I dont much understand Mac hate. But I can understand the reasons for certain parties to not own one while at the other hand I see the reasons to own one.
For me personally, I have a PC and have always had a PC but I really want a mac, but the pricepoint for them is a little high and for gaming I'm fine with my pc. But for school, app development, and photoshop, I would love to have a mac instead because its more stable and I like the interface a little more than that of PC.
And yeah, if it comes down to it you can just bootcamp a mac and run windows on it as well with no real problem. So mainly the only issue with the mac itself is the pricepoint.
I'm currently playing Rift, in a VM of Windows 7 running in Parallels, full 2560x1600, High Res Render at between medium - high settings. And that is in a Virtual Machine.
LOTRO is even better. I can play same resolution, Ultra everything and maintain 40+ FPS, without Boot Camp. In a VM.
If I actually swap over to Windows w/ Boot Camp, there's nothing that is off limits, but it is usually a pain just because closing down my work and programs is 30 seconds of my life I could spend gaming perfectly fine in OS X.
So, tell me my computer sucks, don't care, tell me how stupid I am as a Mac owner, don't care, tell me how much money I've wasted, I have plenty, don't worry about me. I'm playing games just as well if not better than half the people who post on these forms on my 'silly game-less hardware'!
I don't think anyone will say you are stupid, it just comes down to personal choice. I had a set of requirements and preferences for my laptop which certainly differ from yours, thus the different outcome in our purchases.
On a side note though, I am actually using VMs on Win7 and have a mac VM and a ubuntu VM. There are still limitations to VMs though, in framerate/3D acceleration and also low latency stuff such as MIDI (for music creation). Overall though, similarly to you, I get the best of both world using VMs and I hope the technology will be perfected up to the point that running any OS in a VM is exactly the same as running it natively (which should hopefully happen in the near future).
(reference for below, I have a couple year old Mac Pro.)
Unlike the iMac or MacBook Pro, a suitably configured Mac Pro is a very capable gaming machine. The problem is that you're paying around $3000 (or modding it yourself) for something with performance comparable to a $1000 gaming PC, excluding peripherals.
A lot of people mention that they are build by Asus/Foxconn. That is true for the motherboards and power supplies and the like, but Apple makes their own chassis, and it is by and large a huge part of the build quality. You could literally sit/stand/walk over their laptops and be just fine. The aluminum unibody is very nice - the keyboard has no give, the chassis doesn't twist or bend when you pick it up with one hand. The LCD screens use real glass rather than plastic (and actually have a matte option now). The trackpad is actually made of glass, and support multitouch gestures just like the iPhone/iPad.
That stuff you can't get in any other laptop at any price. Now, if it's worth the running price for a MBP - that's up to you, the build quality doesn't make the hardware any faster, and you still can't replace the battery yourself (they use some special LiIon moldable polymer battery which is supposed to have a better power density than traditional batteries).
It's not like your just buying an Asus laptop with an Apple sticker on the back.
It's more like driving a luxury sedan: it won't get you where you are going any faster, but it sure makes the trip a lot more enjoyable.
Macs are just priced out of competition. For MacBook you can get at best a 6750M for $2000. For an iMac you can get a 6970M for $2000, and a 6750M for $1200. Its just too expensive for these relatively cheap parts. If you decide not to spend that kind of money which alot dont, then you are stuck with a graphics chip that simply is not powerful enough to run most 3D games.
I used a Mac in college for graphic design. They are far better than PCs for film editing, graphic design, and assorted other creative uses. But I never played even ONE game on them. I was pretty much taught that Macs were workhorses and not entertainment centers. /shrug
There's no way to justify the price for mac hardware, so don't even try. The best thing they have to offer is a slick OS that works... which can't always be said of the competitor. When you buy new software, you just install it and it works. It's simple and easy to use for those who aren't as technical as some of us.
A lot of people mention that they are build by Asus/Foxconn. That is true for the motherboards and power supplies and the like, but Apple makes their own chassis, and it is by and large a huge part of the build quality. You could literally sit/stand/walk over their laptops and be just fine. The aluminum unibody is very nice - the keyboard has no give, the chassis doesn't twist or bend when you pick it up with one hand. The LCD screens use real glass rather than plastic (and actually have a matte option now). The trackpad is actually made of glass, and support multitouch gestures just like the iPhone/iPad.
