I was thinking of buying a mac mostly for gaming and school work, i play the normal titles gow(when is comes out) and wow and counter striker etc. most games don't work for a mac but their really good for other stuff apparently. i would have to buy a program to run them on osx should i do that or just buy a regular pc ?

ps: I'm looking to buy the standard imac


help is very apreciated


:o

If your looking mainly for a games machine then the best choice for you is a PC, MAC's only have a limited number of games titles. Whereas all games and software will run on a PC.

I think the only real choice you need to ask yourself is whether your going to get Vista (The new Windows OS) or XP (The previous Windows OS). Vista looks pretty and everything but is expensive and not all software suports it yet. Whereas XP is more trusted but doesnt have some of the newer features that Vista offers.

If i were you i would just research them on the internet (Google or Wikipedia would be best) and find out which is best for you.

The ONLY Mac I would ever buy is a laptop. Other than that, if you are a gamer, Mac is a total waste of money. I love their laptops though. But again, not for gaming.

If i don't get a mac then, what pc or notebook would you recommend that has the price around 1000$?

thanks for your thought

PC all the way. Apple are one of my most disliked companies.

Whats the hate with the macs now? 3 of my family member have them (none of them are gamers) and theve had no problems with them

omg mac sucks for gaming not supported by many good titles and compinies go for a pc mate

hey hey, i bet you're looking for an answer from somebody that actually owns a mac! unfortunately most of the people who play games hate macs... in fact most gamers anywhere hate macs, but they are terribly misinformed and refuse to to relook at what they're hating on. actually, i believe that's borderline ignorance.

anyway, on the new macs with the intel processors, you can download a free program called "bootcamp." this program lets you partition your harddrive and install windows on the free partitioned space.personally, my macbook pro has an 80gb internal HD, which i split in half, 40 for osx, 40 for windows.

now, when i say install windows, it is NOT an emulator you're using. the new macs with intel chips actually support windows xp (i'm not sure about vista).

if you don't want to go through the trouble of getting a new mac (as they are pretty expensive) you can always fall back on the fact that EA is beginning to release their games on macs as well.

http://www.ea.com/platform_mac.jsp

granted there aren't very many yet, but from now on (i believe) they will be releasing every game that they make for PC on macs as well.

honestly, if you can afford a new mac, i'd go for it, because now they can do everything PC's can do and can still do everything OSX can do too.

Even with bootcamp though you are horribly limited when it comes to graphics cards. Even if you buy a top of the rang Mac Pro you are limited to only a handful of choices.

The only real high end card in there is a Quadro 4500 which will add a silly amount of money for your computer. However if you are putting a Quadro in there you aren't likely to be using it to play games on anyway.

So if you want a gaming PC a Mac is not a good deal. If you want a Mac and to be able to play some PC games then yes you can play games on a Mac. You just won't get the same performance per $ that you get on a PC.

i read up on the boot camp and i does work very well (based on reviews) but their are also other programs that let me access windows files and stuff while in osx. I will have enough money to buy it so its not an issue. Don't forget the mac comes with every thing in the box like isight camera and dvd burner 1 ram etc.

And plus im using it for school.


thanks for all the comments so far theve been really helpfull

Whats the hate with the macs now? 3 of my family member have them (none of them are gamers) and theve had no problems with them

Ok, your right, we have been hating on the Mac. As far as top end gaming goes, Mac is not a good choice. That said, they ARE good computers. My work MacBook has served me well these last two years with not one glitch or hiccup.

Given your price range and your desire to still play some games, I would go with a PC desktop or laptop. A good Mac (laptop or desktop) will cost more than your $1000 price range.

Given that cost vs performance most always means that a $1000 laptop will not be as good as a $1000 desktop, I'd get a desktop PC.

I am not a fan of buying from just one place, but shop around and you may find a few good ones. Velocity Micro has a nice AMD desktop for $1000 + tax that has an 8 series video card, 2GB of 800mhz RAM, a decent hard drive and all. They also have an upgrade plan so that should you have some extra loot in the future you can upgrade at a significant discount.

