A few questions before switching

[Relephant]

Hello Mac users.
I am seriously considering doing a complete switch from the pc to the mac. With complete I mean replacing my laptop, wireless network, backup harddrive and home computer with apple products (macbook air, airport extreme/expert, timecapsule and imac).

This might seem excessive, but after having had an iphone 3gs for around 8 months I am deeply in love with the whole eco system.

So far so good, considering what you have just read you might ask “well why not just switch? You obviously are in love with the products!” Well yes, but the thing is that I like an occasional game. Admittedly I have been falling more and more in love with the consoles lately, but I am still looking forward to half-life episode 3 and I would like to play this with mouse and keyboard.
Now, the steam mac client is currently in beta, so I am sure it will be ready to the release of episode 3, but will a 27” imac even be able to run this? The GPU (I think it’s a radeon 4850) in those seem kind of outdated, but maybe they perform well nonetheless? Or is a mac pro required to play anything?

Also, I am a frequent user of the ms office programs. Mostly Word and Excel. I know that you have iWork on the mac, but do they compare?
Last thing im wondering about is buying an outdated product. It seems it has been some time since they released new mac models, so maybe now is a stupid time to go spend money?
Another fast question – is the mobileme really worth the money? Almost 100$ (the price in my country, I guess it is a lot cheaper in the states) a year seems kind of costly for services that google can give me for free, but not having tried it I do not know.
Ok, so to summarize:

• Running Valve games on an imac
• Office/iWork
• Right time to buy
• Mobileme

 

[Hellhammer]

You don't have to replace your wireless network or backup HD, they are fine with Macs.

ATI 4850 is a great card, better than 5850 (link), so don't worry, there won't be better card in next gen and if there is, it's only slightly better.

There is Office for Mac which is 100% compatible with Windows Office so again, don't worry. You can download the trial of both, iWork and Office for Mac and then buy which feels better.

It's pretty good time to buy now because I doubt we'll see new iMacs in a month or so, late June at the earliest.

You can buy MobileMe from eBay for less than 50$, definitely worth checking

 

[Gregg2]

There is Office for Mac which is 100% compatible with Windows Office so again, don't worry. You can download the trial of both, iWork and Office for Mac and then buy which feels better.

Or there's Open Office and/or Neo Office, which are free!