49 replies to this topic

[jackdawsson]

Further erosion of the Mini's upgradability & typically minimal updates, whilst certainly disappointing, hardly a surprise. Most recent forum chat increasingly expected it. For me, when it comes to replacing my 2011 Mini with HD 6630M graphics, I may now buy a refurb. Either way, the Mini remains a vital part of my workstation due to running large matte monitors & both needing + preferring OS X.

The discounted low-end Mini may appeal to undemanding, less tech-savvy users, but is surely a pass for most of us who do more with our Minis than surfing, email, WP, etc.  

Gaming-wise, things a bit different here. Interesting to read others comments, but not for me the Hackintosh route. Seems too time consuming for me in fixing things each time Apple delivers an update.

I've taken the PC path some time ago. No regrets, even with Windows 8 which offers excellent backwards-compatibility in general (unlike OS X), though I'll always have a certain fondness for some Mac gaming & especially developers like Feral.

[Frost]

Yeah, I looked into a Hackintosh myself last year after the new Mac Pros were announced and they turned out to not be what I was looking for at all. More power to folks who get them running, but to me a Hackintosh just sounded like more trouble than it was worth. I'm in the macdude22 boat in that I'm at the point where I want my home computing environment as free of dicking around with stuff as possible. And realistically, Cypher and Chromium are still totally capable at filling my non-gaming and work needs, and they can still play all my Mac games that I still like to play. They were only falling short in being able to play the latest and greatest games (and I could use Mavericks server on a Mac Pro, but for the time being Leopard Server is still doing well on my PowerMac).

So, there I was with a bunch of money I'd saved for an expandable 2013 Mac Pro and no expandable Mac Pro to spend it on. So I could build my own PC, or spend about $350 more for the same configuration and have Falcon Northwest build it for me in their drool-worthy steel Tiki case and provide me with a 3 year end-to-end warranty with 1 year of overnight service and godly lifetime tech support (basically, AppleCare on steroids). That was worth the little extra to me and thus Kestrel was born. And as predicted, Cypher and Chromium are still soldiering on kicking work, classic gaming, and general computing butt despite their GPUs being ready for the old chips' home. And now these days, I can actually play PC games streamed over my home network on my MacBook Pro with almost no latency thanks to Valve licensing Nvidia's Shield GameStream tech for Steam, and bringing Steam to Mac.

Frankly, I don't like the direction Apple is going in these days with locked down, untouchable hardware. People can talk about Steve walling off the Mac, but the day he died you could still customize the heck out of Apple's entire product line save iOS devices. With difficulty levels varying from a caveman could do it to technicians-only, granted, but it could still be done. Now? The inside of Macintosh is getting blocked off and locked down more and more with almost every revision. This isn't the Apple I knew from 1984 and on and I'm pretty unhappy with it because Apple and Apple products have been a huge part of my life since I was a little kid, and tinkering with Macs was something I liked so much I turned it into a source of supplemental income.

[Sneaky Snake]

Frost, on 22 October 2014 - 07:11 PM, said:

Yeah, I looked into a Hackintosh myself last year after the new Mac Pros were announced and they turned out to not be what I was looking for at all. More power to folks who get them running, but to me a Hackintosh just sounded like more trouble than it was worth. I'm in the macdude22 boat in that I'm at the point where I want my home computing environment as free of dicking around with stuff as possible. And realistically, Cypher and Chromium are still totally capable at filling my non-gaming and work needs, and they can still play all my Mac games that I still like to play. They were only falling short in being able to play the latest and greatest games (and I could use Mavericks server on a Mac Pro, but for the time being Leopard Server is still doing well on my PowerMac).

So, there I was with a bunch of money I'd saved for an expandable 2013 Mac Pro and no expandable Mac Pro to spend it on. So I could build my own PC, or spend about $350 more for the same configuration and have Falcon Northwest build it for me in their drool-worthy steel Tiki case and provide me with a 3 year end-to-end warranty with 1 year of overnight service and godly lifetime tech support (basically, AppleCare on steroids). That was worth the little extra to me and thus Kestrel was born. And as predicted, Cypher and Chromium are still soldiering on kicking work, classic gaming, and general computing butt despite their GPUs being ready for the old chips' home. And now these days, I can actually play PC games streamed over my home network on my MacBook Pro with almost no latency thanks to Valve licensing Nvidia's Shield GameStream tech for Steam, and bringing Steam to Mac.