Just an example mind you.

If you have a decent PC shop in town you could get a nice desktop that will satisfy your needs within your price range. Just don't go to Dell, Alienware, BestBuy, or buy pre-made Compaq's etc.. etc... or you will pay too much.

If you need help with specific hardware to ask for just lemme (or the community) know and we can help you out. For a $1000 you will not be playing on the bleeding edge, but you'll be able to do just about anything and still play 90% of the games out right now if only on low settings.

For me, I use a $200-$350 BlackBerry or the like rather than a laptop which costs too much and becomes outdated so fast. With a portable folding keyboard it does most everything ppl buy a laptop for anyway.

Dont forget that if your going to use this 'Bootcamp' software you'll still need to buy a Windows OS, and that you cant instantly swtich between the Mac OS and Windows OS so overall its best to use one OS and stick to it because it will take to long to reinstall the different OS's whenever you want to play a game.

their is a program i can get for it that will let me use it without rebooting (fusion or parallels), thanks for the comment "pacmanpolarbear) it was very helpfull, portability is not an issue for me so i will be getting a desktop, also my range is around 1000$ so i can go 100- 300max over. I beleive that i should just wait for leapord to make my final decision so that i wont be cheaped out.

trust me you dont want to use a virtual pc program like those... they limit how much ram you can use and don't support directx.

i think i found a pretty good one , not sure, let hear some opinions
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/proddetail.asp?logon=&langid=EN&sku_id=BDL10001210&catid=20215#

The computer you found is pretty good, not top of the range, but its still good for the majority of games etc.
Your best option is to build the computer yourself, it'll work out cheaper i find, im in the process of doing it myself.

Ok i have a mac and i HATE IT SOOOOOO BADDDDD i freeload of all my friends computers cuz i wana play games like cs and half life. Also i have had crapload of probs with my laptop. My batteries have died twice in 1 year. If you dont have apple care your screwed. Also they had the great idea that when you close it they use magnets to hook onto the bar to keep it shut. Ive accadently bumped my laptop into a wall twice and had to replace my screen twice. I have had so many repairs i put apples number in my phone.

I love my Macs. I own a desktop and a laptop.
My girlfriend is buying a new MacBook soon, so jealous!

You need to decide if you want the best gaming experience, or if you want a Mac, and as a side note would like to be able to play games on it.

If you want value for money (and at the same time a superior gaming machine) then you should build your own PC. It's pretty damn easy to do, hell, if you want to PM me I'll start you off in the right direction.

I've used a Mac for about a year (and I'm about to get a Macbook Pro for work), and they're great for Final Cut Pro and all that stuff, but they are NOT gaming machines.

As you've already been told, the support for Macs when it comes to gaming is crap. Not to mention that Microsoft buys out all the exclusive rights they can ("Games for Windows").
To get around it, you would have to buy a copy of Windows (so that already puts you back $279 (http://www.amazon.com/Microsoft-Windows-Professional-FULL-VERSION/dp/B00022PTI4/ref=pd_bbs_2/102-6742358-5926513?ie=UTF8&s=software&qid=1192308068&sr=8-2)) and duel boot it.

The more important reason why Macs fall behind is this:
PC Gaming evolves extremely quickly. By that I mean, you buy a new system, and a few months later a new game comes out that pushes the boundaries (Crysis anyone?) and you find that all of a sudden your Beast isn't all that hot anymore.
Is this a big deal? No, not if you own a PC. Parts are cheap (and more importantly) easy to change/upgrade.

You say all of your family owns Macs. Well, why not get a PC? If you need to go use a Mac only program like Final Cut, just use one of theirs.

Conclusion: If you want a Gaming System, you would be extremely silly to get a Mac.


I just saw the linky you posted: I would always suggest building a PC yourself. By this, I mean you buy the parts, not a pre-built PC.

