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Those of you with both a gaming PC and a mac...

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Original poster
Nov 5, 2009
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How do you manage having both? Do you ever feel that your PC is a waste if you only use it for games and do everything else on your mac?

I am considering building one and keeping my macbook for portable stuff and school work, but it just dosen't quite seem worth the money and effort to me yet.

Thoughts?
 
Not really the answer you are looking for, but I got a bit of input.

I have an Hackintosh. But I find myself always rebooting into Windows 7 to play games. Because of this, I am using my OSX partition less and less. But when I go to bed, I reboot back into OSX.

I am looking at getting a macbook for surfing and stuff, but still wondering how much I will use it since I have a perfectly good desktop/Hackintosh on my desk already.

My point really is this, if you want to play games, you need something to do it. But when you get home from school/work. if you already have a desktop sitting there on, ready. Would you get your macbook out of your back, and set it up. Or just use the desktop?
 
Quite the opposite. I find the Mac a waste. All my Macs have Bootcamp installed, most with Windows XP (or 1 Windows 7). I spend around 90% of my time in Windows - only going to OSX to add photos to iPhoto, download emails (iPod takes care of them usually) and sync with my iPod.
 
shakesfist said:
Not really the answer you are looking for, but I got a bit of input.

I have an Hackintosh. But I find myself always rebooting into Windows 7 to play games. Because of this, I am using my OSX partition less and less. But when I go to bed, I reboot back into OSX.

I am looking at getting a macbook for surfing and stuff, but still wondering how much I will use it since I have a perfectly good desktop/Hackintosh on my desk already.

My point really is this, if you want to play games, you need something to do it. But when you get home from school/work. if you already have a desktop sitting there on, ready. Would you get your macbook out of your back, and set it up. Or just use the desktop?
Click to expand...

Good points. I guess the thing is I've been using macs for quite awhile now and don't like the idea of a windows machine being my only option. But you guys are right, I feel like I would end up using on or the other.

Who knows though? The PC would be in the living room and my macbook would be on my bed. Also the macbook would house all of my school stuff so I would be forced to use it...

blah, I dont know.
 
I use my Mac(s) for;
-All Email
-Most web browsing
-Most production/creation work(Art, programming, video, audio, and some 3D.)
-Rarely for gaming and only when I'm on vacation.

I use my PC(s) for;
-Almost all gaming
-Almost all 3D work
-Very little browsing
-File conversions/capture when there's no option on the Mac. Apps that have no Mac counter part or good equivalent.

I've used Macs way more than PCs, but only because I make most of my income from the programs I own on them. But I've owned and used PC longer -- even though my earliest computing experience were on Apples about 30 years back.

For gaming, PCs offer a way better selection of games, components, and peripherals. I like that i can build my PC, something I've bee doing since the 386 days, prior to that it was handy me downs. I like that I can completely customize my PC. I like that it's easily upgradeable. I like that since XP64 later service packs, it's been rock solid like OS X.

Even cross platform games like Warcraft 3 work better on the PC, as in some mods will not play on a Mac, where as on the PC there's no problem.

Anyways, it's one of those things you'll probably appreciate afterwards, but I can understand the hesitation.
 
I had a gaming PC and a MacBook Air up until last summer. We needed money for a move and I sold the MBA and kept the PC. I got a grand out of the Air, which is the same as I paid for it and much more than I could have gotten for the PC.

I really miss having a Mac. I previously used Windows only for games, and the Mac for everything else. I would much rather just have one of the new MacBook Pros and use it for everything, and give this PC to my brother.
 
I have two PC's that I maintain just for my kids to play games on. I've moved myself over to all Mac and trying to get the wife to do the same. BUT I do have VMWare Fusion for the few PC apps I have to run for work. But I spend 90% of my time in OSX.

For those who use the Mac for email / web browsing, wouldn't it be better to have your PC and an iPad2? If I didn't have my laptop, and / or wasn't working on Mac development, I would go that path. But I really love OSX and find Windows a bit annoying now (after being a PC fanboy for 20 years), even windows 7.

If it was just for me, I wouldn't have any PC's, I don't play enough games to justify having one. I did have bootcamp on my MBP but I needed the disk space and deleted it.. I haven't looked back.
 
I have a PC desktop, PC laptop (high end for work), and MBP for portable stuff.

