Apple Releases iMacs

[FyreFrog]

Re: Re: Re: Just out for myself...

Originally posted by FyreFrog





Ok i Just have a question on this Ram ordeal... ok i'm soon to be swithcher tomorrow when i get my new imac at the apple store.. now i want to upgrade to 512 DDR226 1DIMM from the 265.. is it really $200 for them to upgrade it when its $95 dollars on the apple website? can u help me understand and when i called the apple store the apple guy said they may not be able to do a complete 512 he said may be only a 300 something i forget the numbers... i dunno.. i'm still a newbie thxs... plz help me

err.. i ment 100 on the apple site

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Originally posted by MacsRgr8


If they make Doom 3 dual proc aware, I'll bet you a dual 1 GHz with Radeon 9700 should be sufficient to make it look like a fast forwarded movie .
Mr. Carmack is an OS X freak isn't he? ID Software even demo-ed Doom 3 on a 800 MHz G4 with GeForce 3 Ti, didn't they at MWTokyo 2001?

Maybe so, they do have a history of using what the mac offers but what iam looking at is if they then license this engine for other games so my next system i want to smoke DOOM3 I mean everything turned on at high resolution! yeah I have started to save!Still think that 1 giger imac is a heck of a machine!

 

[GPTurismo]

for ram I usually go to transintl.com

 

[possible switch]

*gasp* I think I'm going to do it. I'm going to switch! I talked to a sales rep. today on the phone, and I'm going to call her back shortly. Parting from $$ is hard for me though. What a big change this is going to be!! Part of me just wants to stick it out on this for a year or two more, but then a bigger part wants to throw it against the wall and get an iMac! If I build up the courage, I'll be sure to post. LOL I feel like I'm switching religions or something or abandoning my family!

 

[SwitchHitter]

Thanks folks for all the suggestions and comments on how to fix the blurry fonts, etc.

When I get back to Chicago tomorrow, I'm going to address the issues and see what happens (keeping my fingers crossed).

NOW, here's another question...

1) I have the new iMac w/airport
2) I just (today) got the airport extreme
3) I have an older HP 4M laserjet that is parallel printer and installed/hooked up to my Toshiba laptop PC.
....
So, my question is.... how can I network it to the Apple for B&W printing? The Apple store told me to go ahead and keep it plugged into the Toshiba and that with my Toshiba networked (hooked up?) to the Airport extreme .. that the iMac will find it.

Is this true?
Also, since I have DSL, do I just plug the airport extreme to the DSL box and plug the toshiba into the Airport extreme? Or should I buy a wireless card for the Toshiba?

Also, what about buying a parallel to USB cord for the printer? Would that work?

Any help is appreciated...

 

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by SwitchHitter
Thanks folks for all the suggestions and comments on how to fix the blurry fonts, etc.

When I get back to Chicago tomorrow, I'm going to address the issues and see what happens (keeping my fingers crossed).

NOW, here's another question...

1) I have the new iMac w/airport
2) I just (today) got the airport extreme
3) I have an older HP 4M laserjet that is parallel printer and installed/hooked up to my Toshiba laptop PC.
....
So, my question is.... how can I network it to the Apple for B&W printing? The Apple store told me to go ahead and keep it plugged into the Toshiba and that with my Toshiba networked (hooked up?) to the Airport extreme .. that the iMac will find it.

Is this true?
Also, since I have DSL, do I just plug the airport extreme to the DSL box and plug the toshiba into the Airport extreme? Or should I buy a wireless card for the Toshiba?

Also, what about buying a parallel to USB cord for the printer? Would that work?

Any help is appreciated...

go buy the february issue of macworld, i strongly recommend. you need gimp-print to print to a windows machine over the network.
it's a special article in there, about the great power of the unix printing engine and how to fully utilize it. it was great, i got my powerbook printing to a windows 98 box with an HP laserjet6L.

 

[NicoMan]

Re: Just out for myself...

Originally posted by iTry
I'm finally gonna buy one! Woo Hoo! If I get the top end with only 512 in slot 1, then I can buy another 512MB from Crucial. Still haven't priced this one up but I'm sure I'll save money!

And I'm sure somebody's answered this already, but...

Do the new iMacs boot OS9, or just X?

I think it is safe to assume them to be OSX-only (you can always use Classic of course).

NicoMan

 

[NicoMan]

Originally posted by SwitchHitter
Thanks folks for all the suggestions and comments on how to fix the blurry fonts, etc.

When I get back to Chicago tomorrow, I'm going to address the issues and see what happens (keeping my fingers crossed).

NOW, here's another question...

