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Switcher Qs

D

davedrivesamini

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hello everybody

I've been planning to switch for quite some time, but student loans, holidays and an engagement ring have delayed the event.

I'll be buying the iMac G5 as soon as I can afford to, but I have a couple of questions:

1. 1gb RAM upgrade - What's the advantage of having 1 stick over 2 (or the other way round if I've got this wrong)?

2. I've seen something called eyeTV. I want to watch tv on my iMac and think that this is the product that I'm after. Does it receive the signal through it's own little aerial, or will I need to hook it up to the aerial on my roof?

3. At the moment I'm using a Speedtouch 570 wireless router connected to a PC downstairs. The iMac will be upstairs so I will need to get a wireless thingy in it. Am I right in thinking that this is called an airport card? I assume that I don't need to buy the base station too and that it will work with my existing speedtouch router?

Thankyou in advance - if there's anything else that you think I should be thinking about let me know.


Dave
 
davedrivesamini said:
Hello everybody

I've been planning to switch for quite some time, but student loans, holidays and an engagement ring have delayed the event.
Click to expand...
Congrats!
davedrivesamini said:
I'll be buying the iMac G5 as soon as I can afford to, but I have a couple of questions:

1. 1gb RAM upgrade - What's the advantage of having 1 stick over 2 (or the other way round if I've got this wrong)?
Click to expand...
The plus of 1 stick is that you can add a second one later if you want more memory - there are only two slots total, so, if you use both up initially, you'll need to "throw away" one of the sticks when upgrading later. You might want to go with the 256MB/1 stick config, then buy a gig stick from Crucial or elsewhere to bring it up to 1.25GB - a respectable amount.
davedrivesamini said:
2. I've seen something called eyeTV. I want to watch tv on my iMac and think that this is the product that I'm after. Does it receive the signal through it's own little aerial, or will I need to hook it up to the aerial on my roof?
Click to expand...
The EyeTV line of products requires coax or A/V (RCA audio/video cable) input. A roof antenna hookup would be fine, but you'll need an adapter (Radio Shack) to use the coax input on the EyeTV. None of their products has an internal antenna.
davedrivesamini said:
3. At the moment I'm using a Speedtouch 570 wireless router connected to a PC downstairs. The iMac will be upstairs so I will need to get a wireless thingy in it. Am I right in thinking that this is called an airport card? I assume that I don't need to buy the base station too and that it will work with my existing speedtouch router?
Click to expand...
What you want is the optional AirPort Extreme card - it goes inside the iMac and should work with your router.
davedrivesamini said:
Thankyou in advance - if there's anything else that you think I should be thinking about let me know.


Dave
Click to expand...
Best of luck with everything!
 
Thanks very much for your speedy response. I live in the UK - I assume crucial are based in the US? How easy would it be to upgrade the RAM myself? I've never done anything like that before.

I know the RAM on the apple store is more expensive, but I was wondering if I should just pay the extra to save myself the hassle/potential mishaps.


Dave
 
davedrivesamini said:
Thanks very much for your speedy response. I live in the UK - I assume crucial are based in the US? How easy would it be to upgrade the RAM myself? I've never done anything like that before.

I know the RAM on the apple store is more expensive, but I was wondering if I should just pay the extra to save myself the hassle/potential mishaps.


Dave
Click to expand...
Well, it's quite easy to install the RAM - the back of the iMac comes off, and you just slide it in, but it might be easier for you to pay the premium to know it was installed correctly. There are a number of UK members, and they would likely be able to give the best advice on where to buy RAM there - and I'm sure any of them would love to install it for you just to see the iMac! 😉
 
Memory upgrades are easy. Turn the machine off. Open cover over RAM. Insert new stick. Close cover and power up. I may be oversimplifying (ESD concern) but it is just about that easy. Just make sure the new stick is fully and properly seated.
 
Brize said:
Hi Dave,

Head on over to http://www.crucial.com/uk/ for the additional RAM. The physical installation process should be very simple.
Click to expand...

I have no idea how the new iMac will work as far as memory, but it has been quite easy in the past, but you have to be careful of statick electicity shocks while doing it.

also, as far as how much memory goes, what are you going to be doing with the machine? That would determine if you even need to go anywhere near 1 gig of memory. That machine with be quite speedy even with 512 of memory so let us know what you might be doing with it. Take into consideration what you might end up doing like digital movies, garage band music, etc.
 
My advice would be to just get the RAM from Apple -- it's not much more money, you don't have to worry about frying your brand-new G5, and if you get a bad stick it's under an Apple warranty.
 
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