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Oh God Help me....I'm thinking of going Apple

C

Cykoth

Member
Ever since there has been an 8088 processor (running at scalding 8MHz), I have been a PC gamer. But alas, Windows Vista has made me wonder if I really don't need to switch over to the Other Side. I lament Vista ever becoming better or useable. Shame on Microsoft for coming out with another Millenium-like OS. I've done a little bit of research, and while I'm definitely not a programmer, what I see of the Apple OS is impressive. Based on UNIX, I can get a Mac Pro with 2 quad-core Penryn Intel processors and even Nvidia SLI video cards...albiet at about 6 grand. But if you look at the Hottest Dell XPS, it's a single processsor at about the same price or more. Also if you look at a comparable VooDoo PC. The thing that holds me back is that most games are still in the Windows OS system....Although I'm aware of some programs that allow you to have a Windows OS running on an Apple system....I wonder at performance. If I knew that I could run Bioshock in all it's glory on a Vista (because of the Direct X 10 support) platform within the Leopard OS......I'd start saving up my money now. I admit, after taking the tour 'walkthrough" of Leopard...I couldn't help but say to myself..."This is what Vista SHOULD have been..."

The next thing that will happen to me, is that I'll actually start thinking Hillary could actually be a good president....NOT

;P

Other thoughts?



Cykoth
 
The Dell XPS makes up for the 4 extra cores with these Dual 768MB Nvidia GeForce 8800 Ultra compared to Mac Pro 2x GeForce 7300 GT. It's a fair trade-off for me, maybe even better.
 
Although I'm aware of some programs that allow you to have a Windows OS running on an Apple system....I wonder at performance. If I knew that I could run Bioshock in all it's glory on a Vista (because of the Direct X 10 support) platform within the Leopard OS......I'd start saving up my money now.
Click to expand...

There are two ways of running Windows Vista on a Mac. Virtualization and dual booting (aka Bootcamp). Virtualization allows you to run Windows "within" OS X and switch between the two. Performance will be great for applications that aren't graphically intensive, but that won't be a solution for running modern games. You can use Bootcamp to dual boot into Windows Vista, but then you'll be right back where you started, albeit with a pricier piece of machinery.
 
Build it yourself. Want to build an ultimate (or close) gaming rig?

$260 Q6600 (Or a $316 Q9450 in January) + $40 HSF
$175 SLI Motherboard
$550 2x8800GTs
$130 2x2GB DDR2 1000
$120 PC P&C Silencer 610
$100 Case
$100 500GB HDD
$30 DVD Burner

I'd like to see a $6000 PC that is four times faster than the ~$1500 rig I mentioned (hell, even twice as fast) when playing something like Crysis, I kid you not.

All 'Gaming PCs' are a rip off - particularly VoodooPC and Alienware. They absolutely rape you for doubling your RAM or adding a secondary hard drive - not to mention exotic (unnecessary) cooling solutions. The XPS line is somewhat better priced (last time I checked). You can find several decently configured/priced prebuilt systems from ABS on Newegg. You have several other options - Velocity Micro for instance.

And you don't have to install Vista if you don't like - XP SP2 still works great. I'd say build your own rig for gaming and get a MacBook if you want to dabble with OS X. Win-win!
 
The Mac Pro isn't a gaming rig, it's a workstation. Look at the Dell Precision workstations for comparable specs, not the XPS.

As theprodigalrebel said, you don't have to run Vista on your machine, there's always XP. Although what, exactly, gives you such negative feelings for Vista?
 
All I saw him say was that it was "millenium like" which just tells me he's either a noob, never used Vista or terribly misinformed.

Sounds like someone who should run a mac to me.
 
Yeah, because only idiots buy Macs right? :thumbsdown: That sounds to me like someone who's a noob, or who has never used a Mac before.

To the OP: Why would you consider buying a Mac if you mainly want to play games? It doesn't make sense to buy a Mac if that's an important factor to you.
 
Ever since there has been an 8088 processor (running at scalding 8MHz), I have been a PC gamer. But alas, Windows Vista has made me wonder if I really don't need to switch over to the Other Side. I lament Vista ever becoming better or useable. Shame on Microsoft for coming out with another Millenium-like OS.
Click to expand...

