Alternative to an iMac

spudbynight · 29 May 2012 at 13:43

I have been thinking about buying a high end iMac. One of the main reasons for this is to have something small and near quiet.

The alternative to that I have considered is to build something.

Can I build something small and quiet and will perform well? Just how small and quiet can I get? I would love an "All in One" but anything Windows based in just cheap and ****.

Whatever I build will need to be able to drive some games in a 2560x1440 monitor setup.

jamesfreddie · 29 May 2012 at 19:47

I wouldn't go all in one.

They are hard to repair and upgrade.

However if you wanted you could have a small mini itx machine.

How much do you have to spend?

What are the main uses for the machine?

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1 x Hazro HZ27WC 8-Bit 27" LED Widescreen Professional Monitor - Black £419.99
1 x HIS HD 7850 IceQ X 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card (H785QN2G2M) £191.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3450 3.10GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £143.99
1 x Silverstone Sugo SG06 HTPC Case with 450W Power Supply - All Black (SST-SG06BB USB3.0) £119.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 2TB 7200RPM SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST2000DM001) £92.99
1 x Crucial RealSSD M4 128GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive (CT128M4SSD2) £88.99
1 x Asus P8H61-I Intel H61 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Mini ITX Motherboard £69.95
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cereal3 · 29 May 2012 at 21:38

Dell just unveiled their new all in ones, including a 27 incher

spudbynight · 30 May 2012 at 08:32

jamesfreddie said:
I wouldn't go all in one.

They are hard to repair and upgrade.

I would agree they are hard to repair and upgrade. My thoughts on going with an iMac were that it would be Apple's problem. I have done enough upgrading and fixing over the years. I don't really have the interest anymore.

jamesfreddie said:
However if you wanted you could have a small mini itx machine.

How much do you have to spend?

I have looked at ITX systems. I don't have a problem with something like that as long as it is pretty close to silent. Another thing in the iMac's favour is it it close to silent.

I have been looking at a budget of up to £2000. With that I would also want to include a 27" or bigger monitor that does 2560x1440 or higher.

jamesfreddie said:
What are the main uses for the machine?

I will use it for my home office PC. So timewise it will be used for low spec work (browsing, MS Office etc) most of the time. I will also use it for a lot of photo work and some video work. I don't do as much gaming as I used to but I want to be able to play some games at a decent standard.

spudbynight · 30 May 2012 at 08:33

cereal3 said:
Dell just unveiled their new all in ones, including a 27 incher

Top end graphics is a 640m which rules it out for me.

gropingmantis · 30 May 2012 at 09:12

TBH if you are looking at the top of the range iMac with the HD6970M in it you are unlikely to get something in mITX that is as small, quiet and well specced. Just remember to install windows or else you wont be able to play any games

spudbynight · 30 May 2012 at 16:45

I was thinking that myself - just wanted to make sure I hadn't overlooked anything.

Bezzaboy1234 · 30 May 2012 at 22:02

The iMac is very hard to beat, But then it is limited in some software aspects (games etc.) Have you checked all the programs you need are available on Mac?

spudbynight · 31 May 2012 at 11:08

I will be using Bootcamp for games. The only application I need to run that isn't on OSX is Internet Explorer. I use a web based service which only runs on IE.

I will use VMWare for that.

Bezzaboy1234 · 31 May 2012 at 16:38

Sound's like you got it all figured out then, unless anyone else knows of something similar you may as well pick the mac, they are really really good

TheVoice · 2 Jun 2012 at 12:55

The new HP TouchSmart or Omni 27" looks quite nice.

spudbynight · 2 Jun 2012 at 13:23

TheVoice said:
The new HP TouchSmart or Omni 27" looks quite nice.

Problem is lack of decent GPU for me.

Cheetah Designs · 2 Jun 2012 at 15:35

See: http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=18394874

No GPU but obviously very fast otherwise. Very quiet when idle but you can definitely hear it on load.

...maybe look into something like that?

TheVoice · 3 Jun 2012 at 14:37

spudbynight said:
Problem is lack of decent GPU for me.

Dell XPS One 27 perhaps? Not out yet but it's coming soon.

spudbynight · 7 Jun 2012 at 13:58

TheVoice said:
Dell XPS One 27 perhaps? Not out yet but it's coming soon.

Lowend GPU again.

I will be getting the top end iMac which is looking like it will have a 7970m. This is the sort of level I am looking for.

It won't play Battlefield 3 at native with everything turned to max and get 60FPS but it will play pretty much everything at native rez at a playable level.

jamesfreddie · 7 Jun 2012 at 14:05

spudbynight said:
Lowend GPU again.

I will be getting the top end iMac which is looking like it will have a 7970m. This is the sort of level I am looking for.

It won't play Battlefield 3 at native with everything turned to max and get 60FPS but it will play pretty much everything at native rez at a playable level.

Why arn't you going the mini itx route.

You do realise that the 6970m is about the level of a 6870

gropingmantis · 7 Jun 2012 at 15:36

jamesfreddie said:
Why arn't you going the mini itx route.

You do realise that the 6970m is about the level of a 6870

Yes but mini ITX on the back of a 27" monitor is going to be pretty big
and with a 6870 in it is going to be so so so much louder. If you dont mind not being able to upgrade the top end iMac is a no brainer.

jamesfreddie · 7 Jun 2012 at 15:41

gropingmantis said:
Yes but mini ITX on the back of a 27" monitor is going to be pretty big
and with a 6870 in it is going to be so so so much louder. If you dont mind not being able to upgrade the top end iMac is a no brainer.

Why would a 6870 be louder?

You can get 7750's that are passive.

gropingmantis · 7 Jun 2012 at 15:48

What does a 7750 have to do with anything? The 6870 is much more powerful, more comparable to a 7850 neither fo which are avaliable passive. And are also large double slot cards so would require a larger standalone case rather than being vesa mounted to the back of the monitor.

jamesfreddie · 7 Jun 2012 at 17:35

gropingmantis said:
What does a 7750 have to do with anything? The 6870 is much more powerful, more comparable to a 7850 neither fo which are avaliable passive. And are also large double slot cards so would require a larger standalone case rather than being vesa mounted to the back of the monitor.

Actually the 6970m is a downclocked 6850 therefore it is even slower than a 6850.