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Started 1 year ago by 10sun
Latest reply from 10sun

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10sun
Columbus, OH
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So I am a gamer, but I really like form factor PCs rather than towers; as a result, I prefer to pick up overpowered HTPCs.

I am between 3 options & crowdsourcing decisions.

$500 Dell Zino 410 (AMD X2 P360@2.3GHz, 4gb ram, ATI HD 5450 MXM)
$700 MacMini (Intel Core 2 Duo@2.4GHz, 2gb ram, GeForce 320M)
$750 ASRock Vision 3D (Intel Core i3-370M@2.4GHz, 4gb ram, GeForce GT 425M)

Does anybody have any experience with any of these particular computers or components?

I would like to be able to play some newer games on medium graphic settings mid resolution, but I'd be happy to trade that off for reliability & low settings/resolution.

Anybody have any better suggestions? I'd rather buy pre-built at this point in my life.
Oh. I will not consider Shuttle for the following reasons: fried components due to PSU failure on my SN25P, tech support complete failure with box prior to SN25P, absurdly long telephone calls many times while attempting the RMA process.

Posted 1 year ago #
Chris Sherman
East Franklinton
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Your a dork.

Posted 1 year ago #
hugh59
Aboard the ultimate power in Olde Towne East
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I wish I could help, but I currently own three mid-sized towers that I built myself and a few laptops. Or is it four mid-sized towers? Let me go and count. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Help!!!!!

Posted 1 year ago #
Anne
King Lincoln
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MacMinis are cute!

Posted 1 year ago #
futureman
Grandview Heights
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Just looking at the specs the ASRock Vision 3D is the best of three.

Posted 1 year ago #
sixby9is42

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If onboard video is fine, I would suggest the Echo II from Puget Systems for around $850 (Intel Dual Core i3-2100 [3.1GHz], 4GB RAM). Puget Systems has a great reputation for reliability and customer support.

http://www.pugetsystems.com/nav/echo/II/customize.php

Posted 1 year ago #
Lakee911
Clintonville (South)
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They say, once you go Mac, you don't go back ... I'd certainly load it up with lots of RAM (2GB seems like very little to me).

Posted 1 year ago #
Mister Shifter
Lewis Center
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If he's using it for gaming, he's probably not looking for a mac. This coming from a mac user with a 27" quad core iMac. Their support for games isn't quite where it needs to be yet, plus the Mac Mini's graphics chips aren't powerful enough.

Posted 1 year ago #
Lakee911
Clintonville (South)
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Mister Shifter wrote >>
If he's using it for gaming, he's probably not looking for a mac. This coming from a mac user with a 27" quad core iMac. Their support for games isn't quite where it needs to be yet, plus the Mac Mini's graphics chips aren't powerful enough.

Re: gaming on a Mac, that's what I thought too, but he's the one that put it on his list. :) I know a few peeps who load Windoze on their Macs. I figured maybe that is his plan. As for the graphics card, I don't know much about the Mini's, but if its not up to snuff, maybe its a bad choice.

Posted 1 year ago #
sixby9is42

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I should have asked this earlier: what is the most you are willing to spend?

Posted 1 year ago #
Roland
Clintonville
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I have one of the newer Mac Mini's that's hooked up to the TV. I use it mostly for playing media. It's the most flexible option I've tried that also doesn't experience hiccups while streaming 1080p media over the home network. It is also completely silent.

Best media player option out there without a doubt.

As far as games go, I don't have much experience with it other than playing Warcraft on it. Which wasn't really impressive.

Bottom line is that Mac running Plex is seriously awesome.

Posted 1 year ago #
Walker
The KLD / Downtown
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My HTPC is running on a mac mini, and I love it. Controlling it remotely via mac laptop with the screen sharing function built into OSX make it really easy to use. It's also a great way to have external hard drives accessible wirelessly on the home network without having to sit down and physically plug them into your laptop. Also works great for Time Machine.

As far as gaming goes, I've never tried it on the mac mini, but would agree with Mister Shifter: Probably not powerful enough. I don't think many small-form HTPC systems are designed to have high-end graphics cards with dedicated memory for running more modern games.

That being said, gaming has come a long way on OSX in the past few years. Running a dual-boot system for Windows is simple enough, and I manage to play games via Steam very easily since it was rolled out via OSX. Though it's really making me want a new laptop. My 5-year old MacbookPro can't handle anything released in the past year or two. ;)

Posted 1 year ago #
10sun
Columbus, OH
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I actually game a little bit on my MacBook w/ bootcamp & parallels.

Price is a factor; I would prefer to keep it under $800, but anything less is more money in my pocket.

I appreciate the insight everybody has provided.

Posted 1 year ago #