Posted January 27, 2009 I'm thinking about doing the same thing! I have an iBook and I am desperate for an upgrade! Ideally I'd want a headless iMac. And thats not going to happen. So I'm thinking of building myself a PC, around £600 / 700 gets you a machine that not a million miles off a £1700 Mac Pro. It's been there awful updates which have annoyed me recently. The mac mini hasn't been updated in 538 days, mac pro 384 days. Just thought i'd have a look at what you were talking about and i really can't believe they charge that amount for the components in a Mac Pro! Comparisons are low in number, but from the little i've seen the base model i7 can keep up with the dual Xeon setup of the Pro's (they yield similar Folding@Home results, for example). A similar performing i7 system (low-end GPU, 2GB RAM, 320GB HDD) could be done for £600 + the price of the OS! If gaming is the priority then a machine could be built for less than £500 that would knock the socks off of a £2k Mac Pro... Apple need to refresh those machines really, really badly. Maybe make two versions? A Phenom II based system starting at around the £850/£900 mark and an i7 system starting at about £1200. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted January 27, 2009 Maybe not overprice their hardware that much. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 2, 2009 Apple are not about performance much. Performance machines are always build your own. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 24, 2009 Easy question that is probably already answered. Will all games that worked on XP work (well) on Vista? Thankyou. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 24, 2009 Rollercoaster Tycoon 1(windows 98 or whatever works) so I would say yes, but im not a super nerd. So no doubt some one will OMG Fe4R Vi5Ta Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 24, 2009 Vista drivers will preform as good as XP ones now, so theres little difference these days. Basically, 98% of 32bit games will work on Vista. And if they don't, right click the app and go to properties and run compatibility mode. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 25, 2009 And you can get vista patches for some of the well known games that don't work Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted February 25, 2009 Sweet. Well yeah I tried it anyway and it all worked fine and dandy. And a bit off topic, how's a GeForce 9500 512MB gonna do me? Say i'm looking to get Battle for Middle-Earth II, how well would I expect it to handle that? I'm so out of touch with these things you see. (My dad bought a new computer, maybe now I can play something more than WoW :P) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 8, 2009 Do all the retail versions of Vista contain both 32bit and 64bit versions Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 8, 2009 Do all the retail versions of Vista contain both 32bit and 64bit versions Not to my knowledge. The 32bit versions are available in retail outlets, but can be upgraded to 64bit through Microsoft i think. 64bit Vista O/S's are available in retail outlets as well (the boxes are marked with which bit version is in the case) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 8, 2009 Not to my knowledge. The 32bit versions are available in retail outlets, but can be upgraded to 64bit through Microsoft i think. 64bit Vista O/S's are available in retail outlets as well (the boxes are marked with which bit version is in the case) Hmmm. They don't like to make it easy..... I'm just wondering if it's worth buying....or is it worth waiting till Windows 7 gets released. Windows 7 is planned for a release this year right? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 8, 2009 Aye this year if all goes to plan. I have 64 bit edition of Vista, works quite nice, I recommend! I also switched back to Windows a year ago after having a Mac. It was fun to mess around with a Mac, but they're not that useful to me. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 9, 2009 Not to my knowledge. The 32bit versions are available in retail outlets, but can be upgraded to 64bit through Microsoft i think. 64bit Vista O/S's are available in retail outlets as well (the boxes are marked with which bit version is in the case) I'm pretty sure you can't upgrade from 32-bit vista to 64-bit. If you purchase an upgrade version of 64-bit Vista it is for upgrading from an older or cheaper version (Home Premium to Ultimate, for example) of the OS, not from the 32-bit version. You'd have to buy a new copy of the 64-bit Vista and do a fresh install. Edit: it's worth noting that a vista serial key will work for any bit version, although that might not be the case with an OEM (pre-installed on system) version. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 14, 2009 I thought that all Vista packages came with both the 32 and 64 bit editions disks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted March 17, 2009 No they are seperate and you have to pay to upgrade/change from 32 to 64 or backwards. Hmmm. They don't like to make it easy..... I'm just wondering if it's worth buying....or is it worth waiting till Windows 7 gets released. Windows 7 is planned for a release this year right? If you have to get windows get Windows 7. Though Vista may have free upgrades to 7. Make sure you check for promos. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 29, 2009 Hello, I'm Jasper and you may remember me from such threads as the Apple iThread (deceased). I recently installed Windows Vista on my Mac and I have to say: it runs pretty smooth. I like it. It even keeps the internet connection steadier than OS X could (on the same hardware) and I have no troubles with it whatsoever (I can't put it to sleep though, because it doesn't wake up (but that's hardware related) and the boot time is loooong because it gets confused with my macintosh partition, telling me to format it because it isn't Windows compatible - ten times before it's found the windows disk). Only one thing: does anybody know better audio drivers (for my mac in this case), because the audio is reeeaaally sloppy with the drivers apple delivered... I have an iMac (2007) 24". The Apple iThread is gone, so I wondered if any of you might know. