WoW on a Mac?

[Parkbandit]

Anyone play WoW on a Mac? I have a good friend who sells Apple Computers and I need to upgrade. She can give me a great discount.. so is it worth playing WoW on a Mac? I'm pretty sure everything else I need to do can be done on a mac.. but I'm concerned about WoW. She said I can partition the hard drive to have half work with Vista and half with the Apple OS. She said because Apple is a more advanced graphics system, that WoW would actually play better.. but I only remember seeing issues with a Mac.

Help a computer n00b out!

[Skeeter]

You certainly can play it on a Mac. I believe there's usually some connectivity issues after major patches, but they seem to hammer them out quickly.

I wouldn't be too worried about it if you definitely want a Mac.

[Celephais]

She said because Apple is a more advanced graphics system, that WoW would actually play better..
... She must be hot.

[Celephais]

If you dual boot then you are effectively playing on a PC... but keep in mind that means essentially rebooting your machine to switch between WoW and normal activity. This would also mean you're paying the premium on the hardware to buy a mac, and then you need to buy/steal the windows OS anyway.

I'm pretty sure WoW is straitup mac compatible though, blizzard started off shipping for macs so.. no need to dual boot or emulate.

[Parkbandit]

You certainly can play it on a Mac. I believe there's usually some connectivity issues after major patches, but they seem to hammer them out quickly.

I wouldn't be too worried about it if you definitely want a Mac.

That's the thing.. I've never had an Apple before.. so it's not like I definately WANT one. But I can get twice the computer for the same amount of money.

[Sean of the Thread]

How much money are you talking about here?

[Apathy]

I know someone in our guild plays on a mac, he seems to do fine. I did notice the WoW Voice Chat (lawl) doesn't work for him and he can't connect to certain ventrilo servers while others are fine.

Other than that and Apple's mouse I don't think you'd notice too much of a difference.

[CrystalTears]

I never had a problem playing WoW on a Mac. Game loads faster actually. The system we have isn't top of the line or anything, but still good.

Not sure why the mouse keeps getting brought up. You can get two-button mice just like any other computer.

[Parkbandit]

How much money are you talking about here?

I think about $1500 out of pocket. I can get a $2500 iMac for that through her.

Is a $1500 PC < $2500 iMac though.. that is the question.

[CrystalTears]

Please not the PC vs Mac discussion again.

Go with what you're comfortable with. It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. You can get a really hot PC for less than the cost of a Mac.

[Some Rogue]

It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks.

Especially one this old!


:lol2:

[Parkbandit]

Please not the PC vs Mac discussion again.

Go with what you're comfortable with. It's hard to teach an old dog new tricks. You can get a really hot PC for less than the cost of a Mac.

Clearly you missed my op... since I have a relatively large discount available to me. If it were $ for $, I would easily choose PC.

But I can get about $1000 off a top of the line Apple... so is it worth it.

[CrystalTears]

Have you ever used a Mac? Are you comfortable using it?

And I'm just saying that you can still get a really good PC computer for less than what your discount would be for a Mac. It's about PREFERENCE.

If you've never used a Mac, I'd rather you stick with the PC so that we don't have to get a billion questions asking us how to use it. :D

[Sean of the Thread]

Sounds like a good deal to me.

[Parkbandit]

Have you ever used a Mac? Are you comfortable using it?

And I'm just saying that you can still get a really good PC computer for less than what your discount would be for a Mac. It's about PREFERENCE.

If you've never used a Mac, I'd rather you stick with the PC so that we don't have to get a billion questions asking us how to use it. :D

Wow... the love affair is now over.

The last Apple computer I used was the Apple IIe. Not even sure if there were PCs back then :P

I just want to have a computer that runs WoW with a FPS greater than the 15 I'm currently getting in instances.

[CrystalTears]

:lol: The love is there, it's just entered the comfy insult stage.

Get the Mac then. I wish I could afford to get a Mac to replace my PC.

[Some Rogue]

Fucking hippies.

[Artha]

If you're paying $1500 for a desktop, you're either doing something terribly wrong or you better have a fucking beast of a machine.

[RichardCranium]

If you're paying $1500 for a desktop, you're either doing something terribly wrong or you better have a fucking beast of a machine.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/results.aspx/xpsdt?~ck=anav&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&a=22~0~69&navla=22~0~69

[Celephais]

I think about $1500 out of pocket. I can get a $2500 iMac for that through her.

