New Mac User - Several Newbie Questions

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xbrian87

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So I finally brought myself to buy a Macintosh. I went out and picked up a Intel (Duo) 17" iMac with Applecare; so far I'm definately digging it.

I do have a few questions, however, that weren't found when I did searches on the forums:

1. I left my PC on 24/7 (restarting or shutting down for a few hours every 2-3 days), is that okay for the Mac or is it just better to shut it down at night?

2. My computer came with 512mb RAM, I just bought another 1gb stick from Crucial.com; will this extra 1gb really make a noticeable difference (because right now I'm seeing mediocre performance in World of Warcraft and multi-tasking on the desktop)?

3. As far as Peer-to-Peer goes, what do you guys use? If P2P talk is prohibited on this forum, disregard this question.

That's it! Other than those 3 little questions, I'm totally loving this new computer and I really dont see why anyone uses PCs anymore (other than compatibility issues) :)

-Brian
 
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Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac C2D 2.16ghz, 13" MacBook 2.0ghz, 60gb iPod vid, 1gb nano
1. You can leave your mac on as long as you feel like
2. 512 to 1.25gb is a huge increase. 512 really isn't enough for a system imo, especially if you are trying WoW
3. I don't use P2P but LimeWire/Poisoned/Acquisition are the 3 I see most of the time
 
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1. I left my PC on 24/7 (restarting or shutting down for a few hours every 2-3 days), is that okay for the Mac or is it just better to shut it down at night?

It is fine to leave it on.

. My computer came with 512mb RAM, I just bought another 1gb stick from Crucial.com; will this extra 1gb really make a noticeable difference (because right now I'm seeing mediocre performance in World of Warcraft and multi-tasking on the desktop)?

Simple answer. More ram, faster computer.

3. As far as Peer-to-Peer goes, what do you guys use? If P2P talk is prohibited on this forum, disregard this question.

i dont use peer to peer


Hope you love the new computer. and welcome to the forum
 
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xbrian87

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Thanks, guys!

I got overnight shipping on that RAM, should be processed tomorrow and recieved in 2 days (I just ordered it tonight).

I'll be reading a lot on these forums, as a new Mac user, I can sure use any helpful hints and tips I can get my $1,299-in-debt hands on :p
 
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xbrian87

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One more question:

4. Is it necessary or even possible to defragment an Apple's hard drive(s)?
 
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Your Mac's Specs
20" iMac C2D 2.16ghz, 13" MacBook 2.0ghz, 60gb iPod vid, 1gb nano
Nope. Apples file system is completely different then Windows NTFS/FAT32 so defragging is unnecessary
 
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Tiranis

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It's not really unnecessary. It's just that OS X automatically defrags files smaller than 20mb (or 40, I can't remember what it was). But, yes, you don't have to do any defragmentation manually.

Regarding P2P, I would recommend Limewire. It finds by far the most files (especially if you're like me, and you're mostly after the legal files and not music/movies) and it's actually quite user-friendly, even though it's far from being a native OS X application.
 

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