Best computer for me?

It's my birthday in a few days, and i'm hoping for a new computer. I really wanted a iMac 27-inch. I know Macs aren't the best, but i just really want one, i am somewhat sick of PC's I've had them all my life and wanted to try something knew, but my parents aren't willing to spend $1,799 on a computer. I could go for the 21.5 inch, which is $1,299 but i really wanted a huge screen! So, i suppose i might have to stick with PC's but, i want something with a lot of memory! And also a Desktop, i already have a laptop, its kind of slow, old, and out of memory, hence why i want a new computer, but i dont need another laptop.
So here is what im looking for.

- Something with a lot of memory! 500GB or more, of hard drive space
- Something that can run games nicely! i play a lot of games on my laptop such as World of Warcraft, so i need it to be able to run games.
- And i want a huge screen!
- and something in a nice price range...

 

i would absolutely advise the 21.5" iMac. it may take some time to adjust from Windows to Mac, but they are small things like right-clicking, not clicking 'Apply' whenever youre changing a setting, and a simpler file directory, etc. if it's a debate between a Windows PC and a Mac, i couldn't suggest a Mac anymore. you're paying slightly more for standard lines of a Mac but you're definitely getting quality in exchange.

but do note that there are actually four models/tiers of iMacs right now with other little variations and configurations you can customize on the website.:

there is the 21.5" 3.06GHz processor
with a 500GB hard drive, and ATI Radeon 4670 with 256MB video card
priced at 1200$

or the 21.5" 3.2 GHz processor
with a 1TB hard drive, and ATI Radeon 5670 with 512MB video card
priced at 1500$

and then 2 tiers of the 27-inch screen model

personally, that difference in video cards and hard drive space between the 21.5" tiers is not worth the 300$ because 500GB is plenty of space, and i don't suggest opening up ur comp to upgrade the video card because it'll mess up your warranty, especially right after buying the thing!

if you're concerned about the size of the screen, 200$ ontop of that 3.2GHz model isn't really worth it either because the difference between the second highest and third highest model is the screen mainly.
(and if you want the bigger screen that badly, i suggest going into an apple store to see the sizes in person, cuz the 21.5" is pretty good.)

on the iMac i have here at home(which is the 21.5" 3.06GHz), i've played Dragon Age: Origins on medium graphical settings and it ran adequately. on slightly less graphical settings, it runs as smooth as butter. now idk how WoW would compare with Dragon Age, but i think Dragon Age has a bigger load.

 

Hm, i would choose the imac, but i found a PC much cheaper, and much better, its $1,047 and here's the specs.

OS: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium, 64Bit, English
Processor: AMD Phenom™ II X6 1075T + ATI Radeon HD 5450 1GB
Memory: 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 4 DIMMs
Hard Drive: 1TB - 7200RPM, SATA 3.0Gb/s, 16MB Cache
Monitor: Dell ST2420L 24"W Full HD Monitor, 24.0 VIS, VGA Cable supplied only
Optical Drive: 16X DVD+/-RW Drive
Wireless: Dell 1525 Wireless-N PCIe Card

And that price also includes some good speakers i added, AY410 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer.

And those prices you listed for the imacs. are those American? Because I'm Canadian lol

 

i came back to check this thread to update that imacs are getting the new Sandy Bridges processor technology.
but cool man, great specs.
i thought the canadian and american were the same but the canadian is actually 100$ more per model. that sux. :/

 

friends don't let friends buy macs

 

Macs aren't 'bad' persay they are very good well built machines with very few problems, however they tend to be a bit more complicated to adjust from windows -- personally I recommend most of my customers that are sick of windows to try out Linux first before going to a mac due to the similarities. You are able to try it out and see how you like it before changing over and regretting it. Linux is completely free and will run better than windows will on older machines, and you are capable of running it directly from a CD or DVD to see if you like it prior to installing it on your system. Linux mint is one of the easier ones to adapt to due to the fact that you are able to have all the java and such installed rather than having to do it after you install the software.

 

hey. your parents are soo right. spending 2000 $$$$$$$$$$$ over a mac is friggin' crazy. ok they can be well built but for such a price that's the very least one could expect. go for a brandless, assembled PC, choose the best mother board with a decent accelerated video adaptor and a 64-bit processor, repeat, 64 bit CPU, AMD for best value (add a case fan), then pound it with 8 GB -or more- RAM and discard motheboards that cant handle more than 4 GBytes. (dont be silly and dont do like me, i discovered that my stupid motherboard supports 64bit but only 4 Gb RAM only _after_ shipment so i guess i am going to replace it soon) add the HDD you like the most. think about various RAID combinations if you want it. Use the spare money to buy a heck of a flashy, large, wide, thin LED monitor. dont be stingy over that but also dont buy the first thing you stumble upon: compare prices. by the way... what the fuck. twenty-seven inches is the size of my bed. i hope you are going to watch a lot of HD movies on such a monster, or maybe after ten years spent with a claustrophobia inducing 15inch CRT i got the smurf complex in front of my samsung 22''... lol.
on top of this i'd install the latest Kubuntu linux, but since you really are into games i think you are going to choose windows. please note that the wine apis can run many windows apps and games , and war of warcraft seems to be very well supported. so please consider linux, you can always install windows later. check http://appdb.winehq.org/ for supported games and apps.

