Mac

So I'm really over Windows. BUT! I'm a PC gamer! I'd switch to a mac in sec if it would play TOR, etc.

Anybody have a mac but do some cool thing to easily play PC games successfully? If so, I'd love to hear about how you do it.

I own every Apple product you can think of hehe

I have a iMac and MacBook Pro, both with Bootcamp enabled. Bootcamp is included with the OS and what it does it partitions a seperate drive which windows can be installed on. You have to buy a real, full version of Windows (I suggest XP); a bootleged or boot disk will not work. I suggest calling a local PC repair store and thed probably sell you one for less than $100

I also use the Macbook Pro, upgraded to it's fullest capability. But then, I need it for my career.

Windows 7 on bootcamp works great. A Mac is an exspensive investment, but it won't be outdated for years longer then a PC.

Eeeks! Can I ask what in particular you're hating about Windows? I can't help failing to understand the point of getting a Mac just to put Windows on it, sound like a waste of effort to me. Mac's are awesome for video editing, but there's almost no other purpose they surpass Windows on these days.

I have Windows 7 Pro and it's a dream, I adore it. And it comes with XP built in to it for any legacy software support than goes beyond Windows 7's own Compatibility Modes.

I'm afraid I have to disagree with you Tjes on the longevity issue; PCs are much easier to upgrade than a Mac, so I'd argue it's considerably more cost effective to keep a PC up to date. My PC is basically three years old, but I'm not looking to replace it yet. I'm just looking for another GFX card to Crossfire and a faster primary hard disc, about £100 worth of hardware. And then it'll last another couple of years easily. And even then, it'll only need a new Mobo and CPU to last another couple of years.

PjhN x

If you put the same amount of money into a PC as you do a Mac, you'd get a PC that lasts much longer than a Mac. There is no such thing as "upgrading" in the Mac world, unless you considering calling Apple up and shelling out a few more K to get a brand new one. Not to mention the limited choices with Macs, with PCs there's a whole range. I can't imagine Macs do anything better than PCs since all of the good software comes in a PC version too.

For me having a mac is all about the Operating System. When I log on my PC I get the same annoying interface that bugs me and prevents me from getting things done. With Mac you log on and you are done. I only succumbed to the PC because I wanted to game. I admit though that they are overpriced.

I have both..and I got to tell you.. My laptop blows my Mac Book Pro away..

I have an HP Elitebook, Core i7-840, 16GB RAM, 200GB Vertigo2 SSD, nVidia FX 3800M 1GB Vid Card, 17" Dream Color LED Display

To get all that in a Mac, would be unholy expensive.. True, most Mac laptops come with the LED, but the 17" model starts out at $2,200...if that LED breaks..better have the warranty. If mine breaks, I can get a replacement off of ebay for about $400...Best part is, when I want to upgrade my Vid card, WiFi card, etc.. I am able to by calling and ordering a different one. Can't do that with a Mac. Plus, most of the best games and apps run just as well on a PC as they do on a Mac.. Granted, Mac's handle video & graphic editing better, but that is about it... Long story short, upgrade your PC to a more robust version, install Windows 7 and call it done! :)

Ugh. I'm still scarred from my Mac childhood. My family only had Mac computers in the house since I was a toddler up through most of high school. I remember even as far back as middle school being constantly annoyed at the operating system in general, not to mention the rampant bugs and problems.

To this day, I still cannot see what the hell people see in that operating system. I find Windows to be far more intuitive, flexible, and capable than it's Apple counterpart. And yeah, as Nick said, you can get a whole lot more bang for your buck if you go the PC route, especially if you build it yourself.

And don't even get me started on the iPhone. I'm literally counting the days until I can ditch this thing for an Android.

Mac/Apple is just smoke and mirrors. People who usually like the products are easily pleased by nifty graphic transitions and impressed with 100's of useless applications, etc.

No thank you.

Oh no! Not the mac/pc debate, right here in our own little corner of the 25th century!

Can't we all just get along? Think of the children!

didn't mean to start a war. :(

As for my personal thing (and this is just me) I'm running XP, been afraid to go to Windows 7 because, well, because of the goat turd that was Vista (speaking from personal experience).

My bf has a mac and I do like the interface and I love that there is no registry file and how easy it is to move from one machine to another. I like the way iphoto manages photos (from what I've seen) and iMovie. I am also looking at getting an ipod touch or iphone (4g) and the integration between the two seems lovely.

bottom line, it sounds like I can play my pc games on either system now, so that's good.

