iMac or Custom build

[ZenX]

Well as the title states, I'm trying to decide between buying an entry level 21' iMac for $1300 or building up a highly upgradable gaming rig for $1500 that I will also be using on coding apps for iOS. (Hackintosh, VM etc. not part of the discussion to keep the thread open)

The build will contain the following:
Intel i7 3820 CPU
ASUS P9X79 Deluxe MB
Kingston 2x8GB HyperX Beast XMP RAM
ASUS GTX560 SE GPU
Xilence XP600 PSU
COOLER MASTER HAF X 942 Full Tower Casing
WD 3.5" 1TB Caviar Black Sata 3.0 64MB Cache 7200Rpm Harddisk

as its crucial parts.

So which one should I be going for? Thanks in advance

[noteworthynerd]

That's like comparing apples to oranges. Do you want a pretty good gaming PC that you can potentially upgrade down the road or do you want an All-In-One that will play games poorly at best?

If you go with your build you should downgrade the CPU (you don't need a 3820 to code) and the motherboard, the RAM is overkill, the GPU is a generation old (and wasn't very good when it was new), and the PSU is not great quality-wise. I would recommend taking a look at Marest's Gaming 1340 build.

[vesseblah]

In addition to your setup being really poorly balanced (explained more thoroughly above) iOS development without real Mac is a pain in the ass because you have to be using OSX. On the other hand the entry level iMac will suck donkey balls for gaming. You're in very tight spot there and either have to give up iOS development or high end gaming. Or double the budget.

[chazus]

Why not get a $1100 gaming rig and a cheap mac for coding?

[Deleted]

neither of those choices make sense.
decide first what the primary focus of the rig will be and tailor a good custom made part selection for it via forums here.
with a mac there isn't any choice in hardware pretty much.
also if you just need a mac for coding perhaps score some older model MBP second hand for cheap?

[TechGnosis]

Get a good gaming rig, but fix your issues (see previous posters) to save a bit of green, then buy a super baseline cheap (used even) Mac Mini.

[ZenX]

That's like comparing apples to oranges. Do you want a pretty good gaming PC that you can potentially upgrade down the road or do you want an All-In-One that will play games poorly at best?

If you go with your build you should downgrade the CPU (you don't need a 3820 to code) and the motherboard, the RAM is overkill, the GPU is a generation old (and wasn't very good when it was new), and the PSU is not great quality-wise. I would recommend taking a look at Marest's Gaming 1340 build.

It is definitely not a good the only real reason for me to go with 3820 is due it being the cheapest 2011-socket chip available as I'm aiming for an enthusiast build in the future when Broadwell ships for which I aimed the MB (Couldn't really find Sabertooth MBs in my country) and the case to be better parts which I could use for 3-4 years.

But thanks, now I'm leaning more over the iMac.

[Cyanotical]

i'd go with the base model mac mini for coding, iOS coding requires zero power, so basically if it turns on, you can code with it

i'd also wait on a gaming computer till june/july when haswell comes out, buy the haswell i5/i7 and a good GPU, and you should be set for a few years, with only a GPU upgrade needed in 1-2 years

[Deleted]

It is definitely not a good the only real reason for me to go with 3820 is due it being the cheapest 2011-socket chip available as I'm aiming for an enthusiast build in the future when Broadwell ships for which I aimed the MB (Couldn't really find Sabertooth MBs in my country) and the case to be better parts which I could use for 3-4 years.

But thanks, now I'm leaning more over the iMac.

why do you want/need a 2011 socket?
also the mentioning of sabertooth mobo's. while they look awesome they offer nothing extra compared to boards that cost $50 less. (unless looks matter that much)
it is no more future proof for just gaming compared to a 3570k/3770k. (maybe it will change with newer gen consoles but nothing drastic)
just so you know with an imac you are getting a screen with laptop hardware and no upgrade options besides perhaps hdd to ssd. (and to throw any kind of gaming out of the window on the performance side of things)
as for the topic it is impossible to give a proper answer if we don't know what the primary function of the machine is going to be.

[ZenX]

why do you want/need a 2011 socket?
also the mentioning of sabertooth mobo's. while they look awesome they offer nothing extra compared to boards that cost $50 less. (unless looks matter that much)
it is no more future proof for just gaming compared to a 3570k/3770k. (maybe it will change with newer gen consoles but nothing drastic)
just so you know with an imac you are getting a screen with laptop hardware and no upgrade options besides perhaps hdd to ssd. (and to throw any kind of gaming out of the window on the performance side of things)
as for the topic it is impossible to give a proper answer if we don't know what the primary function of the machine is going to be.