On the PC I game, stream music and media, email, web, etc... when I want portability for email, web, etc., I use the Mac...

Pretty straight forward and no issues other than synchronizing what needs to be on all machines.

R
 
I'm fairly OS independent. I really don't do much gaming besides TF2 and Sim City 4. Both available on the Mac. That said, I think a windows machine would serve me just as well as this Mac on both fronts.
 
I have a PC for most things, and a mac for final cut and mobility.

I'd much rather just have a mac laptop that I run Windows 7 on, but unfortunately Apple doesn't feel the need to make something I want... mainly a 13" MBP with a descent graphics card. so it's 2 computers for me.
 
CylonGlitch said:
I have two PC's that I maintain just for my kids to play games on. I've moved myself over to all Mac and trying to get the wife to do the same. BUT I do have VMWare Fusion for the few PC apps I have to run for work. But I spend 90% of my time in OSX.

For those who use the Mac for email / web browsing, wouldn't it be better to have your PC and an iPad2? If I didn't have my laptop, and / or wasn't working on Mac development, I would go that path. But I really love OSX and find Windows a bit annoying now (after being a PC fanboy for 20 years), even windows 7.

If it was just for me, I wouldn't have any PC's, I don't play enough games to justify having one. I did have bootcamp on my MBP but I needed the disk space and deleted it.. I haven't looked back.
Click to expand...

I moved my wife to a Mac back in the nineties. ;)

I have an iPad for development and outside of using it for testing and an occasional time-killer, the device is really not practical. It's nothing more than a liesure entertainment device, a toy. Its biggest problem is that its mail app is pretty much a minor update from the iPhone and the same goes for its keyboard and Safari.

For a device as big as the iPad, this makes for a really poor experience when trying to use it for something other than killing time. Its mail app should be more on par with OS X's app and it's not even in the ballpark. There's no way to format content. No way to filter any incoming email. Even if you know something is spam, when you click on it to delete, the lame mail app renders it out with a tired-animation.

Browsing the web on an iPad is passable. A few years back mobile Safari was rather impressive, but now it's more of a hinderance, because of Apple's intentional restraints. It's frustrating that when I do try to use my iPad for this task, because the screen size is right for laying back, I alway hit a wall, because it doesn't support any plug-in, or I can't do something as simple as search with in a page. I gave it a try, but now if i need to checkout something on the web and my Mac is off, I use my Nexus One, which with its tiny screen is a way better device at browsing the web, when it shouldn't be.

Anyways, if I did buy something just for email and browsing, it would be a netbook. They're way more useful, they're actually practical. They do so many things that an iPad can't, that no tablet can at the moment. BUT, since I have a MacBook Pro, I have no need for one.

If you ever wanted to upgrade your MBPro's storage, there's an app which mirrors drives exactly -- I forget the name, but can find out if needed. I upgraded my internal 5400 rmp to a larger 7200 rpm and it moved over all of my pro apps with no issues what soever. It saved me so much time.
 
I use my Mac Pro 90% of the time, and I do use Bootcamp on it for a bunch of games. Mainly it's due to the 27" ACD, which is lovely to use, and I like having that amount of desktop real estate.

I have a new Sandy Bridge PC for just gaming in another room (i5 2500K, 4GB RAM, GTX 560 Ti, 60GB SSD & 500GB data), but it's a smaller 1080p screen. I was finding that new games were a struggle to run at high graphics settings on the 27" ACD, so I play them on the PC.
 
I have just recently switched everything over on my Mac Pro to the Mac side and leave the Windows side only for gaming. It really is the best of both worlds. I'm into photography so Photoshop is now strictly Mac :) 1 year ago I said I would never ever buy a Mac LOL now I have the desktop and a 27" iMac and will probably switch over from my Droid X to iPhone 5 when it comes out. Was interested in the Xoom tablet but really got discouraged and just ordered an iPad2. Guess I got the Mac bug LOL Glad I made the switch now but I'm also glad that I still have the option to play my 1st person shooter games on PC side.
 
I don't think it's a waste. YOu can save money by going with a $1200ish Mac and building a <$500 gaming pc because you can't get a decent gaming Mac for under $2000.

and you end up with 2 computers and a faster gaming machine.

