Looking to buy a Mac

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 8:35 pm

I looked at Crucial and for the iMac the prices are the same or higher. I'll take a look at newegg. I would like to find a cheaper site with a good reputation.

EZSnappin · Post by **EZSnappin** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 6:16 am

I just picked up memory for my old PowerMac at MemoryToGo.com and it was inexpensive and is working great. Will probably order from there again when I pick up a new MacBook Pro - hopefully at the end of the week.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 9:07 am

cdw.com might be another place to look. They're a billion dollar company with a fantastic reputation. I worked for them right out of college and I know for a fact you can negotiate price.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 9:16 am

The thing about it is I think they give you two 256 MB DIMMs to fill both slots.

So if you upgrade to 1 GB, you have to get two 512 MB DIMMs for both slots.

Then your two 256 MB DIMMs can't be used at all.

That may be why Crucial costs a bit more than Apple, because you're getting some value back for the 256 MB DIMMs? At least they will install it for you.

I think Hip mentioned Other World Computing too. You can Google them.

You could also check pricewatch.com for the same kind of memory.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 10:55 am

Wco:
I don't get the reasoning. So I have to pay more not only for upgraded memory but so I can give the standard memory back. How am I getting value back in that deal.

mg · Post by mg » Mon Jun 05, 2006 11:13 am

check out macmall or clubmac - if i'm reading it right, they are giving an extra 512MB mem for a total of 1GB for $1294. i think apple's price is $1299 for 512mg total.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 1:14 pm

If they gave you just a 512 MB DIMM and you just bought another 512 MB DIMM elsewhere and installed it, that would be the cheapest route.

But I guess many people don't upgrade right away so they'd be better off with two 256 MB DIMMs in a dual-channel configuration than having the single 512 MB DIMM.

Yeah some third parties may give you memory upgrades, maybe throw in a printer. Or maybe rebates like Amazon did.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 11:19 pm

Guys, just thought I would give you an update...

I am now on the mac. It could not have been more simple. I just fired up the computer and bingo...online without any hassles.

I've spent that last few hours trying to unlearn windows.

Other than that, I'm an impressed. From the widgets to spotlight(search function) and the other features. I have zero pictures and videos so I haven't played around with the iLife studio.

You can tell the level of thought they put into these machines. The whole package from the design to implementation is excellent. I like MS but now I have a completely different view of XP. The Mac is a lot like the Xbox 360, when you try to create a device for its intended use and not force users into your idea of what a device should do, you end up with the 360 or in my case a mac.

I need more ram and that's clear from the initial start up.

One other thing, the only game I had that was Mac compatable until I find my XP disc is Football Manager. I wanted to add a few skins to that game and so while I was still in my XP frame of mind, I went to the HD, then tried to locate the folder where I needed to install the skins. I figured that ought to be a better way. Sure enough, I just needed to click on Finder > Applications > Football Manager.

While I'm curious about Vista, I'm even more excited about this Imac. I wanted to run out and get a great digital camera just so i could create stuff. I think I'll wait until Christmas to do that.

Sometimes first impressions are everything, and the Mac has completely blown me away.

10spro · Post by **10spro** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 11:58 pm

JRod, I am also slowly finding how much simpler my macbook Pro is and I am loving it so far. Just a little heads up which I am sure you may be aware of, if you do decide to install windows, it's got to be the SP2 version, bootcamp won't take the original XP.

A question for Sport73. I thought each time that you turn on the Mac the calendar would automatically state the last date that you were logged on, yet on mine it always appears as JUL 17. it seems to be the default on all Macs. Is that true, or can you adjust it?

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 12:20 am

Ya I read that it had to be SP2. However and maybe someone else can confirm. I think Parrallels doesn't need SP2.

I also read that a future version of Mac OS will have a virtual PC function. So you will be able to run XP virtually.

I've spent all night on my mac and love it. Crappy part is that I need to remember all my passwords for all the gaming sites I use.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 9:11 am

Congrats JRod. I've enjoyed my IMac from day 1 and have had it now for just about a year. In the past, I always worried about my PC getting the blue screen of death or having to make sure my anti-virus was always up to date. With the IMac, it's just a joy to turn on and have the peace of mind that the operating system is reliable and stable. The periodic updates you'll occassionally see are well organized and easy to understand.

Additionally, I love how many of the same operations that I would have done on the PC now can be done in only one or two clicks. Much of that has to do with the way the desktop is set up. Spotlight by far is my favorite feature and I use it just about every day.

Enjoy!

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 11:13 am

After a full night with the Imac, its impressive. The only thing that I'm disappointed with is the mouse. It feels somewhat cheap and twitchy.

Damn it if I can't find my XP disc to fire up bootcamp.

sportdan30 · Post by **sportdan30** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 11:38 am

JRod wrote:After a full night with the Imac, its impressive. The only thing that I'm disappointed with is the mouse. It feels somewhat cheap and twitchy.

Damn it if I can't find my XP disc to fire up bootcamp.

The mouse was my only complaint as well. I have since purchased a wireless logitech two button mouse with a scrolling wheel.

Kazuya · Post by **Kazuya** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 12:01 pm

JRod wrote:After a full night with the Imac, its impressive. The only thing that I'm disappointed with is the mouse. It feels somewhat cheap and twitchy.

Damn it if I can't find my XP disc to fire up bootcamp.

Guy goes out and buys a Mac, messes around with it for a bit, then frantically searches for his XP disc. Probably not how Jobs is drawing it up...

