Best NON-Windows box for WoW

[Vinny]

Hello folks,

In a few months I'm buying a new house, at that point, I'm buying a new computer mainly for playing WoW and general multimedia stuff and internet surfing.

I want to know one simple thing... without using Windows (I have ubuntu on my laptop right now, love it) whats the best machine for WoW specifically, linux home-build or a Mac?

I have been DYING to buy a Mac for years, and the new iMac's are just so beautiful, and I know for a fact they run WoW perfectly, not to mention are multimedia monsters.

However, if I was to build my own box using Linux (probably ubuntu again) could I build one cheaper that will run WoW BETTER?

I know both an iMac and my own built ubuntu machine will do all my multimedia apps with no problems at all. I don't use a single microsoft application, in fact I despise microsoft... so it really comes down to price point and actually gaming power.

Any opinions would be great!

~Vinny

[pam123]

Far be it from me to discourage you from buying a Mac, I want one too, but World Of Warcraft now runs quite well on Linux thanks to Hardy Heron and the latest WINE release.
Check this out : http://www.vgpro.com/article/5_kille...playable_on_ub

[Vinny]

that is very encouraging, thank you for the article!!

I don't know though... I just... can't... resist the iMac

It's just so stinking sexy!!

And the price is incredible, truly incredible. Even going with a free OS I think I'd still be paying more building the box myself to get the same performance... or am I just crazy?

I mean, if I build the box, it's going to be 64 bit quad core, going to have at least 4gigs of RAM, HAVE to have at least a 22" LCD (can't settle for less when comparing to the iMac) and the graphics card will naturally have to be top notch... can I actually beat the iMac performance and still cram all that into the build at a lower price point?

I'd like to stay in the $2,000 and under range (my wife will literally KILL me when I tell her how much I'm spending on a new computer when I own a desktop and laptop now that she considers perfectly fine... I really need to get her into gaming so she sees the necessity for performance peaking )

Thoughts?

Thanks!!

~V

[pam123]

I understand the Mac temptation.
I don't have any performance figures for you though .
Nothing's out that compares a Mac to, say a Dell gamer.


edit : You should certainly be able to beat the Dell price/performance-wise with a home build.

[Vinny]

Linux is great, I'm loving ubuntu on my laptop... but as yet I'm just using it for web browsing and writing in open office. I know for a fact, and that article you linked confirms it, that running stuff like WoW requires some tweaking... and I'm an addon junkie when it comes to WoW, and i know those take a LOT of tweaking to get working in linux.

man... this is a tough call. I think I may just buck up and buy the iMac since it runs WoW perfectly straight out of the box and the software that comes with (iLife etc.) is just awesome.

I'd love to build my own box from scratch, but I don't know how long I can continue denying my Mac temptation

I wonder if iMac prices will drop in a few months

[Force Flow]

Doubtful that we'll see a price drop.

1) I just saw a tech headline that apple is going to bump up the specs on the imac line. That means either the same price or slightly more.

2) did you happen to see drisley's price comparison article: http://www.pcmech.com/article/is-the-mac-overpriced/

Granted, if you build a custom box right, you'll probably end up with better specs for roughly the same price. But, component for component, it looks like there isn't much price inflation on the hardware.

[Vinny]

Even if there's no price drop I'm still interested.

I'm big on opensource and free ware, but the software that is built into the Mac just fits my lifestyle and wants for a high performance machine.

I'll keep an eye on the iMac line moving forward, but at the time, I think i'm set on having my laptop being linux and going iMac for my next desktop. I've been wanting and iMac for longer than I can remember, I really don't think I can resist much longer.

Thank you both for your input!!!

~V