Frankly, I don't like the direction Apple is going in these days with locked down, untouchable hardware. People can talk about Steve walling off the Mac, but the day he died you could still customize the heck out of Apple's entire product line save iOS devices. With difficulty levels varying from a caveman could do it to technicians-only, granted, but it could still be done. Now? The inside of Macintosh is getting blocked off and locked down more and more with almost every revision. This isn't the Apple I knew from 1984 and on and I'm pretty unhappy with it because Apple and Apple products have been a huge part of my life since I was a little kid, and tinkering with Macs was something I liked so much I turned it into a source of supplemental income.

I'm in total agreement. I like a lot of the new convenience features that Yosemite brings, but that's about it. It seems to be that Leopard was the pinnacle of my days on Mac - thanks to Rosetta with its support for Classic. Apple seemed to care about backwards compatibility back then, and the OS's seemed extremely powerful, but at the same time, not in your face like today's OS's. I have the Mac Pro 3,1 in my sig setup as a work desktop, but I find myself primarily using Chrome OS of all things as my day to day computer.

On the topic of Falcon Northwest, they make some beautiful computers. I'm considering moving two a double laptop setup - Chromebook for portability, Falcon NW TLX or DRX for Power (I LAN a lot, so having a gaming laptop would really be more convenient for me). What makes that combo extra compelling, is that I can sideload Steam OS onto the Chromebook, and then stream all of the games to my Chromebook

I'm a web analytics/web developer/blogger/SEO guy that works for a local marketing company, so all I really need for work is a web browser and an internet connection. I'm not tied to any OS, or even any physical machine for that matter. Every file I create is in the cloud, and I move seamlessly between my Chromebook, Ultrabook, Tulkas and Odin (sig). I'm finding myself being drawn to the low footprint of OS's like Chrome OS and Linux Distro's. Both Yosemite and Windows 8.1 just seem like they are trying to hard.

[ipickert55]

I personally have tinkered with the same Mac Pro since 2009. I got this baby when I was in 6th grade, and I've kept it in shape. If you can't change compnents anymore, then computers are going to have much shorter lifespans, which means youll have to buy them more often, and tbh, I wouldnt put it past apple to be planning for that.

[Frost]

Sneaky Snake, on 22 October 2014 - 07:34 PM, said:

On the topic of Falcon Northwest, they make some beautiful computers. I'm considering moving two a double laptop setup - Chromebook for portability, Falcon NW TLX or DRX for Power (I LAN a lot, so having a gaming laptop would really be more convenient for me). What makes that combo extra compelling, is that I can sideload Steam OS onto the Chromebook, and then stream all of the games to my Chromebook

They really do, and that was a reasonably big part I went with them. I can't stand the look of gaudy gaming PCs with neon lights and everything but plastic machineguns sticking out of the drive bays (*cough*Digital Storm*cough*), and Falcon's style reminded me of what I would expect Apple hardware styling to look like if they made gaming Macs. My Tiki fits right in with my Apple hardware and looks like it could be my PowerBook G3 WallStreet's microtower brother.

I hear you on LAN capability, which was the primary reason behind my going microtower. Desktop-grade components and capability, but still reasonably portable without being a 50+ pound behemoth like my PowerMac. Granted still not laptop-level portability though; it's not convenient taking it with me on trips, etc. But the Shield + GameStream fills that gap reasonably well, especially now that it's got the ability to hook into any available HDTV and act as a console with a wireless controller.

[Tetsuya]

same reason ive built all of my gaming rigs in Mini-ITX.  Not laptop portable, but very much easier to move and just as capable

[DaveyJJ]

Frost, on 21 October 2014 - 04:00 PM, said:

X-Plane with all settings on "Melt my GPU" in the options looks so good you find yourself disappointed that it doesn't look even better.

I hate you with a flaming passion. At least you didn't post a screen shoot to rub it in.

[the Battle Cat]

DaveyJJ, on 23 October 2014 - 04:52 AM, said:

I hate you with a flaming passion. At least you didn't post a screen shoot to rub it in.

The resolution and color pallet is too high for your grandpa monitor.  To even try to display his screenshot would make your CRT burst like a 500lb JDAM or your LED turn you into a Hiroshima sidewalk shadow, not to mention the GPU China syndrome.  You probably don't want your feet under your desk when you try to display it.

[Smoke_Tetsu]

Your CRT would output enough X-RAYS to turn you into a permanent skeleton halloween costume like the villians in the (original) Karate Kid wore.

[the Battle Cat]

Besides, your brain would crash.