Is a $1500 PC < $2500 iMac though.. that is the question.
Why not actually do the comparison... price out both machines you would buy. I just did a quick check and it looks like a $1500 PC is about equal in hardware to a $2500 iMac (without shopping around for the PC deal).

Of course I'm sure people will be able to come up with iMacs that are cheaper than the equivical PC, but I just took the baseline $2,500 iMac and tried to quickly match it as a PC.. I had to cut a few corners just to get a match I have no idea what an "8x SUPERDRIVE!!!!" is ... so I just went with a CD/DVD Writer and I didn't feel like spending time so I ended up with a 2.2ghz dual core PC and a 2.4 ghz iMac*... but it was $1364 vs $2499

[TheEschaton]

Paying more than $5k for a Dell is so insane I can't even address it properly.

[Celephais]

If you're paying $1500 for a desktop, you're either doing something terribly wrong or you better have a fucking beast of a machine.
I was under the impression he was looking for a laptop.


http://www.dell.com/content/products/results.aspx/xpsdt?~ck=anav&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&a=22~0~69&navla=22~0~69
That is "doing something wrong". When you can spend half the money and get 10% less performance...

[CrystalTears]

A laptop to play WoW? Why would you want to?

[RichardCranium]

From the link that I posted I managed to customize it to over 12000 bucks.

[Apotheosis]

yeah, I play WoW on a mac, no problems, 19" lcd monitor, very sexy look, never had a problem with it (I even use Cosmos).

Some mods might not be mac compatible.

I have a mac mini (800$) + a Dual 1.8ghz g5 system.

The mini is intel based, and with max ram, I have absolutely no problems with it. Running windows is nice, but not necessary (although when I do use the Windows XP OS, it runs smooth).

You can still run Microsoft Office, and all your other tools, and I think you'll appreciate the extras that Mac OSX comes with.

There's a nice Imac for u-
make sure to get the applecare plan. I've had my G5 for over 3 years now, and never had to use the plan, but was glad I had it.

the following configuration is nice to have, and is worth the extra $$. Alternatively, you could get the 350gb Hard-Drive, and get an external firewire hard drive in the future.

iMac, 20-inch, 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Part Number: Z0E3
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
Apple Mighty Mouse
Accessory kit
500GB Serial ATA Drive
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Apple Keyboard (English) + Mac OS X
SuperDrive 8x (DVD&#177;R DL/DVD&#177;RW/CD-RW)

AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac - Auto-enroll
Part Number: S2511Z/A

$169.00

Estimated Total: $1,918.00

[Celephais]

A laptop to play WoW? Why would you want to?No idea where I read "MacBook" instead of iMac... but in the $1,500pc/$2,500mac range you could certainly get a laptop more than capable of handling all that WoW can throw at it. And it's kind of nice to be able to play anywhere you go.

[Celephais]

iMac, 20-inch, 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Part Number: Z0E3
2GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
Apple Mighty Mouse
Accessory kit
500GB Serial ATA Drive
2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Apple Keyboard (English) + Mac OS X
SuperDrive 8x (DVD&#177;R DL/DVD&#177;RW/CD-RW)

AppleCare Protection Plan for iMac - Auto-enroll
Part Number: S2511Z/A

$169.00

Estimated Total: $1,918.00

Just a quick compare:
Dell Inspiron 530:
22-Inch Samsung LCD
2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo
3GB Ram 667Mhz (for the $50 you should go to 800mhz)
Mouse/Keyboard
500 GB Serial ATA
16x DVD +/- RW
256MB GeForce 8600

$1,079

2" more monitor, 1gb more ram, and twice as fast burner ... less 70Mhz CPU and $800. I'm sure if I spent any time instead of just taking the default high end Inspiron I could even it out a bit more. Oh and the form factor... you lose the whole "Desktop in the monitor". The iMac uses a Radeon 2600Pro, while close to the GeForce, is a step down, if they were using the 2600XT it would be a lot closer.

[Parkbandit]

No idea where I read "MacBook" instead of iMac... but in the $1,500pc/$2,500mac range you could certainly get a laptop more than capable of handling all that WoW can throw at it. And it's kind of nice to be able to play anywhere you go.


I would never play WoW on a laptop unless I was desperate.

And I don't think I would ever be that desperate.

