Wannabe switcher with a noob questions

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Hello everyone,

After a recent trip to our local PC world to buy a removable HD to help recover from yet another sytem crash on our PC, my fiancé and I have decided to take the plunge and change to a Mac.

We're currently considering either the 20” 2.4 GHz or the 20" 2.66 GHz models as these are within our budget.

We generally use our current computer for web surfing, word processing and media such as itunes and viewing photos. I'm a soft-core gamer particularly on World of Warcraft.

I have two questions that I would really appreciate some help with.

1. Is there an alternative to Microsoft Office for Mac for our 'office' needs, and if so is it compatible with the office documents we will be transferring from our old PC?

2. Will I be able to run WoW at reasonably high settings on the 2.4 GHz (1GB ram 128MB graphics) machine or do I need to get the faster (and more expensive) 2.66 GHz model, especially if I want to run the forthcoming WotLK expansion?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give us,

Winston55 :)
 
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I'm an iMac noob myself, but I'll jump in and say that I decided on iWork for word processing, spreadsheets, etc. I haven't used it that much yet, but it seems nice, and many on this forum like it. Your other choice is MS Office for windows, which is also supposed to work well. iWork is $75, which is less than Office for Mac. The files that we had transferred over from the PC were MS Office, and they open fine in iWork. One Apple Store salesperson that we talked with said that the only thing that might be a problem with iWork was, if you were sending files back and forth with corrections to a PC running Office. Apparently iWork saves the files in an Apple format by default, but it will convert them. Others here can probably shed more light on this. It sounds like you may be running Windows with Boot Camp to play WoW? If that's the case, maybe you can just run MS Office for Windows?
 

CrimsonRequiem


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Your Mac's Specs
MBP 2.3 Ghz 4GB RAM 860 GB SSD, iMac 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7 32GB RAM, Fusion Drive 1TB
They have word for Mac, but the layout is different.

WOW is meh I would get a better Graphic Cards, 2.4 Ghz is fine.

Not that WOW needs a good Graphic Cards but you said you game so I figure a higher end GPU might serve you better in the future if you decide to play other games.
 
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1. neo office, or open office. both are free and work with pc files.

2. not sure what wow is. you got me on that one.

1. Is there an alternative to Microsoft Office for Mac for our 'office' needs, and if so is it compatible with the office documents we will be transferring from our old PC?

2. Will I be able to run WoW at reasonably high settings on the 2.4 GHz (1GB ram 128MB graphics) machine or do I need to get the faster (and more expensive) 2.66 GHz model, especially if I want to run the forthcoming WotLK expansion?

Winston55 :)
 
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@Macgig:
WoW = World of Warcraft. :)
 
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yeah im not a big gamer RTCW is the only game I play
 
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WoW is no crysis or anything, but even it will run like garbage on 128 MB. That's the 2400, right? If so, I have one of those in my wife's computer, and it stutters playing wow all the time.
 
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I wouldnt reccommend going with NeoOffice or OpenOffice, not that I have anything against open source programs (especially as thay are free), but when it comes to word processing you want to be able to trust the programs you use that you wont lose your data. Quite a lot of people have had problems with OpenOffice for mac.

Therefore, my reccommendation is that you go for Microsoft Office for Mac. It runs seamlessly and you dont have to worry about converting files for PC use or anything. Granted it is a little more expensive than iWorks, but it does mean you dont have to learn how to use a new program suite and dont have to worry about PC compatability. Layout may bea bit different, but nothing to shock you or completely lose you.

As to WoW, i dont play it so havnt got a clue im afraid. im sure someone else can better advise you on this.
 
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I suggest you should buy the 2.66 GHz one since you said it's within your budget. It's going to be much faster and reliable when you are playing games like WoW, SilkRoad, etc. By the way, iWorks '08 is a pretty good alternative for Office, but I believe it is really hard to use. Any how, if things don't work out so well, you could always use Boot camp and install Windows on another volume on your HDD, so you can have the best of both worlds on just one computer.
 

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