Pathways was the first Bungie game that I KNOW I played and I knew who made it, which is why I was excited about Marathon when it came out. I may have played Minotaur, the box is familiar to me, maybe I just lusted for it in those mail order mac catalogues. I probably played Gnop! with it being free and all, but I can't be sure. I seem to recall my brother talking about ordering the source code for a simple game like that. Not sure if he ever did. I'll have to ask him about that.

I remembering trying to play Marathon 1 on my LC II (32 bit 68030 processor stuck on a 16 bit bus, what an awful computer for any serious CPU use (compiling, ray-tracing, marathon, etc)). I don't remember if this was before or after I convinced my dad to get the math co-processor card, but man it was hardly playable, but I would still try & play it. Hallelujah! when my brother had to move around for his work & left his powermac at our house.

They definitely are a thing. They actually used to be more common, but now-a-days if anyone goes down that route it is more likely for them to get something like a PCIe box that's run off of thunderbolt or USB 3 and then just put a graphics card in it. If you get thunderbolt it's honestly barely slower than what most systems would be able to handle anyway. Now, whether your computer can get drivers for the cards is another question entirely.

If you want a gaming Mac, buy an old mac pro off of craigslist.

If you want a gaming Mac, build it.

http://www.tonymacx86.com/building-customac-buyers-guide-march-2015.html#CustoMac_Pro

Do you still need to run a modified version of OS X on those? Everybody I know with hackintoshes has tons of problems.

No, you just need a bootloader. If you choose your components for compatibilty (and the list is broader than what Apple actually puts into its machines) you can, and should, install from a retail disc. There are helpful installers to put on a USB stick so you can boot the machine and install the OS (unibeast) and helpful installers to add any drivers you might need (multibeast). But the days of having to add in multiple kernel extensions are largely over; there are only a couple that are actually required and the installers handle those as part of the installation process, but the OS itself is not patched the way it was in the very early days (kalyway, etc).

Also that seems wicked expensive. I clicked a link, and you're out 1,700 bucks for ONE Xeon 2.8 ghz. Most mac pros (Towers) have two. That's 3400 bucks right there, for just the processors.

That's the Socket 2011 build, not the "Custom Mac Pro" I linked to. Hardly anybody needs a Xeon. Myself I have an i7. I spent about $1800 total on the build including all new parts (Gigabyte UD5h mobo, 700W PSU, CPU i7 3770, Nvidia 660TI, Samsung SSD, 16GB RAM, 14TB of storage (some were drives I already had) and a Blackmagic Intensity shuttle for HDMI capture. Some of this stuff was more expensive because I either had to ship it halfway across the world because it wasn't available here, or because in the local market it was more expensive (markup can range from 20% to 100% depending on the item).

Legit Apple hardware over here also has a lot of markup, and generally the inventory is old, sometimes an entire cycle or more behind.

For instance, here's a Mac Mini for sale in the local market:

http://www.alser.kz/product/kompyuter_apple_mac_mini_a1347_intel_core_i5/197/1822

They are selling a machine that is three years old-- it shipped with Mountain Lion-- for $981. It comes with 4Gb RAM and 500Gb HD, and a 2.5Ghz i5.

The US Apple store currently sells a 2.8Ghz i5 with twice the RAM, twice the storage, Iris graphics and Yosemite for only $19 more.

Of course, if you're in the US, Canada, or even continental europe, the markups are not quite as steep and the inventory not as old, but you get the idea.

On the absoutely top end of the scale, you can probably get more raw power more economically by buying one of the new Pros, if that configuration suits you.

It's the broad midrange between "I need more expansion than you can get in a Mini or an iMac" (which is none) and "I want something less expensive than a new Mac Pro" where you can build a tower in the $600 - $1700 range. I've done it twice now and will probably do it again sometime in the next 5 years.

I feel safe assuming I'm the most consistent Mac advocate on a board with someone named Dogcow and someone named macaddict and I still say this: if you want to build a gaming PC build a Windows one. In addition to the unsupported problems Cody talks about below (and really why have a Mac if you don't care about reliability, consistency or support?) you will be limited in options and upgradibility and game selection. It's like the worst of both worlds.

Last time I built a PC I made sure it could be hackintoshed. I had planned on using the integrated graphics when hackintoshing, and using the discrete ATI/AMD GPU when in windows & gaming. It turned out to be more trouble than it was worth and just booted into windows most of the time. If it wasn't for that 'genius' idea to go with the better ATI/AMD instead of the more compatible nVidia then I may have stuck with it, but I can't say for sure... The lure of having a good gaming pc that will also run OSX is hard to pass on, but... I'm not convinced it's worth it. It certainly couldn't hurt to build a PC with hackintoshing in mind, it'll probably cost you a little more, and worse case scenario you'll just end up with a nice windows pc.

As for cody's point , though, I can't imagine why you would want to use a Xeon in your gaming rig in the first place.

Because they are FAST, and you get 4 to 8 cores per CPU? Games nowadays are really good at improving performance with multiple cores.

I feel safe assuming I'm the most consistent Mac advocate on a board with someone named Dogcow and someone named macaddict and I still say this: if you want to build a gaming PC build a Windows one. In addition to the unsupported problems Cody talks about below (and really why have a Mac if you don't care about reliability, consistency or support?) you will be limited in options and upgradibility and game selection. It's like the worst of both worlds.

As for cody's point , though, I can't imagine why you would want to use a Xeon in your gaming rig in the first place. Thermal longevity, I guess? But one of the few things I liked about maintaining a gaming PC Was the fact (illusion) that I could upgrade parts frequently.

I have never owned a PC and never plan to.

Truth be told, I have thought about building a gaming rig before, but honestly, I don't have time to play the games I want to play on the consoles I have.

My interest in PC/Mac gaming is limited and very targeted. There are a few things I'd like to play, like Deadhold and Goin Home, but that's it.

Macs have given me a lot. I use PCs at work, and there are things I like about them, but the idea of owning one doesn't appeal to me.

Kermit