Howdy, I'll try to keep the backstory to a minimum and just give you the essentials of my problem. I'm a PC user. I work in media arts, and the fact is that the entire media arts community has been courted well by Apple, and it's now become impossible for me to bring work back and forth between my workplace and home, because we use macs there an I have a PC at home.
I'm also a moderate to high level gamer.
This is where my frustration is born. In PC build land turning a decent workstation rig into a moderate level gaming machine is a fairly simple matter and a few hundred dollars. But I simply need a Mac in order to bring work home, so matter what I'll be getting one. Honestly though I'm trying to make the best of my newfound identity as a soon-to-be mac user and embrace it. Unfortunately my Mac knowledge is strictly limited to the specific applications I use at work.
Now to the chase. Out of my Mac I'm needing the ability to comfortably run Final Cut Studio and essentially the full range of the adobe suite (mostly photoshop, illustrator, and after effects). Now, I am also due for a new gaming machine. I wouldn't claim to be a hard core gamer, but I do plan on playing Star Wars: The Old Republic (as WoW-inspired as the game is appearing to be, I'm sure it won't be resource heavy). If and when a lush game like the hypothetical Half-life 3 comes along, I do want to be able to play it comfortably (or more than comfortably).
Now as I understand it, gaming in the Mac community is a mixed-bag. Bootcamp sounds like it solved some, but not all issues. I was hoping for some build ideas and advice. Would I be better off meeting my needs with a Mac, and then building a separate gaming machine? Or should I get something like a Mac Pro, and then spend a little extra beefing the graphics card and such? I have a tentative budget of about $3000, which just pains me in my gut because when I was initially shopping, it was to build my own PC and the budget was much, much lower. But there you have it.
Anyway, I appreciate any help at all. Thanks a bunch!
I'm also a moderate to high level gamer.
This is where my frustration is born. In PC build land turning a decent workstation rig into a moderate level gaming machine is a fairly simple matter and a few hundred dollars. But I simply need a Mac in order to bring work home, so matter what I'll be getting one. Honestly though I'm trying to make the best of my newfound identity as a soon-to-be mac user and embrace it. Unfortunately my Mac knowledge is strictly limited to the specific applications I use at work.
Now to the chase. Out of my Mac I'm needing the ability to comfortably run Final Cut Studio and essentially the full range of the adobe suite (mostly photoshop, illustrator, and after effects). Now, I am also due for a new gaming machine. I wouldn't claim to be a hard core gamer, but I do plan on playing Star Wars: The Old Republic (as WoW-inspired as the game is appearing to be, I'm sure it won't be resource heavy). If and when a lush game like the hypothetical Half-life 3 comes along, I do want to be able to play it comfortably (or more than comfortably).
Now as I understand it, gaming in the Mac community is a mixed-bag. Bootcamp sounds like it solved some, but not all issues. I was hoping for some build ideas and advice. Would I be better off meeting my needs with a Mac, and then building a separate gaming machine? Or should I get something like a Mac Pro, and then spend a little extra beefing the graphics card and such? I have a tentative budget of about $3000, which just pains me in my gut because when I was initially shopping, it was to build my own PC and the budget was much, much lower. But there you have it.
Anyway, I appreciate any help at all. Thanks a bunch!