I like to know what you are talking about,last count I have installed 44 working games in Vista x64 (last 2 were Painkiller Overdose and Avencast),gaming wise its working great and I like to know what your real problem is with Vista,if you want to game then you have to stick with a Microsoft OS like XP or Vista.
Mac support gaming wise is not great,especially compared to Microsoft.


 
Games + MAC = lose

that is all.

Build an XP box with an Intel quad, and SLI video. For $1,500 you will absolutely MURDER any Mac alive in gaming many times over.
 
As a mac user, I'd say hold off on getting one if you are primarily a gamer. If you did, be prepared to plop down for windows anyway. I prefer OSX for my daily useage, but still go back to my windows rig for gaming. (Can't run windows on the old PPC macs outside of virtualization) If you were looking into getting a laptop to game on, then I'd say go with the apple. They are some of the best Vista notebooks out there...hehe....
 
The Mac is awesome to use for everything but hardcore gaming. The Macbook Pro is a awesome OS X or Vista machine. Mac users are just as competent as Windows users. Whoever says otherwise is a pompous idiot.
 
i would say mac kicks the crap out of PC, but yeah, with gaming you're settling for less because of the problems with compatibility. i've got friends who have macs, and honestly, the leapord and iLife, iWork, they all dominate anything microsoft has right now...yet I chose to build a pc because of the cheap factor and the game factor. but the mac interface is a LOT better IMHO
 
Just stick with windows XP, i downgraded from vista x64 ultimate to XP pro recently. I said it before elsewhere the only three things i miss are the "my games" thing, the "show desktop" button and the quicklaunch bar. Two of those three XP actually has and i just never knew about them.
 
Originally posted by: Mem
Ever since there has been an 8088 processor (running at scalding 8MHz), I have been a PC gamer. But alas, Windows Vista has made me wonder if I really don't need to switch over to the Other Side. I lament Vista ever becoming better or useable. Shame on Microsoft for coming out with another Millenium-like OS.
Click to expand...

I like to know what you are talking about,last count I have installed 44 working games in Vista x64 (last 2 were Painkiller Overdose and Avencast),gaming wise its working great and I like to know what your real problem is with Vista,if you want to game then you have to stick with a Microsoft OS like XP or Vista.
Mac support gaming wise is not great,especially compared to Microsoft.
Click to expand...



QFT, to the OP, you clearly have not used Vista to call it a ME type OS. Vista is a great OS.
 
Originally posted by: Narse
Originally posted by: Mem
Ever since there has been an 8088 processor (running at scalding 8MHz), I have been a PC gamer. But alas, Windows Vista has made me wonder if I really don't need to switch over to the Other Side. I lament Vista ever becoming better or useable. Shame on Microsoft for coming out with another Millenium-like OS.
Click to expand...

I like to know what you are talking about,last count I have installed 44 working games in Vista x64 (last 2 were Painkiller Overdose and Avencast),gaming wise its working great and I like to know what your real problem is with Vista,if you want to game then you have to stick with a Microsoft OS like XP or Vista.
Mac support gaming wise is not great,especially compared to Microsoft.
Click to expand...



QFT, to the OP, you clearly have not used Vista to call it a ME type OS. Vista is a great OS.
Click to expand...

you're right, I was nervous about vista 64, but now that I've found out the quirks, using my old xp system laptop feels like i'm going back to cave days. I'd never turn back, once you understand how Vista operates, it's so much better than xp!
 
That's debateable, but I'm not going to start a Vista hate thread 🙂 I tried it for nearly 2 months and went back. But that's not the point.

The Mac Pro is not a gaming system. It's a workstation. For crunching video, there's no better option as far as price / performance ratio. Roll your own box if you want to game. Its FB-DIMM architecture kills performance, while allowing a theoretical max of 32 gigs of ram (good god, why?!?!)

~MiSfit
 
Well, it's always interesting to dip your foot in the waters of public opinion isn't it?

