- Apr 23, 2004
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I admit it: I have a little Mac envy. I like the pretty icons. And yeah, the desktop experience is nicer than Windows.
However, I'm a gamer, and up until this point I stayed away from Apple with a 10-foot pole. The Intel announcement earlier in the year intrigued me, but I said I'd wait until they produced a reasonable desktop. Now they have. Reasonable, but from a graphics standpoint not top of the line.
So here's the thing. I have my rig I built about a year ago, and I specced out a new Mac. Is it worth it for me to upgrade? (Keep in mind the new Mac DOES run Windows, so I'll be spending most of my gaming time there).
My rig:
Athlon 64 3200 (1 processor)
7800 GTX 256MB
2 GB RAM
2x74 GB 10,000 RPM RAID 0
1x250 GB 7200 RPM (for storage)
Dell FPW 2005
Single-layer DVD burner
CD-RW
Audigy 2
Specced machine:
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
2GB RAM
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s (I would probably slot in my existing 10,000 RPM drives -- same interface)
Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel)
2 x SuperDrives (dual layer DVD burners)
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module
Keep in mind, as specced, this machine is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. It's over $4000. However, that's mostly due to the Cinema Display, which costs $1000 (I can ditch it and use my existing Dell).
The question is whether or not I would see much, or any, performance gain. The processors definitely blow mine out of the water, but the video cards' performance is very similar.
However, I'm a gamer, and up until this point I stayed away from Apple with a 10-foot pole. The Intel announcement earlier in the year intrigued me, but I said I'd wait until they produced a reasonable desktop. Now they have. Reasonable, but from a graphics standpoint not top of the line.
So here's the thing. I have my rig I built about a year ago, and I specced out a new Mac. Is it worth it for me to upgrade? (Keep in mind the new Mac DOES run Windows, so I'll be spending most of my gaming time there).
My rig:
Athlon 64 3200 (1 processor)
7800 GTX 256MB
2 GB RAM
2x74 GB 10,000 RPM RAID 0
1x250 GB 7200 RPM (for storage)
Dell FPW 2005
Single-layer DVD burner
CD-RW
Audigy 2
Specced machine:
Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB
2GB RAM
250GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s (I would probably slot in my existing 10,000 RPM drives -- same interface)
Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel)
2 x SuperDrives (dual layer DVD burners)
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR module
Keep in mind, as specced, this machine is RIDICULOUSLY expensive. It's over $4000. However, that's mostly due to the Cinema Display, which costs $1000 (I can ditch it and use my existing Dell).
The question is whether or not I would see much, or any, performance gain. The processors definitely blow mine out of the water, but the video cards' performance is very similar.