24" Imac enough for light gaming and CS3 work?

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skyline889

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 15, 2007
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I'm pretty unhappy with the noise to performance ratio of the SFF build I just finished so I've been thinking about selling everything and just buying one of the refurbished aluminum 24" Imacs. It's one of the older ones I think so it only has the 2.4ghz C2D, 1gb of ram, 320gb HD, and the Radeon 2600 gpu but it's also only $1350. I can get 4gb of laptop memory for like $80 so the ram is not a problem and I can get a 1tb external for pretty cheap (The HD isn't upgradeable is it?) but is the processor and gpu going to be enough for some occasional gaming and CS3 work? I've used these Imacs for CS3 work at school before and they worked great but I'm not sure what cpu and gpu that those had. Do you guys think this'll be enough?
 
What kinds of games do you play? I've played COD4 and CS:S on my iMac with the 2400XT, which is an entry-level card, and I had no trouble with any of them on medium settings. I got about 25-30FPS on each. So I would say that the 24" with a more capable CPU and GPU and more RAM (I only have 1.5GB) would be great for what you want to do. The HD is not upgradeable unless you feel like prying your new $1350 Mac apart.
 
Yeah I don't play Crysis or anything so nothing too intensive, probably just COD4 and maybe Bioshock (Don't know if there's a Mac version or not). I'm a little worried if the CPU will be to handle CS3 though, some of the effects in PS load my OC'd E6600 to like 80% but hopefully the 2.4ghz won't be too much slower.
 
Well it wont be anything amazing for gaming (to play at native res on the 24" at least), but it will be ok.

I would still recommend a custom build over an imac, but whatever you want in the end is what it comes down to!
 
Yeah I'm just really unhappy with the PC2 in my sig. I love PC1 as it runs everything I want, was relatively cheap to build, and runs really cool and quiet but PC2 has just been an absolute headache. The main thing that bothers me is the noise and the heat. I'm a quiet pc guy and this pc sounds like a jet at takeoff. I have to run every 120mm fan at full speed, in addition to an extra 120mm fan that I had to jury-rig over the heatpipes of my HSF, to keep things relatively cool and even then it still runs hotter than I would prefer. Because of the heat, I also can't overclock at all which makes me lose one of the main reasons for me to stick with a custom built pc. This Lian case has also been a source of headaches, it buzzes and vibrates every 15 minutes or so and it's a pain to remove the mobo tray because of my HSF. This pc was supposed to be the pc I take to college but I'm seriously rethinking that decision now; especially with the price, ease of mobility, and looks of the aluminum Imac.
 
Your going to have to decide at the end of the day whats more important. Aesthetics or overall power and upgrade ability. Its the laptop v. desktop argument all over again. lol
 
Well it's not really about aesthetics, it's about the heat and noise of my sff pc. I guess I could tolerate the noise but imo, I don't really think I should be forced to tolerate anything on a pc that cost that much, especially when I'm already forced to run everything at stock speeds. What it comes down to for me is basically will it run CS3 well. If it can't, I'll either stick with my pc or more likely, part out and build a atx pc. If it can, then I'm going to be the happy owner of a shiny Mac! Any advice on that front will be greatly appreciated!
 
Sounds like you might need to rethink your design if it is so loud and what not, you can make them quiet with the right parts.

Not to mention are you just being a temp nazi? Some people think they need to run their stuff at like 20C when it actually has tolerances up to 65-75C or so.
 
Barefeats is usually the best source of Mac gaming benchmarks, and they have a good round-up of various games here. Keep in mind that if you BootCamp Vista for your gaming needs, you'll often see better performance than you would in OS X.
 
I owned one of the newer 24" iMacs for a short time and it played games like HL2 at 1920 x 1200 just fine.
 
i call shens for 2400xt at 1920x1200 for COD4. unless it's on the lowest setting possible.
a 3870 stays just about 30-35fps with everything turned on.......
 
Grentz said:
Sounds like you might need to rethink your design if it is so loud and what not, you can make them quiet with the right parts.

Not to mention are you just being a temp nazi? Some people think they need to run their stuff at like 20C when it actually has tolerances up to 65-75C or so.
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I need high cfm fans to keep my system from overheating so that means noise. The stock Lian fans aren't super quiet but if I go with a super quiet fan like the 800rpm Slipstreams I have in my other pc, they won't produce enough pressure to keep anything cool. I could go with the 1500rpm Scythe S-Flexs but they aren't quiet either. If I do keep this rig, I would need the 1900rpm Slipstreams. For temps, my Q6600 is idling at 50c at 2.4ghz and that's undervolted. I know the G0s can theoretically take 70c but I swore off temps that high when I sold my Prescott rig.
 
I can't address the gaming questions--but it looks like other people have.

However, as it pertains to CS3, I use a white 24" iMac 2.16 C2D with 3GB of RAM at work. I have no problem running multiple CS3. However I don't do any kind of video editing/After Effects work on it. Just web development (ie. Ps, Fl, Dw, BBEdit).
 
Friend of mine runs AoC at 1920x1200 on his 24" Imac ok at 1920x1200 - 45-55ish fps at med to high detail and other games also well in bootcamp so you'll be fine there (dont use apple drivers of course go to nvidia's beta ones or some from laptopvideo2go , helps a lot )

I understand where you are coming from OP - got rid of my last pc rig which was purely a gaming rig (have Macbook Pro and Imac 24" 2600xt from last year in the living room) and finally went Mac Pro -

I love the thing - in OS X with fusion I have tons of things running in VM's to native OS X apps and it takes everything it can and still is whisper quiet - bootcamp purely for a few games (have two 3870's in it)

It's built like a tank , quiet and just overall I am glad to be rid of the custom built gaming rig, doubt I'll ever go back to it - sitting in the bedroom corner unless theres 3d gaming/rendering going on that spins up the video card fan (which is still silent compared to my gaming rig I sold) you dont even know its on

Imac same way - I just appreciate the benefits of its design - not for everyone but definitely know where you are coming from -
 
I wasn't saying I run COD4 on the 2400xt at 1920X1200, but I do run it at 1440X900 on my iMac 20" and it runs fine at medium everything. No, it isn't awesome, but it does OK at around 25-30FPS.
 
Thanks for the helps guys. Now that I know it can run what I need it to, I guess the only equation still left in the picture is for me to see how hard or easy it'll be to adapt to OSX from Vista. I think I'll run down to the Apple store tomorrow!
 
skyline889 said:
Thanks for the helps guys. Now that I know it can run what I need it to, I guess the only equation still left in the picture is for me to see how hard or easy it'll be to adapt to OSX from Vista. I think I'll run down to the Apple store tomorrow!
Click to expand...

Do it - you'll be impressed. It's a quick switch and the main apps you would be using are pan-OS apps, with CS3 and Firefox being great examples.
 
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