If you buy a pre-built PC, the warranty is on the box as a whole. You wont be able to open it up or change anything, if you open the box, you will void the warranty. Whenever you want to upgrade, you will probably have to take it back to HP and have them do it.

If you buy the parts and have it put together, each part will have an individual warranty. You will be able to open the box, change parts, and upgrade to your hearts content, without having to worry about breaking warranties.

If you're worried about having to put all the parts together, don't. If you buy everything from one store, I have no doubt that they would put it all together for you.

Again, if you need help writing down a list of parts you want, chuck me a PM. I'd be happy to help.

You make a very good point, im going to look into that, but buying windows is not an option to me because i can get it free but legally.

plz pm me with some sites or help.

Thanks for all your opinions but about half say pc, quarter say mac and quarter say build.

really helping me out tho.

To help with what, choosing parts?

Not sure what sites are around that would help with that. Pretty much it breaks down like this: Note, the site I'm linking too is in New Zealand, so all prices are NZ$, not US$


There are two possible types of CPU you can buy. AMD, or Intel.

AMD is cheaper, and generally better bang for buck.
Intel is more reliable (not that I've ever had a problem with my AMD), they run cooler etc etc.
Examples:
AMD: http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=CPUAMD3600
Intel: http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=CPUIT6850
They're both essentially the same deal.
One important thing to note when comparing AMD to Intel, they're both duel core, but AMD takes the total, and Intel takes the individual. So where AMD says it's an AMD X2 6.0, Intel will say it's an Intel Duo 3.0

I'm sure if you googled "AMD vs Intel" you'd find many sites explaining the difference better than I have.



[Memory aka RAM]
Aint much to say here. The bigger the number, the better.
Example: http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=MEMAPA22050

The important things to note are what version it is, how many MHz, and of course how much memory it has: In this case it's DD2, 800MHz, 2gig.

Realistically you'll probably want 4gig. Another note: The latest version is DDR3, but it's about $800NZ per 2gig.

Brand isn't too important when it comes to RAM. Some friends of mine have often bought the unknown stuff and never had a problem.
[/Memory akaRAM]


[Video Card]
Time for the fun part!

There are tons of video cards out there atm, and if you're like me, you'll get excitable as to choice.

Basic rule is, get PCI-Express... Actually, I think you can really ONLY buy PCI-E now-a-days anyway.

I personally have a GeForce 8600 GTS, and I love it to bits.
http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=VGAGBV0057

A few steps better than that is a GeForce 8800 GTX, which... pretty much makes me cream my pants.
http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=VGAGBV0019

Again, if you google GeForce 8600 GTS vs Geforce [whatever you want to compare it to] I'm sure you'll find a ton of comparisons.
[/Video Card]


[Hard Disk Drive]
Probably the simplest part.
You'll want SATA not IDE. IDE is the old, slow, crappy cabling system. SATA is the new, sexy, fast cabling system.

Example: http://pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=HDDSE1500
500gig at $250NZ, pretty ****in sweet. It's hard to complain at $.50 per gig.
[/Hard Disk Drive]



Possibly the most important part. The Motherboard brings it all together, so it's important to spend the money here.

Pretty much what you need to do is take down all those important notes such as:

What kind of CPU.
What kind of RAM - Is it DD2 or DD3? How many MHz?
What kind of Video Card - Is it PCI-E? It better be.
What kind of HDD - Is it SATA or IDE?

Once you have those things, you find a motherboard that supports it all. Often what I do is decide on all the parts except the mobo (motherboard), and when I go into the store I ask them to suggest one for me.



[DVD-RW]
Whatever really... Just make sure it's SATA or that the motherboard you get has at least one IDE plug.
[/DVD-RW]


And that's pretty much the balls of it.
Just take it step by step, part by part.

thank you that really helps alot

I have a Mac G4 that I primarily use for just basic stuff.

Aside from emulation I don't do any gaming on it.