My main expereience with Vista has been the configuration of my father's computer. In all fairness, I've not spent any considerable time sitting down and trying to understand the "quirks" of the system. Frankly....with a modern OS I shouldn't HAVE too. This is not like Solaris UNIX (which I have familiarity with), where you should have to know what you are doing BEFORE you try to operate it. Vista is supposed to be a turn-key intuitive 21st century OS. And by my initial measures, like the pop-ups you get everytime you try to do ANYTHING, it fails as being intuitive or simple. I'm a current XP SP2 user, and I can definitely build my own rig, I just choose not to at times. I'm still debating on the X64 bit version of Vista, I'm just frankly trying to not be close minded anymore. I've gotten old enough that I don't WANT to have to figure out the OS....it should do that for me. It's what we are all paying for isn't it? I totally realize that the Mac Pro isn't a gaming rig, and it's also a generation behind on cpu tech. I just wondered if there were some savy Mac gamer users out there who could tell me more about their choices. Also, I've seen a program called Parallels that allows side by side running of 2 OS without rebooting or dual booting. Just to throw that out there.

I do appreciate all comments. I've been a visitor to this site since about 2001, but this is my first posting. Thanks All!

Cyk
 
Originally posted by: Cykoth
Well, it's always interesting to dip your foot in the waters of public opinion isn't it?

My main expereience with Vista has been the configuration of my father's computer. In all fairness, I've not spent any considerable time sitting down and trying to understand the "quirks" of the system. Frankly....with a modern OS I shouldn't HAVE too. This is not like Solaris UNIX (which I have familiarity with), where you should have to know what you are doing BEFORE you try to operate it. Vista is supposed to be a turn-key intuitive 21st century OS. And by my initial measures, like the pop-ups you get everytime you try to do ANYTHING, it fails as being intuitive or simple. I'm a current XP SP2 user, and I can definitely build my own rig, I just choose not to at times. I'm still debating on the X64 bit version of Vista, I'm just frankly trying to not be close minded anymore. I've gotten old enough that I don't WANT to have to figure out the OS....it should do that for me. It's what we are all paying for isn't it? I totally realize that the Mac Pro isn't a gaming rig, and it's also a generation behind on cpu tech. I just wondered if there were some savy Mac gamer users out there who could tell me more about their choices. Also, I've seen a program called Parallels that allows side by side running of 2 OS without rebooting or dual booting. Just to throw that out there.

I do appreciate all comments. I've been a visitor to this site since about 2001, but this is my first posting. Thanks All!

Cyk
Click to expand...

You are talking about UAC(user account control security pop ups) which is a security feature,personally I leave it enabled, only took me 2 weeks to get use to it,however you can disable it so that should not be a problem for you.
Vista is not a hard OS to learn its really simple ,memory management is taken care of by Vista,most of the security is taken care of by Vista,you don't have a lot to learn to be honest.Mind you I remember the good old DOS days now that was an art getting some games to run with enough lower memory(anybody remember memmaker in DOS 🙂 ).


Clicking on the Vista help button covers most topics(very useful for new users).
 
Originally posted by: Cykoth
Well, it's always interesting to dip your foot in the waters of public opinion isn't it?

My main expereience with Vista has been the configuration of my father's computer. In all fairness, I've not spent any considerable time sitting down and trying to understand the "quirks" of the system. Frankly....with a modern OS I shouldn't HAVE too. This is not like Solaris UNIX (which I have familiarity with), where you should have to know what you are doing BEFORE you try to operate it. Vista is supposed to be a turn-key intuitive 21st century OS. And by my initial measures, like the pop-ups you get everytime you try to do ANYTHING, it fails as being intuitive or simple. I'm a current XP SP2 user, and I can definitely build my own rig, I just choose not to at times. I'm still debating on the X64 bit version of Vista, I'm just frankly trying to not be close minded anymore. I've gotten old enough that I don't WANT to have to figure out the OS....it should do that for me. It's what we are all paying for isn't it? I totally realize that the Mac Pro isn't a gaming rig, and it's also a generation behind on cpu tech. I just wondered if there were some savy Mac gamer users out there who could tell me more about their choices. Also, I've seen a program called Parallels that allows side by side running of 2 OS without rebooting or dual booting. Just to throw that out there.

I do appreciate all comments. I've been a visitor to this site since about 2001, but this is my first posting. Thanks All!

Cyk
Click to expand...

In all fairness you are not looking at it from the perspective of a new user rather you are bringing forward years of gathered expectations and experiences on how to do things and where you expect to find things in the OS. I suspect someone not familiar with a Windows OS product would not have the same difficulties with Vista that those of us that have been working with Windows in all its earlier incarnations have. It really is not much different than the initial dissatisfaction with Win2K and XP when moving to them from Win 98 or NT 4. You get used to doing things a certain way and breaking the habits are difficult. I was initially not thrilled with Vista mostly because many tasks that I have become so accustomed to doing in XP they required no thought on my part suddenly required me to think about what I am doing. A year later that is no longer true and I am as comfortable with it as I am with XP.
 
