Help the Jarg out here. (Everyone can vote and post)

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

Help me out here. This will end up being a gaming PC and to be used as a media center. I am conflicted.
Tommy, can you tell me how well your Mac runs Windows? Do you have any problems above what a normal Windows user has.

[Tommy]

Help me out here. This will end up being a gaming PC and to be used as a media center. I am conflicted.
Tommy, can you tell me how well your Mac runs Windows? Do you have any problems above what a normal Windows user has.

None whatsoever. And I am willing to bet my Mac boots XP faster then anyone in this clans PC does. And it Boots Mac OS X even faster, lol. The big issue is with drivers. If you are gonna add 3rd party hardware then you need to be careful. In november I believe bootcamp will leave beta and go final, at that time I am sure there would be less of a concern. But if you are buying a desktop that is all apple anyway then you need not be concerned, bootcamp will install all the drivers you need on windows when you install windows.

I did have to re-install windows after installing a game that made ut2k4 stop working, but my understanding is that stuff like that is common. FYI, on the mac side it is NOT common. Installing one app cannot effect another app like that. Actually, I did have to re-install another time, but nothing was wrong. I just cooked the partition windows was on so that I could re-size it.

You should come to irc sometime. There are 2 guys that hang out there all the time that are new mac users. They both rant and rave about how much more they like the mac then their pc's.

Tommy

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

The more I look at the Apple Mac Pro, the more I start to salivate. I mean... QUAD core Xeon, up to FOUR graphics cards... This thing is a BEAST!

I price out an Alienware and Apple really beats it with the price per component. I am a firm believer in "You get what you pay for". This Apple looks INCREDIBLE!

I asked a computer friend about it and he just looked down his nose at me when I mentioned the Apple... It is like being an outcast if you get one...

Then again, that never stopped me before

*EDIT* I just priced out a top of the line Apple with a comparable Alienware.

Apple = $4745
Alienware = $6450

Both are mega computers with quad core and 4 gigs of ram. I can afford neither but it is interesting to see that Apple may not be as expensive as we are led to believe.

[Tommy]

...but it is interesting to see that Apple may not be as expensive as we are led to believe.

I have been sating that for years. When you look at what you get in a base config for a Mac compared to a PC, you'll see the price isn't as bad as people are lead to believe.

T

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

Oh, and just to let you know. The person that looked down their nose at me for thinking of a Mac went to the site and is seriously considering getting one of his own

[GRouND ZeRo]

Hmmm Gaming and Multimedia center???

You could look for a Hardware MPEG encoder
if your looking for a decent TV but what are
you looking for in the first place?

High end processor???
High end Graphics???
Multimedia center capabilities???(windows media center)

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

Hmmm Gaming and Multimedia center???

You could look for a Hardware MPEG encoder
if your looking for a decent TV but what are
you looking for in the first place?

High end processor???
High end Graphics???
Multimedia center capabilities???(windows media center)

Yes

[GRouND ZeRo]

Hmmm Gaming and Multimedia center???

You could look for a Hardware MPEG encoder
if your looking for a decent TV but what are
you looking for in the first place?

High end processor???
High end Graphics???
Multimedia center capabilities???(windows media center)

Yes

Hmmm....

1. TV card with a Hardware MPEG encoder???
ATI
TV WONDER ELITE - Boasts a THEATRE chip(550 or 650)
HDTV WONDER - It may be pricey but I think it's worth it.
ALL IN WONDER - "2006 edition" 256 meg video ram but easy tradeoff with installation and useability(Less hassle with getting video from TV to your Video), but hopefully will run games smoothly.

Hauppauge
PVR Series - Cheap solution

I'm not too sure that there are other brands that feature a decent TV card with a Hardware MPEG chip but there are many MOCK-UP brands that use the ATI and HAUPPAUGE series cards... I find the ATI TV cards has more ADVANCED features to work with especially when you need to do something.

Something to think about is the external kits like the USB TV BOXES. You may discover too much lag or under quality, your best bet is to get an internal PCI.

2. High-end Processors
AMD
ATHLON 64 X2 - average HIGH-END
ATHLON FX2 - POWER USER
AMD Turion 64 - MID-RANGE
OPTERON - normal SERVER
THUNDERBIRD??? - HIGH-END SERVER(is it a MyTH???)

INTEL
Pentium 4 HT/D/EXTREME - average HIGH-END
CORE 2 DUO/QUAD/EXTREME - POWER USER(VERRY PRICEY!!!)
XEON - SERVER

CYRIX???
I'm not too sure if these guys compare to anything out there anymore after their "P3 Class" processor. IBM used to make the Cyrix line and they were sitting in the middle between AMD and INTEL before they decided to sell out to VIA.

A coice of CPU doesn't really matter what you get, it's more of what you actually put in your computer other than just the CPU such as SOUND, GRAPHICS, SOFTWARE and even your INTERNET CONNECTION.

I'm sort of cheesed off with the DOU techknology with Twice the POWER and HALF the SPEED since I can run pretty much the same stuff on my ATHLON 64 at 2GHz as the ATHLON 64 X2 running at 1 GHz... Kinda seems like a dumb tradeoff to me... "DUO CORE DO MORE???" more or less Get DOU CORE and PAY MORE... I'd rather get a DUAL CPU motherboard and drop in another AMD ATHLON 64...

