

#41
Posted 22 October 2014 - 07:16 AM
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.
#42
Posted 22 October 2014 - 07:11 PM
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.
Iridium (MacBook Pro Mid-2012) – 2.7 GHz i7 3820QM / 16GB RAM / 4TB Samsung 860 Pro / GeForce GT 650M 1GB
When there's a multiplayer version, I'm going to be on Frost's team. Well, except he doesn't seem to actually need a team...I mean, what's the point? "Hey look, it's Frost and His Merry Gang of Useless Hangers-On!" Or something.
#43
Posted 22 October 2014 - 07:34 PM
Frost, on 22 October 2014 - 07:11 PM, said:
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.
Gaming Build: i5 8400 || Vega 56 || 16 GB DDR4 || 960 Evo NVMe || Win10 Pro
Other: 30TB Plex Server || Xbox One X || PS4 Pro || iPhone X
#44
Posted 22 October 2014 - 10:53 PM
#45
Posted 22 October 2014 - 11:26 PM
Sneaky Snake, on 22 October 2014 - 07:34 PM, said:
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.
Iridium (MacBook Pro Mid-2012) – 2.7 GHz i7 3820QM / 16GB RAM / 4TB Samsung 860 Pro / GeForce GT 650M 1GB
When there's a multiplayer version, I'm going to be on Frost's team. Well, except he doesn't seem to actually need a team...I mean, what's the point? "Hey look, it's Frost and His Merry Gang of Useless Hangers-On!" Or something.
#46
Posted 23 October 2014 - 04:42 AM
#47
Posted 23 October 2014 - 04:52 AM
Frost, on 21 October 2014 - 04:00 PM, said:

I hate you with a flaming passion. At least you didn't post a screen shoot to rub it in.
Raven 27" i3 iMac 3.2GHz | 12GB RAM | 1TB HD | 512MB 5670 ATI Radeon HD
Crow iPad 2 | 32GB WiFi
"Not my circus, not my monkeys." -- Polish folk saying
"In ancient times cats were worshipped as gods; they have not forgotten this." -- Terry Pratchett
"I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul." -- Jean Cocteau
#48
Posted 24 October 2014 - 05:21 PM
DaveyJJ, on 23 October 2014 - 04:52 AM, said:
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.
the Battle Cat
#49
Posted 24 October 2014 - 05:23 PM

Alex Delarg, A Clockwork Orange said:
the Battle Cat said:
Late 2012 27 inch iMac, Core i7 Quad 3.4GHz, 16GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce GTX 680MX 2GB, 3TB HDD - Mavericks
Late 2009 27 inch iMac, Core i5 2.6GHz, 12GB RAM, ATI Radeon 4850HD 512MB, 1TB HDD - Mavericks
Mac Mini, PowerPC G4 1.4Ghz, 1GB RAM, Radeon 9200 32MB, 256GB HDD - Leopard
Dell Inspiron 1200 Notebook: 1.2GHz Celeron, 1.2GB RAM, Intel GMA915, 75GB HDD - Ubuntu
Generic Black Tower PC, Dual Core 64-bit 2.4GHz, 4GB RAM, GeForce 9600 GT 512MB - Windows 7