Help Me find a Cheap gaming mac for a Friend.

[Sawtoothdude]

First off this NOT a thread of me asking to buy one.

My friend Is trying to get a new machine and wants to get a mac. His budget is not very much, Around $500-$600, and he has sent me a few requirements:
1. It must play games well.
2. It must be able to run vista
3. It must not be too expensive

He plans to play Guild Wars and some MMOs Like WoW.

Which machine would best suit his needs, but please note that it does not have to be brand new. We were thinking about a Core Duo iMac. Let me know what you think.

 

[aaronw1986]

Good luck finding a mac for that price range...running games and Vista well? doubtful. Happy hunting.

 

[AppleIntelRock]

You can spend $1500-$1600 and get a machine that will do all of those things. Even if you were in the market for a PC, it wouldn't be possible to get what he needs. He either needs to save more money, or lower his expectations.

 

[emptyCup]

Your friend wants a cheap PC although that won't be able to run any real version of Vista. He needs to lower his expectations or raise his bank account.

 

[flopticalcube]

Cheapest refurbed Macs are Mac Minis which go for $650 but these don't play games well. A refurbed 17" iMac is what you want, but it'll be north of $900, way north if you want enough RAM to run VISTA well.

 

[TheBobcat]

I'd like a 2007 BMW 325i retractable hard top convertible for less than $5000, but its just not in the cards, baby.

 

[pianoman]

no Mac is guaranteed to run Vista. for this to be guaranteed (and this is total speculation), you'll have to wait for Leopard, which is when many suspect Boot Camp will support Vista. as of now, Boot Camp supports only Windows XP.

getting a good gaming machine in that price range is a long shot.

 

[acoustics940]

Why dont you just get a pc??? I dont understand people wanting a mac so bad and run windows on it 24 hours a day to play my games.

 

[xfiftyfour]

Why dont you just get a pc??? I dont understand people wanting a mac so bad and run windows on it 24 hours a day to play my games.

ooor, get a cheap mac mini + an actual gaming console.

$600 is just not enough to get a really decent computer, PC or mac, that will run Vista + play games well.

 

[mmc291]

I'd like a 2007 BMW 325i retractable hard top convertible for less than $5000, but its just not in the cards, baby.

the 2007 3-series retractable hardtop is only available with the 335i and 328i. They discontinued the 325 and 330

sorry to split hairs

 

[xfiftyfour]

the 2007 3-series retractable hardtop is only available with the 335i and 328i. They discontinued the 325 and 330

sorry to split hairs

You should be.



I think we all got his point.