I read the flight sim thread down below...I really got hooked on flight sim X a friend showed it to me...I have an old ibook and absolutely love the mac since my last windows was infected with viruses well you know the story. I think getting a sim would be a great investment especially to train on the instrument rating that I will seek in the future. So should I get a new mac and buy the latest version of x-plane or get a windows PC so that I could possibly use both flight sim X and X-plane? I think getting the windows might save me some $ since the new mac costs around $1100 or so. But I am pretty sure that I'd like to get hooked on a flight sim and the ibook although is very nice just doesn't have the power I need... any recs on a decent windows PC? I have been so out of the windows world for a long time!!

 

First of all... FSX is much better than Xplane ever will be. Vatsim adds a whole new dimension to the game as well - it's awesome. Some payware planes are great learning tools as well. Secondly, if you are not computer savvy, and checking email or browsing the web and cropping photos is all you do, then macs are good. More idiot proof.
If you like customizing things, tweaking, configuring, games, etc... Then get a PC.

PC's are cheaper for MUCH better performing parts. My friend and I just built a PC for him: 1 gig video card (radeon HD) 6 gigs of triple channel ram, core i7 CPU, asus motherboard, all aluminum case, 23 inch wide screen monitor... all for less than 1300. Try getting those specs with an Apple - for that price, not gonna happen.

I'm not knocking apples, I definitely like them, and think they have a good place in the market, especially for travelers. But if gaming is a hobby, get the PC. And the only reasons PC's get viruses is because of users being idiots. Especially with Vista, you have to blatantly click on YES, I WANT TO BE INFECTED in order to hose your OS with malware. Install AVG Free, don't turn off UAC, and you should be fine. (Vista or higher is needed for DX10 or higher as well - needed for some newer games, and makes FSX better as well)

Mac's are no more secure than PC's. The only reason they don't get viruses as much is because of hackers lack of interest. The business world is a windows world - and there are more bank accounts and credit cards to be stolen that way. If mac's get more popular, you will start to see them being exploited more.

Bottom line: NEVER INSTALL BLOATWARE, NEVER INSTALL STUPID "TOOLBARS" oR ANYTHING WITH THE WORD "SEARCH" in it. Install windows yourself, and keep it clean, and it will run great. It is the bloatware that is killing the PC manufacturers. Every time they come up with a faster CPU, they find a way to load the PC with a bunch of useless crap to make it slower than last years model. READ WHAT YOU ARE DOING, close any pop up windows with the X, and always get your windows updates. If installing anything, always do the "Custom" install, and take out any useless garbage that you don't need. (see: Toolbars, etc)

 

Im in the same boat, doing my instrument rating, my instructor rekons I should get Flight Sim. Ive got a mac, but I dont really rate X-Plane

 

I have a PC that runs FS2004 great but can't run FSX unless its on settings that look worse than FS2004. I also have a new MacBook and am setting up bootcamp right now - I'v heard that FSX runs very well on it.

 

I switched from PC to a Mac recently. If you've got an Intel based Mac, you can run Windows on it. Many people are not aware of this.

I have a Mac Pro and am able to run Windows on it via the Bootcamp feature of Mac. I've got Windows XP Professional on it and it works great. Also, I've got VMWare Fusion virtualization software on it that lets you run Windows side by side with OSX without having to reboot through Bootcamp. I have several Windows only programs that I couldn't do without, but it's not an issue with a Mac now.

If you have the money to pay the price of a MAC it's a slick setup. I run Mac OSX for web browsing, email, video editing, photos, music etc. I run FSX via Bootcamp (this allows all resources to dedicate to Windows) and Office, other Windows programs through VMWare Fusion side by side with OSX.


Running Windows on a Mac: Boot Camp, Parallels Desktop & VMware Fusion - Notebook Forums and Laptop Discussion

VMware Fusion: Run Windows on Mac, for Mac Desktop Virtualization