No iMac - Here's my new PC specs

[Hakone]

Well, I got the last of the parts today. I probably will not have a chance to build it until Sunday when the wife and kids are out of the house.

BTW, I ended up getting a Dell IPS monitor, so I think it will be fast as hell and look good doing it.

Still hoping we see a new iMac this month for those of you still waiting.

Dell monitors are solid. Had one that lasted as long as 4yrs. This other one is at 7 and going strong. I replaced the dead one with a 2312 IPS monitor and it looks pretty sweet. Not bad for $240.

Good luck w/ the new rig!

 

[Chippy99]

It's pretty new (1 yr old this month), a heavily customized PC with an Asus base. Research shows that's an HDMI driver bug, nothing to be done about it.

Try changing the font smoothing in Windows. Now try changing it in OS X.

I file that under things that 99% of users won't care about - what I call options for options' sake. Part of what makes OS X more intuitive is that it avoids offering choices that less-informed users wouldn't even be able to begin to guess at. Of course, this same decision is what drives many Windows power users crazy...

OK, how about changing the OS font size? Lots of people (sorry to be ageist, but especially older people like my mother) can't read the text if it's too small and would like to change it. Yes you can change it in the apps, but not in OS X itself.

The point is, there are lots of things that Windows does well, and in fact does them better than OS X, or where OS X won't do it at all. I only use these 2 as examples - I could give you many more.

 

[forty2j]

OK, how about changing the OS font size? Lots of people (sorry to be ageist, but especially older people like my mother) can't read the text if it's too small and would like to change it. Yes you can change it in the apps, but not in OS X itself.

Changing just the font size would generally give a negative user experience. Small icons with big text, etc. Changing the resolution is generally the better move.

The point is, there are lots of things that Windows does well, and in fact does them better than OS X, or where OS X won't do it at all. I only use these 2 as examples - I could give you many more.

As a collective statement, I won't dispute that. I'm not trying to say that OS X is superior in every way to Windows - just that I understand and appreciate OS X's design language more, and that in my personal experience I don't need to "fuss" with it while I still need to "fuss" with every Windows PC I encounter.

As an aside, for power users there are numerous commands you can give on the command line interface to set these options that Windows exposes in the GUI and OS X keeps hidden. For example, to change the font size to be 10% bigger:
defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleDisplayScaleFactor 1.1

Most users won't want to run that, or care that it exists. But options exist for people who care and want to dig deep.

 

[Cygnus311]

Wow, buddy, it's only $340-ish. Jesus that's cheap, I'm interested.

I'll try to remember to post a pic tonight. They are like the best kept secret in computer buying right now. It's basically the iMac/Thunderbolt display for $750 less.

 

[Melbourne Park]

As an aside, for power users there are numerous commands you can give on the command line interface to set these options that Windows exposes in the GUI and OS X keeps hidden. For example, to change the font size to be 10% bigger:
defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleDisplayScaleFactor 1.1

Most users won't want to run that, or care that it exists. But options exist for people who care and want to dig deep.

The techies love the Unix core and that command line interface, which is quite awesome and powerful if one explores it. But most Apple users aren't into it at all ... which is why Windows users don't realise what lurks underneath OS X's GUI !!

 

[calaverasgrande]

I don't undertand the logic of using an SSD for OS and Apps but then putting data on a big slow hard drive. I would opt for a larger SSD if I was stuck on the "green" part of the 2TB drive. I would opt for a 7200rpm (or faster) big hard drive.

I have been thinking about doing something similar if a new iMac, Pro or Mini doesn't drop soon.

 

[joeysarks]

Just get the XPS One...Dell's version of the iMac:/

 

[sl1200mk2]

Not that most (if any) will care, but I got off the "waiting for the new iMac train" and built a new PC. I'll spare the boring details why, but I was still on a 2003 P4 based machine I custom built then. Needless to say, anything I upgraded to would be worlds of difference. I'm a fan of technology period, be it Windows or OS X and have had both simultaneously for over a decade. My 2008 MBP is still my laptop of choice.

