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IMac advice please !!!!

F

fonz500

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 19, 2007
75
0
Okay so I am a Mac-virgin and I'm switching from a PC to an Imac this Sunday. What should I be sure to get, not get, and what other advice can you all give me.

I am probably going to get the 20" 2.4 ghz imac, even though I probably don't need that one. But I want this computer to last at least 3 years.

What add-ons should I get if any?? I will be using it for pretty basic "home" use. (internet, email, videos, music, maybe get into cool stuff you can do on a mac)
 
Top Tips:

1. You don't need to buy anything else. Except, maybe an external HD for Time Machine, but you can always get one of those later. Oh, and make sure you get a Mac with Leopard pre-installed.
2. Get it home, switch it on and hook it up to the Internet.
3. Run software update to make sure you've got the latest apple software (this is really easy). But if you feel the urge to play around first, feel free, go ahead.
4. Enjoy.

There's other bits of software you'll start to want pretty soon, most of it is either cheap or free. See here.

SL
 
Maybe a powered USB hub?

And if you buy an external drive, do yourself a favour and get a Firewire 800 one. You'll notice the difference and you'll be able to use Time Machine seamlessly. The drive doesn't have to be *huge* but get as big a one as you can afford. Pictures, music and movies take up a lot of space, and these are probably the things you're getting your Mac to do.

Get it, plug it in, and play with it.

And welcome to the Mac world.

Cha-ching, another one for our side!

Cheers.
 
What about Microsoft Office (Word,Excel) ????? Obviously all of my files on my PC are in this. I see an Office 2004 on the Apple website, but my buddy told me that Office 2008 is out or coming out.

Should I wait???? How expensive is this???
 
fonz500 said:
What about Microsoft Office (Word,Excel) ????? Obviously all of my files on my PC are in this. I see an Office 2004 on the Apple website, but my buddy told me that Office 2008 is out or coming out.

Should I wait???? How expensive is this???
Click to expand...

If Office is a requirement than personally I would go with Office 2004. Office 2008 is very similar to Office 2007 on the PC and the new UI has not been warmly welcomed. I personally think it's hideous and I know people that have had it forced upon them and have subsequently had it removed.

Office 2004 works really well and if you need to be able to seamlessly use Office files from the PC then you should get it.

If, however you Office type needs are the same as most normal people, so you're not a scientist, you should consider iWork 08 instead. Not only is it 1/4 the price, but it's an Apple suite of applications that I personally think is fantastic. It does read Office files right out of the box. There's a word processor, a spreadsheet and a presentation program all included. You can download a one month trial from Apple so you can see if you like it before you buy it. But your Mac will come with a trial of Office too.

Keep asking good questions.

Cheers.
 
If you buy MS Office for Mac 2004 now, you get the 2008 version for a handling-charge-only when it comes out, I think.

But be careful. If M$ follow their Windows pricing, then there will be a student & home edition for a price similar to what the student edition is on sale for now. So if you're not a student, hang on 'till 2008 if you can. And I don't know if the Student edition of Office is eligible for the offer. And I am not 100% certain the offer stands outside North America anyway.

Or... try iWork... you get a free trial with your new Mac. Or try one of the "free" alternatives knocking around.

Something to think about!

SL

EDIT: I think you also get a 1-month "Test Drive" of MS Office for Mac on you iMac anyway. Else, you can download one from M$.
 
So the iworks08 that comes with the new Macs will work with my Word documents. That is really all I am concerned about.

I don't use Word at home but sometimes I have to email stuff from Word at work and pull it up at home.

Iworks08 will let me do that????


Also, will my Canon Powershot work with an Imac??? It's a pretty new model (i bought it last year).
 
I find the wired keyboard extremely convenient, because it adds another USB port and acts as a hub. I'd suggest you to get the wireless mighty mouse, so you don't take a USB port.

You have one year to decide whether you get AppleCare or not.

Get your Mac, and be happy.
 
fonz500 said:
So the iworks08 that comes with the new Macs will work with my Word documents. That is really all I am concerned about.

I don't use Word at home but sometimes I have to email stuff from Word at work and pull it up at home.

Iworks08 will let me do that????

Also, will my Canon Powershot work with an Imac??? It's a pretty new model (i bought it last year).
Click to expand...

It's horses for courses. Try iWork for a month and see how you get on. If no dice, then activate the trial of MS Office and see how you like that.

And yes, all digital cameras work with a Mac. Plug it in and iPhoto opens automatically, ready for you to press "import". Easy.
 
Thank you all so much.... You are all making me feel very confident about making my purchase this Sunday (only if I can get one with Leopard installed).

I appreciate all the great info.
 
fonz500 said:
So the iworks08 that comes with the new Macs will work with my Word documents. That is really all I am concerned about.

I don't use Word at home but sometimes I have to email stuff from Word at work and pull it up at home.

Iworks08 will let me do that????


Also, will my Canon Powershot work with an Imac??? It's a pretty new model (i bought it last year).
Click to expand...

Yes iWork08 will read and write your Word documents. If the document is very heavily formatted you may lose some of that formatting, but that's never been an issue for me. I work in a 100% Microsoft environment and there has been one Excel spreadsheet that was so heavily laden with formatting and formulas that I couldn't use it on my Mac. But that was one of hundreds of documents.

iWork08 is in my opinion a fantastic product.

Your camera will without a doubt work with your new Mac. That's something you're going to love about the Mac, you can leave all those "will it work" worries behind you.

Yep, buy one with Leopard pre-installed.

You're going to love it. I remember buying my first Mac very well.

Welcome, and never be afraid to ask questions, the people on here are very helpful and they have a lot of knowledge.

Cheers.
 
RAM: if you can afford it, replace with a pair of 2GB. Otherwise, get a 2gb module or 1gb module. Mac is very efficient with memory usage, but having more ram will allow you to fly even with many different apps and many documents opened at the same time.

--------

Office alternative:

iWork: well designed with very nice templates, much less expensive than MS office, can open office 2008 documents

NeoOffice: free, but should donate a few dollars, can open most windows 2008 documents. (www.neooffice.org)

---------

Apple Care: get it in 1 year if you want it.
 
I'm a recent switcher myself (first post) - I bought a new iMac in August when the new models came out - bought a 20" 2.4ghz machine - wonderful machine, the fun is back in computing. :)

I bought the discounted .mac account and iworks08 as well - I encourage you to try the Mac stuff out. I have not been interested in trying the MS Office 2004 trial.

In the course of the last couple of months - I've bought most of the stuff suggested here: additional 1 meg of RAM, powered USB hub, airport extreme wireless hub (I have two other PC machines and a laser printer networked as well) and recently ordered an external drive anticipating the release of Leopard. If Apple updates the Macbook soon - we'll buy one of those for the spouse. Gradually easing the PC machines out of the house. ;)

The user interface is great - you may stumble around for a period of time, but you'll love it.

Cheers,
 
superleccy said:
Oh, and make sure you get a Mac with Leopard pre-installed.
Click to expand...
That soon (two days) after a release, most of the systems will still come with Tiger (OS X 10.4) installed and they'll also give you disks for Leopard.

While this is a pain in that it means you need to spend an hour or so upgrading, it's a plus in that, should Leopard not quite be ready for prime time, your install disks will take you back to a stable version of 10.4.

Generally, it'd be better to get one with Leopard pre-installed. But don't let it bother you if it doesn't. It's no big deal.
 
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