Hello, 1st post

Hi all, this will be my first post, please be easy on me!

I have a few questions as follows:

1) The optical drive does not read nor burn DVD; it does only CD. I saw some threads on Apple's discussion board and found the last resort will be to replace it. I followed all the cleaning procedures and other instructions but it did not make things better. Does anyone in this board ever use an optical driver from OWC, with the following description?

"OWC Mercury iMac G5 internal Superdrive Upgrade Kit for all iMac G5 Models. Burns DVDs at up to 8X, Dual Layer DVD up to 2.4X, 3X DVD-Ram, & up to 24X CD Burn. 10pcs 8X DVD-R Media, EMC Retrospect Backup, & NTI Dragonburn Incl. 1 Year Warranty. (OWCMG5SL8XDLK)"

2) My HD is getting filled up and I am thinking about replacing the internal HD. Thought about external HD but my iMac is connected with an Airport Express and I don't want to have a firewire connection; want to make the connection simple. Any recommendation of the HD replacement in terms of brand and spec? I am looking for 500GB or 750GB.

3) I recently started enjoying 'mirroring' by using S-Video cable to my 51" TV. This is awesome. When I plug in the cable to iMac, the desktop view is kinda expanded. For example, the desktop folder icons get fat and the entire desktop does not fit on the screen. I was trying to make some adjustment but have not found any good solutions. Is this normal when the video adapter is connected to iMac? Are there any ways that the distorted (expanded) desktop view can be fixed?

4) Also, I want to know if there is a significant difference between 1.5GB RAM vs 2.5GB RAM when it is in operation. I am thinking about adding 2GB RAM from OWC and make it 2.5GB RAM.

I thank you for your kind help.

Reply to 4

Ram is expensive so dont go buying more than you need, it depends what you will be doing, some apps have a higher demand for Ram than others.

1.5 is plenty of ram for simple tasks but for others like £D editing or photoshop 2.5 would obviously be better.

"RAM is expensive"????

4Gb from OWC for about $100

Dell RAM for a lot less (search mac-rumors for Dell RAM ebay coupon):

http://forums.macrumors.com/search.php?searchid=8752788

2GB RAM from OWC is less than $60. I don't think it's not a bad investment at all.

http://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other World Computing/4200DDR2M2GB/

Ram is cheap. Meat is expensive, **** are expensive, booze is expensive.
Therefore, ram is an essential.

Anyways, thats the first thing I did to my macbook, whack 4 gigs of ram in it The performance you get from upgrading ram is astonishing.

Welcome to Mac-Forums, odenkun.

We have the same iMac model, I think.

Right before Christmas I went from 1.5 GB to 2.5 GB RAM as well and as a whole I would say it has made this iMac more zippy. One app for instance is Safari that would crash once in a while: ever since I upgraded the RAM it's been rock-solid.

And I bought at OWC as well: very efficient, good prices, friendly advice if ever you need additional info. And their RAM has a lifetime warranty.

This isn't the first time I have made business with them and also recommended them to recent switcher friends of mine who both have Intel-based iMacs and needless to say, no bad experiences at all. So my advice? Go for it.

Edited to add:

About replacing that internal HD of yours... Why not go with an external that you would partition and use to store your personal files, make your backups, etc.? The OWC Mercury Elite HDs are manufactured by Seagate and have an excellent warranty. And to make room on your internal, burn your photos or movies on DVDs and, once you've made sure the burn media is ok and reliable, delete the originals off of your internal HD: that's what I do. I do photography in my spare time and as soon as I'm done with the photos, I burn them on DVDs and delete them off of my iMac so I always have a decent amount of free space on my internal HD.

I also use a LaCie 500GB FireWire external hard drive for my backups.

Thanks for the information MacHeadCase. I did not think about partition; be honest, I do not know much about partitioning and never tried it before. Before doing some for HD, I think I need to replace the optical drive first so that I can backup some files to DVD, since my current O/D does not function for DVD. I will do more study and search for the partitioning.

When I owned iMac G4 (w/swinging display), I did purchase an additional RAM from OWC. I gave away this iMac G4 to my mother....

That is fine about the G4 RAM: you wouldn't have been able to use it in your iMac G5 anyway because it isn't the same type of RAM module.

Nice avatar, btw.

everybody else has dealt with your queries

so all I can say is welcome, you will like it here - very friendly

I just got 2GB RAM from OWC. Ordered on Monday and arrived yesterday. Fast service. I paid a bit over $60 including shipping. Installation was a breeze and so far my iMac has been working great. Just an update.

OWC is really great. Glad you find the service good as well. Thanks for keeping us posted!