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Don't know what to do (Mac Pro? Dell?)

Z

zeppelin68

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 25, 2007
134
0
I've been looking out for a new computer for a while now, waiting for apple to release or update their lineup. I want to buy a computer that can run games pretty well, and so far, the only apple computer that can do this is the mac pro, which is too expensive. I customized an XPS on dells website thats a great deal.

E6600 2.4 ghz C2D
2gb ram
320gb HD
8800gtx
Vista(ugh lol I would just put XP on it)
3 year warranty
Office 2007

It all comes out to about $2000

I have an ibook g4 in the apple shop, that I will keep. I just don't know if I should wait for apple to release/update their lineup. My ibook is aging and obviously cannot play any games. Can you guys give me some advice?
 
Macs aren't brilliant for gaming, that looks like a solid system, Dell should be able to put XP on it, all their UK PC's can have Vista or XP.
 
Eraserhead said:
Macs aren't brilliant for gaming, that looks like a solid system, Dell should be able to put XP on it, all their UK PC's can have Vista or XP.
Click to expand...

yeah, I'm just trying to decide if I should wait or not, I was hoping to get a new computer this summer. And OSX kills XP, but the hardware is just not there.
 
zeppelin68 said:
yeah, I'm just trying to decide if I should wait or not, I was hoping to get a new computer this summer. And OSX kills XP, but the hardware is just not there.
Click to expand...

Totally true, at least for gaming.

Though I suspect that Apple is doing something fairly major with its desktop line soon as all of them haven't been updated for ages, and the iMac would probably have Santa-Rosa if it's going to stay with a mobile chip.
 
Eraserhead said:
Totally true, at least for gaming.

Though I suspect that Apple is doing something fairly major with its desktop line soon as all of them haven't been updated for ages, and the iMac would probably have Santa-Rosa if it's going to stay with a mobile chip.
Click to expand...

I wish there was some indication of when this was going to happen. I don't want to wait for nothing, but I don't want to buy now and then see something awesome come from apple. I wonder if there will be any options soon from apple that include the 8800 card in a computer thats at max 2500.
 
Here is a configured Mac Pro that balances gaming and budget:

Two 2.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro
1GB (2 x 512MB)
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
One 16x SuperDrive
Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Subtotal: $2,449.00
Maybe you should get that. Later just upgrade the ram and hard drive if you feel you want to. The X1900 is a good gaming graphics card still. Also install Boot Camp for gaming.
 
dartzorichalcos said:
Here is a configured Mac Pro that balances gaming and budget:

Two 2.0GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon Mac Pro
1GB (2 x 512MB)
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB (2 x dual-link DVI)
One 16x SuperDrive
Apple Keyboard and Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Subtotal: $2,449.00
Maybe you should get that. Later just upgrade the ram and hard drive if you feel you want to. The X1900 is a good gaming graphics card still. Also install Boot Camp for gaming.
Click to expand...

that sounds pretty good. How would the 2 Ghz Xeon compare to the 2.4Ghz Conroe?
 
zeppelin68 said:
that sounds pretty good. How would the 2 Ghz Xeon compare to the 2.4Ghz Conroe?
Click to expand...

The Xeon is a workstation/server type of processor and the Conroe is a desktop processor. If you want to, change the processor to 2.66GHz on the Mac Pro's configuration page but you will have to pay a little bit more money. Feel free to configure the Mac Pro the way you want, the one I configured for you was what I thought was good for you.
 
dartzorichalcos said:
The Xeon is a workstation/server type of processor and the Conroe is a desktop processor. If you want to, change the processor to 2.66GHz on the Mac Pro's configuration page but you will have to pay a little bit more money. Feel free to configure the Mac Pro the way you want, the one I configured for you was what I thought was good for you.
Click to expand...

I like that config and price, but would the processor bottleneck with the x1900 or maybe in the future an 8800?
 
zeppelin68 said:
I like that config and price, but would the processor bottleneck with the x1900 or maybe in the future an 8800?
Click to expand...

Are you saying the processor is too slow for gaming?

Games haven't even been optimized for Quad Processors yet.

The X1900 is a pretty damn good card. I would have gotten it but I don't really rely on the graphics card.
 
To compare an XPS to a Mac Pro, you have to put a Q6600, then your config blows up to $2900.

The sweet spot of the Mac Pro is the 2.66Ghz, which is the same clock rate as the Q6600, but the Mac Pro should be faster here for $2750 + 1GB from third party. But I guess the gfx would lose.

Maybe wait until July 22 to see if it's true the report about Intel price cuts.
 
zeppelin68 said:
that sounds pretty good. How would the 2 Ghz Xeon compare to the 2.4Ghz Conroe?
Click to expand...

It's just the server version of the same chip, so you can pretty much just go by clock speeds-except that their are 2 or them, so four cores total-though most games won't benefit from that yet.
 
Heres the definite way to get a great value gaming computer.

Skip dell.



*wait theres more*

Wait until july 22.
Q6600 should be half price at $266. Get that.
Grab two 8800gts's (320 or 640mb, your call). Sli.
Decent SLI board (something based on nvidia 680i chipset maybe?)
Two or four gigs of ram (I'd recommend using 2gb sticks for upgradeablility, but if ddr3 comes out it might be a waste)
Get whatever else you think a computer needs (HDD, PSU, Case, DVD, neons :rolleyes: )

You'll be set for a looong time, and it will **** all over the x1900 :D.
 
Spending $2000 on a Dell is a complete waste of money. If you need a computer and can't afford to pay more than $399, get a Dell. If you have $2000 to spend, that is where Dell goes into serious rip-off territory and is absolutely not competitive.

The Dell that you quote has one dual core processor. The Mac Pros have _at least_ two dual core processors = four cores, with eight cores at the high end. Go for the 2.66 GHz quad core machine to get the most bang for the money, and shop around for RAM and hard disks.
 
gnasher729 said:
Spending $2000 on a Dell is a complete waste of money. If you need a computer and can't afford to pay more than $399, get a Dell. If you have $2000 to spend, that is where Dell goes into serious rip-off territory and is absolutely not competitive.
Click to expand...

That's bogus. Dell has long made solidly priced systems. I just configured an XPS 410 versus a Mac Pro. Same specs where possible. The XPS costs $1,769 versus $2,449 for the Mac Pro, and the XPS is a much better gaming system for that price (twice as good, if anything)

Same components except:
-Geforce 8800GTX on the XPS, just a Radeon x1900 XT on the Mac Pro.
-a single dual core Core 2 @ 2.6GHz on the XPS, two dual core Core 2s @ 2GHz on the Mac Pro (that's as close as I could get on the CPU-technically the Mac Pro would have more CPU power, but in today's games the XPS would outperform it for CPU power)
 
I don't care for dell myself. my bro had a dell laptop, had because it basically broke. we even spent a decent amount of money when we sent it in to dell for repairs. when it was buried, there was no sound, the sound board was smashed. for some reason the headphone jack wouldn't work. many other issues, its been a few years. this was aggravating because he had a music scoring program which he used regularly, which did not work because of no sound, either in speakers or with headphones.

he went back to use an old ibm thinkpad I believe
 
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