Why do so many people buy iMacs for gaming?

[kansei]

But much of what you've listed there can be picked up for less.

A good case, motherboard and PSU can be had for ~$100 each; you can pick up the NH-D14 for ~$80 which will run circles around the iMac's cooling; 4x4GB of RAM can be picked up for $140 and Windows 8.1 OEM for $100.

And don't forget you'd need to buy that same copy of Windows 8 for the iMac, otherwise you're stuck with less performance and less titles.

You could cut costs even a bit more without sacrificing any performance, too. All up that would shave off about $400 and in terms of thermals, noise, expandability and upgradability, the PC wins out.

Ultimately I think the iMac is great value, and it offers a form factor which you can't ever build. But if you're buying a rig just for gaming and form factor doesn't matter to you, then building your own is probably best.

good point about the windows license for the mac. ok, so cut $200 from the cost of the PC. Add an $80 webcam, maybe a .. thunderbolt controller, unless the cheap motherboard you suggest has that. Does it have a good DAC, are all the USB ports 3.0, etc etc.

Your point about "you can get cheaper [blah]" is a bit silly, no? Sure, I could have probably built some cheaper computer with crap components but kept the cpu/gpu the same, but that's not a good comparison. Obviously the iMac is a "premium" product.

Yes. If form factor doesn't matter, if a quality LCD doesn't matter, if some no-name inefficient power supply is fine by you, if sketchy warranties are no bother, by all means head to your local best buy or fry's electronics or newegg and build something. I recommend everyone build their own computer at least once or twice, it's fun. Hell, in late 2010 the last time I thought about buying an iMac I did just that, and I dare say it was kinda pretty inside. It ended up costing more than the iMac I would have bought (around $2500), I regretted the decision pretty much immediately, and ended up buying a mid-2011 11" macbook air so that I could keep using Mac OS heh.

 

[MythicFrost]

We're talking about the iMac 2013 ? I feel surprised to read this. Mine doesn't get hot at all. I'd exaggerate and say it gets occasionally warm after an hour of video rendering or so, but nothing close to hot.

What model? But I'm talking about gaming specifically here. If you look at the temperatures of the components with an app like iStat Pro they're going to be quite hot under load. It's the cost of silence.

I think you're missing the point… somewhat.

It costs about the same for a self built PC as it does to purchase an iMac. People love to throw around this price comparison and it's a myth that PCs are less expensive. The biggest mistake they make is usually leaving out the a good quality monitor. That's close to $1000 right there. Sure one could buy these cheaper and use less expensive parts but then it's not the same as the iMac.

Is it possible to build a better gaming PC than an iMac? Absolutely! But that better performance comes at a cost.

The other point that almost nobody will own up to is residual value. That home-brew PC will fetch close to nothing at the end of 3 years. Nobody knows or cares about how you put some PC geek name brand power supply in there. However, the Mac is a known quantity and built by a company that people trust. You can easily get 25%-33% of the iMac cost back by selling it.

So in summary, no, PCs are not better or more cost effective than Macs. If you want a PC go get/build one. If you prefer a Mac get that instead.

I'm not missing the point. The point is it doesn't actually cost the same to build your own rig as it does to purchase an iMac. It's easily $500 less for a really good system.

You assume that because these parts cost "less" that they're cheaper quality, but they're not. It's not necessary to spend $200+ on a case, motherboard, PSU, and so forth, to get a really good part. That's the myth.

And at the end of three years you can sell off the internals of your PC or upgrade it piece by piece. Only want to game? You can just grab a better next-gen GPU for ~$400 and sell the old one to recoup some of the cost.

But ultimately it comes down to preference. If you want an all-in-one system, there's nothing you can build to rival it.

good point about the windows license for the mac. ok, so cut $200 from the cost of the PC. Add an $80 webcam, maybe a .. thunderbolt controller, unless the cheap motherboard you suggest has that. Does it have a good DAC, are all the USB ports 3.0, etc etc.

Your point about "you can get cheaper [blah]" is a bit silly, no? Sure, I could have probably built some cheaper computer with crap components but kept the cpu/gpu the same, but that's not a good comparison. Obviously the iMac is a "premium" product.

Yes. If form factor doesn't matter, if a quality LCD doesn't matter, if some no-name inefficient power supply is fine by you, if sketchy warranties are no bother, by all means head to your local best buy or fry's electronics or newegg and build something. I recommend everyone build their own computer at least once or twice, it's fun. Hell, in late 2010 the last time I thought about buying an iMac I did just that, and I dare say it was kinda pretty inside. It ended up costing more than the iMac I would have bought (around $2500), I regretted the decision pretty much immediately, and ended up buying a mid-2011 11" macbook air so that I could keep using Mac OS heh.

Actually it's more like $500. The person may not want and certainly doesn't need a webcam for gaming. Or a thunderbolt controller. Or a good DAC.

It's not. Because I'm not suggesting building a cheaper quality computer. The iMac doesn't necessarily use premium components. Sure it's wrapped in a beautiful chassis, but that's about all you know. You can pick up a really good quality case, motherboard and PSU for around the $100 mark. There's no need to go higher than that.

What do you mean if a quality LCD doesn't matter? The $650 Dell 27 inch display is the same quality as the Apple display. And the $1000 model far succeeds it.

No name inefficient power supply? No I'd get a reliable brand name bronze or silver PSU for that money. And ultimately we have no idea what the iMac uses so you can't argue that it's more efficient or less efficient.

>>>>>>>>>>>

In summary. If you build an identically spec'd system, it's still going to be a couple of hundred less. If you build a gaming system (and discard all the miscellaneous stuff that the iMac has that you don't need for gaming) then it's going to be easily $400 or $500 less.

And with that, you can over clock that system for even more performance. It's going to run cooler. It's going to run quiet (depending on your fan settings.) And it's expandable and upgradable.

 

[Adam552]

I wanted a Mac, I've never owned a PC and I don't want one. However, I do game a lot, and it's something I now do on my iMac and rMBP.

It runs the games I want to play very well, especially the iMac. And I've had no problems whatsoever with it, I got the iMac with education discount also so really it was quite good value (-14%). I don't have a monitor so if I went with a gaming rig or whatever I would've needed to buy that also, so really I wouldn't be saving much with one, I'd have a big power hungry box and a monitor. The iMac looks much nicer compared Performance and compatibility... well I just use bootcamp and the performance is very good anyway using the 680MX.. so really no problems here and it looks awesome

 

[forty2j]

Why would you spend all that money when you're just gonna run Windows on it anyway?

Because I can use OS X ( and beautiful high quality apple hardware) for all my normal use, and only switch into Windows (still using beautiful high quality Apple hardware) when I absolutely have to. The 680mx is still a beast for gaming, and Apple consumers couldn't care less about price/spec ratios.

 

[MacOG728893]

Geez.. This turned in to another pointless "why get a Mac when I can build a custom PC for cheaper" thread.

If I can chime in, even though I know shouldn't. I was seriously considering doing a custom PC and Mac. Here's the problem. The money I was willing to spend would've yielded me a disappointing experience with a Mac dedicated to video editing and a mediocre performing gaming PC.

Now, I got a beautiful machine that's perfect for video editing and also plays games pretty well.

 

[yjchua95]

This thread should be closed.

The bottom line, in which most of my fellow Mac users think, is that we value design and usability over price. We want something that looks simple, minimalistic and Zen on our desks, instead of an ugly, clunky box.

We're also rich enough to buy a complete product instead and sit back to enjoy it, instead of having to spend the trouble to buy separate parts and also the hassle of assembling it either.

If you can't afford a Mac, don't complain and troll around here saying why Windows is better.

 

[richard13]

I'm not missing the point. The point is it doesn't actually cost the same to build your own rig as it does to purchase an iMac. It's easily $500 less for a really good system.

You assume that because these parts cost "less" that they're cheaper quality, but they're not. It's not necessary to spend $200+ on a case, motherboard, PSU, and so forth, to get a really good part. That's the myth.

And at the end of three years you can sell off the internals of your PC or upgrade it piece by piece. Only want to game? You can just grab a better next-gen GPU for ~$400 and sell the old one to recoup some of the cost.

But ultimately it comes down to preference. If you want an all-in-one system, there's nothing you can build to rival it.

Alright, look… I've run the numbers myself, as other's have. And the result is that the savings from building your own vs buying an iMac are about the same. Maybe… $200 difference but when you are spending this much money it doesn't matter. You say $500? Fine, if you want to inflate the difference by going cheap on parts that's your business. In the end what have you got? An aesthetically inferior PC.

And if you want to waste your time parting out your old machine, again, be my guest. I don't have time for such nonsense.

----------

This thread should be closed.

The bottom line, in which most of my fellow Mac users think, is that we value design and usability over price. We want something that looks simple, minimalistic and Zen on our desks, instead of an ugly, clunky box.

We're also rich enough to buy a complete product instead and sit back to enjoy it, instead of having to spend the trouble to buy separate parts and also the hassle of assembling it either.

If you can't afford a Mac, don't complain and troll around here saying why Windows is better.

Spot on!

 

[Serban]

This thread should be closed.

The bottom line, in which most of my fellow Mac users think, is that we value design and usability over price. We want something that looks simple, minimalistic and Zen on our desks, instead of an ugly, clunky box.

We're also rich enough to buy a complete product instead and sit back to enjoy it, instead of having to spend the trouble to buy separate parts and also the hassle of assembling it either.

If you can't afford a Mac, don't complain and troll around here saying why Windows is better.

Spot on!

 

[edfoo]

This thread should be closed.

The bottom line, in which most of my fellow Mac users think, is that we value design and usability over price. We want something that looks simple, minimalistic and Zen on our desks, instead of an ugly, clunky box.

We're also rich enough to buy a complete product instead and sit back to enjoy it, instead of having to spend the trouble to buy separate parts and also the hassle of assembling it either.

If you can't afford a Mac, don't complain and troll around here saying why Windows is better.

Spoken like a true Apple fanboi.

Oh wait, this is an Apple forum

 

[yjchua95]

Spoken like a true Apple fanboi.

Oh wait, this is an Apple forum

If you're a Windows troll, you do not belong here.

The name of this forum is self-explanatory.

 

[MythicFrost]

This thread should be closed.

The bottom line, in which most of my fellow Mac users think, is that we value design and usability over price. We want something that looks simple, minimalistic and Zen on our desks, instead of an ugly, clunky box.

We're also rich enough to buy a complete product instead and sit back to enjoy it, instead of having to spend the trouble to buy separate parts and also the hassle of assembling it either.

If you can't afford a Mac, don't complain and troll around here saying why Windows is better.

Who exactly has said that Windows is better?

What I keep reiterating is that if you're after this form factor you can't get it by any other means, and that the iMac is great value for what you get. But that doesn't make it cheaper than a PC.

Alright, look… I've run the numbers myself, as other's have. And the result is that the savings from building your own vs buying an iMac are about the same. Maybe… $200 difference but when you are spending this much money it doesn't matter. You say $500? Fine, if you want to inflate the difference by going cheap on parts that's your business. In the end what have you got? An aesthetically inferior PC.

And if you want to waste your time parting out your old machine, again, be my guest. I don't have time for such nonsense.

But the issue is that simply isn't the result. I didn't "go cheap" on parts. Many seem to have this unreasonable expectation that you need to spend an excessive amount of money on a component for it to be "mac-quality" when in fact that isn't true at all.

