Soon to be customer!

[Dany M]

Hello, I am extreamly positive that once my brother is married and moves out early July that I will be purchacing an iimac, and had some questions about it

I just want to know some facts..

Which version runs faster?

Is the 24 inch awesome?

Do they really don't get any viruses?

How fast does it go?

I always had this thing where the first thing the load up when on an XP was the desktop and i always have to wait a few minutes before I can use it. Does it happen in a mac?

For people that have used Vista and Tiger, how do they compare?

I've heard of Parallels Desktop, and boot camp and just wondering which version of vista can it run to?

How does it compare to XP?

Does browsing, uploading, downloading stuff off the web easy or simple as doing it on a XP.

How is the game support?

When is leopard coming out and how big of leap is it to tiger?

Does it really come with Airport Extreme in it, is it downsized from the real product?

If you had any issues with it, what are they?

Does SBC Yahoo works with imacs?

Does the xbox 360 work with it, wireless or wired?

I've heard the rumors of a possible new look, if its true should i wait it out without a comp and hope that the new one comes in before school starts(late August)

Sorry for the long amounts of questions, and thank you for anyone that can help!

 

[MattJessop]

Phew - Thats a lot of questions
Hope I can answer as many possible.

Which version runs faster?
The most expensive (this is true of practically all electronics)

Is the 24 inch awesome?
Yup. Pure 24 Inches of awesomeness

Do they really don't get any viruses?
Technically they can, but in reality nobody really wants to make viruses for them. They're too lovable (and market share and UNIX etc) So - you shouldn't really worry about viruses

How fast does it go?
Pretty damn faster, although new updates are expected soon to make it go faster.

I always had this thing where the first thing the load up when on an XP was the desktop and i always have to wait a few minutes before I can use it. Does it happen in a mac?
Sadly, this is just boot up, and yes Mac OS X will have the same. It'll be much quicker than Windows, but no OS can just boot up instantly at this moment.

For people that have used Vista and Tiger, how do they compare?
Vista comes pretty close to Tiger, but Tiger is still the better. Of course switching from one to another is pretty easy, so I wouldn't worry.

I've heard of Parallels Desktop, and boot camp and just wondering which version of vista can it run to?
Which ever version you can afford. Boot camp will run it better, but Parallels will run it without having to reboot your Mac. It'll run Vista INSIDE OS X. Bootcamp however is just like running Vista as you would normally.

How does it compare to XP?
Very well. Consider that some people are even comparing Tiger to Vista, and you'll see how far ahead Tiger was of it's time.

Does browsing, uploading, downloading stuff off the web easy or simple as doing it on a XP.
Easier really. This is where the designers at Apple really deserve applaud. They make stuff for guys like you

How is the game support?
I won't lie. It's not that great. It's looking to get better, but as you can easily run XP on a Mac I wouldn't worry. Why just stick to one when you can have both?

When is leopard coming out and how big of leap is it to tiger?
October. In my honest opinion, it won't be much of a leap from Tiger, but enough to warrant buying it. It looks pretty cool, but nothing groundbreaking.

Does it really come with Airport Extreme in it, is it downsized from the real product?
Yeah, it'll come with support for 802.11g (and 802.11n if you unlock it, can anybody else confirm this?) - Most PCs do these days anyway.

If you had any issues with it, what are they?
They don't come in 30' models. :'(

Does SBC Yahoo works with imacs?
I honestly see no reason why not. Please check with them first though. They might be evil.

Does the xbox 360 work with it, wireless or wired?
Yup. Sadly you won't get the media center stuff out of it. But if you didn't even use that (if you just play games on your 360) it'll work fine. (Both wired and wirelessly, although wireless might take a bit more setup)

I've heard the rumors of a possible new look, if its true should i wait it out without a comp and hope that the new one comes in before school starts(late August)
Yeah, that seems like a good option. On the other hand. The current ones are good value. If you want one, get one. Thats all I can say.

Please feel free to ask more Welcome to the Mac community. You can expect to be snobbish and superior to the PC users now. hehe.

 

[Osarkon]

Erm, well I'll give it a shot.

The highest end one is going to be the fastest, although what exactly do you want to know in relation to 'how fast'. They perform pretty darn fast.

No, they don't get viruses.

As for the start up thing, well it depends on what you have set to run at login. But generally the machines are up and running a lot quicker than xp is, in my experience at least.

Comparing Tiger to Vista, Tiger is more pleasant to use and looks a lot cleaner. Vista has it's benefits as well I guess, but I prefer Tiger.

Bootcamp will run any version of Vista. Parallels Desktop can only legally run the higher end editions because it involves virtualization. However you can run your bootcamp installation through parallels.

General web usage as you described is pretty much the same, you won't have a problem with it.

The game support is not that great at the moment, but it's set to improve in the coming months.

Leopard is due for shipping in October and from what I saw from the Developer Conference it's miles ahead of Tiger, but still familiar.

