it's silver chrome looks something like a mirror irl, but if you want a good chrome scene try to render with some hdri, you can find some tutorials on net, search for "hdri rendering with x"(x means the software and the render engine)
i have the 2008 education version of it(my school gave me) every edu. max cost ~100$
the only problem with it, that you can't make money with it(it's illegal)
ps.: oh, and nearly every software has an educational version(photoshop, corel etc) witch cost way less then the "normal" versions of them
no, there isn't! just download max 7 or 8 or 9 trial then you can import the meshes in it, where you can save it into different formats what max 2010 can handle too(like .max)
why we need this thread? if you put a tutorial in it with a basic or an advanced lighting settings with mental ray, brazil, etc, then it could be a nice thread for the beginners...
anyway here is some tutorial for max: http://www.tutorialized.com/tutorials/3DS-MAX/Lighting/1