Whats a better buy, alienware or imac?..
Discussion
Buying one of these two tomorrow, whats your opinion on being the better machine?...
https://m.dell.com/h5/m/r/outlet.euro.dell.com/Onl...
Or
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/APPLE-iMac-5K-27-2019-I...
https://m.dell.com/h5/m/r/outlet.euro.dell.com/Onl...
Or
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/APPLE-iMac-5K-27-2019-I...
Even as a Mac fan, I'd go for the Alienware - unless you NEED to run MacOS.
I'd stay away from any Mac that has a 1TB Fusion drive as it's as slow as Jabba The Hutt doing the 100 metres with the latest OSes. If you must buy a Mac, then an SSD or a 2TB Fusion is where you need to be (the 1TB has a tiny 32gb SSD, the 2/3TB has a 128GB SSD).
The 8th Gen i5 chip in the iMac is probably no faster overall than the Gen10 i3 in the Alienware. You get 6 slower cores (6x3.0ghz) in the iMac vs 4 faster cores (4x3.6ghz) in the Alienware - so single-threaded performance goes the way of the Alienware, and multi-threaded the way of the iMac.
The GPU in the iMac is also not a desktop GPU, it's built for laptops due to it's lower power draw and heat - so don't expect it to perform like a full-fledged RX570 (it's about 30% slower than that, and 15% slower than the 1650 in the Alienware).
Even buying a decent 27/32" monitor you'll end up paying less than the iMac, and be able to upgrade/repair it mush easier.
I'd stay away from any Mac that has a 1TB Fusion drive as it's as slow as Jabba The Hutt doing the 100 metres with the latest OSes. If you must buy a Mac, then an SSD or a 2TB Fusion is where you need to be (the 1TB has a tiny 32gb SSD, the 2/3TB has a 128GB SSD).
The 8th Gen i5 chip in the iMac is probably no faster overall than the Gen10 i3 in the Alienware. You get 6 slower cores (6x3.0ghz) in the iMac vs 4 faster cores (4x3.6ghz) in the Alienware - so single-threaded performance goes the way of the Alienware, and multi-threaded the way of the iMac.
The GPU in the iMac is also not a desktop GPU, it's built for laptops due to it's lower power draw and heat - so don't expect it to perform like a full-fledged RX570 (it's about 30% slower than that, and 15% slower than the 1650 in the Alienware).
Even buying a decent 27/32" monitor you'll end up paying less than the iMac, and be able to upgrade/repair it mush easier.
Edited by mmm-five on Wednesday 28th October 09:34
mmm-five said:
Even as a Mac fan, I'd go for the Alienware - unless you NEED to run MacOS.
I'd stay away from any Mac that has a 1TB Fusion drive as it's as slow as Jabba The Hutt doing the 100 metres with the latest OSes. If you must buy a Mac, then an SSD or a 2TB Fusion is where you need to be (the 1TB has a tiny 32gb SSD, the 2/3TB has a 128GB SSD).
The 8th Gen i5 chip in the iMac is probably no faster overall than the Gen10 i3 in the Alienware. You get 6 slower cores (6x3.0ghz) in the iMac vs 4 faster cores (4x3.6ghz) in the Alienware - so single-threaded performance goes the way of the Alienware, and multi-threaded the way of the iMac.
The GPU in the iMac is also not a desktop GPU, it's built for laptops due to it's lower power draw and heat - so don't expect it to perform like a full-fledged RX570 (it's about 30% slower than that, and 15% slower than the 1650 in the Alienware).
Even buying a decent 27/32" monitor you'll end up paying less than the iMac, and be able to upgrade/repair it mush easier.
Ah so on stats the alienware is more powerful?I'd stay away from any Mac that has a 1TB Fusion drive as it's as slow as Jabba The Hutt doing the 100 metres with the latest OSes. If you must buy a Mac, then an SSD or a 2TB Fusion is where you need to be (the 1TB has a tiny 32gb SSD, the 2/3TB has a 128GB SSD).
The 8th Gen i5 chip in the iMac is probably no faster overall than the Gen10 i3 in the Alienware. You get 6 slower cores (6x3.0ghz) in the iMac vs 4 faster cores (4x3.6ghz) in the Alienware - so single-threaded performance goes the way of the Alienware, and multi-threaded the way of the iMac.
The GPU in the iMac is also not a desktop GPU, it's built for laptops due to it's lower power draw and heat - so don't expect it to perform like a full-fledged RX570 (it's about 30% slower than that, and 15% slower than the 1650 in the Alienware).
Even buying a decent 27/32" monitor you'll end up paying less than the iMac, and be able to upgrade/repair it mush easier.
Edited by mmm-five on Wednesday 28th October 09:34
D1on said:
Ah so on stats the alienware is more powerful?
If you can stretch another £150 then there are more powerful options on dell outlet:XPS
Aurora R11
Posting this from my Area 51 R4 I purchased through Dell outlet
Jinx said:
Unless the OP is after the 'gaming' look, the XPS is the much better value of the two (i.e. double the RAM, double the SSD, extra HDD, better GPU, better CPU).Edited by mmm-five on Wednesday 28th October 12:09
D1on said:
It'll be used for general use, photo editing and some web design...
