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psychopyro · Feb 21, 2005, 12:15 PM

I currently do not own a mac, but have wanted one for years. In 3 weeks I will have enough money to buy a PowerMac. I want enough power to play the best games and do some low level video editing, but I don't need the best, and I don't want to overspend. I was looking at the dual 2.0 w/1GB RAM and the 256meg video card. Also looking at the 20" cinema display. What level of performace could I expect from a machine of this caliber

. Would it be too much, not enough? Any help at all would be awsome. Thus far I have not been able to get a satisfactory answer out of any mac "experts" I have talked to and I am hoping I could get an answer here.
Thanks

Vi0 · 07:33 PM

No Dell recommending in the Power Mac Forum. -Lateralus

Catfish_Man · Feb 21, 2005, 02:14 PM

Well, he's correct that playing the latest games isn't gonna happen on a Mac (Doom 3 will be coming out shortly, for example), but other than that he's just angry/trolling. The machine you spec'ed out their will be quite fast. Figure something like a dual 2.8-3GHz P4. The cinema display is certainly excellent, although I've heard that Dell's displays are much better than their computers are, so it might be worth looking into those. Formac's displays also look excellent, although I don't have any personal experience with them. One thing you might do is wait for the shipping date of the next version of OSX (10.4) to be announced, since iirc Apple provides it for $20 to anyone who bought a machine between the shipping date announcement and the release.

MichiganRich · Feb 21, 2005, 02:16 PM

ViO, I am going to agree with you somewhat. Sounds like this guy puts a high premium on gaming. Macs suck for games, as they're too expensive to buy and to upgrade. The local BB or CC will have a 256meg video card for a Dell, as they won't for an Apple. This guy also sounds like 'i live with my parents', which means that he will have nothing better to do than become one of those high-school techy kids that love to edit registries and search for viruses and spyware and all of the other glorious Windows habits that one must learn to deal with. I own both OSX and WinXP rigs, and the OSX ones are more friendly. The XP ones are better gamers.

XP cheap, but watch out... it needs more maintenance than a pet.

OSX easy and friendly, but watch out... its pricey.

MichiganRich · Feb 21, 2005, 02:17 PM

by the way it's spelled 'meddle', not 'medel'

Vi0 · 07:32 PM

No Dell-recommending in the Power Mac Forum. -Lateralus

ajprice · Feb 21, 2005, 02:32 PM

Or buy a Mac for your video work and a console for the games. On the mac side, a dual G5 should be fine for video work. On the gaming side, the new generation consoles are out or being shown this year, so you can either get whats out now for cheap (preowned console if you're not bothered about getting new, as a PS2 or Xbox is the same basic hardware whether its new or older), or wait around for a PS3/Xbox2 and get some mac games for the G5, theres a PS1 emulator for OS X that works pretty well, theres a thread in the games forum about it.

MORT A POTTY · Feb 21, 2005, 02:33 PM

don't be so sure that Dell will beat a dual 2.0Ghz G5 at all. the dual G5s beat the dual Xeon systems.

the Mac will be able to run anything you throw at it. but the 256MB GPU you mention, don't get the Radeon 9800XT. you'd be better advised to either go to the 6800GT or to get a retail Radeon X800XT. the X800XT is the best GPU on the Mac at the moment and has some significant advantages over the nVIDIA 6800 series GPUs for the Mac.

osxisfun · Feb 21, 2005, 02:48 PM

just buy a nintendo.

or better yet, spend all the time you devote to playing games and instead CREATE. Make your videos, get into making dvds, get into digi photos, maybe do music..

and all those things are best on the mac. presidents day sale or no sale...

MichiganRich · Feb 21, 2005, 02:48 PM

Have we frightened the psycho pro away?

psychopyro · Feb 21, 2005, 02:54 PM

no i have not been scared away, i am at work. i would like to thank those of you who actually posted about macs, and thank you for the info about the 800xt, would you happen to know how much that runs for. i am not going to be using this machine mainly for gaming but i would like to play whatever is available.

psychopyro · 03:01 PM

thank you MichiganRich for noticing my mistake.

Al G · Feb 21, 2005, 03:20 PM

Even a dual 1.8GHz PowerMac has more raw computing power than that 3.2GHz Dell and it has the advantage of running OS X.

As for games, it depends on what you like. The newest games are almost always released for Windows first, but if you want to play something that's not hot off the press like Call of Duty you can do that on a Mac.

On the other hand, for the monitor, I would say skip Apple and go with Dell. The Dell 2005FPW 20" widescreen LCD (uses the same LCD panel as Apple's 20") regular price is over $700, still less than Apple's, but it's on sale almost every other week for less than $600. Image quality on the Apple will be better (frequently the Dell version has some problems with backlight leakage) but the Dell wins in every other category. It has multiple inputs (DVI, VGA, S-video, composite), is height-adjustable and has a three year warranty. Apple's warranty is only one year unless you purchase with a computer and add AppleCare.

Also, Dell will be releasing the 2405FPW, a 24" widescreen LCD in March. Rumored price is about $1200.

psychopyro · 03:48 PM

thanks for the lcd info Al G, i will keep that in mind and keep an eye out for the new dell 24"