1) I have the new iMac w/airport
2) I just (today) got the airport extreme
3) I have an older HP 4M laserjet that is parallel printer and installed/hooked up to my Toshiba laptop PC.
....
So, my question is.... how can I network it to the Apple for B&W printing? The Apple store told me to go ahead and keep it plugged into the Toshiba and that with my Toshiba networked (hooked up?) to the Airport extreme .. that the iMac will find it.

Is this true?
Also, since I have DSL, do I just plug the airport extreme to the DSL box and plug the toshiba into the Airport extreme? Or should I buy a wireless card for the Toshiba?

Also, what about buying a parallel to USB cord for the printer? Would that work?

Any help is appreciated...

Basically you don't need to buy a wireless card for your toshiba. Do what you said and plug your AirportX base station (WAN PORT) into the DSL box and then the toshiba in the base station (LAN PORT). Your toshiba will act as a print server. Follow Shadowfax's advice 2 posts above from there on. Buying a USB cable will allow you to plug the printer direct into your base station (but I am not sure that this printer is among one of the supported printers) or to plug it into your iMac direct (but my guess is that you want to use it on the toshiba too, so the best is to leave it plugged into the toshiba via the parallel cable).

NicoMan

 

[brian0526]

RAM Upgrade

Originally posted by FyreFrog


err.. i ment 100 on the apple site

FyreFrog,

Here's the deal. To go to 512 MB on the 17" iMac, you actually have two choices:

1.) Upgrade the existing module from 256 to 512 MB. This way you still have a free slot. Apple will charge you $200 for this module. Installation is free, if you buy AppleCare (3 year extended warranty). You end up with a free slot you can buy more memory later from a third party and a useless 256 MB module that they will give back to you. Useless to you because it only fits in the slot you just filled with the 512.

2.) Add a 256 MB module for $100. This goes in the second slot (the user accessible slot). This gets you to the same 512 MB total memory. But, you cannot add any more memory without removing one of the two modules. You get to use the memory you've already paid for. But, if you want to upgrade, one of the two will have to go. Plus, if you ever want to change the memory in the first slot, you have to return your machine to Apple (or an Authorized Reseller or take the risk of voiding your warranty). That first slot is difficult to access and takes special care to replace the memory.


They told me at the Apple store that the average home user won't need more than 512 MB of RAM. So, if you want to save some money, you may want to opt for just adding the 256 MB module. I opted to go with the 512 MB module and I'm probably going to buy another 512 from Crucial for $99 and plug that in myself.

BTW, the pricing is exactly the same if you buy from the Apple website. At the store, the woman who helped me told me Apple used to give a credit for the memory module they get to keep. However, if that was the case, it isn't any more.

Hope this helps.

Peace,
Brian

 

[brian0526]

Font issue

Just got my iMac last night. Haven't had too much time to play with it. But, one of the first things I noticed was a "fuzziness" in Internet Explorer. In reading through the posts on the Apple support discussion board, I came across this:

It's definitely down to "font smoothing" in Quartz Extreme.
If you use Internet Explorer, under Preferences->Web Browser->Interface Extras, you can untick Quartz Extreme.
Suddenly, all my text appears crisp & clear! Magic!
OK, so the characters aren't smoothed, but they're not blurry.
At least I think this shows it's a software issue - thank God - and not a hardware one! Unfortunately, other applications (including Safari) don't give this option. I've also set System Prefs->General->font smoothing to "Light" and 12, which helps om Finder windows.

Just thought I'd post it here for anyone else who may have noticed their "beautiful, crisp clear display" seems a little less than that.

Brian

 

[danman]

Re: Font issue

Originally posted by brian0526
Just got my iMac last night. Haven't had too much time to play with it. But, one of the first things I noticed was a "fuzziness" in Internet Explorer. In reading through the posts on the Apple support discussion board, I came across this:
Brian

Actually, the best way to sort out IE text rendering is to Quit, drag to trashcan, Empty trash. Launch Safari..

ahhh, that's better.

 

[NicoMan]

Re: Font issue

Originally posted by brian0526
Just got my iMac last night. Haven't had too much time to play with it. But, one of the first things I noticed was a "fuzziness" in Internet Explorer. In reading through the posts on the Apple support discussion board, I came across this:

It's definitely down to "font smoothing" in Quartz Extreme.
If you use Internet Explorer, under Preferences->Web Browser->Interface Extras, you can untick Quartz Extreme.
Suddenly, all my text appears crisp & clear! Magic!
OK, so the characters aren't smoothed, but they're not blurry.
At least I think this shows it's a software issue - thank God - and not a hardware one! Unfortunately, other applications (including Safari) don't give this option. I've also set System Prefs->General->font smoothing to "Light" and 12, which helps om Finder windows.