I was holding out and wanting a 2012 iMac hoping it would include USB 3 and GTX 680M graphics (who knows what they'll release with), but I'm extremely satisfied with my new build. I plan to get at least 4-5 years out of it, but won't push it as far as the last one.

Core i5 3570K
Asus Sabertooth Z77 Motherboard
16GB Corsair RAM
EVGA GTX 670 2GB
2x 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD (RAID-0 for 240GB / OS partition)
1x 2TB Seagate SATA III (Storage)
Lite-On 12x Blu Ray Burner
Corsair 300R case, Noctua quiet fans, 850W quiet PSU
Logitech wireless KB/mouse

$1801.88 (no tax / no shipping)

System absolutely screams, especially with RAID-0 (yes, I know the dangers and image the system automatically every week along with cloud backup). Boot to desktop is under 8 seconds. Graphics capability is pretty amazing. System is very quiet even while gaming.

I'll most definitely get a new 13" Air this year and will evaluate new systems when this one is ready to be replaced.

 

[Melbourne Park]

I am glad that the new iMac did not arrive. I was going to buy one.

Instead, I bought a hugely discounted Mac Pro. A quad can be bought for $1900. Add a good 27", that $2,500. It's quick enough, stable and expandable too, In a year or two, You can upgrade the CPU to 6 cores. It's even cheap to do that now . And they are very durable machines.

There's little comparison to a PC. Xeon allow ECC memory, hence the stability. The are well built. Hence the resale value. They are Workstations, not Desktops.

I built a games machine last Christmas ... Asrock, water cooked, twin GTX 570s, gold 1000watt PS. SSD. It's not been stable. Probably the network card was the fault, not apparent as it connects via Ethernet. A huge pain all that. I won't sell the card either ... Despite recommended, you never know if it's going to be good. .

It's not that easy to fix them when things are going down, and it makes things very frustrating if you have want to get things done . PCs are great for games. But they are not famous for much else. Apple's workstations are a bargain at the moment.





Thanks Apple.

 

[12dylan34]

Not that most (if any) will care, but I got off the "waiting for the new iMac train" and built a new PC. I'll spare the boring details why, but I was still on a 2003 P4 based machine I custom built then. Needless to say, anything I upgraded to would be worlds of difference. I'm a fan of technology period, be it Windows or OS X and have had both simultaneously for over a decade. My 2008 MBP is still my laptop of choice.

I was holding out and wanting a 2012 iMac hoping it would include USB 3 and GTX 680M graphics (who knows what they'll release with), but I'm extremely satisfied with my new build. I plan to get at least 4-5 years out of it, but won't push it as far as the last one.

Core i5 3570K
Asus Sabertooth Z77 Motherboard
16GB Corsair RAM
EVGA GTX 670 2GB
2x 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD (RAID-0 for 240GB / OS partition)
1x 2TB Seagate SATA III (Storage)
Lite-On 12x Blu Ray Burner
Corsair 300R case, Noctua quiet fans, 850W quiet PSU
Logitech wireless KB/mouse

$1801.88 (no tax / no shipping)

System absolutely screams, especially with RAID-0 (yes, I know the dangers and image the system automatically every week along with cloud backup). Boot to desktop is under 8 seconds. Graphics capability is pretty amazing. System is very quiet even while gaming.

I'll most definitely get a new 13" Air this year and will evaluate new systems when this one is ready to be replaced.

Image

I really wish that I could gather up the courage to switch so that I could build a great machine like this and not be at the whim of a single company, but no. I'll continue to wait in misery and shell out for whatever they offer (within reason) whether I like it or not.

It's mostly a software thing though. I have a ton of paid Mac apps and CS plugins and I really do prefer OS X.

 

[Melbourne Park]

I really wish that I could gather up the courage to switch so that I could build a great machine like this and not be at the whim of a single company, but no. I'll continue to wait in misery and shell out for whatever they offer (within reason) whether I like it or not.

