NephthysWanderer the Charming wrote:
Not sure what the iMacs come with, but I find it hard to believe that you'll get a better gaming computer from Mac for less money than Dell.
if you are looking for a gaming computer, this quote is 100% the truth. you will NOT get the same level of computer with an iMAC as you can form Dell, or HP, or any other maker of PCs for GAMING. the iMAC is not a gaming rig.
it is one sweet workstation and does play WoW very well and just looks great due to the HD monitor. this of the iMAC as a very big laptop, but with less power comsumption and lower heat output.
i own 2 of them. a 20in G5 with only 1G ram and a cr4ptastic ATI6200 128M vid card that can play WoW, but only if i dumb down the graphics to about 50% of their max settings. it does everything else just great and has never crashed.
the 2nd is the new Intel 24in with 2G ram and the upgraded 5700 nvidia 256M vid card. it plays wow on max settings and i never get below 25FPS even in a raid or a major city near the AH.
the newer 24in iMACs with the extreeme CPU are even more powerful then the one i have. i do not use it for gaming. i use it for business. i do not have to worry about the wife accedentily installing some stupid file from an e-mail or clicking on the wrong link on a web page as there are no viruses or malware to worry about (well basicically none to worry about. no malware yet, and the viruses are so far and few between that they only affect the user account and no the root of the system) so it is less headache for me to manage the systems.
they run Quickbooks Pro just fine, if you want to use MS Office, there is a MAC vs that works well enough, but i prefer just to use OpenOffice for a lot of other reason, but yes i do own MS Office for the MAC due to QuickBooks ONLY exporting to Excel, what a PITA that is.
the iMACs are NOT cheap and should not be purchaced as a game platform. the Apple laptops and desktops on the other hand can out perform and cost less then equivilent hardware from Dell, HP, Gateway, etc... more so their laptops then desktops, but even then it is close.
top it off with
http://www.parallels.com/en/landingpage/dskd13/?gclid=CJTHt_b9ho4CFQwsOAodjF3SDw]Paralles for MAC and you have a winner.