That stuff you can't get in any other laptop at any price. Now, if it's worth the running price for a MBP - that's up to you, the build quality doesn't make the hardware any faster, and you still can't replace the battery yourself (they use some special LiIon moldable polymer battery which is supposed to have a better power density than traditional batteries).
It's not like your just buying an Asus laptop with an Apple sticker on the back.
It's more like driving a luxury sedan: it won't get you where you are going any faster, but it sure makes the trip a lot more enjoyable.
It would be better if you WERE buying an Asus with an Apple sticker on it, as Asus laptops typically achieve better marks for reliability. Having an outside that can survive being dropped out a third story window doesn't do much for internals, I'm afraid.
If you really think that it's worth putting down 2-3 times the price of hardware for something as purely subjective as aesthetics or the "joy" of using it, I can't tell you you're wrong to do so, that being the nature of subjective statements. That said, as a simple utilitarian who simply wants the machine that most capably runs his programs for the price, that extra money buys absolutely nothing. And as a lot of us use our computers for just that, it's not hard to see why many are not willing to put down thrice the price (or at best, only double) for the more marked up Macs.
It seems to me they're less like luxury sedans, and more like run of the mill cars that are just priced higher for the sake of being able to claim to be luxury products. Or better put, they're more like $200 jeans than a luxury sedan. And if I want a laptop that's "fun", along the way, well my notebook, at the time of purchase, was more powerful than any Mac notebook available at the time, and I think games provide a bit more entertainment than fiddling with an operating system.
Originally posted by Catamount Originally posted by Ridelynn With regard to the build quality: A lot of people mention that they are build by Asus/Foxconn. That is true for the motherboards and power supplies and the like, but Apple makes their own chassis, and it is by and large a huge part of the build quality. You could literally sit/stand/walk over their laptops and be just fine. The aluminum unibody is very nice - the keyboard has no give, the chassis doesn't twist or bend when you pick it up with one hand. The LCD screens use real glass rather than plastic (and actually have a matte option now). The trackpad is actually made of glass, and support multitouch gestures just like the iPhone/iPad. That stuff you can't get in any other laptop at any price. Now, if it's worth the running price for a MBP - that's up to you, the build quality doesn't make the hardware any faster, and you still can't replace the battery yourself (they use some special LiIon moldable polymer battery which is supposed to have a better power density than traditional batteries). It's not like your just buying an Asus laptop with an Apple sticker on the back. It's more like driving a luxury sedan: it won't get you where you are going any faster, but it sure makes the trip a lot more enjoyable.
It would be better if you WERE buying an Asus with an Apple sticker on it, as Asus laptops typically achieve better marks for reliability. Having an outside that can survive being dropped out a third story window doesn't do much for internals, I'm afraid.
If you really think that it's worth putting down 2-3 times the price of hardware for something as purely subjective as aesthetics or the "joy" of using it, I can't tell you you're wrong to do so, that being the nature of subjective statements. That said, as a simple utilitarian who simply wants the machine that most capably runs his programs for the price, that extra money buys absolutely nothing. And as a lot of us use our computers for just that, it's not hard to see why many are not willing to put down thrice the price (or at best, only double) for the more marked up Macs.
It seems to me they're less like luxury sedans, and more like run of the mill cars that are just priced higher for the sake of being able to claim to be luxury products. Or better put, they're more like $200 jeans than a luxury sedan. And if I want a laptop that's "fun", along the way, well my notebook, at the time of purchase, was more powerful than any Mac notebook available at the time, and I think games provide a bit more entertainment than fiddling with an operating system. http://www.macrumors.com/2010/02/22/apple-ranks-third-in-businessweek-customer-service-rankings/
3rd across all companies for Customer Service.
Asus does do extraordinarily well for a laptop manufacturer. But Apple sells a heck of a lot more laptops than Asus does.
