first time mac buyer- specs advice needed
by jamie fitch
on
Oct 2, 2008 at 7:17:29 pm
hey there,
this is probably very old news but hoping someone out there can help. I'm buying an editing system for a school- i've worked in tv industry in the uk for the past 6 years and used avid loads at work/home for this. however i reckon final cut will be better for the school/kids- am thinking for the school of getting an imac with the following specs: 2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo; 2gb memory; ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB graphics; 320 gb hard drive. i'll get the imac pre installed with final cut express 4.
My questions to you guys is this: 1 -is the machine powerful/reliable enough to run final cut express (i'm used to avid/windows throwing hissy fits? 2- is final cut express suitable for my cutting needs (i imagine we're not going to use the machine for much more than cutting basic sequences. adding stills, v/o soundtracks, simple titles, digitising from a mini dv camera and exporting back to it).
like i say i'm sure this is old news to you guys - i'm just a mac virgin wanting some advice
thanks
Re: first time mac buyer- specs advice needed by Tom Brooks on Oct 5, 2008 at 12:42:34 am
Never having used a FC Express system, I can only give general advice. See the post below about iMac and FC. The system meets minimum requirements and seems fine except a bit shy on the RAM. I'd go for 4GB in this day and age. Even though FCE can't use it, other apps you might use can and multiple apps soak up a lot of RAM. The other problem is pointed out by the other iMac post--the iMac can only have one FireWire bus and there can be speed and conflict problems when a camera and an external hard drive is connected. Relying only on the system hard drive for storage is asking for trouble in any edit system. Your only advantage is that FCExpress is a lighter weight program and written specifically for lower end systems.
In total, the system is minimal. It might work OK for limited projects, but you might run into frustrations. Maybe a low end Mac Pro with a similar graphics card and hard drive would be better. This would give you options for storage other than the system drive--at least a second internal SATA drive. Monitoring is also an issue. Your minimal system would rely on monitoring via FireWire through your camcorder to a TV. So, rethink the whole system: capture, storage, monitoring, delivery. Compare a Mac Pro option--even a used one--and see where you stand.
Final Cut Pro 6.0.4, Mac OS-X 10.4.11, Quicktime 7.5, After Effects 6.5 Pro, G5 Quad 2.5, Kona-LHe V5.1, 4.5GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce 7800-GT 256MB, G-RAID 2x1TB FW800, 6TB RAID-5 (Enhance E8-ML, Highpoint 2322), Panasonic HVX-200P P2.