3. HIGH-END Graphics???
ATI - After AMD joind with theese guys I'm wondering what they will come out with
Radeon X1900+ - Usually you would find a 512MEG to be great but an OEM brand would sound cheaper. If you want the best out of this brand myaswell get an original ATI because the Saphire or Powercolor are sometimes underrated. ATI Crossfire on PCI Express is an easy solution since you do not have to worry about a "BRIDGE" connector but finding out how much a Dual PCI-Express M/B costs you might want to go with a single PCI-Express.

NVIDIA - WARNING theese guys don't make their own Video Cards!!!
----------------------------------
Response 08/18/2006 10:02 AM
Hello,

Thank you for contacting NVIDIA Customer Care.

NVIDIA designs and provides GPUs (graphics semiconductor chip only) to card manufactures. NVIDIA does not manufacture nor sell graphics cards. However, I tried to check for availability of 8X AGP BASED 512 MB graphic card but my search was unsuccessful. So, if you could let us know what is your intended usage or application. We can help you choose the right GPU and point you to one of our customers (card manufacturer/vendor).

Regards,
NVIDIA Customer Care.
----------------------------------
Cheap Bas@!#$%^ arn't they???

Anyways... Let's forget about that for a second...

The 7000 series may look great when you can LINK a DUAL-PCI Express to get benefits with DUAL GPU's but why don't they make a DUAL GPU board??? You might even find a 1GB Vid card somewhere??? < I have been looking arround where I'm at for a while now... but I'm sure a 512 should do just fine... There's an 8800 version out too but I hope it's not their downfall compared to ATI's X1950... But I find alot of SUB-Brands out there and to find the ones that are FULLY-Featured are something else especially all of the supposed Benchmarks that you SHOULD get. ASK arround for a DECENT BRAND to look for especially when you discover that some try to get away with "OVERCLOCKED" ideas of being better than they are...


3DLABS - 3D Graphics and Drafters DREAM
OK so it's not your average Video card.... the WILDCAT series have DUAL GPU's ON-BOARD!!! but there's a problem.... NOBODY really knows how well they work as a Consumer-end video card... VERRY-PRICEY!!!
If you only wanted the BEST!!!

MATROX - What happened to theese guys???
Well it seems that they decided to stop producing GAMING cards and hit HIGH-END Office production with Multi monitor support... if you want to look over theese guys for something myaswell pick up a BOX that SPLITS your VIDEO from one cord in half to two or three monitors...
Example... Desktop resolution is 2048x768, first half = 1024x768 to first monitor and second 1024x768 goes to second monitor... but if you want to have a wide field of vision pick up the 3 in 1...

BFG XFX GPU - A Stand-Alone CARD that supposively frees up you CPU power when rendering complex scenes or 3D generated graphics... it may not seem much and may cost $300.00 but it remains to be seen what you can actually do with it...


Anyways to wrap it all up you have a choice and make it a good one...
ALL your CHOICES in PARTS like...
HARD DRIVE - brand(Seagate/WD/Hitachi/Toshiba) make(RPM/SIZE/CACHE) type (IDE-ATA133/SATA) & SIZE!
SOUNDCARD - BRAND/Channel(2-7.1)/On-Board
Video Card - On-Board/AGP/PCI-Express/GPU/VRAM/RAMDAC Speed/GPU Speed
CPU - Dual-Quadcore/CACHE<usually the larger the better/GHz
Motherboard - BRAND/Features/and some Setups are usually critical with BUS Speed

Check out all of the PRE-Built stuff and pick out all of the GOOD parts and DESIGN your OWN!

If you decide to ALL-OUT to get the BEST of the best you might want to keep a cool head on things like a liquid cooling system that ports an external CONDENSER unit so it will limit the amount of DUST(BAAAAD WORD I know) in your case... I've seen many picture of cases MoDDeD to the TiTs with all kinds of neat stuff...

REMEMBER... This is YOUR cmputer... who is gonna see it???

[GRouND ZeRo]

Holy SHyT... WaYYY toooo much information I know... but I hope it's a good read...

Please don't hesitate to ask me...

[GRouND ZeRo]

MAN... I was hoping that would get more feedback on this...

P.S. Tommy check up on the processor lineup...

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

Sorry GZ. Still reading your post

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

I will probably get:

Intel Core 2 Duo
Nvidia 8000 series (2 in SLi)
Best ASUS motherboard that I can get
WD Raptor 150 gig main drive
WD "Caviar" 500 gig for storage.

Case.... I LOVE THIS ONE
http://www.tagan.com/index.php?c_id=36& ... cata_id=86

Right now, AMD is lagging behind Intel, but the new processors are on the way. I hate that there is ALWAYS something new and exciting on the horizon. I tend to put off new purchases until the new stuff comes out.... then there is something even better coming out...
Drives me insane

[GRouND ZeRo]

You might want to invest in a 550 Watt power supply for that beast...

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

I was thinking more along the lines of 1000 watts!

(insert Tim Allen grunting noises here)

[{DOU}The Jargonaut]

After weeks of consideration and hunting, I have finally made a purchase.

My new computer will arrive by next Wednesday.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834220106