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:01 pm

Kazuya wrote:
JRod wrote:After a full night with the Imac, its impressive. The only thing that I'm disappointed with is the mouse. It feels somewhat cheap and twitchy.

Damn it if I can't find my XP disc to fire up bootcamp.
Guy goes out and buys a Mac, messes around with it for a bit, then frantically searches for his XP disc. Probably not how Jobs is drawing it up...

Haha, no probably not. But now Jobs and Gates has my money. The rich just get richer...

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:10 pm

Virtual PC is a separate product, which you'd have to purchase from MS.

I don't know what they plan to do with it but it used to be emulation software, so it ran Windows very slowly.

On the mouse, main thing I didn't like when I tried it at the store is that it's not wireless. The little ball thing seems to scroll better than most wheels. That is, you didn't have to move it as much as you'd move a wheel. Plus you can scroll horizontally.

But yeah optical wireless mice are cheap now. You can even get bluetooth mice if you don't want a wireless USB dongle.

As for logging in, I'm not sure where the date is stored. I'm sure there is a log of when you log in. But I never log out, just put the PowerBook to sleep and then lift the lid to wake it up. I do restart every couple of weeks though.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:24 pm

BTW, you can adjust the responsiveness and tracking speed of the mouse by going to the Apple Menu -> System Preferences -> Keyboard and Mouse.

I would keep System Preferences handy by putting it in the Dock.

When it's launched, you will see the icon for it in the Dock. You either right click that icon or just hold click on it and a menu will appear and one of the choices will be "Keep in Dock."

You can drag around the dock icons to set them up in any order you want.

There is also a Dock panel in System Preferences where you can change the size of the dock, put it on the left, bottom or right edge, make it zoom in as you mouse over, and change the degree to which it zooms in.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 1:45 pm

Dan,
I don't get the blue screen of death as much as my 3 year old dell while still quick seemed to have the virus/spyware slowdown. You know the kind where you fire something up and it just doesn't load right.

I got tired of fighting around with my PC on a lot of things. The worst is when I try to fix my home's wireless network. That's a good two hours of my life wasted everytime. And I dont' know why its so hard.

Since I only use my PC for music and internet, the switch won't hurt me. If I get bootcamp to run, I can have windows turn into a console PC for Civ 3 and the like.

I need to figure out how to get all my songs from my PC to the mac. And my rhapsody account and hundreds of songs are basically useless because its not mac compatible. Too bad iTunes isn't subsription based. I would tomorrow buy a ipod and subsribe even if it was $49 a month.

Sport73 · Post by **Sport73** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 12:49 am

10spro wrote:A question for Sport73. I thought each time that you turn on the Mac the calendar would automatically state the last date that you were logged on, yet on mine it always appears as JUL 17. it seems to be the default on all Macs. Is that true, or can you adjust it?

The default icon for iCal in the Dock is July 17th, but it will immediately update to the current date once launched. Apparently Apple never got around to creating a daily 'script' to create a new icon; though I believe there are utilities that will mimick that result.

JRod · Post by **JRod** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 2:18 am

Well after a week with the computer and I can honestly say this is probably the best bang for the buck I could have made. Knowing computers though, the next big thing will be released soon making it feel like a purchased a 286.

I have loaded up bootcamp and I'm impressed. It was simpler than reinstalling Windows for the PC. Plus the Mac creates a disk to install all the drivers which made everything work except the camera. Its still in the beta stage but so far I haven't seen too many problems with it. I will probably use that for PC games that won't work with the mac. One other thing is that you can move PC files to the Mac but I haven't found a way to have the PC look inside the Mac.

Oh by the way for those of you that have a mac but don't have service pack 2, I found a way to use service pack 1 and slipstream SP2 to get bootcamp to work.

The only thing I'm disappointed in, is that it runs my Football Manager league slower than on my old Dell laptop. Probably an issue with FM not the iMac. I'm using this on the Mac partition not PC.

I installed NFL HeadCoach and it worked fast. (on PC side)

Overall the Mac is a PC killer...or atleast a XP killer. IMHO.

tjung0831 · Post by **tjung0831** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:40 am

What does MAC use for an internet browser? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I don't know jack about the mac but i'm interested in the new macbook.

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:50 am

They have their own browser which comes with the OS called Safari, which has tabbed browsing, popup blocker and a built-in RSS reader.

But there are a number of sites which don't render correctly on Safari.

So you can use Firefox in those cases, or all the time.

bdunn13 · Post by **bdunn13** » Fri Jun 16, 2006 9:50 am

tjung0831 wrote:What does MAC use for an internet browser? Sorry if this is a dumb question but I don't know jack about the mac but i'm interested in the new macbook.

Safari... you can use Firefox as well. However, on my MAC I refused to install FF until a month or two went by so I could give Safari a fare shake.. Safari is not a bad browser(loads better than IE) but I still prefer Firefox.

Sudz · Post by **Sudz** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:09 pm

i got a MacBook for work...

what should i get for it...and why the hell can't i get the feed for http://www.570klac.com/pages/streaming.html to work...

wtf?

wco81 · Post by **wco81** » Wed Jan 10, 2007 3:32 pm

It says it supports Safari, which is the default browser which comes with Mac OS X.

You can also download Firefox and Camino for free. Just Google them by typing the search term in the Google search field on the upper right-hand corner of Safari.

Lot of freeware at versiontracker.com.

VLC is a good one to watch different kinds of videos and that's a free download, again you can find through versiontracker.

What else do you want to do with it?