Here's another computer-specific report, with Apple far and away at the top again
Asus wasn't ranked, and after doing some honest searches about their tech support quality, the consensus I came away with was "Their laptops are great, but if you need to use their tech support, just RMA it back to who you bought it from because you aren't going to get any". The difference between Apple and Asus reliability is very slight: http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf
You can call a Mercedes a run of the mill car if you want - not everyone can or cares to pay the price for one. It has 4 tires and a steering wheel, it still can't get you from point A to point B any faster, but if you just wanted to get from Point A to Point B you could buy a 1982 Buick for $250 and keep the headlights stuck on with Bondo. And there is no denying that an Apple MBP is a world of difference from any "run of the mill" Toshiba or Dell laptop.
Apple should at least throw in a 6970m or 6990m and possibly a slighty stronger quad-core proc w/o jacking the price tag up. For the price they charge anyway, they could give you a 25-50% increase in performance that could begin to justify the 2-3 thousand dollar price tag that would only cost them a few hundred more $$ to the -actual- build price.
*Corsair Obsidian Series 650D *i5-2500K OC'd ~ 4.5 *Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mother board * Radeon HD 7970 *8GB (4GBx2) 1600MHz Kingston HyperX *240GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III SSD
I used a Mac in college for graphic design. They are far better than PCs for film editing, graphic design, and assorted other creative uses. But I never played even ONE game on them. I was pretty much taught that Macs were workhorses and not entertainment centers. /shrug
Thats changed over the last decade. The similar PC apps don't crash as often or at all. Its also difficult to get the same brute power out of a Mac Pro as a PC workstation. When doing CAD work, or working with large images its just difficult to do on a Mac now with its limited hardware.
Way too expensive and most games use Direct X not Open GL but there are some advantages. Macs do not get viruses and their hardware is almost impeccable. Macs are great for school and graphics design.
I don't like Macs myself. The last Apple computer product I had at my fingertips was an Apple IIe. I just don't like the heavy handed proprietary weight that is thrown upon a PC. I always felt that having a computer should be liberating not only in my choice of hardware but software and that goes against apples core philosophy. I believe it's why they've been in trouble for most of their existance.
It's one of the main reasons I shrugged off getting an iPhone in trade for something with a little more freedom. I absolutely love Google's push to open source (generally) and free use of the internet. I detest companies like Comcast who do everything to limit activity of the internet unless you are getting it from their site - which just means it's not a true bandwidth issue if they are streaming just as much as other streaming sites.
Stuff like that stiffles innovation and keeps us with the status quo, which is why I believe Apple will begin to fall within the next decade now that Mr. Jobs isn't with us.
Also, to another comment that I usually see. Mac's have just as many problems as PC's. I work dispatch for GeekSquad, Microsoft, TrendMicro ... along with others and we see, relatively, the same amount of problem calls coming in from Macs as we do PC's. Now, I will say that there don't seem to be as many complex issues with Mac's and there are some dumb people using PC's but the relative majority of problems we see from Macs are overwhelmingly exist between the keyboard and chair.
Thanks for the information, it's been very informative and reinforced what I already suspected. I bought the Mac just for a change, just to see what they were like. I doactually likeit, big screen, fast, reliable. I have never had a single problem with it. But, I have found just about the only place to get games is on the Apple Apps site, and they are a bit expensive (like everything from Apple). Anyway here's what I have.
Steam support Mac, you'll see what games you can get with that, Valve are making a lot of their games Mac too. Even Team Fotress 2 which is free to play now is on Mac.
Way too expensive and most games use Direct X not Open GL but there are some advantages. Macs do not get viruses and their hardware is almost impeccable. Macs are great for school and graphics design.
Mac's 8 years ago didn't worry about virus, now their alive an well on Mac now the user base has grown a lot in the 00's and worth the hackers time, don't be naive to think there are no Mac virus, there more than enough now and plenty more being created.
Thanks for the information, it's been very informative and reinforced what I already suspected. I bought the Mac just for a change, just to see what they were like. I doactually likeit, big screen, fast, reliable. I have never had a single problem with it. But, I have found just about the only place to get games is on the Apple Apps site, and they are a bit expensive (like everything from Apple). Anyway here's what I have.
