Apple comps?

PunisherMP5*** · 01-14-08, 08:10 AM

What do yall think about the apple G5 system? I know it would be more than adequate but for the price.. jeez I dunno. I'm considering it.

**Mcstrange** · 01-14-08, 08:13 AM

For what?
Apple makes some damn fine computers, but they are generally over priced compared to similar windows systems.

If you want the mac OS then go for it, if your looking to just do normal computing then stick with a windows based system.

Keep in mind that even if you do go Mac your still probably going to install windows on it so you can play games and do the stuff you cant with Leopard or whatever the new OS is called.

**DeusInnomen** · 01-14-08, 08:29 AM

I'm strongly considering picking up a Macbook Pro as my personal laptop for a variety of reasons. This got reinforcement over the weekend when I was told by a friend of mine that the Macbook he got for his fiance runs Vista (via Boot Camp, not exclusively) better than any PC-based laptop he's ever used. That's intriguing to me, as it means I don't have to completely give up having a PC-based laptop so I can do development and work on the go while still having a wonderfully usable and stable Mac laptop.

Now, I'm speaking purely from the laptop perspective here. I want to be able to put the most powerful equipment I can afford into my desktop, and to do that I don't think Mac's are the right way to go. If you don't need to keep refreshing your hardware more than every couple years, then you might want to stick with a PC and just learn it better. (By learn it better, I mean learn to keep it clean, minimalize the amount of stay-in-memory programs and services running, and learn to identify, diagnose and resolve any exceptions and crash messages you get. Disregard and kudos if you already know all of that.)

If there's any Mac experts out there who would like to correct me about the hardware point, please do as I've only actually started paying attention to Apple's products once they started using Intel hardware and the implications of that property surfaced.

**Mcstrange** · 01-14-08, 08:36 AM

Mac runs on normal PC hardware these days and as far as I understand can be upgraded similarly to a normal PC - except for the much smaller pool of supporting hardware/software.

**~~Cecil900~~** · 01-14-08, 08:46 AM

Originally Posted by Mcstrange

Keep in mind that even if you do go Mac your still probably going to install windows on it so you can play games and do the stuff you cant with Leopard or whatever the new OS is called.

http://www.codeweavers.com/products/

**[SU]Magikfingers** · 01-14-08, 09:17 AM

Personally, I have a couple of opinions about this.

Generally speaking, Macs are more proprietary. Meaning, once you buy it, you can't upgrade it as far as the hardware goes. You can add memory, but as far as opening the case and performing major hardware upgrades (motherboard, processor, etc.) that's not really possible from what I understand. Plus, as someone else stated, they're overpriced for what they are.

My second opinion, and this is after using one at work for several years, I just don't like the interface. Reminds me too much of the old Microsoft Bob (If anyone else remembers that) where they try to put a smiley face on everything.

Again - these are just my opinions, not a statement of researched facts. I have, however, heard good things about Apple notebooks. Again, it goes back to that interface thing for me, so I don't know. If I could get one that runs Vista, that might be a different story.

However, it also goes back to that price / performance ratio.

**WileECyte** · 01-14-08, 09:29 AM

About the only thing upgradeable in MACs are the memory, graphics card (and then there's the whole issue of driver support) and hard drive. The processor MIGHT be able to be upgraded, but I think Apple's pretty particular in their warranty about what you can and can't do. I wouldn't say MACs are proprietary, but there's more restrictions put on what you can do hardware wise by the OS itself in what it supports. If you're buying a MAC to only run Windows, you're wasting your money. If you want to run OS X and have the option of running Windows. Then you're fine.

That being said, I personally would love to have a MacBook Pro as my personal laptop. I however just can't justify the cost.

**RhysJD3** · 01-14-08, 09:41 AM

Originally Posted by [SU

Magikfingers ]
You can add memory, but as far as opening the case and performing major hardware upgrades

And they only support Apple memory which is like 3 times as expense as other quality memory. If you send it in to get fixed, I've heard that they sometimes won't even ship it back fixed since you had "unsupported" memory which had to be causing the issues. Or sometimes you'll end up with a fixed computer without the memory you added. Just what it was shipped with orginally.

Their applecare support sucks the big one.

**SapiensErus** · 01-14-08, 12:02 PM

Macs have always been great machines; and these days they are practically the same hardware as any PC just with a different OS. But, the problem I have had since I got involved in Mac vs PC disputes when I was young, is supported software. There are so manymore goodies for the PC. And games especially are PC centric. These days they are as upgradeable as a PC except for the CPU; but there is a small list of supported hardware for them. But on the plus side, that small list of hardware is high quality hardware.

Macs are beautiful machines in design and they are of the highest quality construction. But the price and lack of available games and other software makes them less than favorable for me; although like so many of you, I am tempted by the Macbooks as I dont use a laptop for gaming, but for academia.

It appears to be shifting though, a friend and Mac loyalist told me that EA and some other companies are going to start porting games to the Mac; I did a bit of research and discovered that indeed a handfull of games have been ported. But I think they are going to need to do better than that to get the big market share that PCs have.

**WileECyte** · 01-14-08, 01:46 PM

There's a couple of factors why MACs haven't been targeted more for gaming. First up until a year or so ago, they were running on PowerPC processors. Second, DirectX hasn't been ported (that I know of) to work under OS X. If the game was written in OpenGL (Like all of id's stuff.) it could easily be ported to the MAC.

But with the fact that now, MACs run on Intel processors, and Apple has added 'bootcamp' functionality to allow MACs to dual-boot OS X and any other x86-based OS, it's really a non-issue. I doubt you'll see very much porting going on since in reality, $150 for a Windows license can allow any MAC user to run Windows along side of OS X.