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.

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.

spudbynight · 30 May 2012 at 16:45

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

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.

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.

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.

spudbynight · 7 Jun 2012 at 18:03

7970m (which is the most likely GPU in the top end iMac) is going to outperform anything else that is available passively cooled.

spudbynight · 7 Jun 2012 at 22:06

jamesfreddie said:
But the 7970M has to be actively cooled.

Yes, I know. However the iMac is expected to fit that into a nice AIO package.