£1750 build to beat a iMac

subbytna

subbytna

subbytna

Soldato
Joined
22 Oct 2008
Posts
11,737
Location
Lisburn
Ok to settle an argument I'm having with some apple fanboys, can someone spec me a rig to include

full rig - cpu, psu, mobo, ram, ssd, gfx card, CPU cooler and case. Don't really need a disc drive but if one can be added within budget then great. I also need

27" screen
HD webcam
Mechanical keyboard and decent mouse


no OS needed


all for £1750???? Can your spec'd machine beat the iMac? for price and performance?
 
Speed and hardware spec wise you could beat an iMac for half that.

Mac's for me aren't about how fast they run (or even how nice they look) but about all-round stability.
 
as much as i hate to say this. imacs systems are pretty damn fast.
i dont know if its there OS or if its the hardware.

but for what your asking for and the budget. i dont think you will beat the mac :(
 
Surely there is nothing hardware wise in a Mac that's not available in a PC build so the only difference is the OS.

How do you plan to test this.

A Haswell based PC with a CPU running over 4Ghz, over 8GB of RAM and an SSD should perform as well if not better than any iMac. Is there a common benchmark program that could be used?

£1750 is a lot of money for such a beast.

Andi.
 
As above, you won't need that much to beat an iMac, though spare a thought for the cost of a screen that will be comparable to the new iMac as well. That will add a few hundred onto the cost, assuming you want the display as well.
 
Well going by http://www.apple.com/uk/imac/specs/ and the basic iMac costing £1749, I'd like to see how much MORE bang for buck that I'd get with a PC. I've already specced one but forgot to include webcam, monitor and keyboard/mouse.

I'm in work so can't really sit speccing another machine just now but these guys(iMac friends on a footy forum, are getting on my goat with their "superior"ness elitist attitude.
 
We're not allowed to talk about it however there's a site that's got some good tips on building a hack macintosh ;) Google should find it.

e; I have a friend called tony who has a macx something, he's 86.com
 
Last edited:
Here is my previous attempt

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
2 x MSI HD 7970 Twin FrozR OC BE 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £239.99 (£479.98)
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £149.99
1 x Corsair Obsidian 650D Gaming Windowed Midi Tower Case - Black £139.94
1 x Gigabyte Z87X-D3H Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £119.99
1 x Seasonic G series 750w '80 Plus Gold' Modular Power Supply £107.99
1 x Corsair Hydro H100i High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler (CW-9060009-WW) £82.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance Pro Silver 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-14900C9 1866MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (CMY8GX3M2A1866C9) £74.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £67.99
1 x Pioneer BDC-207DBK 8x BluRay ROM / DVDRW SATA-II Optical Drive - Black (OEM) £50.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 24pin ATX extension 30cm - Grey/Silver £8.99
1 x BitFenix Alchemy 8pin EPS extension 45cm - Grey/Silver £5.99
4 x BitFenix 6+2-Pin PCIe Extension 45cm - sleeved silver/black £5.99 (£23.96)
Total : £1,615.94


need a new spec though to include what I forgot
 
the top spec iMac is an i5 with 8 GB ram (dual channel) with a 775m 2gb for graphics... so not very good at all. As bacon said build it with normal components, install their os, result :)
 
YOUR BASKET
1 x Gainward GeForce GTX 780 Phantom 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £479.99
1 x DGM IPS-2701WPH 27" LED Widescreen Professional Monitor - Black £335.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - OEM £249.95
1 x Samsung 250GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE250BW) £145.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Quad Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U24001004G-4CI) - Blue Light £137.99
1 x ASRock Z87 PRO3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £104.99
1 x Corsair RM Series RM 650 '80+ Gold' 650W Power Supply (CP-9020054-UK) £99.95
1 x Corsair Carbide 300R Mid Tower Windowed Case - Black £78.95
1 x CM Storm Quickfire TK Mechanical Keyboard - Brown Switch £68.99
1 x CM Storm Recon 4000 DPI Gaming Mouse £39.98
Total : £1,742.76 (includes shipping : FREE).



Needs a web cam I know. But savings can be made for that, AMD graphics possibly.

I'd still ike to know how the OP is going to compare results, and to what end - games, software development, web browsing!?

Andi.
 
I bought an old Dell netbook off the MM and then installed OS X 10.6 on it. Better than a Macbook air?

No, Its bloody slow. Still better than when i had windows 7 running on it though...

