Mac Rookie needs quick advice

[WDHIII]

I just got a call from a guy that is about to purchase a Quad-core Mac Pro from another guy on craigslist. He says it is new in the box and wants me to come by and set it up (in like, 1 hour).

The first thing I am going to do is run the serial number to see if it is stolen!

After that, what are some of the essentials that need to be installed on a new Mac? And what should I expect when first booting up?

Any other tips would be appreciated.

Wil

[300DDR]

Originally Posted by WDHIII

what are some of the essentials that need to be installed on a new Mac

It's probably good to go.

And what should I expect when first booting up?

It's really hard to say. You may want to install a fresh OS unless it's loaded with software already. If loaded, then delete current user and make a new one (unless it's already clean).

[WDHIII]

Well, I did the job and had no issues. The computer was actually a brand new, still in the box, Mac Pro circa 2007! It came with Tiger.

All I did was set it up (actually a little confused about the monitor's plug) and run Software Update until no more updates found, then gave a crude tutorial on how to use it.

Customer seemed happy and ready to learn more about his Mac. I did advise him to upgrade to Mountain Lion when he could and to think about increasing the ram (1gb installed).

BTW, he traded an old Jaguar for the computer!!

Thanks for the help. Now to finally get myself a Mac.

[300DDR]

Glad to hear it went well! Always good advice for new Mac users is to check out their tutorial videos. If PC converts, they have videos just for them -- like "this is how you used to do X on your PC," "This is how you do X on a Mac." Very good for beginners.

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/

[14049752]

Originally Posted by WDHIII

Customer seemed happy and ready to learn more about his Mac. I did advise him to upgrade to Mountain Lion when he could and to think about increasing the ram (1gb installed).

From 2007, it probably will not run Mountain Lion. It should run Lion, but it definitely needs ram if he's going to try to upgrade to either one.

[4ycr]

Originally Posted by 300DDR

Glad to hear it went well! Always good advice for new Mac users is to check out their tutorial videos. If PC converts, they have videos just for them -- like "this is how you used to do X on your PC," "This is how you do X on a Mac." Very good for beginners.

http://www.apple.com/support/switch101/
http://www.apple.com/findouthow/mac/

I think I will tale a look at those videos, thanks for the links

[gunslinger]

That system wont run Mountain Lion. I'd put at least 12-16 gigs of RAM in it and install Lion. A few personal faves of mine for Mac are dropbox, appcleaner, Ccleaner, Firefox, Liquid CD, Miro video converter, and Cloudapp just to name a few.

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Originally Posted by gunslinger

That system wont run Mountain Lion. I'd put at least 12-16 gigs of RAM in it and install Lion.

Yeah, Ditto on upping the RAM. RAM is supposed to be installed in these machines in pairs in a specific order. There are two memory risers, each containing four slots. For that configuration if I remember correctly, if adding a pair you install a pair in the top riser, and the next pair goes in the bottom riser. If different size pairs are combined keep like sizes together on same riser. Running 10.4.x on that thing at this point is going to be problematic with even trying to surf the web or install Firefox or any other third party apps at this point. To upgrade from 10.4.x (Tiger) to 10.7.4 (Lion), he will need to get a 10.6.x (Snow Leopard) retail install disk first. Then he can purchase Lion through the app store online. But just upgrading to Snow Leopard for the time being should be fine. Personally I'm staying with 10.6.8 as long as I possibly can.

One last thing, keep the machine off the floor or at least elevated a foot or two from the ground. The fans in these machines are so powerful they suck in dust and lint better than a Hoover. If I had a dollar for every one of these things I see with a quilt of dust and lint wrapped around the processor heatsinks, I'd have a good amount of money. So to keep it relatively clean and cool and not shorten the machines life, keep it elevated and in a relatively clean enviroment.

[WDHIII]

Thanks for all the info, looks like I have some up-selling to do.

Wil

[Zippin]

Originally Posted by anonymous Mac Tech

Yeah, Ditto on upping the RAM. RAM is supposed to be installed in these machines in pairs in a specific order. There are two memory risers, each containing four slots. For that configuration if I remember correctly, if adding a pair you install a pair in the top riser, and the next pair goes in the bottom riser. If different size pairs are combined keep like sizes together on same riser.

Also, if i'm not mistaken, that machine supports fully bufferd ram only.