thinking of buying an imac - some questions

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hey!

i'm a pc user but i'm thinking of buying an imac (not sure which one yet). but i have some nagging questions before:

- is there a way to chat with msn messenger contacts using the integrated isight and microphone? it appears that the messenger for mac does not support this :[
if so, how is the quality of the image and sound?

or (just a funny thought), is there some ichat compatible client for windows? (with image+sound)

- regarding xp on mac:

can i expect good gaming performance? what would be better, xp using bootcamp or parallels desktop? (why is parallels desktop so expensive?? :Grimmace: )

umm that's all i can think of now, i'll surely get back to you guys when i can think of more questions.

anyways, thanks in advance for your replies!!
 
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Mercury messenger will do webcam on MSN.

Microsoft will do an MSN for Mac with video at some point.
 
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- regarding xp on mac:

can i expect good gaming performance? what would be better, xp using bootcamp or parallels desktop? (why is parallels desktop so expensive?? :Grimmace: )


You can expect the same gaming performance as a PC with the same specs as your iMac.

Parallels is not a viable option as it doesnt support 3d graphics yet and it shares your processor/ram/video card with OS X
 
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First question: No clue
Second: yea, AIM or AOL messenger
Third: Yea, it's awesome! Use boot camp though. You can download the beta for free. It works fine. Using parallels, you have both XP and OS X running at the same time and that will kill your computers performance if you're doing high end stuff like gaming.
Bryan
 
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hey!

You can expect the same gaming performance as a PC with the same specs as your iMac.

ok, but won't there be problems like shared video memory or something similar? my current pc can be configured to have up to 128 mb of graphics memory but since it's shared, i can run 3d games at like 1 fps... and i don't want that again.
if only i had known about that when i bought it :Not-Amused:

thanks!
 
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The iMac has a discrete video card so there is no issue of shared video memory with them. If you were to get a macbook you would run into that problem
 
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What kind of games are you hoping to play? I have the 20" iMac with the 128MB Radeon, and have had no issues with 3D games, due to the dedicated video memory.
 
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i'm not that much of a gamer but i do like the ocassional need for speed or halo... (at last! halo 2 for pc! will it run on xp?)

i also would like to get the chance to turn the realism and details up on flight simulator...

and god knows what games are yet to come
 
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Make sure you get one with the dedicated card and you'll be ok. Integrated means nothing to me. I take it as no graphics card at all.
Anyways, I've run NFS: Carbon on my 20" w/ 128MB card and I had the settings up to max or close and it ran beautifully.
You will not be disappointed by the iMacs capabilities if you get the one with the dedicated card. There is one and only one iMac of the newer versions that have an integrated card and that's the cheapest 17". The more expensive 17" and all larger sizes have dedicated cards.
Bryan
 
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oh alright then that can't be too bad :D

more questions then:

LEOPARD: what will it have new? i have seen the sneak peek at apple.com but i doubt that's all. any page where i can get more information?

what's your gues, will there be new imacs released together with it? i simply can't wait for my imac (especially since my current vaio is frustrating me more everyday, fan noise, overheating -> shutdowns, slow, i'm running out of space, etc, etc) but maybe it would be wise to wait for leopard? but then again, if there are new imacs, won't they be full of bugs like the macbooks (with the mooo sound and all) or the ipods (with hdd noise)? so i'll have to wait MORE?? aaaaaa!

and regarding what i just wrote about my vaio: FAN NOISE. is it an issue? is there any noise? or just under heavy load? how heavy is heavy? does it get hot?


and one last question: i'm buying the imac in germany. are there any known limitations for european imacs? i remember reading that the european ipods' volume could not be turned up all the way. just wondering ;)
 
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oh and another thing: can i use 8cm cds in the slot drive? is there some kind of adaptor for them?
 

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you cannot put mini cd's into slot drives - do not know if there is an adpater that allows them to be played or not
 

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