Looking at buying my first ever Mac

Rambaud · 28 Mar 2009 at 10:22

tonyzero said:
OK i have some new ram on the way (4GB Crucial) and i also have a WD black Scorpio to put in as well but i have never installed the operating system on a mac before so is it just like installing vista ?

when i change the drive and ram do i need to hold any buttons when i power back on as i am sure i see that somewhere YouTube but i can't find it now.

would i be OK to do both upgrades at the same time or should i do ram first power up shut down and then do the HD ?

I did the RAM first and then the hard drive - but I had bought the hard drive later.

steveo · 28 Mar 2009 at 11:50

should be getting my imac in 3 months going for the top end so should be fun have fun with yours

tonyzero · 28 Mar 2009 at 12:19

steveo said:
should be getting my imac in 3 months going for the top end so should be fun have fun with yours

is it going to be your first mac ?

steveo · 28 Mar 2009 at 12:45

tonyzero said:
is it going to be your first mac ?

yea my pc died on me last week so i decided to get a imac after using my mates macbook pro for the week i liked it a lot

getting the 24inch 3.06ghz ati 4850 model as its going to have to last me for awhile

Feek · 28 Mar 2009 at 12:52

tonyzero said:
OK i have some new ram on the way (4GB Crucial) and i also have a WD black Scorpio to put in as well but i have never installed the operating system on a mac before so is it just like installing vista ?

when i change the drive and ram do i need to hold any buttons when i power back on as i am sure i see that somewhere YouTube but i can't find it now.

would i be OK to do both upgrades at the same time or should i do ram first power up shut down and then do the HD ?

Installing OS X is easy. Replace the drive and memory at the same time, have the DVD in the drive when you power on. You shouldn't need to hold any keys down but on the odd chance that it doesn't boot, power off and power back on again holding down the option (alt) key. You'll get the option as to which device to boot from and just choose the DVD.

tonyzero · 28 Mar 2009 at 13:09

Feek said:
Installing OS X is easy. Replace the drive and memory at the same time, have the DVD in the drive when you power on. You shouldn't need to hold any keys down but on the odd chance that it doesn't boot, power off and power back on again holding down the option (alt) key. You'll get the option as to which device to boot from and just choose the DVD.

as i understand it i should be getting ilife 09 with my mini so will that come with it own disk or is it on the OSX disk, just want to make sure that i don't replace a drive only to then find out that some software is pre installed on the disk i have just changed

likwid · 28 Mar 2009 at 13:13

There's an option to install the extra software with OS X.

tonyzero · 28 Mar 2009 at 13:15

ok thats good then thanks

Feek · 28 Mar 2009 at 13:19

tonyzero said:
as i understand it i should be getting ilife 09 with my mini so will that come with it own disk or is it on the OSX disk

likwid said:
There's an option to install the extra software with OS X.

You will get iLife09 with it, I'm not sure how it works now though.

With my Mac Pro, I had the option while installing OS X to include the iLife applications and it prompted me for the second DVD during installation but with the Macbook the iLife installation isn't integrated and I had to put the second DVD in after the operation system was fully installed.

The version of OS X shipping with hardware is the current one, ie 10.5.6 but be sure to run a Software Update... from the Apple menu once installed as there will be a few small additional patches.

tonyzero · 28 Mar 2009 at 13:45

Feek said:
You will get iLife09 with it, I'm not sure how it works now though.

With my Mac Pro, I had the option while installing OS X to include the iLife applications and it prompted me for the second DVD during installation but with the Macbook the iLife installation isn't integrated and I had to put the second DVD in after the operation system was fully installed.

The version of OS X shipping with hardware is the current one, ie 10.5.6 but be sure to run a Software Update... from the Apple menu once installed as there will be a few small additional patches.

thanks, i was just reading on the forum about anti virus i take it its not needed on a mac so that saves some money

geekyEd · 28 Mar 2009 at 14:07

well mr Jobs would have us believe otherwise but I don't install any on mine. Or on my Vista machine but then again I do nothing but game on it.

Feek · 28 Mar 2009 at 14:18

The AV thing is a whole kettle of fish.

There are no native OS X actual virus' but there are one or two trojans about. Providing you're not stupid and don't downloads things like the dodgy copy of iWork09 that's kicking about then you should be perfectly safe.

If you exchange files with Windows users then there's always the possibility that you could pass on infected files which won't actually affect your own Mac.

I don't use anti-virus on my Macs. Some people do. It's down to you to look into it and make your own decision.