[Apotheosis]

Just a quick compare:
Dell Inspiron 530:
22-Inch Samsung LCD
2.33 GHz Core 2 Duo
3GB Ram 667Mhz (for the $50 you should go to 800mhz)
Mouse/Keyboard
500 GB Serial ATA
16x DVD +/- RW
256MB GeForce 8600

$1,079

2" more monitor, 1gb more ram, and twice as fast burner ... less 70Mhz CPU and $800. I'm sure if I spent any time instead of just taking the default high end Inspiron I could even it out a bit more. Oh and the form factor... you lose the whole "Desktop in the monitor". The iMac uses a Radeon 2600Pro, while close to the GeForce, is a step down, if they were using the 2600XT it would be a lot closer.


You will always be able to find better pricing for a PC than a Mac


- On the monitor side, the diff. between a 22" monitor and a 20" monitor is negligible.

- Your 16x burner doesn't appear to include Dual-Layer burning capability.

- Did your price include a 3 year repair/replacement plan?



-----

This is the graphics card in my mac

GeForce FX 5200, 64 MB Vram:

I have never had a graphics (or loading) issue with WoW

[Hanksbane]

I bought an iMac (21inch) for video sound work etc. used Boot Camp to play my PC games. I dual boxed on it with weird graphic glitches. I finally said eff it and decided to just use my Mac as a Mac and reloaded WoW. Dual boxes fine and no graphic errors.

[Celephais]

You will always be able to find better pricing for a PC than a Mac
Christ, I wasn't trying to prove that, we all know that, PB asked if he was really making out by saving a grand on a Mac, by comparing a PC he would buy vs the Mac he would buy he can tell if it's worth it. I just quickly pulled up the stock Inspiron, I wasn't trying to line it up exactly, I said just that. If You're going to nitpick shit like DL burning or 2" monitor size then we would never get a comparison. (Can't do it on the site, but a 2" monitor upgrade would cost you about $50 on newegg... more than upgrading a burner to DL).

The video card I quoted as being in the iMac was just what the first iMac I pulled up at that price point, which is an inferior card.

As for the warranty it's the same type of deal (something like $170 more for 3 years) but if PB has any knowledge of PCs he shouldn't need it. Warranties are a waste of money. Essentially I showed that the price difference isn't more than a grand at that level, it's up to PB if the $600-$800 with the grand savings is worth it (so $200-$400)

[Nieninque]

I bought an iMac (21inch) for video sound work etc. used Boot Camp to play my PC games. I dual boxed on it with weird graphic glitches. I finally said eff it and decided to just use my Mac as a Mac and reloaded WoW. Dual boxes fine and no graphic errors.

<3 2 U

[Drew2]

make sure to get the applecare plan. I've had my G5 for over 3 years now, and never had to use the plan, but was glad I had it.


LOL??????

No one found this as ridiculous as I did?

"I'M SO GLAD I WASTED MONEY IT MAKES ME FEEL GOOD AS A PERSON"

[Apotheosis]

My bad Ceph.. I was just giving you shit for no real reason ; )

A side note on parallells / (Windows OS for Mac) (couple points that should be noted).....

- Video games will not play well on these systems (better to get the native OSX version, if it's available).

- Some programs / extensions / plug-ins are really really buggy. It's hard to know which program will have issues.


For microsoft office, and web-browsing, I like having it, otherwise, it's pretty much extra junk I don't use.

[Apotheosis]

LOL??????

No one found this as ridiculous as I did?

"I'M SO GLAD I WASTED MONEY IT MAKES ME FEEL GOOD AS A PERSON"

I dropped a ton of money on the computer to begin with. If it had taken a shit on me after the first year, I would have been fucked.

[Celephais]

I dropped a ton of money on the computer to begin with. If it had taken a shit on me after the first year, I would have been fucked, because it was a mac and good luck finding someone to fix it without assraping you.
Right... If a PC shits the bed (and you're not very knowledgable) worst comes to worst you take it to Circuit City or Best Buy and have them fix it.

There really isn't a lot of competition in the Mac repair business, so the prices aren't competitive.

[Apotheosis]

Right... If a PC shits the bed (and you're not very knowledgable) worst comes to worst you take it to Circuit City or Best Buy and have them fix it.

There really isn't a lot of competition in the Mac repair business, so the prices aren't competitive.

agreed. Mac repairs usually entail replacing entire boards, etc.. very rarely do they provide the service in-house (they generally ship it out).

With PCs, you can usually figure out whats wrong, and you'll always have a variety of resources to order replacement parts from (and do the work yourself).