Wanting to move to Mac, what route to take?

Hate

Hate

Hate

Soldato
Joined
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Right, currently I have a celeron 1.8 laptop with ubuntu on that I use pretty much daily and an A64 3500+ / 1GB / GeForce 6800GT etc etc...

My main usage is to use the net, listen to music and play the occasional game (like WoW, Guild Wars, Quake 4, CS etc etc).

I've always liked and used unix based operating systems, and OS X to me looks really sweet cause its "mainstream unix" and seems to do everything I want.

Route 1:
Do i buy a cheaper Mac Mini and use it for a couple of months to see if i like it (obv not for games)- this costs £400 and I can give it to my mum when i'm finished with it or sell it on ebay around christmastime.

Route 2:
Buy the mac now i *really* want (the one my boss has) which is the 17" MacBook Pro. But I really cannot justify the cost of this just yet, and i've heard there are changes on the horizon!
 
well, wait till after the 12th for a start! as always, rumours are in overdrive, but after that i'd personally say "buy away". I think people were hoping for core2duo in the macmini (i know i was) but that's not happened, however, there has been a speed bump so i'm not expecting that to happen pre-christmas now (it's always nice to be wrong though, unless you've just dished out).

just remember that there is never a good time to buy a mac and you'll be fine.

although you can't play you're games on a mac, you can boot into windows to play them if you so wish (however, the mac mini has integrated graphics).

happy deciding :s

Rob
 
so, the new £400 mac mini with 1.66ghz core duo is the "new" one ? (thats the one I had my eye on)

I just want to use OSX as "cheaply" as possible as a desktop OS, I know I can always reboot into windows (when i've got a bigger mac) to play games
 
thought about an imac?

much tastier - and theyve just rejigged the sized and specs so they should be good for a while yet

the mac mini will be a bit carp for any gaming using boot camp and windows
 
I'm also thinking of buying a new mac.

I was also thinking of getting a mac mini but was thinking of waiting for merom core2duo and also OS X Leopard. Not sure how long it will be until these are out and available. Was just thinking I could at least get the newest OSX aswell as getting a nice new(ish) CPU. The only things which put me off is the graphics card for the gaming side of things, upgradability and price.

Currently running Ubuntu for everyday use - quake3 etc, I do dual boot with windows aswell tho for when I have to use windows :(

The spec isn't that briliant for the price and also the upgradability seems very limited, seems the same as buying a laptop (I guess the hardware basically is from a laptop).

I'm not sure whether to upgrade my pc to a core2duo or buy a new mac :( am leaning towards upgrading and overclocking my pc atm, due to getting more for my money.
 
i've used ubuntu for ages, and red-hat before that - I just fancy something a bit more "mainstream" if you will.

Upgradability is not important to me, I'm more a casual user now, when I played Q3 (yes, for Mr... I recognise you :p) I was obsessed with getting everything out of my PC...

That mentality has moved onto my car now, and I just use my PC for the occasional game and nothing taxing at that.
 
Hate said:
i've used ubuntu for ages, and red-hat before that - I just fancy something a bit more "mainstream" if you will.
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me2 :)

Started on linux in 1998 and have loved it since, but I have tried OSX and it is so nice to use, does what you want from it etc. So far I've not seen it crash or anything :)

I guess the old pc mentality of "bang for buck" still exists :) so not sure I will be spending my money on mac atm, despite really loving the OS. With the new macs at least dual/triple boot is an option :)
 
Hate said:
when I played Q3 (yes, for Mr... I recognise you :p) I was obsessed with getting everything out of my PC...
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Cool, didn't know it was Mr.Hate :)

How's it going? :) I've been following your "want to buy a mac" threads for a while without even knowing it was you.
 
blah...

just bought a 1.66ghz core duo mac mini with 1GB for ~ £450.

At least if I don't like it i can put it on ebay :p
 
Hate said:
blah...

just bought a 1.66ghz core duo mac mini with 1GB for ~ £450.

At least if I don't like it i can put it on ebay :p
Click to expand...

Aye, I would have said go for the cheapest option. That way you can always flog it for a reasonable amount or give it away. I've just got a mini meself and will end up giving it my sister next year when I go the Macbook/Mac Pro route.

Good idea to put the memory up, too. 1Gb is a nice amount. With 512Mb you won't get the best experience, especially with sharing the memory with the video card. I went for 2Gb in the end but that practically added 33% more to the cost. :eek:
 
why the sad face? :p

Yeah well I can justify the cost and who knows - my mate offered to loan me his G4 powerbook that he has spare - but I wanted something to play with that was intel.
 
For what you intend to do with it you won't go far wrong with an iMac. The new 24", Dual Core model looks mighty fine and if you plump for the best graphics card model you will have a very tasty bit of kit indeed.
 
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