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 29, 2009 Not to butt in front of Jasper but I've got a small question. I have a Vista Home premium 64bit OEM disc installed on a machine already. Is it possible to install this Vista disc onto a new Mac Pro? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 29, 2009 Have you got a Mac Pro Pantsu Man!? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 29, 2009 Nope, I'm asking on behalf of my sibling. Although I want to get a macbook sometime. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 29, 2009 Not to butt in front of Jasper but I've got a small question. I have a Vista Home premium 64bit OEM disc installed on a machine already. Is it possible to install this Vista disc onto a new Mac Pro? No problem, since I can answer your question, having a mac and all. :wink: Yes you can, but it will give you some problems because OEM discs aren't really good at working on other computers. Apple delivers you the drivers on the MacOS install disc, so actually it shouldn't give a problem. it might, since it's actually designed just for that computer, but I know you can install OEM discs on any computer if you have the right drivers to use... But the sound still won't be great. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted April 29, 2009 Hello, I'm Jasper and you may remember me from such threads as the Apple iThread (deceased). I recently installed Windows Vista on my Mac and I have to say: it runs pretty smooth. I like it. It even keeps the internet connection steadier than OS X could (on the same hardware) and I have no troubles with it whatsoever (I can't put it to sleep though, because it doesn't wake up (but that's hardware related) and the boot time is loooong because it gets confused with my macintosh partition, telling me to format it because it isn't Windows compatible - ten times before it's found the windows disk). Only one thing: does anybody know better audio drivers (for my mac in this case), because the audio is reeeaaally sloppy with the drivers apple delivered... I have an iMac (2007) 24". The Apple iThread is gone, so I wondered if any of you might know. For something with such a standard hardware as a Mac, I imagine there must be some driver out there. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 4, 2009 Gah, help needed. Got a new laptop - has Vista (not a fan - miss XP). Basically when I turn laptop on it says limited connectivity to the net (wifi) then after about ten secs it is fine. After that my connection is hit and miss. It may be connected for an hour or less, then it just keeps dc'ing. Sometimes it cant even find the router. I could be stood next to it. I've reset all things including laptop/router. I've even LAN connected yet it works fine (even though the router says there's no connection when LAN connected when I use the setup disk I got with the router...it's a BT homehub.) So now I have an unstable internet on Vista only. To compare I had my old XP laptop running/iPhone connected and this new laptop running yesterday and the new one kept losing the connection (and the router on discovery) whereas the iPhone and XP laptop were fine. Anyone got any clues? I'm new to Vista and it's clearly doing my head in. (In network and sharing centre I have network discovery switched to "on".) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 4, 2009 Gah, help needed. Got a new laptop - has Vista (not a fan - miss XP). Basically when I turn laptop on it says limited connectivity to the net (wifi) then after about ten secs it is fine. After that my connection is hit and miss. It may be connected for an hour or less, then it just keeps dc'ing. Sometimes it cant even find the router. I could be stood next to it. I've reset all things including laptop/router. I've even LAN connected yet it works fine (even though the router says there's no connection when LAN connected when I use the setup disk I got with the router...it's a BT homehub.) So now I have an unstable internet on Vista only. To compare I had my old XP laptop running/iPhone connected and this new laptop running yesterday and the new one kept losing the connection (and the router on discovery) whereas the iPhone and XP laptop were fine. Anyone got any clues? I'm new to Vista and it's clearly doing my head in. (In network and sharing centre I have network discovery switched to "on".) It's not a Vista problem, either the driver or the hardware is nackered. There shouldn't be any new laptops shipping with compatability issues. To be frank it does sound pretty disgraceful, the main reason to buy a pre-built machine is because the manufacturer should have the kinks ironed out. If there isn't an update on their website and they don't have a solution then i'd send it straight back... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Posted May 12, 2009 Need some urgent help please! Logged on this morning, and a funny dinging sound was made (sorry about inability to onomatopoeiacally describe stuff) then it came up saying "There has been an unauthorsized change to windows. Then directs me to a site to validate my windows. To which it has the cheek to say its not genuine. I can assure you it, it came with this laptop when I got it for my birthday pretty much a year ago. On normal log in it won't show up any vista like the bar is missing. I can get onto the internet but only by changing sites. WTF Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
