Switching from Dell to iMac soon!

[Rxaggie02]

Howdy Everyone, this is my first post!

I have recently made up my mind for my next computer to be a mac. I haven't used a mac since 4th or 5th grade at school and I am currently 27 years old.

I have been having major issues with my dell pc latley. I keep getting the blue screen that states it turned itself off so not to lose important data or memormy dump or whatever. I have had this comp for about 4 years and has been good to me, but I have had to take her in many times just to fix her up. Virus scanners miss so much.
So.....

I popped into a mac store here in houston this week to give one a test drive, and the mac OS X is absolutly easy to use, quick, and simply awesome how almost everything is intergrated (I guess when one company makes everything it works together correctly). So when leopard comes out, being a noob how much different will i notice? I am moving from an apt to a new home in may so should I wait for the iMac to have leopard if I don't totally need the comp just yet? Or should i ditch my old comp and go ahead and buy this bad a m effer now and update to leopard when it comes out (btw I hate updating: I did it to XP and also on my pocket pc from mobile 3 to 5.0 and have had problems with both systems ever since) is this kind of issue happening in OS updates with mac?

I love the 24" although I am not sure how practical it will be for me to get that size. So may just go with what you guys call the "sweet spot" at the 20". I won't be doing much editing photos and the like jsut office type things and email and surfing.

Some other questions:
Can I linked to my mac with my xbox 360 for music and videos and the like?
Does it have a dual layer burner in the iMac?
Can I link my Samsung LCD 52" and watch HD videos from my mac?
I have a WD hard drive that I carry around, will this work with mac? I realize it is just USB, but again never worked on a mac before.
If I make a slide show in power point and carry to work with me (on pc avail) will it alter it at all or fail to read it on the pc?

Thanks in advance and I will be surfing around for some of this stuff, b/c it looks like there is alot of good info in this forum.

 

[Kash]

1. For starters, there isn't an exact release date for Leopard. Some were saying March 31, but now rumors have moved the date to sometime in May while there are others who claimed June during the WWDC conference. So if you decide to wait, you may end up waiting 3 months. Plus, there's really nothing Leopard offers that's so compelling that you should wait 3 months for. I suggest buying this "bad m effer now" :black:

2. Every piece of software is susceptible to errors when updating, but overall, the process is rather smooth on a Mac.

3. When it comes to monitors, I personally say you should get the biggest size you can afford. This is doubly true for iMacs where you can't upgrade just the screen. So I would much rather have a 24" iMac and not fully utilize the screen right away then finally have a use for it 2-3 months later and hate myself for buying the 20" when I had no problem affording the 24". Plus, the 24" one looks absolutely gorgeous!!

4. There's currently no way to hook up a Mac to a Xbox360 as the latter requires the Zune or Windows Media Player 11 software to share music and videos.

5. Yes, the iMac has the dual layer DVD burner.

6. The iMac comes with a mini-DVI port. So if your LCD offers a VGA or DVI connector, then yes, you can hook up the LCD to your iMac.

7. Yes, you can hookup any external hard drive to a Mac using USB or Firewire. However, you should keep in mind that OS X cannot write to a NTFS partition, only read from it. So if your external hard drive is formatted with NTFS, you won't be able to write files to it from your Mac. If you need to use the drive with both Windows and a Mac, I suggest formatting it to the FAT32 file format for best compatibility.

8. Microsoft provides a version of Office for the Mac. So you can create a Powerpoint presentation on your Mac and it'll open exactly how you intended it to look on the Windows version of Powerpoint.

While it may seem you have a lot of questions, we also have lots of answers. Feel free to ask some more. We'll be more than happy to help you find your way to the light side

 

[Alexis]

I popped into a mac store here in houston this week to give one a test drive, and the mac OS X is absolutly easy to use, quick, and simply awesome how almost everything is intergrated (I guess when one company makes everything it works together correctly). So when leopard comes out, being a noob how much different will i notice? I am moving from an apt to a new home in may so should I wait for the iMac to have leopard if I don't totally need the comp just yet? Or should i ditch my old comp and go ahead and buy this bad a m effer now and update to leopard when it comes out (btw I hate updating: I did it to XP and also on my pocket pc from mobile 3 to 5.0 and have had problems with both systems ever since) is this kind of issue happening in OS updates with mac?

Leopard might come out next week, it might come out in 6 months, but it is still OS X so won't be vastly different from Tiger (there are a lot of excited people on these forums for a product that won't be that a massive change, going by past events). OS X is an evolutionary operating system and it just gradually gets better as opposed to Apple needing a whole new OS every 5 years, like Microsoft. OS X has always been excellent, so it doesn't need drastically rewriting for every release. Anyway, even when you do get Leopard, installing it will be a cinch and you won't need to update anything to get it to work.

On the other point, 20" is a fine screensize for the iMac.

 

[residentevol]

I was like you thinking maybe I should get the 24" I dont really need it but its only a couple hundred more. Well finally it came down to it and I grabbed the 20" I brought it home and this thing looks like a monster sitting on my tiny desk I can only imagine what the 24" would have been like! If you dont need it and you want to save a few hundred you will NOT be upset by the 20" size. In my opinion that is..

 

[christm]

congrats on your new purchase. I have the 17" and its awsome

 

[Sawday]

Hi Rxaggie02. I recently switched from a DELL to an imac after many, many years using PCs (I started with the original IBM pc - two 5 1/2" floppy drives and no hard disk!). It's the best move I ever made - you'll love it. Sure a few things are different, but they are just that, different - not wrong. Having said that I find it a little odd that there is no # key!

 

[chaunce322]

I have owned 3 Dell PCs, and they have all been great from a hardware standpoint. I picked up my latest model back in the spring with a gorgeous 23" widescreen monitor. The only problem was the **** thing came loaded with Vista, and it ended up running slower than the PC I was replacing!

I had enough with all the lock ups, hang ups, freezing, and lack of driver support, so I picked up a new iMac. The thing is great. I haven't had a single issue with it AT ALL!

IMHO, you are making a great choice!

Sean

 

[NakedAngel]

Haha changing from Dell to Mac, u gonna find a big boost in performance and feel XD

 

[cheetahastra]

Hehe. I got a new Dell Intel Core 2 Duo at work about a week before I got my new iMac 20" at home - the iMac is a far nicer machine in looks, use and performance

 

[goobimama]

Isn't this post a bit too old for trying to support his decision to buy an iMac?

 

[cheetahastra]

Haha probably goobimama but its fun!

 

[goobimama]

You Brisbanians...