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RiGhTuShOoK · Jun 19, 2008, 10:50 PM

ok, here goes..

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS w/512MB GDDR3: Is it a good card and will it do pretty much everything i need? Is it upgradable, and and if i where to dual boot could and install say xp or vista would it power that just aswell?

Is it easy to partition a mac, so i can set up say a 750gb hd to allow 250gb for a windows boot and the rest for mac?

would i see downsides if i did dualboots?

is the mac easily upgradable? I've heard both from people at stores and different results online saying I can or can't

i'll add more question's as i look and read about them. I'm sure this is in the wrong section, but i figured this would fit it more since my questions aren't all going to be the same. I'm also not a gamer in that i would see a serious downside to a mac, but windows would be for other things.

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mduell · Jun 20, 2008, 12:40 AM

Originally Posted by RiGhTuShOoK

NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS w/512MB GDDR3: Is it a good card and will it do pretty much everything i need? Is it upgradable, and and if i where to dual boot could and install say xp or vista would it power that just aswell?

It's OK; there's still some confusion as to what it really is, but it appears to be an 8800 mobile derivative. It is slotted so it's theoretically upgradeable, but no one actually produces upgrade options for this or any previous upgradeable generation of the Intel iMac.

Originally Posted by RiGhTuShOoK

Is it easy to partition a mac, so i can set up say a 750gb hd to allow 250gb for a windows boot and the rest for mac?

Yes, it's easy to partition.

Originally Posted by RiGhTuShOoK

would i see downsides if i did dualboots?

I can't make it work on my MacBook Air, but it seems to work for most people. The downside of dual booting is that you have to close all your documents/apps every time you switch OSs. Apple mentioned a feature to hibernate on both sides to switch between them without closing anything, but it didn't make it into the final product.

Originally Posted by RiGhTuShOoK

is the mac easily upgradable? I've heard both from people at stores and different results online saying I can or can't

The memory is easy to upgrade; everything else is difficult or impossible and voids your warranty if you do it yourself.

PeterGh · 08:50 AM

Hi there

I am considering buying a 24" iMac, are there any issues regarding noise (fan noise, etc) that I should be aware of? Is there any noise difference between the 24" 2.8GHz, 320Gb HD, ATI Radeon 2600 Pro G.C, and the 24" 3.06GHz, 500Gb HD, with NVIDIA GeForce 8800 graphics card? Presumably the higher spec runs hotter.

If this topic has already been covered, could you direct me to the most recent thread?

Thank you

PeterGh · Jun 21, 2008, 09:21 AM

My apologies, I am new here and the above is my first post. I had intended to send it to a new thread which I shall do now. Please ignore the above in this thread.

RiGhTuShOoK · 09:04 PM

I've been reading up on memory upgrade and from the looks it would just be cheaper to buy 4gb from mac. It's possible I'm mistaken but if not I may just stick with the memory from mac. I like the the 24" iMac 3.06GHz but full memory plus 750gb hd cost 2500$, thats why I was looking for crucial memory for cheaper. It's 200$ for 2 more gb's of ram.

It looks like the iMac comes with fairly good amount of preinstalled software, especially nice that it comes with iTunes. Honestly it doesn't seem that i would see a noticeable increase between the 2.8 and the 3.06GHz, but that's another question. How are the speakers on the iMac and can i attach more?

RiGhTuShOoK · Jun 22, 2008, 10:27 PM

OK OK, I've found the memory for the 2.8ghz but it allows you to buy 4gb's.. the make can take 4gb's total, but crucial only sells 2 1gb cards but I can't find the 1 2gb card to just buy one and not have to buy from mac.

so anyways, i believe I'm going to buy the iMac

i would like to go with 24" iMac 3.06GHz with 4gb of ram, possibly from crucial if i can. I'm debating whether to go with 750gb or 1TB just because. Yes i do understand this is a ridiculous amount of space but its not final so lay off the you don't need it post. I'm not sure if I'll see a serious increase in power between the 3.06GHz vs. the 2.8GHz. I do like the idea of all of that space and split it 50/50 between windows and mac using bootcamp. I know the mac is overly expensive but to be honest I'm sick of my windows desktop taking space up.

How would i go about getting the memory, if the iMac 3.06GHz comes standard with 2GB, would i sell it or can i just buy 2 1GB's and put them adding up to 4GB's?

esbn · Jun 23, 2008, 07:13 AM

Don't worry too much about ram - the cheapest is often Kingston Value - Just make sure the number of chips are the same, the module configuration, the clock frequency, and the socket of course

and you're home free - most ram comes with a lifetime guarantee, I think the hype about vendors are just that, hype...

So, 8 on each side, 256 x 64, 800mhz, so-dimm - un/non -buffered, -registered, -parity. Sounds like a lot but really it isn't. Just go for the cheap PC stuff

I live in denmark and I just just bought some for a friend and saved him 150$ on one stick of PC3200 1GB ram So watch out for "Works with Mac" taxes : )

RiGhTuShOoK · Jun 23, 2008, 02:00 PM

I'm not worried about it but I've just been reading a lot about the errors with Kingston and other brands. Maybe its just hype but why risk it you know?

best buy's have the 2.8GHz, it'd be nice if they offered any discount's, although they don't offer the nvidia card.

sek929 · Jun 23, 2008, 02:32 PM

I've always bought cheap PC ram for my G4 but I hear these new Intel machines are much more finicky about RAM.

Buy from Crucial.com, it's cheap enough and guaranteed to work.

RiGhTuShOoK · Jun 23, 2008, 04:54 PM

yeah, i believe i found just a 2gb card for the 3.06gb version, i may go with that with 1TB Hd and partion 50/50 vista and mac. I'll keep the desktop just in case.

mduell · Jun 23, 2008, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by sek929

I've always bought cheap PC ram for my G4 but I hear these new Intel machines are much more finicky about RAM.

From my experience it's the other way around. Some of the PPCs were picky, but you can put just about anything in the Intels because everyone designs/tests their modules for Intel's chipsets (~75% of the market).