Purchasing decision - Mac vs PC (no trolling please)

AfricanTech said:
If I can double the RAM and put in an SSD/Hybrid that stopgap should last for at least another year.

:D
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:D

kingrob said:
My neighbor just graduated from varsity and she used a Lenovo i5, which she purchased for R6500.

She got Microsoft Office student edition - think it's R1000 - and that is all she needed to do all her tasks, etc. Oh, and a laserjet printer. Lastly, she has an ipod and got iTunes installed on her Lenovo. Worked 100%.

If money is not a factor, rather go for the Mac, as you mentioned your daughter has an ipad and iphone.

Just my 2c.
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Sounds good. R6,500 can afford a secondhand Core i5 MacBook Pro though, bear in mind. :twisted:
 
If she will only be doing the things you said ...no gaming or highly demanding apps then I would just go for a windows PC seeing the price difference. You only need to spend alot if performance requirements demand it.
 
johnr86 said:
If she will only be doing the things you said ...no gaming or highly demanding apps then I would just go for a windows PC seeing the price difference. You only need to spend alot if performance requirements demand it.
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Mac's run games OOTB? Haha.
 
I don't understand this misconception that if you own a Mac you can't play games. This is just flat out false.

Yes, a Mac has a very limited catalog of games when compared to Windows but there a lot of games that casual gamers will be able to play just fine using their Mac. if you are a dedicated/hardcore gamer then a Mac is obviously not for you but for somebody that wants to jam a few hours of Minecraft or the Sims then pretty much all modern Mac's will play these just fine at medium settings.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
I don't understand this misconception that if you own a Mac you can't play games. This is just flat out false.

Yes, a Mac has a very limited catalog of games when compared to Windows but there a lot of games that casual gamers will be able to play just fine using their Mac. if you are a dedicated/hardcore gamer then a Mac is obviously not for you but for somebody that wants to jam a few hours of Minecraft or the Sims then pretty much all modern Mac's will play these just fine at medium settings.
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I hear you, but the word "Games" refers to a broad selection of games, yes Mac's can play games but its a very limited selection as you said.
 
Rickster said:
I hear you, but the word "Games" refers to a broad selection of games, yes Mac's can play games but its a very limited selection as you said.
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There are a lot of games available for Mac, at least enough to keep a casual gamer busy.

I play all the Battle.net titles, these alone are enough for some people :p
 
Rickster said:
I hear you, but the word "Games" refers to a broad selection of games, yes Mac's can play games but its a very limited selection as you said.
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The real difficulty with gaming on Macs is the relatively pathetic GPUs they use, paired with very high resolution screens. They just can't max out newer games. Even the new iMac with an R9 M290 has to push a 5k display. There's no point trying to run anything demanding on them.
 
cerebus said:
The real difficulty with gaming on Macs is the relatively pathetic GPUs they use, paired with very high resolution screens. They just can't max out newer games. Even the new iMac with an R9 M290 has to push a 5k display. There's no point trying to run anything demanding on them.
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I don't think any regular consumer grade computer can max out most games. 90% of people don't really care or notice if their shadows aren't anti-aliased or if the texture quality is on low. It's only the hardcore gamers that care about this stuff.
 
DrJohnZoidberg said:
I don't think any regular consumer grade computer can max out most games. 90% of people don't really care or notice if their shadows aren't anti-aliased or if the texture quality is on low. It's only the hardcore gamers that care about this stuff.
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It's not even really a criticism of them. They just aren't optimised for gaming. My work laptop is also not optimized for gaming, and a Macbook will totally outperform it as a work machine. True gaming class notebooks like the ones I deal with from MSI require a whole industrial design to cope with the additional thermal overhead.
 
Saw a second hand Mac Case the other day, couldn't help but thinking.
Can I put a real PC inside of it?

Serious question, would a normal micro atx or atx motherboard fit in that thing?
 
HideInLight said:
Saw a second hand Mac Case the other day, couldn't help but thinking.
Can I put a real PC inside of it?

Serious question, would a normal micro atx or atx motherboard fit in that thing?
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It can, but it's quite a bit of work. You will need to cut some of the casing to make things fit. Buddy of mine did this.
 
cerebus said:
The real difficulty with gaming on Macs is the relatively pathetic GPUs they use, paired with very high resolution screens. They just can't max out newer games. Even the new iMac with an R9 M290 has to push a 5k display. There's no point trying to run anything demanding on them.
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Depends on the resolution at which you run the games.
 
PostmanPot said:
Depends on the resolution at which you run the games.
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Yeah once again it's down to hardcore vs casual gamers though and the compromises you're willing to make. Native 5k resolution gaming on a 27" screen must be a beautiful thing though.
 
bwana said:
I'd imagine it would be more than "quite a bit"?
View attachment 168507
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:D

Lol.

I'm talking about this one:

21740d1338309156-mac-pro-case-mac-pro.jpg
 
PostmanPot said:
Yip. Also, people don't buy Macs for gaming at the highest quality.

Let me assure though, that when it comes to Starcraft 2, it runs extremely well.
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Just on the subject of frame rates, I don't consider 30fps very good.

Starcraft 2 1280x720 medium texture settings core i5-3570K 29.3 FPS

Scroll down about half way.

http://www.expreview.com/18483.html
 
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