It's mostly a software thing though. I have a ton of paid Mac apps and CS plugins and I really do prefer OS X.

Try it!

But note with the previous price - they never include windows software. . Makes one wonder ...

 

[Rlnplehshalo]

What a lot of people fail to see is that there would really be no reason to sell your custom PC once built as you can constantly upgrade the parts as you need to, without having to buy a whole new computer every year.

 

[Rlnplehshalo]

Not that most (if any) will care, but I got off the "waiting for the new iMac train" and built a new PC. I'll spare the boring details why, but I was still on a 2003 P4 based machine I custom built then. Needless to say, anything I upgraded to would be worlds of difference. I'm a fan of technology period, be it Windows or OS X and have had both simultaneously for over a decade. My 2008 MBP is still my laptop of choice.

I was holding out and wanting a 2012 iMac hoping it would include USB 3 and GTX 680M graphics (who knows what they'll release with), but I'm extremely satisfied with my new build. I plan to get at least 4-5 years out of it, but won't push it as far as the last one.

Core i5 3570K
Asus Sabertooth Z77 Motherboard
16GB Corsair RAM
EVGA GTX 670 2GB
2x 120GB OCZ Vertex 3 SSD (RAID-0 for 240GB / OS partition)
1x 2TB Seagate SATA III (Storage)
Lite-On 12x Blu Ray Burner
Corsair 300R case, Noctua quiet fans, 850W quiet PSU
Logitech wireless KB/mouse

$1801.88 (no tax / no shipping)

System absolutely screams, especially with RAID-0 (yes, I know the dangers and image the system automatically every week along with cloud backup). Boot to desktop is under 8 seconds. Graphics capability is pretty amazing. System is very quiet even while gaming.

I'll most definitely get a new 13" Air this year and will evaluate new systems when this one is ready to be replaced.

Image

Nice build! I'm in the midst of gathering my parts for my NZXT Phantom build now! I'm using the exact same Mobo as yourself fancy that=P
Also running a 120GB SSD boot with 1TB storage as I have 3TBs worth of external drives.
I'm planning on getting the MSI Radeon HD 7870 2GB the card you're running will cost me an extra $80. What FPS are you getting on games with what settings? Your reply would be very helpful

 

[DeF46]

That's really cool OP. I love those topics, that's why I keep checking the iMac forum every day.

 

[DeF46]

*Edit: Posted for those looking at doing the same thing in the near future.

Sure you did It's not like there isn't already millions of such PC configuration topics all over the internet, not to mention excellent forums like HardOCP to discuss PC configs and hardware.

 

[sl1200mk2]

Nice build! I'm in the midst of gathering my parts for my NZXT Phantom build now! I'm using the exact same Mobo as yourself fancy that=P
Also running a 120GB SSD boot with 1TB storage as I have 3TBs worth of external drives.
I'm planning on getting the MSI Radeon HD 7870 2GB the card you're running will cost me an extra $80. What FPS are you getting on games with what settings? Your reply would be very helpful

I'll try to find the FPS for you. Currently playing Battlefield 3 mostly, but just starting Diablo III. As you might imagine, on a 10 yr old PC with AGP graphics, I wasn't doing much (any) gaming before (at least after 2006), so I haven't even bothered to check yet. Just enjoying it... looks that good. I was impressed with Xbox 360 all this time. Not anymore.

 

[forty2j]

$1801.88 (no tax / no shipping)

Monitor, of course, sold separately. What did you pick?

(Plus the Windows license, which should have run you about $100.)

water cooked

Poached?

 

[MacPC]

[/COLOR]What in the world is a Windows guy doing here in Macrumors? To spread viruses?
You forgot that no matter how good your hardware is, you are still running a crappy OS!

 

[awer25]

I don't undertand the logic of using an SSD for OS and Apps but then putting data on a big slow hard drive. I would opt for a larger SSD if I was stuck on the "green" part of the 2TB drive. I would opt for a 7200rpm (or faster) big hard drive.

It makes perfect sense to me - OSX and Apps obviously gain a lot from being on an SSD so that part's easy. But, why not keep all your media on a regular HDD? The way they are used doesn't require real speed. Even playing 1080p movies are no problem for traditional HDDs which can now read/write well over 100MB/s. If SSDs were cheap, it would be a no brainer. Given their cost though, I don't see what benefit one would have by putting 500GB of media on a $500 SSD vs a $75 HDD.

Am I missing something?

 

[DeF46]

Ahh nevermind.

 

[Scythe5]

Sure you did It's not like there isn't already millions of such PC configuration topics all over the internet, not to mention excellent forums like HardOCP to discuss PC configs and hardware.

Yeah, I see your point. Much better to post another 'When is the iMac coming out?' thread, right?

----------

ahh nevermind.

exactly!!

 

[Rlnplehshalo]

I'll try to find the FPS for you. Currently playing Battlefield 3 mostly, but just starting Diablo III. As you might imagine, on a 10 yr old PC with AGP graphics, I wasn't doing much (any) gaming before (at least after 2006), so I haven't even bothered to check yet. Just enjoying it... looks that good. I was impressed with Xbox 360 all this time. Not anymore.

Well after a bit of researching turns out the card I'm installing is practically equal to yours and thats without using it's amazing Oc abilities!
If you didn't already know you can get a program called 'Fraps' and run it in the background of any game and the FPS will be in the top corner. Thanks for the help

 

[sl1200mk2]

Monitor, of course, sold separately. What did you pick?

(Plus the Windows license, which should have run you about $100.)

Monitor is a $225 Asus 27" I picked up last year. Fits my needs right now and hell of an upgrade over the 17" CRT I was using prior. Hardly the quality of an iMac, but with the $1200 price difference from what I've bought so far (the loaded model I spec'd in the Apple store was $2800 plus tax) I plan to pick up a Dell 27" or 30" IPS eventually.

Windows 7 Ultimate was $60 for full boxed copy. I pick that up directly at the MS company store (I work for a partner). I'll pick up Win 8 next year, not in a rush to upgrade.

Well after a bit of researching turns out the card I'm installing is practically equal to yours and thats without using it's amazing Oc abilities!
If you didn't already know you can get a program called 'Fraps' and run it in the background of any game and the FPS will be in the top corner. Thanks for the help

I played Battlefield 3 tonight and on a combination of half 'ultra' and 'high' settings with 8x AA and all the other stuff enabled, I never saw it drop below 78 FPS and it was generally 90-100. More than happy with that!

I'm running everything stock, no overclock. I wanted a quiet system and bought suitable components for that and have used moderate fan settings. While running Prime95 and stress testing, CPU temps average 44-46C depending on test and never got above 50C. My idle is 34-35C living in a hot climate (keep the AC around 76F).

 

[Rlnplehshalo]

Monitor is a $225 Asus 27" I picked up last year. Fits my needs right now and hell of an upgrade over the 17" CRT I was using prior. Hardly the quality of an iMac, but with the $1200 price difference from what I've bought so far (the loaded model I spec'd in the Apple store was $2800 plus tax) I plan to pick up a Dell 27" or 30" IPS eventually.

Windows 7 Ultimate was $60 for full boxed copy. I pick that up directly at the MS company store (I work for a partner). I'll pick up Win 8 next year, not in a rush to upgrade.



I played Battlefield 3 tonight and on a combination of half 'ultra' and 'high' settings with 8x AA and all the other stuff enabled, I never saw it drop below 78 FPS and it was generally 90-100. More than happy with that!

I'm running everything stock, no overclock. I wanted a quiet system and bought suitable components for that and have used moderate fan settings. While running Prime95 and stress testing, CPU temps average 44-46C depending on test and never got above 50C. My idle is 34-35C living in a hot climate (keep the AC around 76F).

Sounds great! I might stick with the hawk I will probably move to a better NVidia card in a year or two.