I need a new computer for my gaming and programming setup.
However, I don't know what category to choose.
I have a Uwqhd monitor and my budget is a maximum of 1000 euro
My options would be:
1. Assemble your own PC
Pros: the most power and the fun building it together.
Cons: I would have to wait half a year to a year because of the shortage of graphics cards.
2. Mac Mini
Pros: I love MacOS because it runs so clean and fast. Put my monitor away easily. The Mac would be there tomorrow if ordered today.
Cons: In the cheapest version only 8GB Ram, not expandable. Also only 256GB of storage. The games run the slowest and some don't run at all.
3. Gaming laptop
Pros: I think it's cool because I could take it with me on vacation.
Cons: Laptops in the 1000 euro price range are probably struggling with my monitor. I don't even know which one to take.
Can you give me recommendations?
For me, they all have their advantages and would either take the Mac Mini or assemble the PC myself. On the one hand I love MacOS, on the other hand I'm afraid that it will not perform well.
With the PC too: It would provide a lot more performance, but it could be years before graphics cards no longer have utopian prices. In addition, I would only worsen the market situation if I bought a graphics card now.
The laptop would be a compromise here: a bit more performance with direct availability, only without MacOS.
What do you think about it and can you help me further?
I understand your "struggle" very well. The situation is a little difficult at the moment. I think your concerns that the Mac has too little performance on a UWQHD monitor for gaming are justified (would look for benchmarks). There are two other alternatives that you haven't considered:
a.) Build a PC yourself with an APU (either a Ryzen of the last generation or e.g. An i5 11500) and then wait until graphics cards are available again and in the meantime only play patatogames or do without them altogether
b.) buy a finished PC (some of them are also available with a graphics card)
Otherwise it depends on what is more important to you - gaming or MacOS. If you want to start gaming right away, I would look for a pre-build PC or a gaming laptop. If you want to play at some point, but not necessarily immediately, I would build it myself and use an APU (my choice would be the i5 11500). If you really want to have MacOS and gaming is of secondary importance, I would take the Mac Mini.
Thanks for the answer 👍 is a help to me.
Gaming is more important to me, and you can also make Windows look almost like MacOS
Lg
Ps: could you recommend a good laptop to me?
Unfortunately, I haven't followed the gaming laptop market as closely for a long time. (I'm more of the desktop type). Unfortunately, I don't have a specific model in mind. With the budget of 1000 euro you are more in the lower price segment of gaming laptops. What I would pay attention to personally: Gaming laptops often suffer from temperature problems and therefore have "thermal throttling". Therefore, make sure that a good cooling design has been installed (best to see in test reports and / or Ytvideos comparisons.) Also pay more attention to the built-in graphics card than to the processor. Most of the time for gaming, for example: a good i5 with a 3070 is much better than an i7 with a 3060 since most games do not fully utilize the CPU and benefit much more from a more powerful graphics card (of course, there are always exceptions.) Then I would think twice whether a full-hd display would be useful in the laptop (is probably not otherwise in the price range anyway). Then you could, if necessary, if the performance for UWQHD is not enough, just play on the laptop. Ultimately, I would buy a reliable brand such as ASUS, DELL or MSI.
