iMac as primarily Win7 machine

[parapup]

I never had any problems updating the graphic drivers... Just download, uninstall old driver, install new driver...

On a 2011 iMac? Which drivers do you download? (Note: I hate those hacked drivers - god knows who puts what in them. If official drivers work I would be interested in knowing how - as I have already tried them and I get an error when trying to install - no compatible gpu present or something like that.)

 

[leman]

On a 2011 iMac? Which drivers do you download? (Note: I hate those hacked drivers - god knows who puts what in them. If official drivers work I would be interested in knowing how - as I have already tried them and I get an error when trying to install - no compatible gpu present or something like that.)

Just the normal Catalyst Software Suite from the AMD website... as far as I remember, it installed without any hiccups.

 

[dh2005]

Just the normal Catalyst Software Suite from the AMD website... as far as I remember, it installed without any hiccups.

Yep, that was my experience. No troubles whatsoever.

 

[leman]

Just for you guys, I have tried it again. I have booted up the BootCamp partition, downloaded the AMD autodetect tool, it has correctly identified the OS version and the GPU model, after which it downloaded and installed the latest 11.12 catalyst suite. All driver version check out, no error messages.

 

[astrocramp]

Windows 7 is still Windows and I use it on a daily basis at work: it is always failing, this week alone I lost like 3 hours.

Well, I still use OSX on my MBA. I prefer Win7 when I really need to be productive though (lots of excel sheets, reviewing designs, ppt's, multi-monitor, etc). The thing about OSX "just works" is mostly a myth IMHO, and Win7 has been as rock solid if not more so than OSX for my purposes. But that's just me and my use case.

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I need to caution you on the "2x SSDs" portion. The drives are not considered user serviceable by Apple. The SSD bay doesn't seem to have any associated issues, but on the newest one they've made the 3.5" bay essentially non swappable due to the temperature sensor design. Don't get seduced by the marketing term "IPS" panel. It's not very well implemented. IPS in general doesn't mean perfect. It gets you maybe halfway to a quality display design. Pretty much each generation has resulted in some kind of display bug complaint on here. I only commented to offer corrections on a couple of those points.

I did read some of the issues on the temperature sensors...point taken but I'll probably still try & tackle it.

This does concern me about the IPS panel though - for some reason I thought the iMac used the same panel in the highly rated Dell U-series monitors? I think I read that somewhere...

 

[astrocramp]

I would never trust Apple to provide reliable drivers for Windows. Just poke around on the "Windows on a Mac" subforum, and see all the problems people experience. Me? My 2006 MBP still doesn't have a bug-free keyboard driver, and the graphics driver is woefully out of date compared to normal x1600's.

I'd get the HP or Lenovo, or anything but an Apple, if you plan on using Windows 7 exclusively.

P.S. If you can wait, consider getting a Vizio All-in-one. They have the sexiness of an Apple, but they're legit PC's. (coming Spring 2012)

I did see that Vizio - looks sharp but I'll wait for the specs. It's only Core-i7 for me, and I'm torn about waiting for Ivy Bridge. The other issue is the HDD - I really want 2x SSD's and with the iMac you can hack it in (with alot of hassle), but many of the other Win7 AIO's don't have the SATA port to do it. I do like the Lenovo B520, but lack of USB3 is a downer (at least iMac has thunderbolt).

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Just out of curiosity, what are you planning to use the computer for? One really needs a background as to the primary purpose for such a setup because there might be folks out there in a similar situation and might have suggestions.

It's a "tertiary work computer". I have a computer in two offices, so this will be for my home office, and I carry around my MBA when traveling between the two. I use Windows Live Mesh to sync all the PC's and my MBA. Lot's of Excel, PPT, Outlook, Sharepoint, and Adobe Acrobat/PS (not a designer but check a lot of work). Inevitably I do the usual personal stuff on it too.

I also like that Lenovo B520 - it's nice, although I'm torn to see if I should wait for Ivy Bridge and/or the 27" touchscreen version they showed at CES.

 

[LostSoul80]

Since you already can enjoy OS X, I see no reason to buy a new Mac to run Windows.

Just opt for a powerful desktop, there's plenty of them. And as a side note, I agree with you, Windows 7 is actually not bad.

 

[parapup]

Yep, that was my experience. No troubles whatsoever.

Which GPU is in your iMac? Mine is the base model 21in with 6750M and the only option that AMD gives me for download of 6xxxM drivers is http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx . That's autodetecting that I don't have a supported GPU installed.

Do you download something else - desktop version of the drivers etc?

EDIT: Ha! The Desktop Catalyst package installs fine but it doesn't actually update the driver - it just installs the other components. dh2005 and leman - you might wanna double check

 

[antster94]

You could get a very nice custom PC for the price of an iMac.

 

[leman]

Which GPU is in your iMac? Mine is the base model 21in with 6750M and the only option that AMD gives me for download of 6xxxM drivers is http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx . That's autodetecting that I don't have a supported GPU installed.

Do you download something else - desktop version of the drivers etc?

