08-15-2006, 04:27 PM

Good evening all

I've quite simply had enough of Windows and I am therefore converting to a lovely 20" iMac. The design alone sells it to me! I know windows off the back of my hand, and know nothing in comparison about Macs and their OS so I have just a few questions if anyone can help.

1) I won't have any problem opening any type of files that I have on my Windows machine onto an iMac will I? PowerPoints/Photoshop etc?

2) I've heard that it's possible to install both Windows as well as a Mac OS onto the iMac. Is there any negative sides to doing this?

3) I am completely clueless on anything hardware related, as well as file systems on Hard Drives being one. XP runs on NTFS. Does the MacOS run on the same file system? If I installed XP (Or soon Vista) as well as the MacOS would it be easier seperating the HDD into 2 seperate partitions and having one half for windows, one half for Mac? If not, what would people recommend?

4) If I got an iMac with 512 RAM and decided I wanted to upgrade to 1/2gb later on down the line is this possible, and is it much of a hassle? Would 512 of RAM be slow for any applications or would it suffice for my machine? I never play games, only use Graphic and Web Applications such as Dreamweaver/Photoshop etc and use the Internet and MSN Messenger.

5) I notice the iMacs don't have a 5.1 sound card in them - is this possible? and if not, is there anyway to get a/my sound to 5.1? What speakers would anyone recommend? Not specifically wanting LOUD, but instead, really good sound.

6) A pic of peoples iMac setups would be great to have a look at before I get mine!

Cheers in advance
Liam

08-15-2006, 04:33 PM

1. You will need to have the Mac equivalent of the program installed (Photoshop for Photoshop, An opensource office or Office for Mac for Office etc)
2. You are at risk for all of the viruses and spyware and crashing that you are with windows currently
3. Macs use HFS+ file system. OS X can read but not write to NTFS, and can read and write to FAT32. BootCamp (http://www.apple.com/bootcamp) creates the separate partitions for the Windows install
4. You can upgrade it later and save yourself the money. For photoshop/dreamweaver kind of apps I would recommend at least a gig but you might be fine with 512, it will be up to you to see how it performs
5. They have Optical out which you can connect to a stereo
6. Official Setup Thread

08-15-2006, 04:46 PM

cheers!! thanks for your help - think i'll leave the windows setup on my laptop and dedicate the iMac to Mac OS only!

One last thing - the software that you can choose to upgrade with on the apple website - is it worth purchasing?

I think I can get a cheap(er) setup due to my ''education'' status also