Originally posted by Cynic7 Thanks for the information, it's been very informative and reinforced what I already suspected. I bought the Mac just for a change, just to see what they were like. I doactually likeit, big screen, fast, reliable. I have never had a single problem with it. But, I have found just about the only place to get games is on the Apple Apps site, and they are a bit expensive (like everything from Apple). Anyway here's what I have. Hardware Overview: Model Name: iMac Model Identifier: iMac10,1 Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz Number Of Processors: 1 Total Number Of Cores: 2 L2 Cache: 3 MB Memory: 8 GB Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz Boot ROM Version: IM101.00CC.B00 SMC Version (system): 1.52f9 Serial Number (system): W80100T7B9U Hardware UUID: 32299EB7-6252-5B75-BB17-7A42907462C7
O/S Mac osx 10.6.8
That says the processor, and that's all it tells you. What video card do you have?
The older 21" has a 9400m with 256M Shared RAM, The 27" and some 21" have a ATI 4670 w/ 512M RAM
... that just works out of the box. Then they keep working for several years to come, rarely giving you any troubles. I use a macbook pro for work (mostly involving programming and graphical/layout design). I've abused it like a child, messing about with apps, self-built apps, webservers, SDK's, UI modifications, core file modifications, fan settings, several different OS installations through bootcamp and VM, other windows emulators... You name it. I've been really cruel to it to say the least. I've been doing this for 3 years without re-installing it once. I even dropped it in the floor once and i often keep it in sleep instead of turning it of while travelling.
THE POINT: It's still running as if it was new.
Meanwhile, i've seen friends, and my girlfriend, go through several PC laptops during the same time. Even my own stationary gaming-PC has had EVERY part of it replaced due to hardware failure during these 3 years.
It all depends on your needs. Both sides having their up's and down's. I'm caught in between. I love my mac for normal every-day-usage including work and browsing the net. I also love to mess about with the PC, upgrading/modding it, increasing it's performance etc. There's no reason to "hate" any of them, they both fill needs.
Long ago and far away (back in the 80's) game dev's had a bit of a conundrum. There were several gaming platforms including the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari, Tandy/Radio Shack and several I've forgotten. IBM created the PC and I decided to buy one around 1988 and my choice of games was pretty limited compared to some of the others.
But in a relatively short time the PC/Windows platform became the choice of consumers (mostly due to low cost per performance) and most game development shifted over to it. Apple in particular decided to maintain a pricing strategy that kept them firmly in the niche market much as SONY did with the Betamax video format durnig the same time, which VHS promptly crushed.
Now the issue isn't whether MACs are inferior for gaming (they mostly are) or somewhat overpriced (they mostly are), but rather the installed user base of gamers is far greater on the Windows platform outside of consoles.
Sure, some devs decide to go out on a limb to support the Mac, but in general if you really want to game you're better off with a windows based pc/laptop.
Good news is, as so many have pointed out, Mac users have options which enable them to play MMO's too.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Mac just is over-priced, simple as that. You pay for the brand name and that is what they try to do. They don't make any hesitation in saying that. It takes more on a mac to run most aps so your basically forking over even more cash to get it working.
If you like Mac, use it, its fine. Your just not going to get out as much as what others say. Anyone who tries telling you mac are 'better quality' or just 'better' in general is pretty much yanking it from their rear ends. Its the parts that will go, the OS doesn't matter for that. So long as your not a sucker and know enough about windows, you can get a system that can last just as long as a good mac with the same power for a lot less in cost.
Comments
I dont much understand Mac hate. But I can understand the reasons for certain parties to not own one while at the other hand I see the reasons to own one.
For me personally, I have a PC and have always had a PC but I really want a mac, but the pricepoint for them is a little high and for gaming I'm fine with my pc. But for school, app development, and photoshop, I would love to have a mac instead because its more stable and I like the interface a little more than that of PC.
And yeah, if it comes down to it you can just bootcamp a mac and run windows on it as well with no real problem. So mainly the only issue with the mac itself is the pricepoint.