The screen is big here or there en mi opinion. The lower end 1080p screens can get nabbed for less that £200. so its not a huge dent in the budget, but 27" 144hz, or 1440p ones rack up to like 5-600 smackers in some cases, so that depends a lot on preference i feel. Otherwise you can get a real tasty spec, but most things will need a mid tower at a minimum to wedge it all in, so size wise it won't look as petite.


I think there are limits on installing OS X on random Self Specced PCs, I think you need to have a similar mobo manufacturer, i think a fair amount of the time gigabyte ones do the job. Graphics is another issue, especially since it is a separate card and no onboard, I doubt OS X includes the drivers and the only ones available to you would be ones made by people on forums in similar circumstances, so its difficult to say performance wise. I know with laptops with OSX on it, a lot of the time inbuilt things like WIFI cards or Bluetooth don't work.
 
Last edited:
There's an i7 option for +£190 (could save a lot on this if self-building).

David Bisset said:
the top spec iMac is an i5 with 8 GB ram (dual channel) with a 775m 2gb for graphics... so not very good at all. As bacon said build it with normal components, install their os, result :)
Click to expand...

My last build (before this one) was an i5 750 on a gigabyte mobo with a HD7770 and 8Gb for audio and photography. In use and running OSX there was very little day to day performance differences between that and the missus' iMac 27 which had the same cpu/ram, the only difference being the graphics card (Radeon 4870 in the iMac I think), though bear in mind she had a 1440p screen and I was using 1080p.
 
The basic spec of the iMac works out as roughly....

YOUR BASKET
1 x Intel Core i5-4670 3.40GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £169.99
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) £119.99
1 x Gigabyte H87M-HD3 Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 Micro ATX Motherboard £73.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) HDD £49.99
1 x GeIL Black Dragon 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (GD38GB1600C11DC) £47.99
Total : £473.35 (includes shipping : £9.50).




So you've a lot of budget left for screen, mouse, webcam!

Edit: That mobo won't give you wifi so either a wifi card or a different mobo is needed. Oops! :)
 
Last edited:
YOUR BASKET
1 x Asus VG278HE 27" TRUE 144Hz 3D Widescreen LED Monitor - Black £359.99
1 x Asus Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x NZXT Phantom 530 Full Tower Gaming Case - White £104.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £95.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £74.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U24001004G-2CI) - Blue Light £71.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance K65 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - Silver - Red Switch (CH-9000040-UK) £62.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance M65 Laser Gaming Mouse - White (CH-9000023-EU) £54.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler *Manufacturer Refurbished Unit - 90 Day Guarantee £44.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £1,707.30 (includes shipping : £32.90).



£1750 will destory what a iMac has to offer, allows for upgrades/changes to be made easily, you can overclock, and don't have to use a stupid mobile graphics card.

Couldn't find a webcam or bothered with Wifi but the budget allows for both to be added.

EDIT: As all fanboys say, they'll explain how the monitor isn't 'retina' blah blah. You have permission to hit them.

YOUR BASKET
1 x Hazro HZ27WB 10-Bit 27" LED Widescreen Professional Monitor - Black Aluminum Housing with heavy duty stand £400
1 x Asus Radeon R9 280X Matrix Platinum 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £319.99
1 x Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz (Haswell) Socket LGA1150 Processor - Retail £259.99
1 x Gigabyte Z87-D3HP Intel Z87 (Socket 1150) DDR3 ATX Motherboard £109.99
1 x NZXT Phantom 530 Full Tower Gaming Case - White £104.99
1 x XFX Pro 850W Core Edition '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £95.99
1 x Samsung 120GB SSD 840 EVO SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TE120BW) £86.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) HDD £74.99
1 x Avexir Core Blue Series 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-19200C10 2400MHz Dual Channel Memory Kit (AVD3U24001004G-2CI) - Blue Light £71.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance K65 Mechanical Gaming Keyboard - Silver - Red Switch (CH-9000040-UK) £62.99
1 x Corsair Vengeance M65 Laser Gaming Mouse - White (CH-9000023-EU) £54.95
1 x Corsair Hydro H100 Extreme Performance Liquid CPU Cooler *Manufacturer Refurbished Unit - 90 Day Guarantee £44.99
1 x LG GH24NSB0 24x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £19.99
Total : £1,747.31 (includes shipping : £32.90).



Added a higher resolution display, instead of a gaming one.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom