[KB6KGX]

I'm contemplating returning to "the fold", after having spent the past five years living in "the dark side" and having been thinking of the iMac, specifically the 17" model.

A couple of questions:

1. Is the iMac expandable? Can the video card be upgraded? Can a TV Tuner card be installed? I have such a device in my current PC and use it a lot, plus it has connecability to plug in my camcorder and offers video capture. Can I do that on an iMac?

2. Since I have several "PC" applications, what about PC emulation on the iMac? When I had my old Performa 550, I never got VirtualPC or whatever it was I was trying to use to run quite right. Actually, I never got it to run at all.

3. Not necessarily related to the iMac, specifically, but are there any all-in-one printers, such as the HP "OfficeJet" line, that work with Macs?

Could I live without the TV tuner card? Probably... yes. Would the installed video card be enough for me? 64 MB is certainly enough. Other than that, I would not need to expand any more than simply adding RAM. I don't think it would be necessary to move up to a G5, then. Or, would I?

[DBvader]

First of all, im from huntington beach too (though i go to school in lajolla)...its good to see someone from my neck of the woods.

1. Video card is not upgradable. An external TV tuner can be purchased, but quite simply nothing but RAM and an airport card can be added to the imac.

2. Virtual PC is a joke, and nothing runs well on it (at least on my Dual 867/1 GB RAM). Hopefully the PC apps you want to run are available on the mac platform.

3. Should be ok.

I currently have two macs in my room. The Dual 867 im on and the New 1.25 iMac. They are both great machines. assuming youre not going to be gaming (and if so, the mac may not be a good choice at all) or doing anything out of the ordinary, the 1.25 is a great choice. Im stunned at how well the iMac is designed (this is the first time i have really got to sit down and use one for a few days...) unfortunately, i have to give it back to my aunt tommorow when i finish installing all the software she needs.

[chabig]

Regarding Virtual PC, I'd say it depends on what application you want to run. I use an old Windows 95 app on my iBook and I think it's just great.

Virtual PC emulates a windows machine fairly slowly (like a Pentium running at a couple hundred MHz). If your application would run sarisfactorily on a slower Pentium, it will be satisfactory in Virtual PC. And in many cases, having it run slowly is better than not running it at all.

Chris

[KB6KGX]

1. Video card is not upgradable. An external TV tuner can be purchased, but quite simply nothing but RAM and an airport card can be added to the imac.

Like I said... I COULD live without the TV tuner, but sometimes I do like to watch the news or some other program while I "work". Being able to plug in the camcorder to capture stills off the video is nice, too.

2. Virtual PC is a joke, and nothing runs well on it (at least on my Dual 867/1 GB RAM). Hopefully the PC apps you want to run are available on the mac platform.

I know that emulation NEVER works as well as running something on what it was designed to be run on. I asked about that as I've seen other posts and comments by folks who claim that their PC applications run just fine on any recent-model Mac.



<<assuming youre not going to be gaming (and if so, the mac may not be a good choice at all)>>

I do have some games, mainly flight-sims, some combat sims such as "Red Alert",etc., and some board games (Scrabble, chess, etc.). Most of those I had to take off to make room for my MP3 addiction, hee-hee! Still, worst case scenario, I just take them over to my parents or my wife's mom and run them on their Dells. Though not at all a "gamer", there are those games that I do like to play with. When I used to have a Mac (Performa 550) there was no end to shareware and freeware games for downloading, commerical demos, etc., to make me happy game-wise. Now, of course, there are more games available, though certainly not my primary purpose.

I'm looking for something that I can do my WP stuff as well as my net-surfing stuff, and that won't crash on me quite as often. Believe it or not, I'm probably still one of the few left on the planet still running a Win95 machine.

Before you comment... yes, I do feel like such a SINNER doing this on my Sony VAIO, but, hey, I can already feel the evil thoughts being directed my way from those who might be reading this...!

<<or doing anything out of the ordinary, the 1.25 is a great choice. Im stunned at how well the iMac is designed>>

I wouldn't do anything out of the ordinary, except for some ham radio applications (log books, for example). Unfortunately, the programming software for the radios I have, or would ever plan to get, are only available in Windows format.

You like the iMac design? At first, I thought, you need a big "box" for upgrades, change the video card, add this, add that... I've had my Sony PC since Jan 98 and aside from adding another 32 MB chip, haven't done anything to it.

BTW, mine has a whopping 4 MB of VRAM, so 64 MB, even 32 MB would be a big improvement to ME.

Do you know how the 1 MHz G4 compares to the Windows world? What would be the equivalent in speed to a P4? I only ask since P4's are now up to 3.2 or maybe even 3.5 GHz chips.

[KB6KGX]

Originally posted by chabig:
Regarding Virtual PC, I'd say it depends on what application you want to run. I use an old Windows 95 app on my iBook and I think it's just great.

Virtual PC emulates a windows machine fairly slowly (like a Pentium running at a couple hundred MHz). If your application would run sarisfactorily on a slower Pentium, it will be satisfactory in Virtual PC. And in many cases, having it run slowly is better than not running it at all.

Chris

How does the AppleWorks application compare with Microsoft's stuff? Will AppleWorks save in Word format (both Mac and Windows)?

As far as running Windows applications on a Mac, the games are not an issue. I can always just use them on my parents' or my wife's mom's... they both have Dells. I'm more concerned with my kids' stuff, the "JumpStart", "ReaderRabbitt" kind of stuff.

Actually, I just looked at a few of those, most of them are dual-format CDs. Under "requirements", it simply says "Macintosh" or "Power PC", adding "Power PC 120 or faster", "System 7 or higher". How "backwards compatible" are today's Macs? Will they run System 7 stuff? I have a lot of stuff I've saved from my previous Mac life, but the last OS I used was 7.5.1.

[DBvader]

" You like the iMac design? At first, I thought, you need a big "box" for upgrades, change the video card, add this, add that... I've had my Sony PC since Jan 98 and aside from adding another 32 MB chip, haven't done anything to it."

I think the design is absolutely amazing. I mean, ive used the imac before, and i thought it was cool then too. Its just the last few days i have spent a lot of time with my aunts 1.25 17er, and i think its a stunning machine. Realistically, most people dont update all that much. the RAM is accessible (and i would suggest getting more at crucial.com and not upgrading through apple...get an additional 256 to bring the total up to 512). The thing is the imac, for most consumers, doesnt need much upgrading. It has a great screen, a decent video card for the casual gamer, a DVD burner and all sorts of hookups and ports. If you did really need something, like a disk drive, then i would go the external route.

" Virtual PC emulates a windows machine fairly slowly (like a Pentium running at a couple hundred MHz). If your application would run sarisfactorily on a slower Pentium, it will be satisfactory in Virtual PC. And in many cases, having it run slowly is better than not running it at all."

cant argue with that. On my dualie, i was emulating 98 so that i could run kazaa (which is unecessary now becuae of poisoned). most of the time, though, it would be unbearably slow (the system would respond to my clicks a few seconds later). I would try it out and see happens.

" How does the AppleWorks application compare with Microsoft's stuff? Will AppleWorks save in Word format (both Mac and Windows)?"

I prefer office to apple works, because im more familiar with it, and becuase it has a better feature set.

"I'm more concerned with my kids' stuff, the "JumpStart", "ReaderRabbitt" kind of stuff. "

when i bought the 1.25 iMac for my aunt a few days ago, i looked at some of my little cousins software, and it all supported OS X. look on the boxes of yours, i wouldnt be surprised if it did too.

"Will they run System 7 stuff? I have a lot of stuff I've saved from my previous Mac life, but the last OS I used was 7.5.1."

Im a switcher, so im not quite sure about the older mac stuff. the only thing i can say is that OS X doesnt run OS 9 software w/o classic, so i dont think it would run software older than it. If OS9 supports older OSes software, then OS X will thorugh classic.

"Like I said... I COULD live without the TV tuner, but sometimes I do like to watch the news or some other program while I "work". Being able to plug in the camcorder to capture stills off the video is nice, too."

you can do all of this, you would just have to go externally, so if you didnt mind the extra stuff, this is the way to go.

" Do you know how the 1 MHz G4 compares to the Windows world? What would be the equivalent in speed to a P4? I only ask since P4's are now up to 3.2 or maybe even 3.5 GHz chips."

it really depends. for a lot of things an apple mHz is more than a PC MhZ. but for things like gaming, we see that a 1.42 GhZ mac doesnt perform anywhere near a 3.2 GHz P4. The same goes for the G5 (where, for games, at least the P4 is outperforming it). so, there, its probably at a 1:1 ratio. For everything else, though, a 1.25 wont give you any problems, and you will be able to run everything great. Keep in mind, though, that macs are not remotely as snappy as PCs. for the 2 grand you would spend on a imac 17, you can get a 3.2/120 GB HD/Radeon 9800/DVD Burner with the works. a monitor would cost a little more. so performance wise, the PC really has the mac beat. But, luckily, the software available on OS X (and the OS itself) really does wonders at evening the playing field.

[KB6KGX]

<<"...for a lot of things an apple mHz is more than a PC MhZ. but for things like gaming, we see that a 1.42 GhZ mac doesnt perform anywhere near a 3.2 GHz P4.>>

For 'hard-core gamers' this might be significant. I'm not interested in "Quake" or "Unreal" or anything like that. Me, it's more like flight sims or animated chess games. I don't think you need a 'race car' for those.

But, when you're talking about general word-processing or simple databases, how is the comparison? I would think that your net connection and download speed has more to do with your actual connection type than what the machine is. The "web" does not know which type of machie you've got.

<<"The same goes for the G5 (where, for games, at least the P4 is outperforming it). so, there, its probably at a 1:1 ratio. For everything else, though, a 1.25 wont give you any problems, and you will be able to run everything great. Keep in mind, though, that macs are not remotely as snappy as PCs. for the 2 grand you would spend on a imac 17, you can get a 3.2/120 GB HD/Radeon 9800/DVD Burner with the works. a monitor would cost a little more. so performance wise, the PC really has the mac beat. But, luckily, the software available on OS X (and the OS itself) really does wonders at evening the playing field.>>

Not only that, but I'd get my cable-ready TV tuner with PVR and all the whiz-bang stuff that there would be. I had figured that my ideal "Windows" system would cost between $1400 and $1800, less the monitor. I could always keep the monitor I've got now (Sony 17" multimedia). But... every time I look at that iMac 17" screen... I need to bring extra tissues to catch the drooling.

Yes, Windows XP is come along way from the old Win95... and it's almost to where the Mac is now -- operative word: almost -- still I've felt that the Mac just had more "class" to it. It was more fun to use, less problems with it.

Sure, you go into the local store all full of Windows stuff and they have that little bitty corner space with some Mac stuff. 98% of ANY of that I wouldn't need anyway. As long as the 1-2% that I WOULD have the need for I could use with what I've got, that's all. Everything else is just internet and you can use anything for THAT.

Seems I'm getting closer to becoming a Mac user again. It did feel like you are part of an elite group.

Most of the "kid" software titles I'm looking at are dual-format. Under "requirements" they'll say "68040 or faster", "System 7.1 or higher", or PowerPC. Would these work on OS X? Maybe.

How about "System 7" audio files? If not, is there any way of "converting" them?

[PowerTower Fan]

Originally posted by KB6KGX:
How does the AppleWorks application compare with Microsoft's stuff? Will AppleWorks save in Word format (both Mac and Windows)?

Yes, Appleworks can save in a Word format all the way to I think Word 97. For the money Appleworks is a pretty good app and if you don't need all the features of Word, its a great way to go.

Originally posted by KB6KGX:
Actually, I just looked at a few of those, most of them are dual-format CDs. Under "requirements", it simply says "Macintosh" or "Power PC", adding "Power PC 120 or faster", "System 7 or higher". How "backwards compatible" are today's Macs? Will they run System 7 stuff? I have a lot of stuff I've saved from my previous Mac life, but the last OS I used was 7.5.1.

It depends on running System 7 stuff. Since classic in OS X is just OS 9, most of the stuff should work but its not a gurantee. I still play Sim City 2000 in classic on my Powerbook and don't have any problems with it.

[KB6KGX]

Like you said, re: System 7 apps, it depends... just have to try and see what works and what doesn't. I would think that sound files should be OK.

As for AppleWorks vs. Word, I used to use MS Works only because I was too cheep (and didn't have enough RAM) to use Word. Works "worked" for me 99.9% of the time. Rarely did I have the need for the "power" of Word. Friends of mine just HAVE TO have Word, but for me, it wasn't necessary. Would I use it if it came preloaded in the machine or as part of something like "Works Suite"? Yes, but I wouldn't miss it if it weren't there.