I know its strange but I've always fancied an alienware, the mac looks decent value though...
I don't use macs myself (always been a bit of a gamer so PC has always made more sense) - my brother though is apple through and through (macs, ipads, ipods, iphones, apple tv, apple AirPort). Whilst they are definitely pretty it does make me laugh how much he has had to make use of bootcamp (which won't be an option with Apple's move to ARM) . I know its strange but I've always fancied an alienware, the mac looks decent value though...
My big concern with apple will be the move to ARM and them abandoning x86 in the same way they abandoned PowerPC when they adopted intel (2006-2007). Back then they at least had Rosetta to ease the pain but will they offer any such assistance this time (outside of x86 vitualisation)?
You could end up with a dead end piece of tech with no support that you spent a bag of sand on.
With PCs you can still upgrade components to the latest and greatest as needed (GPU's, HDD to SSD or NVME, upgrade RAM, upgrade your monitor) but for your use-case the mac will probably give a good few years of service.
I suppose the benefit of an Intel iMac is that you have the option to run MacOS/W10 or both.
You won't find an Apple-supported method to run MacOS on a Windows PC.
I bought iMac specifically for their dual-boot capability, and still have clients who specifically ask me to work on MacOS or Windows for compatibility sakes.
I can't say MacOS or W10 is more reliable as I've had no major issues with either (had a dodgy W10 update and a couple of driver issues, but that's probably down to the driver assuming it was on a proper Windows box not a Mac).
I only have the built-in AV/security on both OSes too.
Even saying all that, I still suggest the OP gets one of the refurb Dell machines - unless he really likes the look of the iMac over the Alienware, and is never planning on running modern games (you'll be lucky to see 40FPS on that iMac in 1440p...and it's a 5k screen, so will usually be running at a 2x scaled resolution).
You won't find an Apple-supported method to run MacOS on a Windows PC.
I bought iMac specifically for their dual-boot capability, and still have clients who specifically ask me to work on MacOS or Windows for compatibility sakes.
I can't say MacOS or W10 is more reliable as I've had no major issues with either (had a dodgy W10 update and a couple of driver issues, but that's probably down to the driver assuming it was on a proper Windows box not a Mac).
I only have the built-in AV/security on both OSes too.
Even saying all that, I still suggest the OP gets one of the refurb Dell machines - unless he really likes the look of the iMac over the Alienware, and is never planning on running modern games (you'll be lucky to see 40FPS on that iMac in 1440p...and it's a 5k screen, so will usually be running at a 2x scaled resolution).
Jinx said:
I don't use macs myself (always been a bit of a gamer so PC has always made more sense) - my brother though is apple through and through (macs, ipads, ipods, iphones, apple tv, apple AirPort). Whilst they are definitely pretty it does make me laugh how much he has had to make use of bootcamp (which won't be an option with Apple's move to ARM) .
My big concern with apple will be the move to ARM and them abandoning x86 in the same way they abandoned PowerPC when they adopted intel (2006-2007). Back then they at least had Rosetta to ease the pain but will they offer any such assistance this time (outside of x86 vitualisation)?
You could end up with a dead end piece of tech with no support that you spent a bag of sand on.
Rosetta 2 is coming to help the transition, and Windows already runs on ARM (e.g. on the Surface Pro X), so it might not be much of a stretch for Apple to make ARM Bootcamp a possibility - if they decide it's worthwhile of course.My big concern with apple will be the move to ARM and them abandoning x86 in the same way they abandoned PowerPC when they adopted intel (2006-2007). Back then they at least had Rosetta to ease the pain but will they offer any such assistance this time (outside of x86 vitualisation)?
You could end up with a dead end piece of tech with no support that you spent a bag of sand on.
Jinx said:
With PCs you can still upgrade components to the latest and greatest as needed (GPU's, HDD to SSD or NVME, upgrade RAM, upgrade your monitor) but for your use-case the mac will probably give a good few years of service.
That's the big issue with Macs, and has been since the original Intel MacPros were deprecated...they're what I was using for a long time until my 30" Cinema Display died and I decided to buy a top-of-the-line (in 2015) 5k iMac instead.My MacPros are still alive, and sort of well, being used by family members (all have SATA SSDs and decent sized HDDs with plenty of memory) - but the graphics cards are what's stopping them being 'good' any more...and eventually the OSes won't support them...then some apps/browsers will stop working, and they'll be left in a corner as a table.
D1on said:
Thanks for the advice guys, ended up going for the imac, never had a mac before and figured for a 2019 5k brand new £1250 wasn't bad.
il get an ssd and put more ram in...
Enjoy - I'm sure you'll look fetching in a black turtle-neck il get an ssd and put more ram in...
Seriously though I'm sure it will serve your purposes admirably and you can still get games through Steam on a mac (just click the platform preference).
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