12-16-2006, 08:56 PM

my son has been playing flight simulator x and call of duty on my computer via bootcamp. I want to get him a mac on ebay.

Would a mac mini 1.6 duo run these games better than a pentium 4 3.0 with a nvidia 5200?

Also I know the mini uses the system ram for graphics, if I put more RAM in it will the gpu use more or will it stay at 64 MB? Can you change the amount of RAM it uses?

12-17-2006, 09:55 PM

Id forget the macmini right now unless space is of a premium and you just want a mac for working.
On a good day you can pickup a 17" intel core duo on ebay for £500. So, sell the monitor you were going to use for the £399 mini and you get enough to buy it so your son can play COD etc much more effectively and be assured that he is getting a much better mac for the money.
Feel free to post any links you find and i can help you judge wether the auction is trustworthy or not. :-)

12-18-2006, 10:10 PM

Can you upgrade the graphics on the imac?

the high end 1.83 mini and the low end imac share the same graphics.

12-18-2006, 10:24 PM

AFAIK, only the 20" & the 24" have upgradeable Graphics. But Apple's quoted prices are for production line orders only.

12-19-2006, 01:21 AM

Yeah, dont bother with the educational model. Get the 1.83ghz dual core 17" imac with radeon x1600. For the price it is a much better buy than even a top end 1.83ghz mac mini even with maxed out ram.
If nowhere else, try the refurb store on the apple website