Nice to have 2 computers if something goes wrong with one of them. Also can manually backup files from one machine to other once in awhile for peace of mind.

Also nice to have a tower that you can easily add components too. Need more hard space? No problems. Put a SSD in there? No problem.

I'm using my gaming pc alot since I built it 2 weeks ago. I love it and it's also made me appreciate my iMac more as well as I can see the strengths of each machine better by using both. Also sort of makes you more computer literate switching back and forth because you experience different solutions to the same problem.

And the thing is I have iTunes on my gaming pc. I can access my library on my iMac. I use Chrome on my gaming pc which I use quite a bit on my iMac as of late. Safari is an option as well. So I feel at home on the gaming pc.

IF i could get iPhoto I'd be mostly set.

Office is on both. STeam/Battle.net for gaming.

And if I get frustrated with using one machine I can switch to the other.

And 2 computers are probably good carpal tunnel prevention as the input to/setup for each computer is a bit different.
 
I have an Xbox 360 for my gaming needs, and I rarely play on my Mac. I don't like dual booting and I am also not a big fan of virtualization. Things like VMWare Fusion, Parallels Desktop or Virtualbox are nice for development purposes - it's great to have a sandbox to test stuff with. But in production use, I prefer real hardware, dedicated to a specific purpose.

Except for the Windows-only games, I don't really have a need for Windows in my private life. On the other hand, I have a Windows notebook from work and could also say that I don't need OS X at all. I prefer using Aperture over everything else and I also like the fact that there is a lot of high quality - but unfortunately also EXPENSIVE - software available for the Mac.

If it wasn't for Aperture and the fact that target display mode only works when running OS X, I'd probably be running Linux exclusively by now. Like I've said, I don't really need Windows anymore, the Xbox 360 does a great job for everything game-related and the software for OS X is good but eats too much of my money.

I'm waiting for the day that a REAL alternative for Aperture (and Photoshop) will be available for Linux. (No, BibblePro doesn't cut it for me and I don't like Lightroom, even if they released a Linux version of it. And The GIMP is nowhere near Photoshop.)

But should there ever be such alternatives, I think that will be the day when I jump ship again.

Do I think that having dedicated computers for different purposes is a waste? Yes and no. I prefer using one platform for everything, but unless that platform is called Windows or unless you only have very few requirements, it's simply not possible. People who spend their time mostly in a web browser and maybe iPhoto could also use ANY free Linux distribution and save a LOT of money. Ubuntu 10.10 is as comfortable to use as Mac OS X and it comes with everything pre-installed that such a user would ever need.

You want to play games? Either buy a console or stay with Windows. You don't need a Mac and you shouldn't invest in a second software platform. There are alternatives for all Mac-only applications, just use them instead and you're good to go. Windows 7 is good enough for any job, and in many cases a much better choice than OS X.

You still need at least ONE program that's Windows only? Why the heck do you even think about using a Mac? It doesn't make any sense. You would have to buy and install a virtualization solution for OS X, you would need to buy a Windows license and you would have to maintain TWO systems to do ONE job. Now THAT is a waste and economically stupid.

OS X or Linux only make sense when you really no longer need Windows. At all.

Okay, so maybe it comes down to this: Unless you are a developer of some kind, have too much money in your hands or are just a geek who loves to mess around with computers in his spare time, having more than one computing platform IS a waste and nobody should do it.

And this has NOTHING to do with the idiotic "but this platform is so much better" arguments. No platform is generally "better" than another. A platform might be more suitable for a specific purpose or individual need, but that does not make it "better". OS X is the slowest computing platform of all (just compare it with other operating systems on the SAME Mac) and it is even less secure than current Windows or Linux versions. But you might prefer to use OS X for various, maybe because the user interface is more compatible with you, maybe because you prefer some software over others.

When playing STALKER or Crysis and writing C# code in Visual Studio are the things that you want or need to do, a Mac is not the answer that you are looking for.

When composing music in Logic Studio is what you do for a living, then a PC is not what you need.

When Gears of War 3 is what you are waiting for, you'll need an Xbox 360. (And that can be hooked up to a 27" iMac.)

And that arel just many words for "it depends", which always is the only answer to such questions.
 