Starting with Broadwell Intel will be shipping the chips integrated with their own MBs except for the 2011 socket ones (aka the enthusiast chipset) so if I buy a (perhaps) much cheaper 1155 with a 3570k in around 14 months I won't be able to upgrade to Broadwell.

I want to code iOS as well as desire my iPad and iPhone to be synched with my computer and occasionally play WoW and SC on the machine and will be working on parallel programming of GPUs in 9 months for my master's thesis.

P.S: The cheapest mac mini I can get costs me at least $600 (Apple products are bit expensive in my country).

[Idrinkwhiterussians]

More than likely, the socket 2011 will be old news come the new enthusiast chips. There is NO reason to buy into them now.

[noteworthynerd]

More than likely, the socket 2011 will be old news come the new enthusiast chips. There is NO reason to buy into them now.

This. The regular Haswell/Broadwell use a new socket so there's a possibility that Haswell/Broadwell-E will as well. The rumors right now say they'll stick to a 2011 socket, but those are just rumors.

[vesseblah]

so if I buy a (perhaps) much cheaper 1155 with a 3570k in around 14 months I won't be able to upgrade to Broadwell.

Haswell chips are released in three weeks with socket 1150 board, it's 100% sure you will not be able to upgrade to Broadwell.

P.S: The cheapest mac mini I can get costs me at least $600 (Apple products are bit expensive in my country).

Check also for used. Programming dont need that much raw power.

[Deleted]

i fail to see how this answers the question of why you want/need a 2011 socket cpu?
why would you need a broadwell cpu aswell? (there is nothing known about it except some chips are going to soldered to a mobo iirc)

[Deleted]

Go for the gaming rig. Real programmers use linux / hackintosh VM.

[vesseblah]

Real programmers use linux / hackintosh VM.

So much for FOSS ideology... People use linux simply because they're cheap and are willing to pirate other OSes when theirs isn't enough.

[ZenX]

i fail to see how this answers the question of why you want/need a 2011 socket cpu?
why would you need a broadwell cpu aswell? (there is nothing known about it except some chips are going to soldered to a mobo iirc)

All the improvement about vector processing and such aside, its not about the chip being broadwell but its rather about upgradability. If I stick with the 1155 I will not be able to upgrade my CPU with anything newer than the 3rd gen CPUs. However, if I go 2011 I high probably will have the option of upgrading it for 3-4 more years.
It may be 15% of difference between a tick and tock, however, supposing it is a tick-tock-tick in between and upgrade with the same scaling in performance then we are talking about an approximate o 22% increase in performance with a single CPU change so it is important for me to collect a rig that is upgradable.

[Belize]

That's like comparing apples to oranges. Do you want a pretty good gaming PC that you can potentially upgrade down the road or do you want an All-In-One that will play games poorly at best?

If you go with your build you should downgrade the CPU (you don't need a 3820 to code) and the motherboard, the RAM is overkill, the GPU is a generation old (and wasn't very good when it was new), and the PSU is not great quality-wise. I would recommend taking a look at Marest's Gaming 1340 build.

First pun I've ever liked in my life.

OT: Here's the fun part of a custom gaming rig: get another HDD (or SSD if you watch to spend more money) and put whatever IOS you want on it. It's not hard to switch booting between the two. Also, Chazus: There is no "cheap mac", I think the most basic one will make you cough up 900$. It's cheaper than they were 5 years ago, but that also pays a really nice GPU and an extra SSD ;D

[DeathKnight Guy]

From what I read, you are mainly interested in playing Blizzard games, like WoW and Sc2. If you still intend on purchasing a mac, then I can comfortably tell you that those games will run on medium to high settings fine.

I use the new Macbook Pro retina, and I can run wow on ultra and Sc2 on medium-high. Although if you are going to go for more "graphically" intense games, then it won't run too smooth. Although that, you can get used to it. For example I can play the Witcher 2 on a low-medium setting and it plays great.
Lots of games are staring to get made with OSX in mind, and older games are starting to get great ports.

Steam is also available, so I wouldn't worry too much about the games selection, unless of course you are really into a VAST variety of indie games.

By the way, my mac has 8GB ram, i7 quad core, 250GB SSD. It doesn't compete that well with other windows computers. But if you plan on playing a select few games, you won't have an issue.

[Klutzington]

P.S: The cheapest mac mini I can get costs me at least $600 (Apple products are bit expensive in my country).

They're like that everywhere....