Originally posted by: Linflas
Originally posted by: Cykoth
Well, it's always interesting to dip your foot in the waters of public opinion isn't it?

My main expereience with Vista has been the configuration of my father's computer. In all fairness, I've not spent any considerable time sitting down and trying to understand the "quirks" of the system. Frankly....with a modern OS I shouldn't HAVE too. This is not like Solaris UNIX (which I have familiarity with), where you should have to know what you are doing BEFORE you try to operate it. Vista is supposed to be a turn-key intuitive 21st century OS. And by my initial measures, like the pop-ups you get everytime you try to do ANYTHING, it fails as being intuitive or simple. I'm a current XP SP2 user, and I can definitely build my own rig, I just choose not to at times. I'm still debating on the X64 bit version of Vista, I'm just frankly trying to not be close minded anymore. I've gotten old enough that I don't WANT to have to figure out the OS....it should do that for me. It's what we are all paying for isn't it? I totally realize that the Mac Pro isn't a gaming rig, and it's also a generation behind on cpu tech. I just wondered if there were some savy Mac gamer users out there who could tell me more about their choices. Also, I've seen a program called Parallels that allows side by side running of 2 OS without rebooting or dual booting. Just to throw that out there.

I do appreciate all comments. I've been a visitor to this site since about 2001, but this is my first posting. Thanks All!

Cyk
Click to expand...

In all fairness you are not looking at it from the perspective of a new user rather you are bringing forward years of gathered expectations and experiences on how to do things and where you expect to find things in the OS. I suspect someone not familiar with a Windows OS product would not have the same difficulties with Vista that those of us that have been working with Windows in all its earlier incarnations have. It really is not much different than the initial dissatisfaction with Win2K and XP when moving to them from Win 98 or NT 4. You get used to doing things a certain way and breaking the habits are difficult. I was initially not thrilled with Vista mostly because many tasks that I have become so accustomed to doing in XP they required no thought on my part suddenly required me to think about what I am doing. A year later that is no longer true and I am as comfortable with it as I am with XP.
Click to expand...

Honestly at this point, I'm not sure how many PC users there are that arent familiar with windows. Vista isnt like the Wii bringing gaming to grandma.

On the other hand, the way things are done on Vista vs. XP is really 99% the same. Its nowhere near the diff between XP and OSX for instance. Its still windows. I dont understand how people think its really that different. The only part that really seems foreign and entirely new to me is the networking control panel, and explorer to some degree. Both of which are vast improvements once you get accustomed to it. Other than that, everything is pretty much in its right place. It took me about 5 minutes to get used to the changes.
 
Originally posted by: stash
You are talking about UAC(user account control security pop ups) which is a security feature
Click to expand...
In the strictest sense, neither UAC or protected mode IE are security features because they are not security boundaries. They are a part of a strategy to move the (Windows) world out of the mentality of running everything as an admin by default.

http://blogs.technet.com/markr...2007/02/12/638372.aspx
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Splitting hairs now 😉.

What is User Account Control?

User Account Control (UAC) is a new security component in Windows Vista. UAC enables users to perform common tasks as non-administrators, called standard users in Windows Vista, and as administrators without having to switch users, log off, or use Run As. A standard user account is synonymous with a user account in Windows XP. User accounts that are members of the local Administrators group will run most applications as a standard user. By separating user and administrator functions while enabling productivity, UAC is an important enhancement for Windows Vista.
Click to expand...

Link.
 
It's an important distinction. The fact that it gets people running as non-admins is great, but people need to realize that it's not hard security boundary that is going to stop priv escalation.

And yes, the message on what UAC is and is not hasn't gotten to everyone within Microsoft yet either 😉
 
Originally posted by: SoundTheSurrender
UAC is the poorest security component ever. It assumes everything is unsafe. Even things that don't touch root level directories.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Good idea, bad design. I can see the use for the kind of security that prevents on-site users from screwing your machine up, but this all or nothing approach has got to go. What is and isnt protected should be a CP applet all its own.
 
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