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Is this system powerful enough?

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Is this system powerful enough?
by Chris Burton on Jun 2, 2005 at 8:48:43 am

Hi,

I'm just getting started with editing on a PowerMac, and am just looking for a second opinion on whether this system is going to be powerful enough:

PowerMac G5 Dual 2.3 GHz processor
ATI Radeon 9650 256MB DDR SDRAM
250 GB Serial ATA
2x1GB RAM
16x SuperDrive
Bluetooth Module & Airport Extreme Card

23" HD Display

AppleCare Protection Plan

Final Cut Studio


I just need to know if I'm making any glaringly obvious mistakes hardware-wise, and would appreciate some advice.

Many thanks in advance,

Chris Burton

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Re: Is this system powerful enough?
by Peter Wiggins on Jun 2, 2005 at 9:50:55 am

Chris,

What format are you going to be cutting, DV? SD?

Peter


http://www.peterwiggins.com

In Paris editing The French Open for ESPN

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Re: Is this system powerful enough?
by Chris Burton on Jun 2, 2005 at 9:56:04 am

DV and then, eventually, SD.

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Re: Is this system powerful enough?
by Alexander on Jun 2, 2005 at 10:07:35 am

Chris,
You really need more RAM, 1.5G is the minimum for these apps.
Alexander

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Re: Is this system powerful enough?
by Chris Burton on Jun 2, 2005 at 10:13:01 am

Alexander,

Thanks for the reply.

Does that mean that I need to have 1.5 GB or more in each processor?

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Re: Is this system powerful enough?
by Alexander on Jun 2, 2005 at 10:21:59 am

Chris,
1.5G is an overall RAM figure.
Cheers
Alexander

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Re: Is this system powerful enough?
by Joachim Blunck on Jun 2, 2005 at 10:30:44 am

Looks like he has 2GB in his configuration...

Plenty for DV, perhaps a little light for serious SD.



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Re: Is this system powerful enough?
by pvanwest on Jun 2, 2005 at 1:57:32 pm

You will most definitely need more storage, as you don't want to capture to your startup drive, so I would first add a Hitachi 250GB or 400GB drive as your second internal SATA drive and capture to that. As you progress to more demanding transfer rates, an external SATA drive setup would be one way to go.

pvw

Terra Nova Productions LLC

G5 DP 2.5GHz / 4.5 GB RAM / 2x250GB SATA / OS 10.3.9 / FCP 4.5 / QT 6.5.2

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Re: Is this system powerful enough?
by MrVideo on Jun 2, 2005 at 3:46:37 pm

Final Cut Pro 5 can access up to 4 Gigs of RAM so the more you have up to 4 Gigs is going to be very helpful. Your 2.3 GHz is faster than the 2.0 GHz G5 that everyone is using so you should be fine.

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Re: Is this system powerful enough?
by MitchJi on Jun 2, 2005 at 5:06:53 pm

Hi,

With the current models the 2.3 is a good choice (PCI-X and 8 RAM slots).

You can save some money by ordering the RAM from Crucial.com. I wouldn't even dream about buying additional RAM from Apple.

If you are sure you won't want to go over 4 Gigs you could add 4 one half gig chips instead of 2 one gig chips. This will cost substantially less but will fill more slots (you will still have two free slots).

Best Wishes,

Mitch

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Re: Is this system powerful enough?
by peter on Jun 2, 2005 at 7:00:04 pm

"With the current models the 2.3 is a good choice (PCI-X and 8 RAM slots)"

Does the 2.7 have PCI-X and 8 RAM slots as well?

Also, what graphic card would someone recomend at this point for top-of-the-line performance with FCP 5 and a Decklink HD plus card. With the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL taking up an extra PCI or PCI-X slot, will that severly limit my options for maximizing performace with Decklink and a SCSI or Fibre Channel card?

How different is the performance of the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL from the ATI Radeon 9650 w/256MB DDR SDRAM?

Or should I go for the ATI Radeon 9650 w/256MB DDR SDRAM from the apple store and replace it with a ATI 800X?

Sorry for all the questions but the graphics card choices have me extremely confused!!!

Thanks in advance.



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Re: Is this system powerful enough?
by MitchJi on Jun 2, 2005 at 9:34:28 pm

[peter] "Does the 2.7 have PCI-X and 8 RAM slots as well?

Also, what graphic card would someone recomend at this point for top-of-the-line performance with FCP 5 and a Decklink HD plus card. With the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL taking up an extra PCI or PCI-X slot, will that severly limit my options for maximizing performace with Decklink and a SCSI or Fibre Channel card?

How different is the performance of the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL from the ATI Radeon 9650 w/256MB DDR SDRAM?

Or should I go for the ATI Radeon 9650 w/256MB DDR SDRAM from the apple store and replace it with a ATI 800X?
"


Hi,

Yes the 2.7 has PCI-X and 8 RAM slots.

A summary of the various graphics cards is here:
http://www.barefeats.com/radx800.html

I would choose the ATI 800X over the GE6800 just because it doesn't take an extra slot.

I don't think that the GE6800 or ATI800X are going to make a big difference for FCP. For Motion they will make a big difference.

Best Wishes,

Mitch

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