Help me buy a new computer

[Monoriu]

Thanks a ton BB.  In particular for not persuading me to buy a Mac 

[Barrister]

Thanks a ton BB.  In particular for not persuading me to buy a Mac 

Marti got to it first.

Seriously though - because Apple designs the entire system, and because noise is the kind of thing they do care about, Macs are extremely quiet.  My Mac Pro doesn't make a sound other than drive noise (once I got rid of the noisy 8800GT) - and if I switched to a SSD HD it's be even quieter.

You can even install Windows on it if you wish.  I've heard of people doing exactly that - buying a Mac, then only having Windows on it.

[Monoriu]

You can even install Windows on it if you wish.  I've heard of people doing exactly that - buying a Mac, then only having Windows on it.

Actually, that is something that I am willing to explore.  My single biggest problem with macs is that they don't have windows and I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT live with the mac OS. 

But I suspect that the price will be a deal breaker anyway. 

[Barrister]

Not for what you're willing to pay.

$1699 would get you a 27" iMac, 2.7GHz Quad i5 processor, 1TB HDD, Radeon 6770M graphics, 4GB RAM.

Remember to add in the cost of Windows.

[Monoriu]

Not for what you're willing to pay.

$1699 would get you a 27" iMac, 2.7GHz Quad i5 processor, 1TB HDD, Radeon 6770M graphics, 4GB RAM.

Remember to add in the cost of Windows.

Forget it. 

Though, in this part of the world, the cost of windows is...not a concern

[Grey Fox]

Windows 8 is going to suck for Mono.

[Monoriu]

Windows 8 is going to suck for Mono.

There is a new version coming out?  What's wrong with it? 

[DGuller]

Though, in this part of the world, the cost of windows is...not a concern

What part of the world is this, Hungary?

[Monoriu]

Though, in this part of the world, the cost of windows is...not a concern

What part of the world is this, Hungary?

The land of the free 

[Grey Fox]

Windows 8 is going to suck for Mono.

There is a new version coming out?  What's wrong with it? 

Eventually. I expect it'll be late 2012. Because microsoft is making sure that windows slowly creeps towards looking like Mac & a lot like iOS.

[DGuller]

This is just a research question for now, but how far off Macs are from being a high quality heavy-duty gaming rig?  I have to say that after getting iPad, and seeing the quality of design and thinking that goes into it, I no longer reject the concept of owning a Mac out of hand.  However, it would be useless to me if it can't do heavy duty gaming without compatibility or performance issues.

[Grey Fox]

This is just a research question for now, but how far off Macs are from being a high quality heavy-duty gaming rig?  I have to say that after getting iPad, and seeing the quality of design and thinking that goes into it, I no longer reject the concept of owning a Mac out of hand.  However, it would be useless to me if it can't do heavy duty gaming without compatibility or performance issues.

On macOS? None.

You going to need to install Windows & then, well it's like owning a regular Windows machine.

[Barrister]

This is just a research question for now, but how far off Macs are from being a high quality heavy-duty gaming rig?  I have to say that after getting iPad, and seeing the quality of design and thinking that goes into it, I no longer reject the concept of owning a Mac out of hand.  However, it would be useless to me if it can't do heavy duty gaming without compatibility or performance issues.

As pointed out, there are still very few games being released for OS X (and many of those which are are several months late).

If you go into Bootcamp though...

If your mark is "high quality heavy duty" gaming rig, the answer is still probably no. 

When you go Mac, you're limited in the options for graphics cards, which is usually the biggest factor in gaming performance.  Take my Mac Pro, for example - the biggest baddest vid card out there I can get is an Radeon 5870, which has been out for 2+ years already.  If you go iMac The best vid card you can get is a Radeon 6970M - which is a laptop graphics card, albeit a good one.

But if you want merely a "good" gaming rig, the Mac is just fine.  My Mac Pro with 5770 (which isn't the big bad 5870) runs most games at max settings, and runs all games I throw at it at more than acceptable settings.  I believe all but the lowest end MacBooks have discrete graphics cards which provide good performance.

I think Macs of all shapes are incredibly well designed machines in their own right, even putting aside OS X, so there's some merit to buying one even if you're going to just put Windows on it.  But if you want a cheap computer that won't work (Apple doesn't make cheap crap), and if you want the absolute highest end it won't work (Apple upgrades on their own schedule).

[Monoriu]

Eventually. I expect it'll be late 2012. Because microsoft is making sure that windows slowly creeps towards looking like Mac & a lot like iOS.

This is a tragedy for mankind

I don't understand.  Windows, as far as I am concerned, is not far from being perfect.  If it isn't broken, don't fix it. 

[Monoriu]

When you go Mac, you're limited in the options for graphics cards, which is usually the biggest factor in gaming performance.  Take my Mac Pro, for example - the biggest baddest vid card out there I can get is an Radeon 5870, which has been out for 2+ years already.  If you go iMac The best vid card you can get is a Radeon 6970M - which is a laptop graphics card, albeit a good one.

Thanks for giving me excellent arguments never to buy a mac   These are actually useful because my wife is a huge Apple fan, and she tries her utmost to convince me to go mac