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Bought my first iMac 27" today - are these dead pixels!? =;(

A

Anastacio

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 18, 2010
190
0
Denmark
UPDATE
I ended up buying this one instead:

27"
3.1GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
AMD Radeon HD 6970M 1GB GDDR5
Magic Trackpad
Wireless Keyboard

---

So I plan on buying my first iMac tomorrow. It'll be this one:

27"
2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
1TB Serial ATA Drive
AMD Radeon HD 6770M 512MB GDDR5
Magic Trackpad
Wireless Keyboard

Hopefully I'll be impressed by it. I bought a computertable and office chair today.

micke-hjrnearbejdsplads__0108909_PE258571_S4.JPG


I already got a Mac Mini where I watch my movies on through an external USB HDD, but now I wanna store all of my iTunes (music, apps, photos etc.) on the new iMac 27".

But how do I set up a network, what would be optimal? I don't need the movies on the iMac. An ideal situation would be to have everything on one single external harddrive (or NAS?) and have it connected to both the Mac Mini and iMac through wireless(?) or USB/FireWire cables right?
 
Last edited:
It all depends on what you have. Yes you can do NAS, but you need a router and connect all the computers to that router (either with cables or wifi).

Or you could connect your hard drive with firewire or USB to one of your macs and then share it on your network.

But when I play a HD (.mkv) movie on my macbook and the file is on my iMac and I connect through wifi it's too slow to play it fluently. So you better wire everything together, because I think wifi will be too slow, and we've got a pretty fast wireless router.
 
Lots of folks set up a mini as a media server. The iMac is great to watch stuff on, but with movies you'd eventually need an external attached to it anyway.

Do you already have a router? If so, just set up file sharing etc on the mini with the hard drive attached and you're good to go. You can even run it headless and use the monitor with your new iMac.

Rob
 
I agree with Rob. I would set up the mini as a media server on your network, and run it headless. Though, assuming thats the desk you purchased, you wont have room for the second monitor on it.

On a related note, That desk kicks ass, my room mate has it, and she absolutely loves it. Though as a result, I couldn't talk her into letting me have my iMac on it. :rolleyes:
 
Buying my first iMac tomorrow

Very nice setup Anastacio. I love my new iMac (it is a 22 inch though.)
 
Hi,
also don't forget you'll need a set of decent speakers for your iTunes library - don't depend on the build-ins.
It's hard to match a set of speakers to the iMac to keep it clean & 'invisible'...
 
I will just use headset with the iMac. I have the Mac Mini just behind me connected to a 46" LED TV and a 7.1 surround sound set, so I'll listen to my iTunes library that way. =)

Thinking of going out to buy the iMac in about one hour, hopefully I can convince the store to give me a Trackpad instead of the mouse.

I don't think I'll buy an Apple Care, any opinions on that?

Edit: We'll see if there's room for the 27", if not, then I'll just remove the upper part of the desk.
 
By the way, what if the iMac will have the yellow tint or flickering? Does the Apple Care cover that?
 
It will be covered in your free year of hardware coverage - so as long as you get it sorted in the first year, you'll be fine!
 
Thanks for your answers guys, I truly appreciate your help. =)

If I set up the Mail app with my gmail account, will I be able to get full functionality of all the features like say in Lion? Or do I need a MobileMe account?

I'm looking to go all out Apple with everything.
 
Anastacio said:
Thanks for your answers guys, I truly appreciate your help. =)

If I set up the Mail app with my gmail account, will I be able to get full functionality of all the features like say in Lion? Or do I need a MobileMe account?

I'm looking to go all out Apple with everything.
Click to expand...

:) Certainly a lot of questions.. (Just kidding, I am the same)

I still think that table will be to small :)

I am not sure what exactly you are asking about Mail app and Google, but I have set Google Mail and Google Calendar both on my Mail and iCal (on Snow Leopard and on Lion) and it all works fine.. The updates are immediate both ways. I.e. whatever you do in either the changes are repeated in the other immediately.

But I am not sure whether that was what you were asking about. Sorry.
 
So I bought one but there's a scratch in the upper left corner of the black bezel, it looks like ruined glass, is that on purpose? I'm going to exchange it now. Btw, I got a Magic Trackpad for free.

Oh and it fits on the table, I'll share a photo when I get back home.
 
I actually ended up with the 3.1GHz i5 iMac 27" with 1GB on the Radeon... and it fits on the desk!

Anyway, I'm stuck on the boot up and has tried to force restart it with the button behind the screen. I'm at the welcome screen where I have to select where I'm from but it won't let me continue either with the wireless keyboard nor with the trackpad. =/

What do I do?
 
With your iMac still on, insert the restore DVD into the DVD player on the side of the machine.

Turn machine off by pressing back button for about 10 secs.

Have your keyboard close by for the following: Restart machine by pressing back button, wait for the start-up ping and quickly press 'C" on your keyboard - you will now be able to start up from your DVD and not HDD, once you get the welcome message, press continue, SL Disc will start to load and asks a few questions, ignore those and go to top of screen and look for disc utilities, open disc utilities and run a 'repair disc' to check HDD.

If I were you I'd do a clear instal, thus, when in disc utility, click on your HDD, then click on erase and erase it, once erased, go back to loading OS into your machine - best way to do this is use Custom Install, de-click all that you do not require - you only require the basic OS, nothing else, no languages and no printer drivers.

Click Instal, it should take 30 mins, after which if its an OS problem, your machine will work - you can also run a system hardware test from your Instal disc.

Hope this helps, alternatively, you can always use another Mac and try using Target Mode.
I'm sure a few others will come up with further suggestions - not sure if TM works via FW800 on 2011 iMac though - works on 2010.
 
Thanks guys.
It was just me not realizing, that the trackpad had two buttons under it.

I'll definitely look to do a clean install of the OS, as it looks like I'll have to take it in for exchange a second time, there's light leakage (or white bleeding) at the bottom right corner - but is it even possible to get an iMac 27" which doesn't have problems like such?

When I first bought one, the glass was shattered on the inside of the black bezel. It took me four hours to exchange it for a new one because of the traffic today, could I possibly exchange this one as well because of white bleeding in the lower right corner of the screen?
 
Anastacio said:
Thanks guys.
It was just me not realizing, that the trackpad had two buttons under it.

I'll definitely look to do a clean install of the OS, as it looks like I'll have to take it in for exchange a second time, there's light leakage (or white bleeding) at the bottom right corner - but is it even possible to get an iMac 27" which doesn't have problems like such?

When I first bought one, the glass was shattered on the inside of the black bezel. It took me four hours to exchange it for a new one because of the traffic today, could I possibly exchange this one as well because of white bleeding in the lower right corner of the screen?
Click to expand...

You'd get the same on pretty much every imac. If you move you'll see it change. Its just a flaw in most IPS displays lol
 
That's good to hear!
Though, is it normal I can hear the fan of my iMac?
Or am I just being OCD about it all.. =/

And how will Apple be able to know, that I am eligible for OS X Lion?
 
Anastacio said:
That's good to hear!
Though, is it normal I can hear the fan of my iMac?
Or am I just being OCD about it all.. =/

And how will Apple be able to know, that I am eligible for OS X Lion?
Click to expand...

You should be able to hear it a little bit and they know because when you filled in all the information on first boot it registered it on their system.
 
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