Fed up with Windows!!!! Switching sides

Okay,,, I've had it with all the virus threats. I'm at the point that I have to get a new machine and I'm seriously considering swinging over to the MAC side.

SL and EVE are the "ONLY",, online games I'm involved with. If I do go over to MAC, I'm planning on getting a Mac Pro.

What I need from all of you Mac veterans is a configuration that will work with SL!!!! I'm tired of fighting with required components, memory issues, ect.

How should I have a Mac Pro configured for optimum SL performance????

Thanks in advance for you help.

Just one thing to keep in mind: we people with Macs are not at all impervious to virii. There's really only one reason we've been less affected by them, and that is because most evildoers don't want to waste their time creating malware for a platform with a much smaller market share. They're like arsonists in that they want to do BIG damage.

My MacBook Pro required no special configurations to run SL effectively out of the box. I'll leave it to others to give yo some specific advice in that regard.

The Mac Pro is massive overkill for SL. Unless you have something else you're planning on running that can take advantage of its multiple processors, you'll get nearly the same performance from an iMac for about half the price.

Not true. There are several features of the design of Windows and the application suite it ships with that make it far more susceptible to attack. Mac OS used to be even worse, and back in the late '80s and early '90s Mac OS had a significant virus ecosystem, despite never being more than a minor part of the market. Getting rid of autorun features was the biggest thing they did to clean it up, and Microsoft's continual refusal to back down on their collection of autorun vectors (several of which are inherent to the design of IE and Windows Explorer) means that even if Windows was a minor part of the market they would still bear the largest part of the malware load.

The main reason I wanted to go withe the Mac Pro is that I have a 30" monitor that I want to keep using. I believe the largest size monitor the iMac offers is 24". And to have the iMac with its screen just sitting there even if i hook up my 30" to it just doesn't seem right to me.

Yah, Apple really needs to make a "semipro" headless desktop. But Apple moves slowly... look how long it took for Steve to go from "No ugly monitors on nice Macs" to the Mac mini.

Zak, you say most evildoers don't want to waste their time creating malware for a platform with a much smaller market share. The real issue here is that the Mac OS is based on UNIX which is highly secure and is way beyond the abilities of the script kiddies to fuddle with. If you are at the level of being a competent Unix programmer, you're making serious money with a corporation like banks, governments, institutions, etc. that use the platform for their most secure needs.

As a side note, I just read a report in Fortune online that indicates for all computers bought that are over $1000 USD price, 66% are macs (2008 figures).

if you want to get away from windows without having to buy new hardware, and still run SL... www.opensuse.org. (or any other linux).

I am totally in agreement with you folks who say that Macs are less susceptible to malicious attacks, and that they are harder to create for a UNIX-based platform. As a Mac user since 1984, I am well aware of that. But the fact is that we have been fortunate in that having a smaller market share makes us a less attractive target. If Macs had been the predominant personal computer, you know well that more people would have spent time finding ways to hurt them.

Now that those patterns are well established, it's even less likely that someone would spend a lot of time trying to screw up the Macs of the world. But please, don't buy into the idea that we're impervious to attack... that's just not true at all.

Much as I would like to agree, I don't think that the underlying differences between UNIX and NT are nearly as big a deal as the application level problems in Windows.

If Microsoft had backed down and removed IE from Windows in 1998 or so, the virus problem on Windows would be an order of magnitude less.

I sho ain't jumping in your posts, Zak. Dude, welcome to the Mac world. And no viruses is a wonderful thing, no malware, nothing. I ain't never seen one, though it isn't impossible, the odds are HIGHLY against you ever seeing one either.

My only suggestions, LOTS of RAM both for the system and the video, and you'll be fine. We run SL on several kinds of Macs in this home and in my studio, from an aging G5 Dual 1.8 with a 256MB video card and 3GB of RAM (which SL runs lovely on), to my wife's stock MacBook Intel Core 2 Duo with a 64MB card and shared video, and it actually runs great on it. But whoooweeeee you should see it run on my Mac Pro with the big 30" cinema display. That's the fun stuff right there.

can't beat linux for the price... even though OSX is much better.

whats wrong with dual screens? it would be awesome. make the 30 inch your main screen, and have the iMac right beside it as the secondary screen, and just use both screens... why limit yourself to one? of course the best iMac you can get right now still wont hold a candle to a decked out and double the price Mac Pro... if you can afford the Mac Pro, I'd get that too.... just be sure your gonna use the horsepower. If all your gonna do tough on it is SL and Eve (even at the same time) its not gonna be pushed too hard if you have the radeon 4870 in it... can only get up to a 4850 in the iMac.

I'd go for like... single quad core 2.66ghz (which are i7 based so rips apart any other 2.66ghz), 6gb of ram (upgrade myself, Apple charges too much), radeon 4870 512mb...

its a great machine, but its a workstation and has extra price tags... would cost close to 3 grand... the iMacs processors aren't nearly as good as the mac pro, but they are no slouch... I would have trouble deciding on that over the 24" iMac with a 3.06 and the radeon 4850... much prettier machine with a monitor for like 800 to 900 less... ahhh.. glad I'm not having to buy, tough choice

So are you saying that either machine with the Radeon cards will handle SL with no problems? I want to be able to max out all SL settings.

I've also been looking at the Falcon NorthWest Mach 5 PC. That machine is also in the $3,500.00 price range but there's a question regarding SL still not supporting the new 2X GeForce GTX 285 Nvidia cards.

If you can afford the Mac Pro, go for it. Dual screens do have some impact on performance, and spare CPU power never hurt. It *is* hot, though. More of a computer for Minnesota than Texas, if you know what I mean.

the 4850 in the imac or the 4870 in the Mac Pro should handle SL... my Macbook Pro has a Geforce 9600GT and it can run Ultra... and its not as fast as either of those cards.

Maxing out Sl settings isn't going to be possible in all areas, no matter what machine you have, but there would be very few places and scenarios where you'd have an issue.

The Mac pro has extremely fast processors, that Falcon Northwest may get close to... but doesn't go quite as high in the graphic card choices as Falcon Northwest will.

If you want a Mac that is a kick butt Mac that can run SL great and other things.. the Mac Pro is awesome. If you just want a computer, whatever, and do still like SL and games... could have money better spent in the Windows world with the right research and decisions.