Also there's a lot of different cases available for $100-$150, so there's bound to be something that everyone likes. Will it be as nice as the aluminium case on the iMac? Probably not. You probably won't find a desktop equivalent of it for any price.

But the thing is I wouldn't need to part off my PC and sell it. I could, in three years time, replace the CPU and GPU with the latest, and keep using it for another few years. And I recoup some of the costs from the old parts.

>>>>> this is the comparison that I did up:

So, here's a good comparison. Since Apple charges a lot for upgrades, it favours the iMac to compare it at stock.

$2149 iMac
i5 4670 3.4GHz
GTX 780M
2x4GB 1600MHz RAM
1TB HDD

Rather than adding in a display, I'm simply going to subtract the price of it from the iMac, which brings it down to $1499. I'm also leaving out the cost for an OEM copy of Windows 8 as it's a requirement for both of them. I'm also going to subtract $90 for the cost of what you could sell the Magic Mouse and Wireless keyboard for, as well as $50 for a set of cheap speakers.

All up that brings it down to $1359.

$1146 PC
Case: Cooler Master Haf 922 - $100
Mobo: ASUS Z87-A LGA 1150 - $145
PSU: SeaSonic S12G S12G-650 650W - $90
CPU: Intel Core i5 4670K 3.4GHz - $240
CLR: Noctua NH-D14 SE2011 - $85
GPU: ASUS GTX 760 DirectCUII 2GB - $260
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 2 x 4GB 1600MHz - $76
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 1TB 7200 RPM - $70
SCrd: ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 - $80

So all up you save $213 in cash. And you've still got options. You could go down to a $100 motherboard, a $70 case, drop the CPU cooler and go for a cheaper sound card -- and without compromising on quality parts. I went for the higher end for most parts to make more of a point.

All in all, you end up with a system that will not only run much cooler, but will also run quiet if you set fans to run silently. Not to mention the upgradability and expandability. Want another GPU next year? No problem. Want to sell it and grab the next gen? No problem.

On top of that you can heavily over clock your processor and GPU which will push performance way, way past the iMac. (The latter may increase noise, but that's a choice you have.)

But don't get me wrong. I think Apple's iMac is great value. I'd probably buy one and use it for gaming myself simply because of the form factor.

 

[Serban]

the lowest price for a PC can be i think 400$
the lowest price for a mac can be i think 600$


so like in other segments like cars... a mercedes starts from 20.000$ and Dacia from 5000$...so is really based on what you need and what can you afford because without the price factor i think we all want the BEST

 

[IA64]

But Apple has educational prices. Don't forget that. Most heavy gamers would benefit of that

 

[yjchua95]

But Apple has educational prices. Don't forget that. Most heavy gamers would benefit of that

That's how I ordered all my Macs. I made use of different IDs and credit cards for each to circumvent the restriction of 1 desktop Mac, 1 portable Mac and 1 iPad per year.

With a maxed-out 27", it was 15% cheaper with the education discount.

One can only buy 3 different ones per year under education discount in my country.

 

[Shivetya]

Honestly, the amount of gaming-related questions I see on this site is phenomenal.

Because I hate boxes. Really, I hate how PCs are generally packaged and see no point in spending bucks on a gaming laptop that will never move - because I still want a good screen.

So I game on iMacs. Monster very high quality screen and components in a compact package. I have tried to build box versions that are equivalent in price but after factoring in the same high resolution screen I blow my budget.

 

[mslide]

Want another GPU next year? No problem. Want to sell it and grab the next gen? No problem.

Not to mention the monitor, case and power supply you'd use for a gaming PC will most likely last several generations. The saving really come into play when you take into account multiple generations of hardware.

I find it funny how some people here think that the parts in their iMac are somehow inherently superior because they come in an Apple branded fancy chassis. It's all the same for the most part.

We're also rich enough to buy a complete product instead and sit back to enjoy it, instead of having to spend the trouble to buy separate parts and also the hassle of assembling it either.

If you can't afford a Mac...

What a stupid statement. Not everyone who prefers to build their own PCs does so because they can't afford something like an iMac. Just like not everyone who drives a cheap car does so because they can't afford a nicer one. I'm in the financial position I'm in because I'm cheap as hell and always looking for ways to save money.

Don't get me wrong. I think the iMac is a very nice computer and I understand why someone would want to buy one. There's just no way I'd spend my money on one when I can build something that meets my needs for less money.

 

[forty2j]

(New egg prices)

What rate do you figure for your labor in assembling and troubleshooting?

 

[Siderz]

This thread should be closed.

No it really shouldn't, this is a legitimate question, this is exactly the same as asking "What do you use your Mac for?", it's called a forum for a reason, I'm here trying to start a discussion about it because I'm interested in gaming although don't game all that much which is a reason why I'd like to find out more.

Maybe if you don't like the question then don't click it and don't post on it? You're only bumping it further up the subforum.

If you can't afford a Mac, don't complain and troll around here

My household has 5 Macs.

 

[MythicFrost]

What rate do you figure for your labor in assembling and troubleshooting?

None. If you want something that works right out of the box, go for the iMac. It should take an hour or two to get all the parts installed, and then maybe another hour to install Windows + drivers.

 

[Gasu E.]

My property, my rights. So I can do whatever the hell I want to my own Mac.

I hear ya. I keep a loaded handgun right by my Mac in case the gummint tries to lay their grubby hands on it.

 

[haravikk]

As it is, the iMac is the only Mac desktop you can game on more seriously without breaking the bank. It just happens you get a great all-in one as well.

I really wish they'd created a $2,000 entry level Mac Pro with regular desktop hardware, saving the workstation stuff for the mid to high end models, as that would allow the new Mac Pro to appeal to a lot more people.

I think thought that the original question is flawed; I may be wrong but I doubt anyone buys an iMac just for gaming, while it may be a big part of what they do on it, there are going to be other reasons for buying it. Either they love the all-in-one form factor, the design aesthetic, OS X, etc.

Sure, the Mac still isn't always the easiest platform to game on, but the hardware is still plenty capable for most people's gaming needs.

 

[Yebubbleman]

Honestly, the amount of gaming-related questions I see on this site is phenomenal.

The answer to this question is actually quite simple.

Most major title games are now coming out for both platforms. Sometimes with a 3-6 month delay, sometimes simultaneously. The only games you tend to miss out on by being on the Mac these days are indie games, and even then, you sometimes get lucky (Braid and Limbo are notable exceptions).

This said, while you can build a substantially better machine to play these games running Windows for the price; there are plenty of those who still want to play these games, but would rather not have to deal with Windows at all for the privilege. Incidentally, these same people are not the type of people who care that you can't open up your iMac to beef it up in the way that you can a Windows PC.

Plus, if you max out a 27" iMac, you're not paying all THAT much more than a comparable PC with a 27" monitor of the 27" iMac's native resolution.

Does this answer your question?

 

[Macshroomer]

Honestly, the amount of gaming-related questions I see on this site is phenomenal.

LOL, clicked on this thread thinking it was the MacPro Forum.....Honestly, I can't even get passed the gaming part to begin with, what an enormous waste of one's life, totally pathetic use of time...yep, I said it.

 

[twingo]

My wife wants an iMac for gaming, because she wants to get rid of the black box under the desk and the bunch of cables everywhere.
I said to her that the iMac will not be faster than her old PC, but it does not bother her. She prevers a clean desk over high frame rates.

 

[MythicFrost]

My wife wants an iMac for gaming, because she wants to get rid of the black box under the desk and the bunch of cables everywhere.
I said to her that the iMac will not be faster than her old PC, but it does not bother her. She prevers a clean desk over high frame rates.

Really? She has a rig with a more powerful GPU than the 780M? Woh!