Oh, and do you Windows 7 people all love it? (assuming anyone has read this far)
Should I definitely upgrade? Will all my steam games be hosed somehow? Will Microsoft be constantly interfering with and monitoring my computer activity?

Google is scaring me too, lol. They seem to want to own and save all data and communication forever. I don't like the idea of the company who owns my email also knowing everything about my search history. Add the whole phone thing in and jeez. Anyway, maybe I'm too Berkeley, CA.

wow. sorry for the rambling without a payoff...

Windows 7 is soooo much better that Vista...You will not be disappointed. The memory thread handling is way better! At any rate, with all the positives, Microsoft did one thing wrong, they didn't provide an ugrade path from XP to Win7. You can go from Vista to Win7 but not from XP. So save all your stuff to an external, Buy Windows 7 Home Prem or Pro X64 (if your processor can support it) and install away. If you can go the X64 way, I would at least get 4GB RAM..it will pay off!

Reluctantly enters the fray... :-)

Xcentric wrote:

As for my personal thing (and this is just me) I'm running XP, been afraid to go to Windows 7 because, well, because of the goat turd that was Vista (speaking from personal experience).

Win7 is actually pretty good. Stability is vastly improved. It even copied OS X's application dock. (I've got STO and Vent just a click away!)

My bf has a mac and I do like the interface and I love that there is no registry file and how easy it is to move from one machine to another. I like the way iphoto manages photos (from what I've seen) and iMovie. I am also looking at getting an ipod touch or iphone (4g) and the integration between the two seems lovely.

All very legitimate reasons to like Macs. (Although moving from a sufficiently old Mac to a new one may cause issues for those programs that do not support the Intel processor.)

bottom line, it sounds like I can play my pc games on either system now, so that's good.

I haven't used Parallels. Does Windows run in a VM, or is it dual-boot? If the latter, you would need to reboot and select Windows to run STO, and your Mac programs would not be available to you until rebooting again into OS X. And if the former, I would worry about stability issues, but defer to people with experience using Parallels in the real (and STO) world. My experience of STO's stability on Win7 is excellent. I think I've only crashed once since open beta.

Oh, and do you Windows 7 people all love it? (assuming anyone has read this far)
Should I definitely upgrade? Will all my steam games be hosed somehow? Will Microsoft be constantly interfering with and monitoring my computer activity?

I don't think there's a direct upgrade path from XP to Win7, so you're looking at reinstalling the OS if you want to keep your current computer (and if your current computer can handle Win7's requirements) or buying a new PC.

Microsoft no longer has a monopoly on playing Big Brother. As you mention, Google can be scary, but Apple has also been pulling some questionable stunts (removing apps from people's devices without their knowledge, a seemingly arbitrary approval process for apps, and serious lock-in).

My biggest issue with Apple is that they are increasingly becoming a walled garden. Which is fine if that's what you want. Walled gardens are pretty. As long as you trust the gardener. The thought of iOS and OS X converging scares me, because I'm a geek and I like poking around and trying stuff and learning things for myself.

I guess that's why I find the walled garden is nice to visit, but I wouldn't want to live in one.

Windows 7 runs like a dream. Additionally, I should add that I actually thought Vista was a decent OS. Most of the problems people had with it were that they were running them on computers that had no business running it. Vista, especially with the default graphics turned on, required a pretty decent machine. The fault though was Microsoft's for trying to tell everyone to upgrade when that wasn't a good idea.

It's actually pretty similar to what's currently going on with iOS4 and iPhone3G's. Apple has promised that iOS4 runs great on a 3G, but my experience (and that of a lot of other 3G users) is that it severely cripples the phone.

Anyway, your reasons for wanting a Mac are valid ones. If you prefer the feel and logic of the OS, go for it. However, if your issues are simply performance-related, a new computer running Windows 7 will easily do the trick.

It's all about personal preference. I use both.

I'm not going to get into it or anything, but I personally don't like Macs or OSX. Just personal preference though.

Personally, I love Windows 7. Much better than Vista! I never had problems with Vista myself, but 7 is so much better :)

I use an Alienware Aurora ALX, and before we get into pricing... I priced it out for building the computer myself, and it was almost identical to what I paid for the Alienware. I just wouldn't have the nice warranty if I had built it myself, and of course it wouldn't look as pretty... I have my computer, keyboard, and mouse LED lights set to the same purple as my favorite Polaron weapons :woohoo: