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KCrosbie · Apr 20, 2009, 11:22 PM

Hi everyone. My brother referred me to this site and said it's a great forum in general, especially for Mac questions. I got an HD Canon fully digital camera and was having a tough time finding software to make home movies. My wife and I have always used Windows and have never owned a Mac. After my brother showed me iLife '09, we've decided to take the leap and go Mac. We're looking to get the 20" 2.66 GHz iMac. I just have a few questions about it and if anyone can give some input, it would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking forward to posting here. So here are the questions I have:

- How well does VMware Fusion run Windows? Are there any known constraints that limit what you can do compared to actually using Windows? Is there any other program that is better?
- I've got an external hard drive for my PC. Is there anything special I need to do to get it working on an iMac?
- How hard is it to upgrade hardware? Say for instance, I want to upgrade my video card?
- Is the 20" 2.66 GHz iMac powerful enough to make home movies using iLife? If not, what's your recommendation?

TIA!

Dakar V · Apr 20, 2009, 11:23 PM

Sorry, sig minimum guidelines are 800 x 600.

sek929 · Apr 20, 2009, 11:32 PM

Originally Posted by KCrosbie

- How well does VMware Fusion run Windows? Are there any known constraints that limit what you can do compared to actually using Windows? Is there any other program that is better?

I run Windows XP SP3 through Fusion (iMac C2D, 4GB RAM) and it runs like a charm, my VM has over a week of uptime. The only constraint would be gaming, in as much you cannot play the latest games that use the latest Direct X drivers, other than that, it's Windows XP. I also set VMware to use 1GB for my Windows partition, the more RAM the better it'll run.

Originally Posted by KCrosbie

- I've got an external hard drive for my PC. Is there anything special I need to do to get it working on an iMac?

It'll be able to be read by your Mac with no problems, writing to the disk may be another problem and I don't know enough to give you a solid answer. This also depends on the interface, if it's eSATA then you are out of luck.

Originally Posted by KCrosbie

- How hard is it to upgrade hardware? Say for instance, I want to upgrade my video card?

Upgrading RAM is a breeze, however, you will not be able to upgrade anything else unless you want to void your warranty. Even so, I believe the video card is soldered into the mobo, and is not able to be swapped out no matter what.

Originally Posted by KCrosbie

- Is the 20" 2.66 GHz iMac powerful enough to make home movies using iLife? If not, what's your recommendation?

Depends on what you are used to, but to me a Core 2 Duo running at anything over 2ghz should be more than ample for home use, just make sure to max out the RAM since it's cheap as dirt these days. Also, get the biggest internal hard drive you can afford since, as mentioned before, you'll be stuck with it for the life of the machine.

cwkmacuser · Apr 21, 2009, 12:55 AM

Welcome to the forum. Once you get to know how to use it and how it works, it will be simple, quick, and maybe even fun.

I can answer a couple of your questions, but I'm no expert on Apple Desktop Computers. iMacs are powerful enough to run just about any apple application. You're set there. As far as running Windows, google VirtualBox. It's a free program by Sun Microsystems (soon to be Oracle).

PS-I see you are in Northern California. What town are you in? Maybe we live near each other!

cwkmacuser · Apr 21, 2009, 12:56 AM

Originally Posted by Dakar V

Sorry, sig minimum guidelines are 800 x 600.

What's that supposed to mean? He doesn't even have a sig!

KCrosbie · Apr 21, 2009, 02:18 AM

Originally Posted by cwkmacuser

What's that supposed to mean? He doesn't even have a sig!

I deleted it cause it was too big. BTW, I live in Santa Rosa, CA.

cwkmacuser · Apr 21, 2009, 09:34 AM

Oh, cool. I live in Oakland.