Winni said:
You still need at least ONE program that's Windows only? Why the heck do you even think about using a Mac? It doesn't make any sense. You would have to buy and install a virtualization solution for OS X, you would need to buy a Windows license and you would have to maintain TWO systems to do ONE job. Now THAT is a waste and economically stupid.
Click to expand...

I agree with this. Personally, I only really play WoW and thought OSX would be fine playing this when levelling and not doing intensive raids, and with Steam coming on MAC's too, things will get better and this swayed me away from Linux.
Only on owning a MAC, did I realise that the few other games I own and were "PC/MAC compatible" were just cider wrapped (didn't know what that meant before trying to run Settlers 7 - what an ordeal!).

I do have a gaming desktop and its very easy to call yourself an idiot for being greedy and having two computers due to different needs. Of course, the guilt will mean I'll be looking to get all this down to one PC when possible, whatever OS that may be! Hopefully Linux will take off on the gaming front with improved emulation.
 
JackAxe said:
If you ever wanted to upgrade your MBPro's storage, there's an app which mirrors drives exactly -- I forget the name, but can find out if needed. I upgraded my internal 5400 rmp to a larger 7200 rpm and it moved over all of my pro apps with no issues what soever. It saved me so much time.
Click to expand...

I already have 500gb/7200 drive in the machine. I have seen the 650ish drives but that seems hardly sufficient; I'm waiting for the 1tb drives to fit.
 
Multi-Macs. Rarely use > $1500 custom built PC.

17" 2011 quad MBP with SSD is main machine
 
Winni said:
You want to play games? Either buy a console or stay with Windows. You don't need a Mac and you shouldn't invest in a second software platform. There are alternatives for all Mac-only applications, just use them instead and you're good to go. Windows 7 is good enough for any job, and in many cases a much better choice than OS X.

You still need at least ONE program that's Windows only? Why the heck do you even think about using a Mac? It doesn't make any sense. You would have to buy and install a virtualization solution for OS X, you would need to buy a Windows license and you would have to maintain TWO systems to do ONE job. Now THAT is a waste and economically stupid.
Click to expand...

There's a lot wrong with this.

I'm an ex-student and don't have all the money in the world. So when it came to buying a new computer I had to go with a Mac. The reason was - I could run the OSX and Windows apps that I need to use for work. The alternative was to buy 2 computers... but then when one price covers two; I'm going with the Mac and far from a "waste and economically stupid". Infact it's quite the opposite.

It just seems to be, after reading your rant, that you don't like dual booting. I've gotten by just fine with it. After all my machine is 4 years old but takes around 60 seconds to go from one OS to another - it's not only not a problem for gaming but it's not a problem for work either. Those 60 seconds versus buying another PC, really? I can only imagine how much faster it is on newer Macs.
 
I have one netbook with winxp/ubuntu i use it rarely but when i use it i biit into ubuntu. Windows is just not an option
 
i love using my macbook pro for everything except gaming. Thats where my gaming rig comes in. I love being able to max all of the graphics and be able to play. unlike my macbook where you have to turn down everything
 
I think I have the best of both worlds.

27-inch iMac for work (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator) and WoW. I have a Maingear boutique gaming rig (my other baby) hooked up to the iMacs MiniDisplay input.

Apple+F2 turns on Target Display and my iMac turns into a kickass gaming rig.

I have an old smaller Dell flat panel hooked up to the PC next to the iMac. I run Netflix or iTunes or Pandora on it while I am working/gaming.
 
DoctorDragonmaw said:
I think I have the best of both worlds.

27-inch iMac for work (InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator) and WoW. I have a Maingear boutique gaming rig (my other baby) hooked up to the iMacs MiniDisplay input.

Apple+F2 turns on Target Display and my iMac turns into a kickass gaming rig.

I have an old smaller Dell flat panel hooked up to the PC next to the iMac. I run Netflix or iTunes or Pandora on it while I am working/gaming.
Click to expand...

That's actually pretty damn genius.

Though if I had an spec'ed out iMac 27, I think I'd be pretty happy with what it could do in Boot Camp
 
I custom built a PC Gaming Rig using top of the line components & SSD's.

I've been building just two or three a year for friends, because I enjoy it. In concert with Win 7 the machines are really fast reliable and fun.

I use a 2010 MBP for everything else because that's my preference.

It's all a personal choice.
 
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