Just thought I'd post it here for anyone else who may have noticed their "beautiful, crisp clear display" seems a little less than that.

Brian

Well I promise you this 'fuzziness' you don't like today will be difficult to do without in a while. You will get used to it. I promise you that you will think that non smoothed font will feel like a strain to read once you get used to it. I personally now get headaches looking at my work PC (I have a powermac and a dell on my desk, both with reasonable LCDs, though I admit that my Formac monitors on the Mac are better) non smoothed fonts, because smoothed fonts don't require you to focus intently (I keep jumping from one screen to the other): it's more like reading a magazine or something.

Also, you can try using bigger default fonts (and you will see the real benefits of font smoothing).

NicoMan

 

[NicoMan]

Re: Re: Font issue

Originally posted by danman


Actually, the best way to sort out IE text rendering is to Quit, drag to trashcan, Empty trash. Launch Safari..

ahhh, that's better.

Yeah I forgot to add that in my previous post (even though I keep IE just in case a page doesn't work... which is almost never).

NicoMan

 

[brian0526]

Re: Re: Font issue

Originally posted by NicoMan


Well I promise you this 'fuzziness' you don't like today will be difficult to do without in a while. You will get used to it. I promise you that you will think that non smoothed font will feel like a strain to read once you get used to it. I personally now get headaches looking at my work PC (I have a powermac and a dell on my desk, both with reasonable LCDs, though I admit that my Formac monitors on the Mac are better) non smoothed fonts, because smoothed fonts don't require you to focus intently (I keep jumping from one screen to the other): it's more like reading a magazine or something.

Also, you can try using bigger default fonts (and you will see the real benefits of font smoothing).

NicoMan

Thanks for the encouragement. I just made the switch and knew I'd have some buyer's remorse. But, after just slogging through all the posts I just read about this "problem", I was getting a little discouraged.

Maybe I will get used to it. Right now though it seems my 4 year old cheapo Dell display is "sharper" than my new 17" state-of-the art iMac. Everything except text on the iMac looks absolutely beautiful. But, I spend a lot of time looking at text.

I'm going to play with some settings and then try to get used to it.

Peace,
Brian

 

[kangaroo]

This was also taken from the Apple discussions board regarding the smoothing (blurring) issue:

Interesting article on Mac OS X font rendering:

http://radio.weblogs.com/0100148/stories/2002/02/04/macOsX1012FontRendering.html

 

[FyreFrog]

Re: RAM Upgrade

Originally posted by brian0526


FyreFrog,

Here's the deal. To go to 512 MB on the 17" iMac, you actually have two choices:

1.) Upgrade the existing module from 256 to 512 MB. This way you still have a free slot. Apple will charge you $200 for this module. Installation is free, if you buy AppleCare (3 year extended warranty). You end up with a free slot you can buy more memory later from a third party and a useless 256 MB module that they will give back to you. Useless to you because it only fits in the slot you just filled with the 512.

2.) Add a 256 MB module for $100. This goes in the second slot (the user accessible slot). This gets you to the same 512 MB total memory. But, you cannot add any more memory without removing one of the two modules. You get to use the memory you've already paid for. But, if you want to upgrade, one of the two will have to go. Plus, if you ever want to change the memory in the first slot, you have to return your machine to Apple (or an Authorized Reseller or take the risk of voiding your warranty). That first slot is difficult to access and takes special care to replace the memory.


They told me at the Apple store that the average home user won't need more than 512 MB of RAM. So, if you want to save some money, you may want to opt for just adding the 256 MB module. I opted to go with the 512 MB module and I'm probably going to buy another 512 from Crucial for $99 and plug that in myself.

BTW, the pricing is exactly the same if you buy from the Apple website. At the store, the woman who helped me told me Apple used to give a credit for the memory module they get to keep. However, if that was the case, it isn't any more.

Hope this helps.

Peace,
Brian

Thanks your clearing that up for me Brian... now its more clearer..
so u think i should only do the 256 module upgrade... now i'm a college design student am i goin to need alot of ram ya think?

Thanks,

Fyrefrog

 

[brian0526]

Re: Re: RAM Upgrade

Originally posted by FyreFrog

Thanks your clearing that up for me Brian... now its more clearer..
so u think i should only do the 256 module upgrade... now i'm a college design student am i goin to need alot of ram ya think?

