Two Birds; One Stone?

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binjured

Limp Gawd
Joined
May 22, 2002
Messages
231
Phew, been a while since I've seen the familiar black and red of the ol' [H]. Perhaps it's caused in part by becoming a Mac convert or maybe being deployed this whole year, but I digress. When I return home early next year, I plan to purchase a Mac Pro to make the Apple takeover of my life official (minus phone). With the relatively mature status of Boot Camp in Leopard, I'm looking to kill two birds with one stone: upgrade to a better gaming rig and get a new workstation in the same box. I am looking to do this from a completely economical standpoint, so I'd like some opinions from the hardware people I respect most :)

What I know
  • New Mac Pros will (almost assuredly) be released by year's end
  • Boot Camp is (relatively) stable, though numerous games crash out on my MBP

What I don't know
  • Does it make more sense from a money standpoint to upgrade my current rig or upgrade the Mac Pro to make it a sufficient gaming machine
  • Is Boot Camp really stable enough to make gaming on the Mac the same it is on Windows

Current Rig
Let me preface this by saying I don't remember exactly what the specs are seeing as how I haven't used the computer in about a year and only recently upgraded before I learned I was being shipped off. So these specs are a little rough.
  • Intel Core2Duo 2.[2-3]ghz
  • Nvidia 6800GT (I believe)
  • SATA2 drive
  • 2 GB of PC5200? RAM
My upgrade consisted of CPU, MB, and RAM, I haven't upgraded the video card in quite a while. I can't recall the MB, but it's a new A2 slot.

I know the video card upgrade for the Mac Pro will probably be pretty expensive, as is Apple's wont. Aside from that, the new Pros should have the brand new Intel processors coming out and at a minimum two dual-cores. I plan to get 4gb of RAM regardless of the decision to use it for gaming.

Bottom line, would you upgrade this existing Windows system to play games or would you spend the extra dough to upgrade the Mac Pro and dual-boot? Keep in mind that if I do go the Mac-only route I can sell off my home-built system components here for some extra cash. Thanks in advance for any advice!
 
honestly i'd keep the PC for gaming....are you a designer or videographer?

I was in this boat a couple of months ago, then i realized that i needed a dedicated computer for design...and i like the all in one solution of the iMac. I'm a graphic / web designer and with games and loads of applications for designing and development it is hindering my system for games. i know many people seeing the iMac as a bad choice, but i'm not gaming on it, and i don't intend to put vista or xp on it..
 
binjured said:
Bottom line, would you upgrade this existing Windows system to play games or would you spend the extra dough to upgrade the Mac Pro and dual-boot? Keep in mind that if I do go the Mac-only route I can sell off my home-built system components here for some extra cash. Thanks in advance for any advice!
Click to expand...
This is a personal question that we can't really answer for you. I can't be sure if new Mac Pros will be out by the year's end because we're getting pretty close to the holiday rush. If new machines aren't out in the next few weeks, the next best bet is MacWorld '08.

There is nothing wrong with BootCamp. The crashes your experiencing probably have to do with other issues or outdated drivers. You're running a Windows machine, plain and simple.
 
i myself am a big fan of simplicity. if you can have two computers in one, why not? however, i am also a bigger mac fan than a pc fan, and i dont game much right now. i do miss it though. even though i dont game a lot, i still like to on occasion.

a mac pro wont be top of the line in gaming, but that is fine with me. im too poor to keep dropping 500 bucks every time the new "it" graphics card comes out. and i wouldnt get full usage out of it anyway. you may be on the exact opposite end of the spectrum.

if you game a lot, you might wanna keep the pc. if you only do it on occasion, the mac pro would be fine.

if this were "which computer should i use" id say mac pro hands down.

the other thing, boot camp... boot camp isnt what is causing your stability issues with windows. its windows. boot camp does three things for you: 1. dynamically partition your hard drive for a windows install, 2. burn a windows driver cd for you, and 3. start the windows installer.

if you boot into xp, the computer, for all intents and purposes is a "PC." it boots windows, it runs windows, it has the same issues and bugs as windows... including viruses. so, if you are having stability issues, check out the drivers and your windows install. something is causing it to wig out.

im not bashing xp, i myself have run xp on my macbook. i didnt have any problems. i didn't use it all that much, so maybe i hadnt gotten to the issues. and since upgrading to leopard, im looking to install xp on my macbook as a permanent addition. its there just incase i need it, and, on occasion, i do. :D
 
You've actually got

* Intel Core2Duo 2.[2-3]ghz
* Nvidia 6800GT (I believe)
* SATA2 drive
* 2 GB of PC5200? RAM


Intel core 2 duo 2.2ghz and Nvidia 8600m gt graphics card
2gb ddr2 667 pc2 5300

OR

Core 2 duo 2.33ghz and ATI radeon x1600 graphics card

The Nvidia 8600 is actually a fairly strong card and the Mac Pro DOES NOT have a better card under $1000. They have an absurdly expensive quadro card but the next best is an ATI X1900 which really isn't spectacular for such an expensive machine.

The Mac Pro is not a good gaming machine. For a fifth of the cost, a superior windows gaming machine can be built. I don't play games, so my Mac suits me great. However, if I was a PC gamer I wouldn't even look at the Mac Pro.
 
Hands down go with a pc and a mac. The reason I give for this will be simple to follow.

Laptops outdate as quickly as desktops now. Desktops are a ton cheaper, and a ton cheaper to upgrade.

Dumping the money you would into the upgrade of the macbook pro is great and all, if you want to only play 2-3 year old games, or not run them with middle to high graphics.

The reasoning behind going the desktop route is, you can get money back out of it, if you update your desktop say every year for games, and only spend like 400-500 to upgrade (maybe new mobo cpu, and a moderate priced video card).. Ie go moderate in your gaming rig and recycle it every year.. You can sell the old parts for a good portion of the money.

You aren't going to want to sell your MBP obviously, you cant salvage some of that money back out of it when it becomes useless for those extra wants.

Mobile gaming is very expensive, period.
 
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