I don't think anyone will say you are stupid, it just comes down to personal choice. I had a set of requirements and preferences for my laptop which certainly differ from yours, thus the different outcome in our purchases.
On a side note though, I am actually using VMs on Win7 and have a mac VM and a ubuntu VM. There are still limitations to VMs though, in framerate/3D acceleration and also low latency stuff such as MIDI (for music creation). Overall though, similarly to you, I get the best of both world using VMs and I hope the technology will be perfected up to the point that running any OS in a VM is exactly the same as running it natively (which should hopefully happen in the near future).
uh simple, mac users are to busy eating vegan sandwhiches and doing yoga to be bothered with gaming.
Unlike the iMac or MacBook Pro, a suitably configured Mac Pro is a very capable gaming machine. The problem is that you're paying around $3000 (or modding it yourself) for something with performance comparable to a $1000 gaming PC, excluding peripherals.
With regard to the build quality:
A lot of people mention that they are build by Asus/Foxconn. That is true for the motherboards and power supplies and the like, but Apple makes their own chassis, and it is by and large a huge part of the build quality. You could literally sit/stand/walk over their laptops and be just fine. The aluminum unibody is very nice - the keyboard has no give, the chassis doesn't twist or bend when you pick it up with one hand. The LCD screens use real glass rather than plastic (and actually have a matte option now). The trackpad is actually made of glass, and support multitouch gestures just like the iPhone/iPad.
That stuff you can't get in any other laptop at any price. Now, if it's worth the running price for a MBP - that's up to you, the build quality doesn't make the hardware any faster, and you still can't replace the battery yourself (they use some special LiIon moldable polymer battery which is supposed to have a better power density than traditional batteries).
It's not like your just buying an Asus laptop with an Apple sticker on the back.
It's more like driving a luxury sedan: it won't get you where you are going any faster, but it sure makes the trip a lot more enjoyable.
Macs are just priced out of competition. For MacBook you can get at best a 6750M for $2000. For an iMac you can get a 6970M for $2000, and a 6750M for $1200. Its just too expensive for these relatively cheap parts. If you decide not to spend that kind of money which alot dont, then you are stuck with a graphics chip that simply is not powerful enough to run most 3D games.
I used a Mac in college for graphic design. They are far better than PCs for film editing, graphic design, and assorted other creative uses. But I never played even ONE game on them. I was pretty much taught that Macs were workhorses and not entertainment centers. /shrug
President of The Marvelously Meowhead Fan Club
There's no way to justify the price for mac hardware, so don't even try. The best thing they have to offer is a slick OS that works... which can't always be said of the competitor. When you buy new software, you just install it and it works. It's simple and easy to use for those who aren't as technical as some of us.
Use bootcamp, run windows on your mac to run windows games, as long as your mac has the power
Tbrown, Love me or die!
It would be better if you WERE buying an Asus with an Apple sticker on it, as Asus laptops typically achieve better marks for reliability. Having an outside that can survive being dropped out a third story window doesn't do much for internals, I'm afraid.
If you really think that it's worth putting down 2-3 times the price of hardware for something as purely subjective as aesthetics or the "joy" of using it, I can't tell you you're wrong to do so, that being the nature of subjective statements. That said, as a simple utilitarian who simply wants the machine that most capably runs his programs for the price, that extra money buys absolutely nothing. And as a lot of us use our computers for just that, it's not hard to see why many are not willing to put down thrice the price (or at best, only double) for the more marked up Macs.
It seems to me they're less like luxury sedans, and more like run of the mill cars that are just priced higher for the sake of being able to claim to be luxury products. Or better put, they're more like $200 jeans than a luxury sedan. And if I want a laptop that's "fun", along the way, well my notebook, at the time of purchase, was more powerful than any Mac notebook available at the time, and I think games provide a bit more entertainment than fiddling with an operating system.