Its pretty basic: 1.25GHz G4 processor, Radeon 9800 graphics card, 512 MB of RAM. Served me quite well over the years and as long as it runs I see no reason to replace it.

You need to decide if you want the best gaming experience, or if you want a Mac, and as a side note would like to be able to play games on it.

that's about as accurate as anyone could put it.

as far as quality of computers... well more of, quality of the OS, OSX is lightyears ahead of windows, microsoft just has a monopoly on the PC gaming world. but what chrispenny said pretty much sums it up pretty well.

whatever! my cheap old pc is way better than my friends BRAND NEW mac

hey sweet!!! it had been to long in this thread without an ignorant declaration of how macs suck... thanks for the re-up. :rolleyes:

I prefer PC, cause I grew up using a PC and I know how to use a PC. I went to a school in Colorado once that had Macs, and there comp class they tought you how to use a mac(which was foreign to me) and I just didnt like them. I didnt like the Safari web browser. I didnt know how to do anything on it(I was learning though) I just feel I have more customization with the PC. Im also not a fan of the look of the Mac in most every aspec.

Like Ive said in other posts, this comes down to opinion. The question is opinion based. And when someone likes one computer over another, 9 times out of 10, a person is not gonna change there mind. Different things about the computer appeal to different people. Like the PC appeals to me, and the Mac appeals to Shadowtech.

trust me macs have come a long way, i'm sure, since you went to school and were taught how to use them...

i agree that you have more customization on PC, but as far as web browsers and that stuff, you can use any web browser. i use firefox.

trust me macs have come a long way, i'm sure, since you went to school and were taught how to use them...

i agree that you have more customization on PC, but as far as web browsers and that stuff, you can use any web browser. i use firefox.

Firefox is teh 1337

trust me macs have come a long way, i'm sure, since you went to school and were taught how to use them...

i agree that you have more customization on PC, but as far as web browsers and that stuff, you can use any web browser. i use firefox.

Yup they really have come a long way.

I think the big thing about OSX that Windows users dislike at first is that they're just too user friendly (I call it "noob" friendly), and I know that sounds totally backwards, but I guess when you're used to a more complex OS, and then you go to something that was really designed for a totally different audience, it throws you.

It takes a couple of weeks at least to get used to it, and I think that's a couple of weeks that a lot of people just don't want to spend.

I'm glad I had no choice but to work on a mac for a year. I don't mind admitting that a few years ago I was the typical ignorant Mac hater, at least now I see where they excel and where they fall behind.

I really believe people who refuse to use Macs are disadvantaging themselves.

but what chrispenny said
Just "Chris" is cool ^.^
I really shouldn't have put my last name in my user id.

Firefox is teh 1337
Quote For Truth.

Gaming: Dual Booted Mac (MacPro, MacBookPro, Or a higher end iMac) If your really Hard Core then MacPro.

Everything else: Man (MacPro, MacBook, MacBookPro, iMac, Mac Mini)

I am on a mac and game on a mac, macs can play games I wouldnt say OS X is good at it, but now with the newer macs shipping with Intel processors you can run windows and they do perform really well.

Course I do alot of video editing, and I need a mac. If you are not gonna be doing any video or image manipulation then I would suggest going with a pc.

oh jesus, i hope people start comparing adobe premiere and avid to final cut pro... that is always a riot of a conversation.

Final Cut Pro > All. Seriously.
I've Used Avid for a while (since I have a PC at home), but after using Final Cut I just couldn't see anything better about Avid.

Granted: This could be like how everyone who hasn't used a Mac for a year hates them.

I can't say anything about Adobe Premiere as I've never used it. It looks good though.

premiere is a cheaper version of avid, that's it... neither of them are worth balls.

Well that discussion was over quick...

Loadrunner vs Minesweeper next?

http://www.wowt.nl/images/data_bsod.gif

OH NOES!

haha you'll never see that screen in OSX

Yea, OSX doesn't have a blue screen of death to tell you "you're f***ed", it just has the spinning wheel of death.

Thanks again for all the information it was very helpful, althought their were alot of coments about how macs suck, but i took a chance and bought an imac, ILOVE IT its amazing, stop hating, i also bought a virtual machine software so now i can run windows apps just like mac apps. My friend bought a new computer recently and went over to his house and tried it out, I hated it.... their were so many trial softwares and stuff it was unbeleivable, after 90 days all his spyware and antivirus stuff is gone. Im so happy with it that i will recommend it for just about everyone. Games run perfect on it and the new operating systeme (leapord) is the most brillant thing.

Thanks again for all the comments.

I don't see how the 90 day trials have anything to do with PC's in general. He has them because he asked for them or d/led them, or because he was a retard and bought a pre-built PC with software already on it (if you remember that was one of the things I said you should never do) :P

stop hating
So I guess you decided you simply wanted a Mac, not the best gaming experience. Which is fine, nobody will hate you for that.

Yes hes a retard. Point taken. I wa going to built my own pc but i didnt have much time and i needed it for school. I needed it more for school but gaming was a huge plus. Didnt need to of the line stuff but it works and mwill play most pc games.

So I guess you decided you simply wanted a Mac, not the best gaming experience. Which is fine, nobody will hate you for that.

I will, but don't worry about my hate.

i also bought a virtual machine software so now i can run windows apps just like mac apps.

i can't believe you went out and spent, what $150? on a program that lets you virtually run windows inside of OSX... unless there has been a major upgrade to it, you won't be able to play any games in your emulated windows, because those virtual PC programs don't support direct x. not to mention you can't allocate any more than 512mb of ram to it.

:rolleyes:

if you haven't opened it yet, take it back and look at this.

http://boot-camp.en.softonic.com/mac

like i stated a month ago, it doesn't emulate windows, it gives you the choice when starting up your mac whether you want to start in windows or OSX. if you got OSX leopard, then bootcamp was included with it, if not, you can download the free beta, which i've had for about a year and works perfectly.

unless you want to only run programs like MS Word (which you can buy for OSX), you want to use bootcamp, rather than a virtual PC program. that way you can use all your power of your mac to play games or do whatever you want in windows.

i've got a 17" widescreen macbook pro that i'm on right now. it's my primary gaming machine as it is has Two 2ghz intel core duo procs, 1gb of ram (need to upgrade) and a radeon x1600 video card. this will run just about any new game on medium settings, and if i get another gig of ram, i'll be able to run most on high settings... my mac can even run crysis, although i have to keep the settings pretty low on that.

QUOTE]i can't believe you went out and spent, what $150? on a program that lets you virtually run windows inside of OSX[/QUOTE]

Unfortunately, bootcamp dosent run my version of xp, im going to wait till i get vista and hopefully i can get it to work. The windows i have is sp1 and it only supports sp2 and i think vista runs on it. Im still on my trial so just relax....

http://www.parallels.com/en/products/desktop/features/3d/
theirs parallels
and heres fusion
i currently have fusion and it can use all of ur 1g of ram
http://www.vmware.com/products/fusion/features.html#c25453

going to try parallels if fusion dosent work out
its not really 150 $ but w/e

New Discussion!

Virtual Machines or DualBoot

dual boot > virtual
you really need to ask that?

can't you just upgrade your copy of xp to SP2? or is it more complicated than that?

I even asked apple online and at their store and they both said you cant upgrade with sp1, something about boot camp not supporting or something...
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=306538

lame... well i guess when you get vista...

[QUOTE]lame... well i guess when you get vista.../QUOTE]

my thoughts exacly

If you have the money for the mac then well totally but if you need to save a few bucks or can't afford it then just make your own computer and run windows because just buying a dell is the worst choice you can ever do.

this topic is like talking about religion. they no right or wrong answer but ppl think there is and if you dont answer the way they want they get very argumentative. but then there are those ppl who dont care one way or another. if your asking me i got both and yes i use my mac more

this topic is like talking about religion. they no right or wrong answer but ppl think there is
Dude... Mac vs PC is not like a religion. Macs are clearly better for certain areas, and PCs are clearly better for others.