once upon a time macs were just for fags. then other categories of fags like psychologists started having a crush over macs. now in the time of iMac, iPod, iPhone iPad, being another iFag has become trendy. why contributing with your money to the delusions of grandeur of an overbearing, skullhead self centered corporate fag. we dont need another ibm or microsoft attempting to decide what is good for us and what is not. please, stop this faggotry and, for freedom's sake boycott iMonopolies.

p.s. it's only me or what the sony network is experiencing is totally hilarious ? something tells me that the crackers bashing and phishing over the playstation network are paying a huge favour to the community.

 

Sorry, you lose me at "windows".

Did you get that crap?

There's nothing wrong with macs. Only people who don't understand the reasons for having a mac or do but don't have the money talk them down.

Macs ARE great home computers, they JUST go, but can ALSO do the heaviest editing work you could need, run the most serious programs you could want, and, in the BIG fuck you to windows, can run just about any UNIX or linux code, which is basically every important scientific program ever, and thousands upon thousands of user created user updated/supported programs to do anything you please.

It's like linux, the difference being that it actually works.

This said, I'm typing from ubuntu on a PC I built, but if it was a mac, it'd be close to requiring replacement by now given it's age. I mean, for windows, it IS close to requiring replacement, the same holds true there.... it's on XP for the windows partition and runs a geforce 7950gt OC, so no reason to upgrade, and no desire to run microshit's shit.

And behind me I have my iMac G5, which I used until around 7 months ago, when there was finially little reason to use it, and it stopped being able to keep up with regular browsing, like I remember orison had an animated signature from a car commercial that drove me crazy, it would freeze safari for a few minutes every page I loaded that he posted on. So I finally got everything migrated instead of running side by side machines, and it's working great for me.

That was 5 years on one mac, and I'm currently running the SECOND PC from that time period..... so, whatever the says about PC's....

I also have an original tray loading iMac G3 on a shelf, runs great, just no reason to run it, meant to do SOMETHING cool with it but don't have a project yet. And there's a powermac G4 640MHz on the floor beside me, runs great, working on turning it into a server. I didn't own either of these until they became obsolete, but they both saw hard use, the powermac in web design and graphic design work, and the imac as a family beater.

In my closet is my last PC, and to it's overheating problems and everything else, I say good riddance, I would turn it into my server instead of the mac but it's not stable enough. (my current pc runs a bit hot too.... but meh)

Now I do also have two trashed powerbook G4's, one mine and one my mothers, which I tried to turn into a functioning frankenbook.... no dice... but they saw reasonable use, and the powerPC laptops did that: fry themselves, the IBM chips just got too hot for laptops.

Macs do have very good physical build quaity, and NO driver or other problems EVER, it all just works because they make the hardware and the OS. No virus problems, though trojans are fesable... I once made an applescript one that made my school's computers beep for ever and repeatedly turn their volume all the way up, while preventing shutdown.... put it on the desktop with a firefox icon, made it run invisibly so you had to use the terminal to kill it. So it's possible, but no one is, unless you work in a public high school with bored little shits playing in your computer labs.

Linux or mac. Anything that comes with windows is almost 100% a RIPOFF....

*edit* also, on the floor behind me is my apple cinema display. part of a powermac G3 setup, it's more than a decade old. Runs 1600x1200, which is more than most people are currently viewing HF in, but it has a capacitor problem, which causes it to enter a sleep/wake cycle if it overheats.... not using it right now because my room is a more summer-ish temp, but when back at college, I'll use it, until someone gives me a flat panel of similar resolution and quality.

 

i'm using an old computer that somebody gave me, it had been sitting in their basement for a few years

running debian 6, typing this while running apache [web server] and mysql [database server] in the background, gnome desktop, firefox, sylpheed , and aqualung [tunes] all going full blast

a few other computers around here, landfill rescues, will do about as well

why anyone needs a new computer is utterly beyond me - unless i suppose you hate the environment [I]that[/I] much . . .

 

http://www.greenpeace.org/apple/about.html

 

Yes, apple sucks at being environmental, I won't deny this.

But I've never thrown out a mac.

Also, if these chemicals are that toxic, it means they're somewhere right now, before becoming macs, and if they can't be broken down safely when recycling, they can't right now either, so..... might as well make a mac out of em', IMO.....

yes, you can run debian on a landfill box.... I can.... I have nothing against 10 meg CLI distros, I used to run one on a 486DX for fun, until I broke it.... But most people have NO ability to use those, and that's why the world didn't run on them. Morons can't use them, and they don't browse facebook smoothly.

