Computer advice

[Maarten]

Does anyone here know what the situation is like with regards to video games? Are most games that have been released recently playable on a Mac, or are there still difficulties with that? I know that a couple of years ago the prospects of that weren't very good. A related issue would be whether Macs generally have good graphics cards. It's not a deal-breaker or anything, but it would be nice to be able to own one machine and use it for both recreation and work.

[D'kian]

I use my home PC for web browsing, email, burning music CDs, viewing DVDs (sometimes), playing games, doing some work (with MS Office usually). That's about it.

I haven't considered a Mac for one reason: Price. I also don't want to learn how to use a different OS unless there's a good reason.

Linux, well, the same objections about learning a different OS, plus I've no idea if my Windows games would run on Linux. I've wanted to try something called Knopix which boots from the CD. I actually ordered it, it cost $6, but I haven't found the time to try it out.

For all the bad press Windows gets, I haven't had any major troubles with it. My current machine was badly built, but that's a hardware issue. Sure, keeping it secure takes work, but once you've instaleld the firewall and AV, or an internet security suite, you don't have to give it any further thought (unless it is to sut it down when you play certain resource-demanding games). I could avoid that switching to Mac or Linux, but it's not necessary.

[Cogito]

I've wanted to try something called Knopix which boots from the CD. I actually ordered it, it cost $6, but I haven't found the time to try it out.

Good choice... I usually have a knoppix CD with me when I go to fix people's computers in case I need to do something that is easier on Linux than Windows, or if the problem is with Windows itself.

[Thoyd Loki]

Does anyone here know what the situation is like with regards to video games? Are most games that have been released recently playable on a Mac, or are there still difficulties with that? I know that a couple of years ago the prospects of that weren't very good. A related issue would be whether Macs generally have good graphics cards. It's not a deal-breaker or anything, but it would be nice to be able to own one machine and use it for both recreation and work.

There are certainly a lot more games avaliable for it nowadays. I saw the lastest World of Warcraft on their site, and Quake 4, of course my all time favorite Unreal Tournament is there. No doubt if you must play the latest video game now, Windows will undoubtedly have it first. I suspect as Macs get more popular, releases will pretty much parallel each other, but I'm not so much the video game hound I used to be.

Graphics cards. The iMac line has from the ATI Radeon X1600 128 MB to the Nvidia GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB cards. The Mac Pro, which, if you have the money can be ordered with such configuations as to make it one hell of a beast, has a Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 512 MB. The Pro can have the sickest configuarion.

2 3GHz Dual core Intel Xeons

16GB Ram 667MHz DDR2

4 filled hard drive bays each 750 GB serial ATA's

2 30" Apple Cinema HD displays 30"

2 16X SuperDrives (CD/ DVD etc)

I slapped a bunch of minor stuff on there as well for a grand total of $17,825! Minus taxes, of course.

You can get a real good system for $1500 and up. Of course, if you are not into gaming, the price starts at $999.

Someone mentioned getting used to a new OS. The Mac OS operates in many ways like Windows, I had no problem on the switch over. If you have used both Windows and Linux (or any UNIX system) the change over is even easier. Usually the most intuitive, easy way you can think to do something is the way that it is done in a Mac. Drag and drop is the most common task on Mac even between programs because that is the way it is designed.