Not quite sure what you mean about the Airport, it comes with a Airport card in it yes, that will provide wireless Internet.

As to the rumours, there are always rumours flying about in regard to Apple products, but seeing as that particular rumour gives a data of late July to early August it might be worth waiting.

Incidentally I don't own an iMac, but have tried to answer the general questions as well as I can.

Hope it helps you a bit.

 

[Dany M]

Wow, thank you both for your help and support.

Which is better, imac vs a mac mini with a display?

Are the displays the only apple product in HD?

If I purchase an imac, in jury or august, will i receive leopard free(heard somewhere that if your 3 months ahead of buying one, its free.)

Wireless keyboard/mouse, worth buying, any issues?

Is .mac necessary?

 

[Osarkon]

The iMac is better. The Mac Mini is severly out of date by now.

I wouldn't count too much on the free leopard thing, that's entirely up to Apple and I wouldn't bank on it seeing as everyone knows when it's being released now.

I don't bother with wireless keyboards and mice anymore myself, I find the wired ones are more than adequate for my needs.

And I've never used .Mac, I don't find it necessary at all.

 

[rainydays]

Which is better, imac vs a mac mini with a display?

Depends on your needs. The iMac gives your more power.

If I purchase an imac, in jury or august, will i receive leopard free(heard somewhere that if your 3 months ahead of buying one, its free.)

Only Apple can answer that one. But it doesn't seem unlikely.

Wireless keyboard/mouse, worth buying, any issues?

I actually don't think the Mighty Mouse is worth spending any money on. But they keyboard is rather nice, and being wireless isn't a bad option.
I'd recommend going for the wireless option, but don't open up the mighty mouse package, sell it as new and buy a mouse from logitech instead.

Is .mac necessary?

No.

 

[MattJessop]

But it doesn't seem unlikely.

So it does seem likely?

Yay for double negatives.

I think you mean't it doesn't seem likely. But I'll let you off this time I'm not a grammer nazi.

Unless you mean't it that way.........

 

[Dany M]

Hmm, ok, thank you all for your responses

How would I transfer my date from this computer to the imac? Does apple do that, do i need a hardrive?

Where are the speakers?

 

[rainydays]

So it does seem likely?

Yay for double negatives.

I think you mean't it doesn't seem likely. But I'll let you off this time I'm not a grammer nazi.

Hey, I'm Swedish so cut me some slack!

I think 'impossible' was the word I was going to write.

 

[I'mAMac]

Please feel free to ask more Welcome to the Mac community. You can expect to be snobbish and superior to the PC users now. hehe.

Pc users? no no no, us mac users refer to them now as 'mere mortals' or if you dont want to seem to mean, just 'mortals' will do. Its ok it was an honest mistake.

O and the speakers are on the underside of the mac.

 

[iW00t]

Between the 24" and the Mac Pro I will go for the Mac Pro though... just a thought

 

[Luigi239]

Which version runs faster?
Well the obvious answer would be the one with the faster processor. But ram can be more important then 200mhz, so keep that into consideration. Also, screen size does not matter beyond your preference because I believe that you can configure a 20" almost exactly like a 24".

Is the 24 inch awesome?
Yeah, it is pretty dang sexy. You may want to head down to an Apple store just to admire it before you make the plunge.

Do they really don't get any viruses?
Nope, viruses are of no concern to Macs at the present time, and is most likely going to be this way for a very long time. I run without any type of security software whatsoever and I have been fine since I got my mac.

How fast does it go?
Much faster then Windows in my experience. (Tiger's Aqua uses FAR less system resources then Vista's Aero) You also don't need the security software, and that will also make it run much faster.

I always had this thing where the first thing the load up when on an XP was the desktop and i always have to wait a few minutes before I can use it. Does it happen in a mac?
On my 1 year old Macbook, I get boot up times of 27 seconds, (Yes, I timed it. ) Most apps don't auto-configure themselfs to start at login like in Windows. You also don't have to start up your security software, which also saves time.

For people that have used Vista and Tiger, how do they compare?
Haven't used Vista much myself, but Tiger is ahead in many ways. Since I haven't personally used vista that much I won't really comment on it. But, Tiger is much faster and reliable, as in it doesn't crash, and uses much more system resources.

I've heard of Parallels Desktop, and boot camp and just wondering which version of vista can it run to?
Boot Camp and Parallels can run any version of Vista you could imagine. Only thing is if you run Vista in Parallels, your supposed to only run the Ultimate version, but there is really no way they are going to catch you, and there is nothing that will prevent you from installing a lesser version. Honestly, I would recommend XP just for the stability and that it will be much faster.

How does it compare to XP?
Tiger is leaps and bounds better then XP, as in instant search, much greater stability, a better UI, the dock, ext. I actually found this website that gives a thorough comparison between the two and really helped me decide to switch. It is http://www.xvsxp.com/.

