Can I get your opinion? Mac mini & PC or an iMac? I'm not Crazy!

Question

scofal Author

Level 1

11 points

Can I get your opinion? Mac mini & PC or an iMac? I'm not Crazy!

I have a 6 year old PC, so I'm past due for an upgrade.

I do a lot of work related things on a PC (So I still need to have windows)

I do play games (so I need to have windows with discrete graphics so Mac mini wouldn't work for windows games)

But a lot of my "home" work I do on a mac, (I have a 2010 macbookpro)

So after researching whether or not an iMac can be used as a monitor for my old PC (it can't) I've finally figured out 2 possible options.

Each will cost around $2700 so the price is relativrly the same.

oh, and I want a small form factor because I don't have tons of room.

Option 1 - 27" iMac, 8gb ram (I'll upgrade to 16 or 32 aftermarket), 3TB fusion, 680 geforce card and i7 upgrade.

Bootcamp windows (so I can utilize the full video card when playing games)

or

Option 2 - Mac mini - around $1,000 ( i forget the exact specs)

Alienware x51 around $1,000 (will play pc games and all office/adobe programs I use for PC plus it has a really small form factor)

Asus 27" 2560 x 1440 monitor (i forget the exact model # but it's like $600 on newegg and amazon.)

Thanks for any opinions you can share to help me make this difficult decision.

iPod classic

Posted on Jun 26, 2013 6:34 AM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

dwb

Level 7

32,920 points

Jun 26, 2013 11:07 AM in response to scofal

I replaced my Mac and PC years ago with an iMac and haven't looked back but I use a console for gaming, not my computer. Over the years there have been some complaints from hardcore PC gamers involving graphic driver issues. I don't pay much attention to them since they don't affect me or the people I know. So I'd suggest that you look more closely in the iMac forum for recent complaints (if any) from PC gamers.

Reply

Answer 2

Jun 26, 2013 12:31 PM in response to scofal

Since you are looking at pretty similar cost and since

space is a consideration, the iMac, I believe, is pretty

much the obvious choice.

One thing you might have overlooked, is that for gaming

intensive tasks with Windows games is concerned, natively

booting via Bootcamp is the obvious choice. However, with an

app like Parallels Desktop or VMware Fusion, you can also

use that Bootcamp partition within a virtual machine environment

on OSX. This would mean with nearly all other apps you can

run Windows within the virtual machine will still running OSX

thereby not needing to reboot.

More than likely most of your ither PC apps will likely work

quite well within a virtual machine. For instance, I use things

like MATLAB, ORCAD, and other engineering type of applications

within a virtual machine environment, including a Link Instruments

500 MHz USB based oscilloscope.

Reply

Answer 3

Jun 26, 2013 12:55 PM in response to scofal

Also, forgot to mention that Microsoft Visual Studio 2012 works

quite well in a virtual machine environment in Windows8.

Reply

Answer 4

scofal Author

Level 1

11 points

Jun 26, 2013 1:12 PM in response to scofal

Ok, I agree with both of you, iMac is the obvious choice.

I guess subconsciously NOT having a DEDICATED PC for the first time is a bit scary.

I think the iMac will suit my needs no problem.

I will look into the Parallels and VMware, that is another option.

Thanks

Reply