Thanks,

Fyrefrog

Hey, I'm a total Mac newbie. You're asking the wrong guy about how my RAM you'll need. My experience with OS X is about 10 minutes long.

I can only tell you this. If you go the cheaper route, you end up with 512 MB of RAM, just like if you pay the extra $100. If you go that way, you can always replace the 256 MB DIMM in the user accessible slot with a 512 and end up with 784. Then, if you REALLY need the add'l 256 you can haul your iMac back to the Apple store and pay them to upgrade the first module. But, you'll have to pay them installation at that point. So, the only real drawback to taking this more conservative approach is you have to hault your machine back in and you'll pay a little more. But, you may never need that extra RAM and by then memory prices may have fallen enough to offset the install cost.

For me, I just wanted the thing ready to accept another 512 if I find I need it. And, I'm lazy, I didn't want to have to haul it back in. I paid a $100 premium for that luxury.

Peace,
Brian

 

[Qball]

memory

On retail sites like MacMall, they offer free 512Mb of memory for that 2nd slot. They charge $40 to install it, but then your new 1 Ghz iMac has 768Mb of memory. That sounds great to me.

Two questions:
1. Is this crappy memory or something? Several posts in this thread have mentioned getting inferior memory from no-name producers. Is that was these retail sites are offering? Does anyone have any experience with a purchase from MacMall or ClubMac?

2. I definitely want more than 256Mb memory. How much memory would adequately run Photoshop 7.0?

 

[NicoMan]

Re: memory

Originally posted by Qball
On retail sites like MacMall, they offer free 512Mb of memory for that 2nd slot. They charge $40 to install it, but then your new 1 Ghz iMac has 768Mb of memory. That sounds great to me.

Two questions:
1. Is this crappy memory or something? Several posts in this thread have mentioned getting inferior memory from no-name producers. Is that was these retail sites are offering? Does anyone have any experience with a purchase from MacMall or ClubMac?

2. I definitely want more than 256Mb memory. How much memory would adequately run Photoshop 7.0?

1. I don't think it is a crappy memory. Anyway, the retailer is responsible for it, so I doubt they would put memory in your iMac that they know is almost sure to come back to them. But I can't be sure.

2. More memory than 256MB is needed. You need at least 512MB to run OSX comfortably, IMHO. Now if you spend your time in Photoshop, I'd say 768MB or 1GB is needed. Now you have 2 ways of getting there. Either you go for the MacMall machine with 768MB (and it that case it will be a pain to upgrade to 1MB and if you do you will 'lose' 256MB), or you go for a 512MB (1 DIMM) machine from the Apple Store (or another retailer) and get the second 512MB yourself from Crucial or wherever. Installing that 2nd memory is not too difficult, from what I understand.

NicoMan

 

[FlamDrag]

I've never run into anyone who has said "I just have too much RAM in this computer."

Buy as much RAM as you can afford. Take a hit on the processor if you have to. That's my theory anyway.

 

[NicoMan]

Originally posted by FlamDrag
I've never run into anyone who has said "I just have too much RAM in this computer."

Buy as much RAM as you can afford. Take a hit on the processor if you have to. That's my theory anyway.

True. I would say that the appropriate amount of RAM in all the machines (except the PowerMacs maybe, and even then...) is the maximum amount possible.

NicoMan

 

[Bear]

Re: memory

Originally posted by Qball
...

2. I definitely want more than 256Mb memory. How much memory would adequately run Photoshop 7.0?

How big are your images? What are you going to be doing to them? How many are you going to be editing at once?

Are you going to be running anything else at the same time? Instant Messenger Clients? iTunes? Mail client?

Having said all that go for at least a single stick 512MB if you can't afford more, and add the second stick later.

If you're really heavy into photoshop, you'll probably need the full 1 GB, especially if you have other things running.

[This thread is getting really long. I wonder what the longest thread on the discussion board is.]

 

[NicoMan]

Re: Re: memory

Originally posted by Bear
[This thread is getting really long. I wonder what the longest thread on the discussion board is.]

What's even more amazing is the speed at which we got to this point. Within hours of the new iMac annoucement, we were already at 6-7 pages... I guess a lot of people had something to say about those machines.

NicoMan

 

[vniow]

Re: Re: memory

Originally posted by Bear

[This thread is getting really long. I wonder what the longest thread on the discussion board is.]

Short Films

 

[Qball]

I'll be using Photoshop, burning CD's with iTunes, Chimera, etc., all at once. I seem to always have multiple programs open, which tends to confuse my PC! I'm leaning towards 768Mb of memory.

The memory from MacMall appears to be Viking. Any Viking horror stories? Thanks for all the advice