If you really think that it's worth putting down 2-3 times the price of hardware for something as purely subjective as aesthetics or the "joy" of using it, I can't tell you you're wrong to do so, that being the nature of subjective statements. That said, as a simple utilitarian who simply wants the machine that most capably runs his programs for the price, that extra money buys absolutely nothing. And as a lot of us use our computers for just that, it's not hard to see why many are not willing to put down thrice the price (or at best, only double) for the more marked up Macs.
It seems to me they're less like luxury sedans, and more like run of the mill cars that are just priced higher for the sake of being able to claim to be luxury products. Or better put, they're more like $200 jeans than a luxury sedan. And if I want a laptop that's "fun", along the way, well my notebook, at the time of purchase, was more powerful than any Mac notebook available at the time, and I think games provide a bit more entertainment than fiddling with an operating system.
http://www.macrumors.com/2010/02/22/apple-ranks-third-in-businessweek-customer-service-rankings/
3rd across all companies for Customer Service.
Asus does do extraordinarily well for a laptop manufacturer. But Apple sells a heck of a lot more laptops than Asus does.
Here's another computer-specific report, with Apple far and away at the top again
http://www.tomshardware.com/news/computer-tech-support-quality-ratings,9863.html
Asus wasn't ranked, and after doing some honest searches about their tech support quality, the consensus I came away with was "Their laptops are great, but if you need to use their tech support, just RMA it back to who you bought it from because you aren't going to get any". The difference between Apple and Asus reliability is very slight:
http://www.squaretrade.com/htm/pdf/SquareTrade_laptop_reliability_1109.pdf
You can call a Mercedes a run of the mill car if you want - not everyone can or cares to pay the price for one. It has 4 tires and a steering wheel, it still can't get you from point A to point B any faster, but if you just wanted to get from Point A to Point B you could buy a 1982 Buick for $250 and keep the headlights stuck on with Bondo. And there is no denying that an Apple MBP is a world of difference from any "run of the mill" Toshiba or Dell laptop.
Problems with Mac's for gaming:
1.) Expensive.
2.) Limited customization.
3.) Less popular than Windows.
4.) Different OS.
5.) Limited performance.
Apple should at least throw in a 6970m or 6990m and possibly a slighty stronger quad-core proc w/o jacking the price tag up. For the price they charge anyway, they could give you a 25-50% increase in performance that could begin to justify the 2-3 thousand dollar price tag that would only cost them a few hundred more $$ to the -actual- build price.
*Corsair Obsidian Series 650D *i5-2500K OC'd ~ 4.5
*Asus P8Z68-V PRO/GEN3 mother board
* Radeon HD 7970
*8GB (4GBx2) 1600MHz Kingston HyperX
*240GB Corsair Force GT Series SATA-III SSD
You can get a comp that will play AoC at medium-high for 400-500 bucks.
If that's not reason enough to get a PC then proceed from 2 through 5.
Mac is mainly for artistry and arguably programming sense it's got a built in console.
Thats changed over the last decade. The similar PC apps don't crash as often or at all. Its also difficult to get the same brute power out of a Mac Pro as a PC workstation. When doing CAD work, or working with large images its just difficult to do on a Mac now with its limited hardware.
Way too expensive and most games use Direct X not Open GL but there are some advantages. Macs do not get viruses and their hardware is almost impeccable. Macs are great for school and graphics design.
I don't like Macs myself. The last Apple computer product I had at my fingertips was an Apple IIe. I just don't like the heavy handed proprietary weight that is thrown upon a PC. I always felt that having a computer should be liberating not only in my choice of hardware but software and that goes against apples core philosophy. I believe it's why they've been in trouble for most of their existance.
It's one of the main reasons I shrugged off getting an iPhone in trade for something with a little more freedom. I absolutely love Google's push to open source (generally) and free use of the internet. I detest companies like Comcast who do everything to limit activity of the internet unless you are getting it from their site - which just means it's not a true bandwidth issue if they are streaming just as much as other streaming sites.
Stuff like that stiffles innovation and keeps us with the status quo, which is why I believe Apple will begin to fall within the next decade now that Mr. Jobs isn't with us.
