Bought my First Mac

[zackkmac]

After several threads I decided not to go with the MBP and caved in for a 24" aluminum iMac. I'm so excited and I can't wait for it to get here, I heard the 24" is really nice.

Is there anything I would need to do/download before-hand? Any problems they've been known to have and to look out for?

Also, I have 2GB RAM [1X1GB] from my Dell XPS 410, which I saw Apple compared to with their iMacs. Will the RAM I have from my Dell work with my iMac?

Thanks guys

 

[Tallest Skil]

Prooobably not. iMacs use laptop RAM, but OWC will have everything you need.

Welcome to the fold. Enjoy your beast.

 

[D4F]

Using 1x1 you will fill iMacs slots.
Go for 2x2 from OWC and feel the power of the dark side

Seriously, 4GB is well worth the extra few $$

 

[zackkmac]

I see. Well, I have 2GB [2x1GB] in laptop RAM, again from a new Dell. I will definitely end up buying 4GB sometime, but I wanted to see if I could use what I got for now. Is it very specific as to what it uses for RAM? The 2 sticks I have from my laptop look exactly like the ones in the pictures of the ones you can buy for the iMacs, and I have gotten them to work in different laptop brands as well.



If I like this one, I'll buy a refurb MacBook, or just a ton of accessories for my iMac. How easy is it to upgrade the hard drive? I don't think I'll be doing anytime soon, but just in case.

 

[iknowyourider]

Go to crucial.com and use their interface / program to determine your ram for the mac and the dell.

 

[zackkmac]

I checked and both the RAM I have and the RAM my iMac takes are DDR2 PC2-5300. I'm guessing that's a match??

I set 1-Click to buy overnight shipping, but it ended up giving me 2-3 day. When I told Apple, the rep took off the $33 charge, yet I called too late to upgrade it to overnight. Still, free expedited shipping makes me even happier about the whole Mac experience.


Anybody have any suggestions for what accessories might be great for it? I'm considering a TV tuner but I have no idea which ones to be looking at for it.

 

[wesg]

TV tuners are good. For the iMac you'll need a USB based system. If you look close enough you can probably even find HD receivers.

You will thoroughly enjoy the iMac, as I'm sure you've been told before. A 24" screen would be great for replacing and aging TV, and you can even connect it to a home theatre system for the best sound!

 

[zackkmac]

TV tuners are good. For the iMac you'll need a USB based system. If you look close enough you can probably even find HD receivers.

You will thoroughly enjoy the iMac, as I'm sure you've been told before. A 24" screen would be great for replacing and aging TV, and you can even connect it to a home theatre system for the best sound!

An HD one would be nice

Are the iMac speakers excellent? I played with a G3 and it's quality was amazing, so I'm hoping the speakers on the C2D are great.

 

[iknowyourider]

Great choice in the 24" imac. I saw a Pinnacle tv for mac at bestbuy today for $131. It is HD. I wanted it but felt that I needed to research it first. My advice to you for your new purchase is use and enjoy the wired peripherals. I think the full KB is nice and the mouse will never have low batteries. Plus you will already have them.

 

[zmttoxics]

An HD one would be nice

Are the iMac speakers excellent? I played with a G3 and it's quality was amazing, so I'm hoping the speakers on the C2D are great.

Seriously? Your excited for internal speakers?

Will someone please get this man some a pair of headphones or some real speakers!!!

 

[Apple Ink]

Welcome to the brotherhood!
Congratulations on your first Mac!

As a starter, you seriously dont need to upgrade your RAM right now (unless even after buying the beast, you've got some pennies left)

The first thing I'll suggest you do is, download VLC here

After this you might want to update your system. Leave it overnight!
If you've got an ext HDD, set up Time Machine, again leave it overnight!

Finally, get FireFox, Safari's great but then there are these horrible ancient sites which dont support Safari!

Thats it for now, you'll learn the rest

And again, congratulations!

 

[zackkmac]

Seriously? Your excited for internal speakers?

Will someone please get this man some a pair of headphones or some real speakers!!!

Thanks, it made me laugh

I have no clue about the internal speakers so I thought I'd ask. I've heard them on the Mac Mini before, I did not like that at all. But I figured the iMac might have something better.

I can use either my Harmon/Kardon set or an iHome if I don't like the internal ones.

Welcome to the brotherhood!
Congratulations on your first Mac!

As a starter, you seriously dont need to upgrade your RAM right now (unless even after buying the beast, you've got some pennies left)

The first thing I'll suggest you do is, download VLC here

After this you might want to update your system. Leave it overnight!
If you've got an ext HDD, set up Time Machine, again leave it overnight!

Finally, get FireFox, Safari's great but then there are these horrible ancient sites which dont support Safari!

Thats it for now, you'll learn the rest

And again, congratulations!

Thanks
I've heard of VLC before, the media player right? What's the reason I should download it? Just curious, all of this is new to me.

And yes, I'm going to update is ASAP. I have an external but it's also used to backup a Windows box. Is there a way I can partition it and let Time Machine format just that partition for its backup?

FireFox is, while not my default, my favorite browser. You can definitely count on me downloading that.


Thanks, I can't wait for it to arrive!



Speaking of which, I expected it to be shipped tomorrow around noonish, and arrive Thursday/Friday...but I got an email 2 hours ago that it was shipped just then and I should have it by Wednesday. This is my first online Apple Store experience and I must say, I'm really thrilled about everything.