EDIT: Ha! The Desktop Catalyst package installs fine but it doesn't actually update the driver - it just installs the other components. dh2005 and leman - you might wanna double check

I have the 6970M which is auto-detected correctly. The driver is also updated correctly (the graphics driver installed is the 8.92 version, as bundled with the 11.12 catalyst package).

If the auto-detect doesn't work for you, try the mobile package (http://support.amd.com/us/gpudownload/windows/Pages/radeonmob_win7-64.aspx#2) - get the full download (90meg).

 

[kgian]

I have a base 21.5 2011 imac. I use it primary with win 7 64 bit. Occasionally I have some blue screens of death, don't know where they come from.

Suspend and resume are very very fast and allways stable. Video card drivers update fine, just download and install. Gaming is great unless you want to use full settings in 1080p.

OSX is a fine and stable OS, but win7 is really very user friendly and has a great gui, if you know not to clutter it with useless junk.

Since I use the computer for casual gaming and some internet and light office use there is no point in dual booting to OSX all the time.

What I like about the imac is the esthetics, great hardware and that it is allmost silent even while gaming. Also regarding the base model, it doesn't cost so much more compared to a similar computer.

 

[thekev]

Well, I still use OSX on my MBA. I prefer Win7 when I really need to be productive though (lots of excel sheets, reviewing designs, ppt's, multi-monitor, etc). The thing about OSX "just works" is mostly a myth IMHO, and Win7 has been as rock solid if not more so than OSX for my purposes. But that's just me and my use case.

----------



I did read some of the issues on the temperature sensors...point taken but I'll probably still try & tackle it.

This does concern me about the IPS panel though - for some reason I thought the iMac used the same panel in the highly rated Dell U-series monitors? I think I read that somewhere...

I've tried to explain on the forum before that the panel used is only part of what makes a display. It's a huge part, but I've observed displays with the same or similar panels yet different behavior, so it's not everything that makes the display. I haven't seen how the Dell U series holds up to long term use so I can't really comment there. Displays do have manufacturing inconsistencies. It's a matter of how the company that designs the display implementation (not the panel) minimizes the effects of this.


Okay on the hard drive thing you need to be careful. It's changed a couple times. The thing where you short out the sensor no longer works, and I think that voided the warranty at the time anyway. If you're installing an SSD in the 3.5" slot, you may be looking at a voided warranty in getting it to work. I think some of the misconceptions about Windows 7 on here actually come from using it in bootcamp on macs. It's almost the same, but it has some annoying quirks with the Apple drivers.

 

[parapup]

I have a base 21.5 2011 imac. I use it primary with win 7 64 bit. Video card drivers update fine, just download and install.

You are the 3rd person to update ATI drivers without issue - aaand you also have the same model as mine! No matter what I do I can't update the drivers - tried above mobility package, desktop package, uninstall/reinstall/reboot etc. Still stuck with older Apple provided driver.

If you don't mind kgian - can you tell me step by step what you did to update video card drivers for the 6750M?

 

[kgian]

Just downloaded the driver package and ran installer.

If I remember correctly display drivers won't update if you have a secondary display driver installed like logmein driver. Check if this is your problem.

 

[MrNomNoms]

It's a "tertiary work computer". I have a computer in two offices, so this will be for my home office, and I carry around my MBA when traveling between the two. I use Windows Live Mesh to sync all the PC's and my MBA. Lot's of Excel, PPT, Outlook, Sharepoint, and Adobe Acrobat/PS (not a designer but check a lot of work). Inevitably I do the usual personal stuff on it too.

I also like that Lenovo B520 - it's nice, although I'm torn to see if I should wait for Ivy Bridge and/or the 27" touchscreen version they showed at CES.

Personally I'd way till Ivy Bridge comes out - they're so close to shipping at this stage you're better off just waiting a couple of months and getting it when it comes out. Regarding PC or iMac - it really comes to IMHO whether at a later date you might decide to move back to Mac OS X on that machine. If you are interested at some point in the future to move back to Mac OS X then you're better off getting an iMac but if you're 100% sure that you'll never need or want to go back to Mac OS X then you're best to save the money and get a PC running Windows.

Someone mentioned resale value - it really is only an issue if you frequently upgrade your hardware because you need the most up to date hardware otherwise I just buy a machine, run it into the ground and then pass it along to a family member or donate it to a charity.

Edit: Regarding SSD upgrades, IMHO take it into an Apple Authorised reseller to get it installed - the price is worth it given the tears afterwards if someone goes wrong if you do it yourself. Where I live they were quite happy to install the hard disk I provided.

 

[Shivetya]

I find myself in Windows 7 nearly as much as OS X on mine. However the majority of W7 usage is through Parallels, still you have to consider that since I run it full screen does it matter if OS X is on there?

I use X for mail, surfing, and such, but I assume as in your case, my business apps are all nearly in W7 only ..

