I find myself stuck on the slow and powerless consoles that are PS2, XBox, and Gamecub because my computer is not great enough to play some of the best games even created for it. Don’t get me wrong, this has been the best video game season ever, with Halo 2, San Andreas, Snake Eater, the list just goes on and on. But I, unfortuently can’t enjoy it to the fullest. My computer is old and, while it used to be a performance beast, has dwindled to an adware, spyware, and malware breeding ground. I ask the Dopers to aid me in my search for a new computer. As of right now, I have my eye on two, but alas, I can only buy one. Its either the Mac G5 or this little beauty I found ( I don’t know how to make a links so if you don’t mind copying and pasting ) http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=861278&CatId=114. Both are powerful and within my price range, but I am not too computer savvy, and I don’t know if they can run the most up to date games. All I want is a computer that can play Half-Life 2 to the fullest and I’ll be happy.
I love macs, and if you need to get some serious work done, I wouldn’t hesitate in recommending the G5, but if it is for games, go for the PC. The Mac, while getting to biggest games, typically doesn’t get enough of a variety to please gamers.
As much as I’d like to recommend getting that G5, I have to agree with MrFantsyPants. It doesn’t look like Half-Life 2 is going to be released on the Mac in the near term, at least. It has something to do with the physics engine the game uses. The developer did say though, they probably won’t use that engine in the future because of that. I think they do want their games to run on Macs.
I’d have to go with the other two who have posted here—if games are a big deal for you, the G5 may not be the best choice.
I’m a Mac person but not a gaming person, so a Mac person who loves gaming could give you more specific information about what exactly is available for Macs. Maybe it could work out for you. I don’t know.
Half-Life 2 is not available for the Mac, IIRC, so you have to go with the PC; secondly, the link to Tiger direct you made didn’t work, so I can’t tell you how good that machine is.
In general, the most important things for a gaming machine is the video card, having enough RAM, and then processor speed. For your price range, you should be looking at a Geforce 6600GT at minimum video card, a gigabyte of RAM, and an Athlon 64 processor, the Athlon 64 series being much faster in gaming than comparablly priced Pentium 4’s.
Lets see, that Tiger Direct link is working now - that is a fairly nice machine, though the GeforceFX 5700 seems a bit weak for a $1100 machine. A Radeon 9800 Pro, Geforce 6600 GT or Geforce 6800 would be more in line at that budget, especially since you want this machine for gaming. To bad it doesn’t let you switch the OS “down” to XP Home (which is all you need unless you use dual CPU’s or connect to a fancy corporate network) and to an Athlon 64 3000, and use the money saved to move up a bit video card wise.
Have you considered building the computer yourself? For $1100, you could build a considerably better gaming machine than the Tiger Direct one.