is mac actually a pheasable solution?

[Chooco]

i plan to get a new computer around christmas or so. the bullshit behind Microsoft and the incredible SLOWNESS is a bit out of hand. i already have Mandrake Linux 8.2 on my AthlonXP 1700+ and i'm loving it (running website and game server on it) but i'm not sure if i would want to go with Linux for a main stream use computer...let's face it Linux is simply NOT MEANT to be a mainstream OS. it's a good OS for people who do work (like i do) and run servers (small ones, like i do) but for games the options are limitted, support is good but still very limited.

i have used Macs in school before, they are blazing fast (OS makes a huge difference) and i know they have a very good architecture to the processors along with good game support (probably like at least 50% of all games) but they are very expensive.....justifiably most of the time.
Mac has good support but will it really be able to replace what i do now on my Wintel computer?

[Master of Reality]

it is spelt feasible.... i just had to say it.

you could get a mac then put yellowdog linux on it or NetBSD or Mandrake.

If oyu want games then mac has about the same game reputation as linux (doesnt it?). And why cant Linux be your main OS? It is my main OS, although i admit i use windows to play the odd game or two.

[ September 14, 2002: Message edited by: Master of Reality / Bob ]

[RudeCat7]

I'm kinda surprised about that comment. If the mainstream public needs to browse the web, send e-mail, listen to music, edit graphics, create webpages, write documents, ftp, scan, etc. etc. etc.

at a cheap price... then Linux is it, isn't it?

It's just not a good excuse. I suppose they used the same argument for changing from a typewriter to a wordprocessor. 'nuf said.

Plus, the games issue is really troubling. Stop and think, you spend at least $700 for a healthy system, and you use it for games. That is, essentially a $700 game console! On top of that you spend $30 to $50 for each game. A high end graphics card costs $300. You can buy a console for less than that!

The truth is that, Microsoft depends on games. Without games, windows is just a buggy, expensive, insecure OS. So don't use games as an excuse.

[Chooco]

yer actually wrong on the game support part, Mac has a lot of game support compared to Linux. all 3 Warcrafts, Starcraft, Diablo2 (and expansion), Imperialism 1 and 2, all the Sim games, most new RPGs and a few FPS games are supported on Mac. put your diablo 1 or 2 disk in a mac and it will install, put the same disk in a PC and it will install.

i'm just very concerned with the cost of a mac, to make a PC i want it would cost me $1500 CDN which includes a GeForce4 Ti4600 or something like that but to make a Mac i want, it would cost me $2000 MINIMUM and the graphics card would only be a GeForce4 MX..... the MX series have MAJOR bottleneck problems, they process fast but the bottleneck is in the bus of the card i believe. in a tomshardware benchmark, the GeForce2 MX200 was about as fast as the TNT2 which was like a year earlier and much cheaper in price.

i really want a mac but there's so much crap that comes with it i don't even want. i already have a CD burner, if i wanted to burn CDs i would FTP files over to my Windows computer then burn it there. i don't want a DVD player on my computer, i'll get a normal DVD player for my TV once the price goes down a bit more. to bump up the speed of the processor in the computer, i'd have to buy a computer which includes a DVD writer, although a DVD writer would be cool, they are very costly at the moment.

[Chooco]

you can't honestly say that gaming on computers is stupid. there is no way in hell you could play Wolfenstein, Half-Life or Unreal Tournament on a PS2 or an X-Box. who the hell would run the servers??? NOBODY???? how the hell would you be able to move properly???? Half-Life requires at LEAST 40 keys just to play the damn thing. a,s,d,w  are to move, q is special, z is medic, x is drop ammo, c is drop flag, e is use, r is reload, t is spray logo, y is talk, u is team talk, i is flag info, o is detonate dispenser, enter is for the command menu, shift is the speed modifier (walk), numbers 1-5 are weapons, F5 is screenshot
show me a console that has that many buttons

for consoles, you can't play games more than 4 years old virtualy because ther's nothing to play them on! if your Nintendo from 1990 broke then how the hell do you play all your games??? YOU CAN'T so basically you got screwed out of $80 per game which you can't even play anymore. i still play the game for my 80386 named Eye Of The Beholder but i play it on Windows and there's no problems with incompatibility but lets see you play Nintendo games on your Sony Playstation, you can't, you can't even play them on your Game Cube even though it's the same company.
if you wanted 100% game compatibility with all other people in the console world you would have to spend $900 in consoles because you would need a Game Cube, PS2 and XBox yet a brand new computer costs $1000 and it can also run a website, game servers, balance your cheque book and surf the internet which your game console can't.

[RudeCat7]

Actually, I didn't say gaming on a computer was "stupid".

In short, I am saying that it should not be a major deciding factor for choosing an OS.

Windows for gaming requires:

Base hardware Plus graphics card $200-$300? and on top of that Windows $100-$200.

Isn't that a lot of money to play games?

but then again, maybe it's not your money.

[psyjax]

quote:Originally posted by Chooco:
i plan to get a new computer around christmas or so. the bullshit behind Microsoft and the incredible SLOWNESS is a bit out of hand. i already have Mandrake Linux 8.2 on my AthlonXP 1700+ and i'm loving it (running website and game server on it) but i'm not sure if i would want to go with Linux for a main stream use computer...let's face it Linux is simply NOT MEANT to be a mainstream OS. it's a good OS for people who do work (like i do) and run servers (small ones, like i do) but for games the options are limitted, support is good but still very limited.

i have used Macs in school before, they are blazing fast (OS makes a huge difference) and i know they have a very good architecture to the processors along with good game support (probably like at least 50% of all games) but they are very expensive.....justifiably most of the time.
Mac has good support but will it really be able to replace what i do now on my Wintel computer?