It is the hardware that sold me on Mac, not the software, doubly so after Lion and the direction it hints the OS going

 

[Spinnetti]

I've been bootcamping since day one, to play a couple games, and to do my 3D cad that is windows only. Its worked fine, other than the usual windows headaches - I spent the entire weekend rebuilding my boot camp partition after windows 7 64bit packed it in and I couldn't recover it.

ONLY thing I found is that the "magic mouse" is touchy under windows when using my cad program. other than that, its worked fine. Mine is a early 2010 27" i7 BTO, and its fine on all games at full res. COD MW3 plays smooth, pretty much maxxed out... only "Cliffs of Dover" stinks, and that's a game problem not a hardware one. It runs 3D cad plenty fast too.

Industrial design of the mac makes it a nice windows machine, and resale is better than a windows PC, but i can't see buying a Mac just for windows. I wouldn't use windows at all except for a couple programs that require it that I'm not ready to let go of yet. Get an iPad and a cheap windows box. surfing and email on the pad, and the windows box for whatever else you might need.

 

[GerryGilli]

Anybody here using an iMac primarily as a Windows 7 machine? If so any issues that are annoyances/quirks that I should consider if looking at an iMac over another similar all-in-one from Dell/HP/Lenovo?

I've been using my iMac (my very first Apple machine!) mainly as a Win 7 machine because all the translation software I use only runs on the Windows platform - otherwise I would probably have ditched Windows completely, but it's not possible for me.

I have BootCamp and had no problems with the installation and even repartitioning because I initially set the Boot Camp partition at some ridiculously low value, so don't do that! I used Parallels to resize - again no problems. I haven't had many problems with the Windows machine - 1x or 2x a Blue Screen (what would the world be without it?), but generally the system is stable...

I don't use the magic mouse and I use a Windows keyboard because I can't get used to the Apple keyboard...

My Mac side unfortunately has died on me for some reason, not sure why (I just get a a grey screen and a little revolving globe) - Windows works fine however, and as I never use the Mac side it it's not a major hassle, but I don't know how to get it back up and running - and I don't have the time -Apple Care tried a few things but then gave up and suggested I go to a local dealer, but I don't have time for all that - thought Apple was reliable, but seems not ... anyway, good luck if you go ahead with it!

 

[dh2005]

If you don't mind kgian - can you tell me step by step what you did to update video card drivers for the 6750M?

Can I ask you what you're doing, mate? Because when I first got my iMac (now since moved on...) I saw that the 'official' Bootcamp drivers were a couple of months old, and I e-mailed AMD technical support to ask them whether there was anything that I could do to update the drivers external to Apple. A polite, but bemused, tech support assistant mailed me back to say, "umm... have you tried... down-loa-ding them?!".

It really was as simple as that. Going to the website, downloading the latest 'Catalyst + drivers' package and executing the update. Nothing to it.

 

[parapup]

Can I ask you what you're doing, mate? Because when I first got my iMac (now since moved on...) I saw that the 'official' Bootcamp drivers were a couple of months old, and I e-mailed AMD technical support to ask them whether there was anything that I could do to update the drivers external to Apple. A polite, but bemused, tech support assistant mailed me back to say, "umm... have you tried... down-loa-ding them?!".

It really was as simple as that. Going to the website, downloading the latest 'Catalyst + drivers' package and executing the update. Nothing to it.

I have done the exact same thing - several times. It did not update my Bootcamp driver! The installation logs always point to using the old driver and installing all other packages except the Driver package.

I have tried fully uninstalling the GPU drivers, reinstalling various packages - desktop, mobility, autodetect, manual detect, full package etc.

Did my iMac ship with a 6750M that has different PID/VID or if AMD stopped updating 6750M drivers after the BootCamp version or something else is wrong - I don't know, I am trying to figure out!

Check this out -

 

[dh2005]

Pffff. Dunno, mate. Sorry.

 

[brianbauer04]

Oh, sorry. I'm mistaken... I'm talking about the wired keyboard that I inherited from another Mac. The wireless one irritates me on account of having cramped cursors and no keypad.

I take it back!

The wired keyboard with the numeric keypad is a no-cost option on a build-to-order iMac. Shipping time goes from "in-stock" to "1-to-3 days" though.

You can also choose between the magic mouse (standard), wired mouse and the magic trackpad.

 

[dh2005]

The wired keyboard with the numeric keypad is a no-cost option on a build-to-order iMac. Shipping time goes from "in-stock" to "1-to-3 days" though.

You can also choose between the magic mouse (standard), wired mouse and the magic trackpad.

True, true.

Ever used the wired mouse? Jeeeeeeesus, does it suck...

 

[parapup]

Pffff. Dunno, mate. Sorry.

No worries, I figured it out - I needed this sucker which is buried deep on AMD's website - I needed to use the direct link to the _ocl version and now it does update to the latest!

Wonder why AMD is making it so hard to find the right driver!

 

[dh2005]

No worries, I figured it out - I needed this sucker which is buried deep on AMD's website - I needed to use the direct link to the _ocl version and now it does update to the latest!

Wonder why AMD is making it so hard to find the right driver!

Good. Pleased to hear you've sussed it.