Does browsing, uploading, downloading stuff off the web easy or simple as doing it on a XP.
Yes, in fact Firefox is almost exactly the same on both OS's, and if you choose to use the default browser, Safari, it is much improved over IE. Most basic web functions like HTML, Javascript, Flash, Java, ext are all supported.

How is the game support?
Not that great, although EA is going to bring some of their major franchises over to the Mac later this year, such as Madden and Harry Potter, but for the mean time there are still some good games out like The Sims and World of Warcraft to name a few. You could also run games using Boot Camp and XP.

When is leopard coming out and how big of leap is it to tiger?
Under the hood, I think that Leopard will be an absolutely massive upgrade, in terms of 64bit support (which all macs sans mini have) and Core Animation, which will allow for developers to create some really applications and interfaces. Leopard also includes a revised, nicer GUI, better Finder, Spaces, ext. Look at Apple's page on Leopard (http://www.apple.com/macosx/leopard/) for more information


Does it really come with Airport Extreme in it, is it downsized from the real product?
Yes, the iMac comes with real, 802.11g/n, which is the best Apple and the Industry has to offer. (It's only the card, not the router itself)

If you had any issues with it, what are they?
The only issues that I had were that some Applications did not have Windows versions, but then again many had simular Mac versions, like instead of Trillium, Macs have Adium.

Does SBC Yahoo works with imacs?
If this is an ISP, then yes it will.

Does the xbox 360 work with it, wireless or wired?
I'm not really sure. I know you can share your internet connection with your iMac, but your iMac does not include a router itself. (The airport extreme router that Apple ships does not work with the 360 to my knowledge. But you can simply just buy another router like Netgear and Belkin (stay away from Linksys, they have very poor Mac support) and you will be fine.

I've heard the rumors of a possible new look, if its true should i wait it out without a comp and hope that the new one comes in before school starts(late August)
Definitely a good idea to wait, as the iMacs haven't been upgraded with Santa Rosa which is a big upgrade, so wait as long as you can until they get upgraded.

Good luck in your decision.

 

[Osarkon]

Welcome to the Mac community. You can expect to be snobbish and superior to the PC users now. hehe.

No you can't, whilst a lot of mac users feel this it's petty and childish to be honest and we have enough of them. Just use it as what it's meant to be used as, a tool, and leave it at that.

 

[MattJessop]

No you can't, whilst a lot of mac users feel this it's petty and childish to be honest and we have enough of them. Just use it as what it's meant to be used as, a tool, and leave it at that.

To be honest I fully agree with you. But then again, thats why I picked MacRumors over the other Apple websites, as from my experience, they're far less balanced towards the Windows/Linux users (sometimes leaning towards downright bias) - Just to clarify - this was written on Windows XP

 

[Osarkon]

To be honest I fully agree with you. But then again, thats why I picked MacRumors over the other Apple websites, as from my experience, they're far less balanced towards the Windows/Linux users (sometimes leaning towards downright bias) - Just to clarify - this was written on Windows XP

Heh good to know. Yeah no worries, this is written on Vista. There's plenty of that characteristic bias around here but you just learn to ignore it mainly.

 

[MattJessop]

Heh good to know. Yeah no worries, this is written on Vista. There's plenty of that characteristic bias around here but you just learn to ignore it mainly.

Yay - we're both mere mortals ^_^

Vista's pretty cool, I just can't run games veery well on it
Soon however I plan on purchasing my Macbook, (but I'll run XP/Vista on it anyway)

Anyway, back to the point of the post -

Which is better, imac vs a mac mini with a display?
iMac. Mac minis are smaller, and you can lug them around, but they're getting kind of old now, and unless an update is brought out to them soon, I wouldn't recommend getting on just now. The 17' iMac and the Mac Mini share the same graphics card however.

Are the displays the only apple product in HD?
The cinema displays? No, any monitor will work with a Mac, they rely on simple miniDVI ports, so any monitor would work with it.

If I purchase an imac, in jury or august, will i receive leopard free(heard somewhere that if your 3 months ahead of buying one, its free.)
No, sadly not. I believe that the maximum amount of time they will allow people to upgrade their new purchase to Leopard will be around 14 days. I wanted to get this too

Wireless keyboard/mouse, worth buying, any issues?
I'd say yes, because of the added freedom it gives you Of course, everybody else in this post has said no to the mighty mouse, but it depends on how big a deal this would be to you.

Is .mac necessary?
It depends, if you want very simple and easy to use mail, somewhere to do small backups, and share off your photos and calenders to friends with real ease, then yes, .Mac would be worth it.

If you have relative experience in these matters however, and know how to use e-mail and photo uploaders like Photobucket .Mac would just be a waste of your money

How would I transfer my date from this computer to the imac? Does apple do that, do i need a hardrive?
You could exchange files wirelessly, or set up a firewire/ethernet connection to share files. Some set up might be required, but anybody on these forums would be more than glad to help you out - There are several programs avaliable to help you do this automatically as well, but these cost money.

Where are the speakers?
Built in, clever isn't it? You just can't see them from the front ;-)

Hope this helps.