 

[Apple Ink]

Thanks
I've heard of VLC before, the media player right? What's the reason I should download it? Just curious, all of this is new to me.

Yep, thats the VLC Media player!
Your Mac will ship with just 2 media players. Namely iTunes and QuickTime!
And seriously telling you, both are excellent in what they can handle.... and there's a lot they cant...
i.e: in terms of format compatibility and format support, they both are pathetic and for sure you'll require something else to play your music and movies/videos.
VLC comes in here with an amazingly wide variety of format support. Its an all in one light player and a must!

About your HDD, use 'Disk Utility' (an HDD manager in Mac OS) to partition the drive. Time Machine only supports Fat32 and HFS+ (Mac OS file system) NOT NTFS...
You're better of with HFS+ (Win cant read HFS though and you cant create/shift/transfer files larger than 4GB in Fat32!)

Great to hear that you'll get it by wednesday! When I decided to buy my first Mac, I went straight for the store.... couldnt wait for the shipping!

 

[zackkmac]

Yep, thats the VLC Media player!
Your Mac will ship with just 2 media players. Namely iTunes and QuickTime!
And seriously telling you, both are excellent in what they can handle.... and there's a lot they cant...
i.e: in terms of format compatibility and format support, they both are pathetic and for sure you'll require something else to play your music and movies/videos.
VLC comes in here with an amazingly wide variety of format support. Its an all in one light player and a must!

About your HDD, use 'Disk Utility' (an HDD manager in Mac OS) to partition the drive. Time Machine only supports Fat32 and HFS+ (Mac OS file system) NOT NTFS...
You're better of with HFS+ (Win cant read HFS though and you cant create/shift/transfer files larger than 4GB in Fat32!)

Great to hear that you'll get it by wednesday! When I decided to buy my first Mac, I went straight for the store.... couldnt wait for the shipping!

VLC sounds like a good idea, I'll try it when I get my iMac. Only thing is I like to keep everything on my computers minimal, program-wise. I guess I could throw things off the Dock and it won't be crowded.

Thanks for the HDD info, I'd probably end up messing up my whole drive if I didn't read your post

I hope I receive it then. I just got an e-mail from UPS about a shipment that they got today, on 3-day select, and I'd get it the 17th...I was disappointed until I saw the weight was 3lbs and it's from Mexico. That's not Apple is it? Haha. Actually, I'd kinda rather it be, I don't know what this package could be

 

[Alan Taylor]

Congratulations on your purchase! When my 3 lbs of coke arrive from Mexico can you PM me an I'll let you know the forwarding details and how to get your cut

 

[quotemeas]

Ram

Note, you need PC2 6400 (800Mhz) RAM and not PC2 5300 (667Mhz) RAM if you just bought your iMac. The PC2 5300 RAM is for the older 2.8Ghz iMac. I saw the wrong RAM mentioned in this thread earlier and wanted to make sure your money wasn't wasted.

BTW, for my RAM upgrade, I went with Crucial because they are the consumer end for Micron memory chips. Micron is an industry leader in memory and is used buy countless OEM companies (i.e. Dell) and peripheral manufactures.

 

[zackkmac]

Note, you need PC2 6400 (800Mhz) RAM and not PC2 5300 (667Mhz) RAM if you just bought your iMac. The PC2 5300 RAM is for the older 2.8Ghz iMac. I saw the wrong RAM mentioned in this thread earlier and wanted to make sure your money wasn't wasted.

BTW, for my RAM upgrade, I went with Crucial because they are the consumer end for Micron memory chips. Micron is an industry leader in memory and is used buy countless OEM companies (i.e. Dell) and peripheral manufactures.

Okay, thank you for the info. I will definitely look into that if the 2GB I have doesn't work like I want it to. Will it affect my iMac if I upgrade the RAM before even turning it on for the first time?

 

[quotemeas]

Okay, thank you for the info. I will definitely look into that if the 2GB I have doesn't work like I want it to. Will it affect my iMac if I upgrade the RAM before even turning it on for the first time?

No, just make sure it's the right RAM and you'll be gtg.

 

[kaiwai]

I checked and both the RAM I have and the RAM my iMac takes are DDR2 PC2-5300. I'm guessing that's a match??

I set 1-Click to buy overnight shipping, but it ended up giving me 2-3 day. When I told Apple, the rep took off the $33 charge, yet I called too late to upgrade it to overnight. Still, free expedited shipping makes me even happier about the whole Mac experience.

I've got a 20inch 2.6Gh model - what do you intend to do with it? I've found that 2GBn is plenty of memory - unless you're going to simulate nuclear weapons, anything more than that is just going to be a waste of money.

Anybody have any suggestions for what accessories might be great for it? I'm considering a TV tuner but I have no idea which ones to be looking at for it.

EyeTV - it simply rocks. I'm waiting to hear back as to whether I've got this job I've been interviewed for - as soon as it is confirmed, I'm buying it

It also supports terrestrial digital television.

 

[zackkmac]

I've got a 20inch 2.6Gh model - what do you intend to do with it? I've found that 2GBn is plenty of memory - unless you're going to simulate nuclear weapons, anything more than that is just going to be a waste of money.



EyeTV - it simply rocks. I'm waiting to hear back as to whether I've got this job I've been interviewed for - as soon as it is confirmed, I'm buying it

It also supports terrestrial digital television.

Ehh, nothing serious, that's why I think 2GB might be enough also. And, EyeTV looks like a great tuner.

Well, the iMac is out for delivery, should have it in a few hours