Mac vs custom built rig

uksoldierboy

uksoldierboy

uksoldierboy

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Hiya guys, just a quick question really, i have a friend that's interested in getting into pc gaming, after speaking to him today, he's told me that he's thinking about getting a mac to do it :(
I've told him that he's better off giving me a budget and allowing me to build it for him, as this i believe will not only save him money, but give him a far more powerful rig and one that is also far more focused on gaming.
I'm just after other people opinions really? am i right in what i'm saying?
Thanks
 
Absolutely,

I am a fan of Apple Tech for the purposes of regular everyday lifestyle, computing and reliability but for gaming you will get a great deal more power and capability for your money than you would with a similarly priced Mac.

My suggestion would be to ask your friend for a budget, see what mac he wants to buy then spec up a PC for the same price to physically show him how much more he will get for his money.

I'd be willing to bet he would take the PC option if he's serious about his gaming

I'm the furthest thing you could get from a Guru but that's my 2p

Good Luck
 
Thank you for the advice HAM,
I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that i could build him a much more powerful system and save him money in the process.
Just got off the phone to him, he was looking at spending 2k on this!

MAC Pro, just the tower,
One 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
6GB Ram
ATI Radeon HD 5770 with 1GB GDDR5
1TB hard drive
18x SuperDrive.
Total price for this system is £2,049.00!!!
 
A rough spec for a reasonable gaming system:

EDit: This will beat a the mac in terms of graphic performance for games:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7950 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-00-20G) with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £215.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Intel 330 Series 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £55.99
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 400W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £43.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £28
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/AM2/AM3/FM1) £24.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £812.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).

 
G24HAM said:
Absolutely,

I am a fan of Apple Tech for the purposes of regular everyday lifestyle, computing and reliability but for gaming you will get a great deal more power and capability for your money than you would with a similarly priced Mac.

My suggestion would be to ask your friend for a budget, see what mac he wants to buy then spec up a PC for the same price to physically show him how much more he will get for his money.

I'd be willing to bet he would take the PC option if he's serious about his gaming

I'm the furthest thing you could get from a Guru but that's my 2p

Good Luck
Click to expand...

this /thread
 
For £2K your getting a 5770 which may explode at the sight of BF3 ;)

Try something like this:

YOUR BASKET
1 x MSI HD 7970 Lightning BOOSTED Edition 3072MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card **OcUK Exclusive** with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £379.99
2 x Samsung 500GB SSD 840 SATA 6Gb/s Basic - (MZ-7TD500BW) £349.99 (£699.98)
1 x Intel Core i7-3770K 3.50GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £239.99
1 x Seasonic 860w '80 Plus Platinum' Modular Power Supply £169.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77X-UD5H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £159.98
1 x NZXT Switch 810 Big Tower Case - Gun Metal £149.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Alpenföhn K2 Mount Doom CPU Cooler (Socket LGA1156/1155/1366/AM2/AM2+/AM3/AM3+/FM1) £47.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £28
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £1,988.59 (includes shipping : £14.75).



:)
 
Don't buy a Mac for mainly PC gaming. They can do it however you sacrifice performance and pay more than a gaming rig. I do use my MBP for the odd LAN session, but that's for its portability factor as it runs older titles just fine.

For everyday computing or specialist graphics work Macs are brilliant. They're not gaming machines though.
 
RJC said:
A rough spec for a reasonable gaming system:

EDit: This will beat a the mac in terms of graphic performance for games:


YOUR BASKET
1 x Sapphire HD 7950 3072MB PCI-Express Graphics Card (11196-00-20G) with FREE FARCRY3, Hitman Absolution, Sleeping Dogs & 20% off MOH Warfighter PC Games £215.99
1 x Intel Core i5-3570K 3.40GHz (Ivybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor (77W) - Retail £173.99
1 x Gigabyte Z77-D3H Intel Z77 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £79.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 8 64-Bit DVD - OEM (WN7-00403) £79.99
1 x Intel 330 Series 60GB 2.5" SATA 6Gb/s Solid State Hard Drive - Retail £55.99
1 x PC Power & Cooling Silencer Mk III Series 400W '80 Plus Bronze' Modular Power Supply - White £49.99
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 500GB SATA 6Gb/s 16MB Cache - OEM (ST500DM002) £43.99
1 x BitFenix Merc Beta Gaming Case - Black £29.99
1 x TeamGroup Elite 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C11 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (TED38GM1600HC11DC01) £28
1 x Thermalright True Spirit 120 REV A CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775/1155/1156/AM2/AM3/FM1) £24.98
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £14.99
Total : £812.89 (includes shipping : £12.50).

Click to expand...

If he goes for something like this, he'll still have enough left over to get his hands on an MBP, which he could then use for portable gaming etc...... I got mine off here for £1200 in feb and as mentioned above, plays all the older titles fine, and just about scrapes BF3. Could also get a Mac Mini at a much lower cost as well - under the assumption he has need for the Mac side as well...or just wants it in addition.
 
might not be much help lol, just saying..

although i like mac and had an old G4 AGP tower for a few months(would have another) and gaming wasnt my plans(movies was, but dont like quick time and wasnt going to change loads of movies to that to work from external HDD lol), but what i did notice when looking at games to see what might be possible, you need intel Processors for most, so you might aswell just get a windows setup ebcause they cheaper than macs for parts and i found it hard to upgrade my mac due to limited mac compatible options..
 
Agree totally with the above comments. Macs are great for style and innovation. For serious hardcore gaming, custom build!!!! Much more value for money with serious performance that can run pretty much any game you throw at it.
 
lol a 5770 was a good budget card for gaming like 2 years ago! the idea of spending 2k on a machine with a card like that in it is ridiculous, I hope your friend takes the advice and gets a good gaming pc.
 
The Mac Pro is a particularly poor buy at the moment. Other than CPU upgrades that machine hasn't changed since 2010. The Apple Pro users have been vociferous about this for a while now.

Umpteen new shiny iToys, nothing for the pro users...
 
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