For example: You'd br fooling yourself if you thought Macs were better suited for gaming. And you'd be fooling yourself if you thought PCs were better suited for Video Post Production.

Sure, you can play games on a Mac, but the support for them is non-excistant.
And sure, you can use VPP programs on a PC, but none of them are Final Cut Pro, and Final Cut Pro > all.

If you've used a Mac for any amount of time you'll see where they excel and where they fall behind. Same goes for PC.

agreed... EXCEPT for that little thing called dual booting. that makes mac > pc UNLESS you bring price into it... if you do, then they balance out. :D

Dude... Mac vs PC is not like a religion. Macs are clearly better for certain areas, and PCs are clearly better for others.

For example: You'd br fooling yourself if you thought Macs were better suited for gaming. And you'd be fooling yourself if you thought PCs were better suited for Video Post Production.

Sure, you can play games on a Mac, but the support for them is non-excistant.
And sure, you can use VPP programs on a PC, but none of them are Final Cut Pro, and Final Cut Pro > all.

If you've used a Mac for any amount of time you'll see where they excel and where they fall behind. Same goes for PC.

the only way i think there like religion is that ppl touchy about it most ppl are strong one way or the other. and if you dont think there way your an idiot in there eyes and theres only one right answer. so never bring it up.

I agree that people get fanboy'ish when it comes to PC vs Mac. What I didn't agree with was you saying that there was no right or wrong answer. When there is. It just depends on what experience you're after.

Dude... Mac vs PC is not like a religion. Macs are clearly better for certain areas, and PCs are clearly better for others.

For example: You'd br fooling yourself if you thought Macs were better suited for gaming. And you'd be fooling yourself if you thought PCs were better suited for Video Post Production.

Sure, you can play games on a Mac, but the support for them is non-excistant.
And sure, you can use VPP programs on a PC, but none of them are Final Cut Pro, and Final Cut Pro > all.

If you've used a Mac for any amount of time you'll see where they excel and where they fall behind. Same goes for PC.

Spot on, i completely agree.

agreed... EXCEPT for that little thing called dual booting. that makes mac > pc UNLESS you bring price into it... if you do, then they balance out. :D

Mac OS X Leopard can be installed on PC too so the dual boot thing swings both ways but maybe slightly in favour of Mac since installing OS X on your pc is illegal.

Buy a PC and dual boot OS X and XP/Vista. Best of both worlds ;)

i have a macbook pro dualbooting OSX and PC. :p

Yeah but Macbook Pro is more expensive than a PC laptop of the same specs. Correct me if I'm wrong.

In the end its all your taste and nothing more. its a stupid fight "or heated discussions" that has gone on way to long i think. soon they well all do the same things and be no different.

Since we are all gamers, I think it's not a question of which is a better computer, but which is better for games. And there is just no way to argue that Mac's are a better gaming platform.

PC, its the best and is gonna be the best, Mac's are just dressed up toasters

Mac's are just dressed up toasters
Sigh... Seriously...
Bugger off and come back when you're a little less ignorant.

Since we are all gamers, I think it's not a question of which is a better computer, but which is better for games. And there is just no way to argue that Mac's are a better gaming platform.

Stands up and applauds you

PC, its the best and is gonna be the best, Mac's are just dressed up toasters

:D

Back to the topic though, surely there is no question which is better for games, Mac's just arent meant for gaming.

actually, when running benchmark tests, macs with the same hardware as PC's out do them across the board. while i will agree that for OSX (not macs themselves, but the for the operating system that is natively installed on macs), there are not many games.

however (for the umteenth time), dual booting makes that problem a thing of the past, making macs better on all accounts EXCEPT for price. if you want a gaming computer, a mac is just way more than you should pay. if you do more than gaming, more specifically things having to do with media, macs are at the top. :D