My old houses basement is still full of my PC's, around 35 of them that actually work. Between 1000-900mhz. Wish I could get at them, there's some classics that I'd like to save from the wet basement and keep in working order, like my IBM pentium 1 100MHz running os/2, with model M keyboard and mouse.... and there's a lot I could get going and give away, I know people who would like them. Unfortionatly they're 3000 miles away, or so... But even though they're still workable, each one has many macs (even from that time) worth of lead and other shit in them.

Maybe I sound like a republcan here, but I've taken apart dozens of macs, and haven't died yet..... I can't see that there's anything particularly harmful, unless it's powdered near workers or something. I'm sure that the processes could be fixed in such a way that plastics that shouldn't be ground are "crunched" off of metal parts, or something....

Also, greenpeace is, in the end, pretty nuts, even if they're not as nuts as some groups and I generally do like them. I honestly didn't read the whole thing, I think I got the gist in the first few sentences: greenpeace doesn't like PVC, apple does. Apple SHOULD listen, and start using hemp plastic, but.... Gotta do some oil subsidy toppling first to make that come about.

 

i'd tell him to get a windows pc if the price of a mac was 2000$. for someone that jokes about shit, you certainly spew alot of it.
your statements about fags is extremely moronic. fuck you. and not for being a windows twit, but for your use of "fag".

how is apple monopolizing? microsoft definitely has so much more of their products in many facets in economy, business and home, and that's one of the reasons why microsoft compromises its quality. there's nothing you can't do on a mac that you can do with a windows, except for some compatibility issues between the two. in the long run, you'll be saving money because you don't have to buy anti-malware programs, repairs on your comp can be done 80% of the time on good faith by apple as opposed to over-priced repair shop (thats how they make theyre money when changing parts), and the fragmentation system differences between a windows and a mac are the biggest difference in which windows is just much more likely to get blue screens, slow load times, third party bullshit, etc.

and if you think by buying a either a windows pc supports freedom, you are one very lost person.

 

This.

But, building your own computer is as free as freedom gets, and you can run windows, mac os X, or linux, depending on how much tweaking you're willing to do on your creation and it's software.

PC repair is much like automotive repair, they get it and you don't, so they're going to FUCK you on it, and break something else so they can FUCK you when you come back.

The difference is the internet's full of geeks who would love to help you build your computer, and the only tooll you need are a single size of phillips head screwdriver and a brain, to build a basic yet powerful PC for a considerable amount less than a new one would run you.

 

one of these tools is so sadly in such short supply . . .

agree about greenpeace, i'm just being a bitch

don't buy anything

[bitch don't die easy]

 

i know it was extremely moronic. it was *hugely* moronic. i wrote that on purpose. being a lenny bruce and south park fan i dig being a moron each now and then, but also rely on the ability of others to discern what is a joke, being obviously ludicrous, and what is not. apart from this , and from the opinion one may have on the mac world, i'd like to stand in defense of the linux desktop. i've been using a linux desktop (various systems:corel,mandrake,redhat,slackware,debian and kubuntu) running KDE since the last century. it has steadily grown better and better, and currently just rocks and it is stable fast and free thanks to many good distros. all of my computers run linux , i banned proprietary software long ago. but since i dont want to be a fanatic prick i understand that most people doesnt give a shit about the FSF , stallman and all the rest, dig it? my friends daily run linux based systems because i helped them in unexpensively building their own when they needed to become computer users, but, again, i dont want to convert the whole world. since the request was basically for gaming, i just told: i suggest you to use wine emulation under linux, if then you want to just play without limits, in that case it is best windows because of the wider availability of software AND it runs on waay cheaper platforms , so if you go for the mac basically you are getting less for more and this just means buying a brand. it is not as confused as it may look.

 

If you want an Apple, go Apple II+.

 

I'm sorry, but you suck dick at linux.

Wine. Is. Not. (an) Emulator.

 

happy birthday sorry i have no advice for question.

 

Benefits of Mac over PC:
For editing photos but especially videos.
It's more stable because the OS is pretty much on lock down.
That's why if you line up a few Macs (owned and configured by different people) they'll all look very similar). Whereas you line up the same PCs and the interfaces will look very different.

Benefits of PC over Mac.
W/ a PC you can do more in your life.
Why you ask, because you'll have money left over to go away for a long weekend. Or to buy that special peice of SW. Or pay for a lifetime of internet porn.

You can make it your machine - put a pic from your vaca on your desktop, or that screen capture from the porn vid you were watching.

Seriously unless you have a specifc need for a Mac you're wasting your money.
If you don't have a specific need for a Mac, i'm sorry but your being sheep and falling for the aesthetics of their design and marketing.

Let's not forget that Apple as a company would be considered a dictatorship if it were a country. It's almost like their 1984 ads were more of a prophecy than a campaign.