I've been talking about how badly I've needed a new desktop machine pretty much since I started this blog.  I still need a new desktop.  The problem is that I'm having a really hard time deciding what to get...and, well, without teasing too much I'm beginning to think that an iMac might be the way to go.  Last week's PC gaming post might be sort of an indication that this switch has been on my mind quite a bit since in the past I would never get a Mac desktop just because the lack of OS X games.  Now though?  PC gaming isn't as big a deal to me as it was.

Not only that, but the particular iMac I've been looking at has plenty of testimonials of being able to play Crysis, the most demanding PC-exclusive game, quite well.  You know what?  Forget it.  For my convenience more than anyone else's I'm going to create a list of reasons why I'm considering a Mac against those that suggest I should stick with a PC.  We'll start with the Mac side of things.

  1. I can still run Windows, which includes games.
  2. I won't have to muck about building the machine.  I've always built my desktop computers in the past, but I've been sort of dreading the process for the new computer.
  3. OS X is fresh.  Now I love Windows, it's where I'm most comfortable, but it seems like all of the applications I use on my Macbook under OSX 10.4 (this is Tiger I'm talking about, not even the latest version Leopard) are more fun to use not to mention prettier.
  4. The hardware is pretty and simple.  One cord for an iMac.  That  alone makes me so excited...I hate all of the cables I have coming off of my current desktop, it seems like every little thing has its own power cable, not to mention the myriad of cables for my I/O devices.
  5. All this for ~$2,300.00 US.  Not bad considering the convenience factor.

Alright now I'm going to do the same thing for the PC side of things.  Here's that particular list.

  1. I'm 100% comfortable with Windows, including Vista.  I actually like Vista and, if I had a machine that was beefier I would have no problems running it.
  2. DX10 support for gaming - Vista has it.
  3. I will have to muck around with building machine.  I say that as a positive here for a couple reasons.  First of all, to buy a pre-built gaming rig such as an HP Blackbird or a Falcon Northwest I'd end up spending ~$4,000.00 US.  Trust me on that, I've already spec'd out the machine I would want.  Not only that, but as I said above I always have built my own machines and to not do so now is almost to admit that I don't "have it" anymore.  That sounds weird, no?  It sounds weird to me and I'm the one typing it.  Basically, I want to prove to myself that I can still build a machine even with a quad-core processor and all of the new hardware required.  There's a great sense of accomplishment associated with building your own computer and I might just miss that a bit.
  4. Technically, I could spend as little as $1,000.00 to build a new computer.  Now, that doesn't mean it would be a Crysis-killer of a machine but it would be way better than what I have now.  Much like this machine that I'm writing this post on it would probably need upgraded in another 2 years but that's been the general pattern of all of my computers.
  5. I have a lot of accessories now that I could use with a new computer.  I'm referring to my two LCD screens that I have right now, plus my newly acquired keyboard and mouse, some external media, my headset and so on.  Of course I could always keep those attached to my current machine and use it as a media center or something.  Not only that but pretty much everything I have right now is compatible with a Mac so...

That's it.  I'm still not positive but I have to be honest, I'm leaning toward getting an iMac sometime this summer.  I say sometime because I really want to wait until new iMacs come out (at least with a performance boost over the current iMacs which should be getting Peryn chips - in turn that might make the iMac smaller, plus Blu-Ray maybe?).  When I bought my Macbook, a few weeks later Apple introduced new versions of them that had Core 2 Duo processors instead of my lowly Core Duo.  I was a little peeved about that, not bad enough to return the Macbook of course, but still no one likes to get bitten. 

So how do I know that the iMac is due for a refresher?  Well MacRumors has a handy guide called the "Mac Buyer's Guide" which, based on previous releases of hardware, can tell you if a product is due for an upgrade anytime soon or not.  Based on that they rate a product as "Buy Only If You Need It - Approaching end of a cycle," "Buy, product recently updated," or "Don't Buy - Updates Soon."  The iMac is listed as Updates Soon because it has been 244 days since its last update and the average amount of time it goes before being updated is 205 days.  Check the guide if you'd like to see for yourself.

Anyways, I'd really appreciate some input or thoughts.  I'm still not 100% sure one way or the other, but this is a pretty big deal for a (primarily) PC user since birth.  We'll see you on Thursday.

Now Playing:
Flogging Molly - Us Of Lesser Gods
Project Gotham Racing 4, Puzzle Quest