honestly, the new sandy bridge isn't going to help much unless you do a lot of video encoding, and other high cpu activities. for average mac users, it's not going to make a difference. if you really needed that kind of processing power, chances are you would have already had it.
a better upgrade will be to give your imac an ssd drive, the difference will be much greater than a slightly better cpu.
thunderbolt is very tempting, but currently there are not a lot of devices that support it. it is probably going to be one or two years before you can actually take advantage of it.
refurb imac now + sdd > thunderbolt + sandy bridge, IMO.
 
Perhaps but I'm also looking at the graphics processing power that will likely come with the refresh. How big of jump do they usually do?

It be editing hd video a fair amount in addition to the bootcamp/win7 gaming.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back