Possibly Ordering an iMac Tonight

[FanIn80]

Hey again,

The replies I read in the Apple TV thread I posted a couple weeks ago really helped out a lot, and I love the one I bought! So... in the interest of pushing my luck...

I've spent the last week pouring over a myriad websites looking for reviews, tutorials (any info, really) on the new iMacs. I'm already 99.986% sold on ordering one tonight.

Here's the build I'm considering:

iMac, 24-inch, 3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme
3.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
1TB Serial ATA Drive
Apple Wireless Keyboard (English) + User's Guide
Apple wireless Mighty Mouse
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS w/512MB GDDR3
4 GB 800MHz DDR2 SDRAM - 2x2 GB

Before I take the plunge and spend $3000 on this, does anyone have any last minute offerings (advice, tips, practical experience) for a guy who has used Windows/DOS his whole life?

(I'm not worried about the transition from one OS to the other - I'm more interested in some quirky details to watch out for. Like flac support in OSX etc.)

Thanks again, guys.

[HotHotHeat]

flac is OS X sucks. Apple uses their own 'Apple lossless audio' codec...I had a bunch of my library in flac when I switched over and I remember the process being so aggravating that I gave up. Maybe I'm wrong and there's a smooth to use program out there that will convert them, but I certainly had no luck.

Other than that, get some napkins to drool on and you're set.

[Cliche]

http://flac.sourceforge.net/download.html


However, a regular desktop system, it doesn't really provide that much over a build your own box. If the reasons for getting the Mac are purely cosmetic, and that the value of style vs cost/performance ratio is heavily weighted to style, then an iMac is a worthy choice.

If you plan on Bootcamping the mac, that is another way to go. Another thing is that despite the claims that an iMac is touted as an all in one device, there should also be allowances(RE: FUNDING) made for the extra productivity software that apple gives you functional demo's of. Such as iWork, iLife and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac which is vastly superior to their previous release. Also you may want to look into one of the popular windows emulation programs, vmware fusion, or Parallels.

Setting up email is easy, and for IM, there's adium.

Also, if you have a Diablo II key registered with Blizzard, you can re-download it onto your Mac, although, instead of a warm glass of milk before bedtime, I just grind out an area, and I go to sleep easy enough.

[FanIn80]

From what I've been able to discern, "Bootcamp" is just an Apple-branded name for dual booting Windows.

How is the performance? I'm fully expecting to have to both boot (bootcamp) into Windows for major tasks and also be able to run it parallel for smaller tasks. I've read that it's actually possible to game in a Windows virtual console (Parallels). Is that true?

One of the major reasons for this purchase is OSX itself. I run a Windows network for a living and I'm just at the point where there last thing I feel like doing when I get home from work is fixing Windows-related problems on my home PC.

I know I can build a "Hackintosh" but I'd rather just get the real thing and enjoy the support and updates (etc), without having to rely on quirky patches, hacks and cracks.

(Also, the iMacs are damn sexy.)

[Russic]

Congrats on the purchase, I doubt you'll be disappointed. I can only speak of my experience. I prepared myself for the big shift and found it to be astoundingly easy. I prepared to load both windows and microsoft office on my mac and as of yet haven't found it necessary. iwork is a must in my opinion. It's $70 should you choose to buy it and I prefer it greatly to office. You can save and open any file from office, so compatibility issues aren't really a problem at all. I certainly wouldn't get them both.

ilife is free with the mac, so don't worry about buying that. A ton of functionality there.

As for flac, i can't help you there at all but it looks like cliche has you covered there.

I made a "getting a mac, what do I need to know" thread a while back and from it came the advice to download the VLC player. Seems to play all sorts of media and saved me a lot of headaches.

If you're curious this was my thread:
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=60229

[FanIn80]

Awesome thanks for the link, I searched for it (briefly) last night without luck.

Placed my order last night. I'm pretty stoked!

Edit: Whoa, some good stuffs in that thread. I'm definitely going to give NeoOffice a try.