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What Mac to buy to replace Windows Box?

hotwire132002

hotwire132002

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Jan 24, 2004
1,209
1
Cadillac, MI
Now that Windows is successfully booting on Mac and Apple has been kind enough to release graphics drivers, I'm ready to replace my home built PC with a Mac. I use my PC mostly for light gaming and some Visual Basic programming, nothing really heavy. (In terms of games, I'm largely a simulation game person - The Sims 2, Roller Coaster Tycoon, etc., with the occasional shooter (mostly Halo) thrown in.)

The PC I'm currently using is a home-built 2.8Ghz Celeron box, with 512MB of RAM, an 80GB Hard drive, and a Radeon 9600.

I'm wondering which Mac I should get to replace this. I plan to sell my PC to help make up for the cost - so I was initially looking at at the Core Solo Mac Mini, but I'm concerned about the integrated graphics.

I'm guessing I'll need to move up into the range of the iMac. I would think the $1299 iMac would meet my needs just fine, and that's where I'm aiming right now, but I could definately use some input on that issue.

One last option I thought of is to sell both the PC and my PowerBook and upgrade to the MacBook. I bought the PowerBook a few months ago, hesitant to go with any first gen Intel hardware. However, I'm thinking this may be the best route -- as the MacBook seems to be a pretty decent system. If I go this route, I'll certainly have a few more questions before making "the switch" to Intel, but I'm sure someone here will be able to help me out if that's the case :).

Thanks in advance for any advice, and sorry for the long thread! I'm looking forward to making the Intel leap! :D
 
For what you want to do a Mac mini would be great....if it had a decent video card. Since it doesn't, I think you are right about buying an iMac. I've never had a laptop so you'll have to wait for someone else's input on that. All I can say is I wish I had a PowerBook to sell so that I could get a MacBook Pro.
 
From what I have heard the mac book pro has gone through a couple revisions to fix some problems. So that may be a option.
 
MacBook Pro. Its nearly the same thing as the iMac and you can take it on the go. Go high end though so you will be ok for a few revisions.
 
I bought a 2.0 MBP to replace my Dell box and my trusty Thinkpad T40.
 
kkapoor said:
I bought a 2.0 MBP to replace my Dell box and my trusty Thinkpad T40.
Click to expand...

Cool - how's it working for you as a replacement Windows box? Do you do any gaming on it? If so -- how's it work for that?
 
Unless you plan to primarily compute on the move, I'd say the iMac sounds right for you.

I'm not sure about the rest of you but I'd rather use a 'full sized' machine for desktop computing and have a separate laptop for when the mobility need arises.
 
miniConvert said:
Unless you plan to primarily compute on the move, I'd say the iMac sounds right for you.

I'm not sure about the rest of you but I'd rather use a 'full sized' machine for desktop computing and have a separate laptop for when the mobility need arises.
Click to expand...

That's a good point -- but for two reasons, I think I'm going for the MacBook Pro. I would do a ton of editing on the go, if my laptop could handle HD. Editing even a multi-layered SD file on the PowerBook is painful, let alone HD. Now that Final Cut is Universal, the MacBook will be much better for editing on the go.

Also, if I sell both my PowerBook and PC, the MacBook ends up being the most cost-effective option that will work for me.
 
hotwire132002 said:
Cool - how's it working for you as a replacement Windows box? Do you do any gaming on it? If so -- how's it work for that?
Click to expand...

I haven't received it yet. Should have it early next week.
 
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