Also, to another comment that I usually see. Mac's have just as many problems as PC's. I work dispatch for GeekSquad, Microsoft, TrendMicro ... along with others and we see, relatively, the same amount of problem calls coming in from Macs as we do PC's. Now, I will say that there don't seem to be as many complex issues with Mac's and there are some dumb people using PC's but the relative majority of problems we see from Macs are overwhelmingly exist between the keyboard and chair.
Thanks for the information, it's been very informative and reinforced what I already suspected. I bought the Mac just for a change, just to see what they were like. I doactually likeit, big screen, fast, reliable. I have never had a single problem with it. But, I have found just about the only place to get games is on the Apple Apps site, and they are a bit expensive (like everything from Apple). Anyway here's what I have.
Hardware Overview:
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac10,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 3.06 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 8 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: IM101.00CC.B00
SMC Version (system): 1.52f9
Serial Number (system): W80100T7B9U
Hardware UUID: 32299EB7-6252-5B75-BB17-7A42907462C7
O/S Mac osx 10.6.8
Steam support Mac, you'll see what games you can get with that, Valve are making a lot of their games Mac too. Even Team Fotress 2 which is free to play now is on Mac.
Mac's 8 years ago didn't worry about virus, now their alive an well on Mac now the user base has grown a lot in the 00's and worth the hackers time, don't be naive to think there are no Mac virus, there more than enough now and plenty more being created.
That says the processor, and that's all it tells you. What video card do you have?
The older 21" has a 9400m with 256M Shared RAM,
The 27" and some 21" have a ATI 4670 w/ 512M RAM
And this one is a 21.5" w/ 4670
http://www.appleserialnumberinfo.com/Desktop/index.php
... that just works out of the box. Then they keep working for several years to come, rarely giving you any troubles. I use a macbook pro for work (mostly involving programming and graphical/layout design). I've abused it like a child, messing about with apps, self-built apps, webservers, SDK's, UI modifications, core file modifications, fan settings, several different OS installations through bootcamp and VM, other windows emulators... You name it. I've been really cruel to it to say the least. I've been doing this for 3 years without re-installing it once. I even dropped it in the floor once and i often keep it in sleep instead of turning it of while travelling.
THE POINT: It's still running as if it was new.
Meanwhile, i've seen friends, and my girlfriend, go through several PC laptops during the same time. Even my own stationary gaming-PC has had EVERY part of it replaced due to hardware failure during these 3 years.
It all depends on your needs. Both sides having their up's and down's. I'm caught in between. I love my mac for normal every-day-usage including work and browsing the net. I also love to mess about with the PC, upgrading/modding it, increasing it's performance etc. There's no reason to "hate" any of them, they both fill needs.
Long ago and far away (back in the 80's) game dev's had a bit of a conundrum. There were several gaming platforms including the Apple II, Commodore 64, Atari, Tandy/Radio Shack and several I've forgotten. IBM created the PC and I decided to buy one around 1988 and my choice of games was pretty limited compared to some of the others.
But in a relatively short time the PC/Windows platform became the choice of consumers (mostly due to low cost per performance) and most game development shifted over to it. Apple in particular decided to maintain a pricing strategy that kept them firmly in the niche market much as SONY did with the Betamax video format durnig the same time, which VHS promptly crushed.
Now the issue isn't whether MACs are inferior for gaming (they mostly are) or somewhat overpriced (they mostly are), but rather the installed user base of gamers is far greater on the Windows platform outside of consoles.
Sure, some devs decide to go out on a limb to support the Mac, but in general if you really want to game you're better off with a windows based pc/laptop.
Good news is, as so many have pointed out, Mac users have options which enable them to play MMO's too.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Mac just is over-priced, simple as that. You pay for the brand name and that is what they try to do. They don't make any hesitation in saying that. It takes more on a mac to run most aps so your basically forking over even more cash to get it working.
If you like Mac, use it, its fine. Your just not going to get out as much as what others say. Anyone who tries telling you mac are 'better quality' or just 'better' in general is pretty much yanking it from their rear ends. Its the parts that will go, the OS doesn't matter for that. So long as your not a sucker and know enough about windows, you can get a system that can last just as long as a good mac with the same power for a lot less in cost.