Gaming on the Dark Side - WoW on an Apple

Gaming on the dark side?   You are probably asking yourself "What is this fool talking about?"   Let me explain a little and provide a brief background.   I am talking about gaming on an Apple iMac.   GASP!!!   What?   Everyone knows Macs are not for gaming.   Macs are for tree huggers, hippies, academia, free spirits and graphic artists.   No serious computer person would ever use a Mac, never mind play a video game on one, would they?   To many using a Mac for games is almost as bad a scenario as Luke Skywalker turning to the Dark side of the force! It just isn't right!

Now that the basis premise is laid, let me go back and paint the full picture. Lets take a look at Apple, my very limited experience with them, and how why anyone would actually want to game on one.

Apple - "A Brief History"

iMac Front
 
Being a PC owner for the whole time Apple has developed and changed, I am not clear on all details.   If you would like a more in-depth view of Apple History than I can hope to provide you should check out these excellent sites:  .

Apple started selling computers way back in 1976 with the Apple I which was nothing more than a do it your self kit (as were many computers at that time).   Apple evolved over the years and the Apple IIe was releases in 1983.   The Apple IIc following in 1984 and was one of the first computers to be sold with a mouse and a GUI user interface.   Apple continued to evolve and established itself firmly in the world of academia with educational deals to schools.

Their systems continued to expand and improve, but Apples closed architecture and therefore higher price helped with the growing popularity of windows based computers and they soon fell to a distant second place in the computer market.   I have no firm idea why (other than possibly being first to market with graphics and graphic capability) but Apple established itself as the system to use for graphics work.   Therefore Macs have always had a history of being very good for the graphics industry and that has been the predominant area of their use other than schools.

iMac Rear
 
Until recently Apple has been using the PowerPC chip as their processor of choice.   Since last year however they have been publicly moving towards Intel as their processor.   Early this year the first Apple with an Intel chip was released in the form of the Apple iMac.   Now another Intel Mac has just been released in the form of the Apple MacBook Pro.   Both of these new Apples contain an Intel dual core processor ranging from 1.83ghz to 2ghz for the iMac and 2.16ghz for the MacBook Pro.   It would seem likely that the iMac will receive and upgrade shortly to the 2.16ghz CPU as well, although this has not been advertised and is completely my own speculation.

For any one that has not seen the newest version of the iMac the images in this section show the new iMac with Intel dual core. It's all one unit and when configured to be fully loaded is quite a machine having a 20" monitor, 2ghz dual core cpu, 2gb of memory, 500gb hard drive, dual layer DVD burner, 803.11g wireless, bluetooth, and much more. If ordered with the wireless keyboard and mouse you only need to plug one cable in (the power cord) and it is ready to use.