Short answer yes. It can do everything you need and more. You can configure your hardware however you like, so you don't need to buy a CD-RW or a DVD if you don't like.

Not to say that Mac's aren't more expensive. If you got, say, 2000 your good to go. Don't view Apple as your only option, look at outpost, MacMall, MacWarehouse, eBay, and uBid.

Buy 3rd party stuff when possible (monitor, RAM, etc.) and you can get a suped up brand new Mac between 2000 and 2500. And iMac would be 1500 (but towers are better).

One alternative is to buy one of the old towers, dual 500s are my fav., and upgrade them yourself. You can get away within the 1500 range doing this,

So ya, Mac's rule. No Half-life tho, sorryu  

[orcpeon]

I've used Macs before, and while OS 10 is a nice OS, Linux is quickly becoming just as capable for "average" users.  If you want to play games, Linux is actually just as good of a choice to run games as a Mac.  You can run all the quake games, return to castle wolfenstein, neverwinter nights, (when the linux binary finally comes out) the games ported by loki such as SimCity 3000 and Alpha Centauri, and the many games that run under Wine such as WarCraft 3, Half life, and Jedi Knight 2.  Wine impairs the performance of these games somewhat, but it's not noticeable if you have a fast video card (Geforce 3 and up) You can also dual-boot with windows if you want, which is something you cannot do on a Mac.  I suggest for desktop use you try either Mandrake 9.0 or the beta version of Red Hat (8.0) ; they are really great.  Try the Red Hat beta on your current computer and see if you like it.  If you think it's crap, then get a Mac.

[TheQuirk]

quote:Originally posted by psyjax:

No Half-life tho, sorryu    

That's a good thing!

[rtgwbmsr]

WTF is wrong with you people? A Mac does not cost $2000 USD base! The new, dual proc G4 Towers start at $1700 USD. The iMacs with built in LCD's mind you, start at $1300 USD.

If you don't need a spanking new Mac (Who does?):
Go to: http://www.baucomcomputers.com/
Pick up a G4 450 Tower for $825 (You might want to request a CD Burner, or pull the one from your PC)

Go to: http://eshop.macsales.com/
or: http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=4724&Item=PLGPFG4800
Pick up an 800 MHz upgrade for the tower for $440
700's for $360-ish are coming soon.

Go to: http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/cat/AudioVisual/VideoCards/category.asp
Pick up a Radeon 8500 AGP w/ 64 MB DDR for $180 (or a 7000 PCI for $120)

Total: $1445 (With the 8500 Radeon)
$225 Less than the new 867 tower, but with a much better video card. Many games don't even take advantage of the 2nd processor. You can use the $225 extra for games & progs.

Assemble, and have phun!

[ September 14, 2002: Message edited by: The_Muffin_Man/B0b ]

[Chooco]

people are selling those computers for a reason, they don't just sell working computers for no reason.....

[RudeCat7]

That's $1699.00 w/o monitor.

Minimum cost $599 for 15" flat. @Deal!

So that is roughly $2300.00 base.

You guys should reload the Apple home page to see the different quotes. I know windows sucks, but those statements don't make sense.

[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: RudeCat7 ]

[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: RudeCat7 ]

[rtgwbmsr]

quote:Originally posted by Chooco:
people are selling those computers for a reason, they don't just sell working computers for no reason.....

Yeah, they get new ones, and they want cash to put towards it. That's what I do...what do you do with all of your old computers?

[rtgwbmsr]

quote:Originally posted by Chooco:
people are selling those computers for a reason, they don't just sell working computers for no reason.....

Yeah, they get new ones, and they want cash to put towards it. That's what I do...what do you do with all of your old computers? If I had all of my old computers still sitting around...

 

quote: That's $1699.00 w/o monitor.

Minimum cost $599 for 15" flat. @Deal!

So that is roughly $2300.00 base.

You guys should reload the Apple home page to see the different quotes. I know windows sucks, but these arguments don't make sense.

My Calculated Base: $1445
Compusa's Lowest Priced 15'' LCD: $199
800 MHz G4 Tower w/ LCD Monitor: $1644 USD

Unless you need it brand new, why waste $656?

I have bought stuff from that guy (Baucom) and a number of other small dealers (Wengenermedia) and I have had no problems.
Erm...sorry about the double post...

[ September 15, 2002: Message edited by: The_Muffin_Man/B0b ]

[Chooco]

by the time i'm done with computers, they're not worth anything. i still use a 386 for my school work, it has Windows 3.1, it never crashes, it's plenty fast enough to run Word or Excel, i have never had to format it and it works wonderfuly with my old dot matrix printer.

my Celeron 500 is just BRUTALY slow but i use it to run game stats for my game server and i play Diablo2 on it and store tons of music files on it.

my AthlonXP 1700+ is my Linux computer. i run a game server and a website. i also run email with it to reduce spam (dynamic ip so when i sign up for something like tripod, they can't spam me, ip just changes frequently lol)