What Apple Should I Get?

[WayneLigon]

I've been thinking about a new computer and I'm thinking of going Apple since I'm sick to death of all the fiddly little things that can go wrong with windows, especially things like drivers.

I want a nice fast machine that will play the latest games with a very good video resolution. Specifically, World of Warcraft and City of Heroes, Sims 2, and Civilization. I don't do much else than normal email, word processing, etc.

What flavor of mac is best? Let's say I have $2000 to spend.

 

[Enforcer]

Desktop or laptop? If laptop, get the best Powerbook you can afford. 15" is probably your best bet if you'll be playing games.

If desktop, you can get a 20" iMac for about $2k. They have a 2ghz G5 (remember it's not all about the ghz, this has a 667mhz frontside bus...), 128mb Radeon 9600, a 250gb hard drive, and 512mb of RAM standard. Its Superdrive (DVD burner, CD burner, obviously reads both too) burns at 8x. Plus they look damn sweet.

The dual 2ghz G5 Power Mac is also around two grand, and may be appealing if you already have a nice monitor. Obviously the Power Mac has more processing power, what with two 2ghz processers with 1ghz frontside bus, but it actually has a smaller hard drive than the iMac at 160gb. It does have a 16x burn speed Superdrive though and the same Radeon 9600 standard.

You should keep in mind that you'll have to buy Microsoft Office if you want Word, Excel, etc. (cheaper if you're a student/teacher or parent of a student with Apple's educational discount, that goes for hardware too).

Edit: City of Heroes is not available on Mac OS X. Maybe with the Intel switch that'll change (it will supposedly be easier to port Windows games to the Mac), but you can only wait and see.

 

[WayneLigon]

I remember that a Mac GhZ isn't the same as a PC GhZ; is there a comparison chart somewhere? Does that same difference also apply to memory as well? How does a 128mb video card for the Mac compare to a 128 mb card for the PC? I currently have a 256 mb video card in the PC right now; should I get a 256 mb video card for the Mac to get comparable speed and frame rate and all that?

 

[Enforcer]

I've got no idea about how to compare the PowerPC chips (the G4 in the Powerbook, G5 in the desktops), but all the other hardware is the same.

 

[mattcolville]

I remember that a Mac GhZ isn't the same as a PC GhZ; is there a comparison chart somewhere? Does that same difference also apply to memory as well? How does a 128mb video card for the Mac compare to a 128 mb card for the PC? I currently have a 256 mb video card in the PC right now; should I get a 256 mb video card for the Mac to get comparable speed and frame rate and all that?

I saw what I considered an unbiased benchmark test and the result was; on average the G5 was better. Some tests it scored 2nd or 3rd, but overall it was the better chip.

Don't buy your memory from Apple, and you'll be fine.

 

[Aeolius]

Here's a page you may find useful. It lists various Mac configurations for certain games.

http://www.apple.com/games/hardware/

 

[Jarrod]

You're going to be interested more in the video card than in the processor; processor is "as fast as you can afford", but the video cards are more limited by model. I don't know 'em offhand, but you should be able to find discussion on the 'net for the various ones.

If you are primarily a gamer and don't need portability, a desktop will offer more bang for the buck. I love Powerbooks (have one myself), but they're anemic for the price. That's why Apple is switching to Intel, really.

iMac vs Powermac... iMac's cheaper, comes with that lovely flatscreen, but will have a dinky graphics card. That'll be what kills you in the end.

Oh, and get lots of RAM. Mmmm RAM.

 

[drothgery]

Unless you're already a Mac owner, or there's a Mac app you absolutely have to have, now is about the worst possible time to get a Mac. They're switching to Intel CPUs over 2006/2007, and most software is going to need a recompile to perform well; if you must have a Mac, wait until after the transition's done.

 

[RyanL]

Unless you're already a Mac owner, or there's a Mac app you absolutely have to have, now is about the worst possible time to get a Mac. They're switching to Intel CPUs over 2006/2007, and most software is going to need a recompile to perform well; if you must have a Mac, wait until after the transition's done.

That advice doesn't make too much sense to me. Even after the switch, the installed base of PowerPC Macs will be much larger than the installed base of Intel Macs. Software vendors will still have a vested interest in providing PowerPC binaries. I'd be more worried about buying one of the new Intel Macs, only to find that some of my existing software doesn't run.

Thanks,
Ryan

 

[drothgery]

That advice doesn't make too much sense to me. Even after the switch, the installed base of PowerPC Macs will be much larger than the installed base of Intel Macs. Software vendors will still have a vested interest in providing PowerPC binaries. I'd be more worried about buying one of the new Intel Macs, only to find that some of my existing software doesn't run.

If you don't have any existing software (because, you know, you're not already a Mac owner), that's not a concern. Owning an orphaned platform, though, is a serious concern unless you figure on replacing your PC in two or three years anyway (which isn't really a bad idea in the Windows world, but Apple doesn't really make cheap, semi-disposable PCs).