Looking for advice on a new Mac Pro system mainly for Final Cut Studio 2
by David Pearl
on
Jun 25, 2008 at 10:35:40 pm
We are a small video production company that works mainly on broadcast and internet projects. We're looking to upgrade from an aging Avid system to a Mac Pro running Final Cut Studio 2. The primary thing we want from this system is to be able to work quickly in Final Cut while at the same time doing other operations, and we're willing to spend what it takes to make that happen. We've done a lot of research but still have some issues where we could use your expertise - it's a big investment and we want to nail it.
Here's the configuration we're considering:
Processor: Two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon (8-core)
Memory: 16GB (4 x 4GB)
Hard Drives: 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS (for OS X, Final Cut, & other programs) plus 2 x 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s (for video storage)
Graphics: NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600
We're thinking about spending the extra $1600 to get the best processor available, since we want this machine to be the hub of the business for about five years. Any thoughts on whether to save a bit and go with the 2.8GHz? We've also heard the bus speed presents a bottleneck so the Quad-Core processing power can't be fully utilized - should that have any bearing on our processor decision?
The memory choice seems right - we'll see how well that works and retain the option to double the RAM, particularly as prices fall and new applications or hardware upgrades become tenable. However, we're thinking of perhaps buying some or all of the memory third-party - any advice on whether this tends to be worthwhile, where to get it, and what to watch out for? It looks like there may some issues with getting proper heat-sinking.
We like the hard drive plan, though we've heard a 15,000-rpm drive may generate a lot of heat - any thoughts on this?
The graphics card is where we're most torn - specifically between the Quadro 5600, the GeForce 8800, or perhaps even getting the computer with the standard card (or no card) and getting a different third-party card. We do mostly DV now, but we foresee doing HD projects in the future. We often use a green-screen that's in our studio and also apply minimal 3D effects as well as 3D text. We're debating whether to get the Quadro 5600 right off the bat and hopefully have no issues with it, or whether to get the GeForce 8800 for now and if we have issues then consider upgrading to the Quadro 5600 or potentially something else that would best suit our needs at that time. Would love to receive any and all advice on this issue.
Also, it looks like we're gonna buy Final Cut Studio 2 and are considering also getting Final Cut Server. It seems the combination would allows us to use the Final Cut suite on other computers (both Mac and Wintel) that don't have their own version of Final Cut installed (via Java). Is that the correct interpretation? Any other advice on whether to get FC Server would be appreciated.
Thanks very much for reading - we look forward to getting any and all advice you may have.
Re: Looking for advice on a new Mac Pro system mainly for Final Cut Studio 2 by Jeremy Garchow on Jun 25, 2008 at 11:07:14 pm
5 Years?
Get the fastest computer you can afford right now and it will last longer. Then buy a protected RAID.
DOn't rely on single SATA drives as your media backbone, get a protected RAID from a company that will support it. I like/have and use a Sonnet D800RAID. There are many others.
SAS is overkill to run OSX. A simple 7200 RPM SATA will be fine. Save some money, then buy a protected RAID.
16GBs of RAM is good. Get 3rd party RAM. Save some money, then buy a protected RAID.
No reason to spend the extra money on a graphics card, at least not yet. Graphics cards are relatively inexpensive and upgrading them is simple. If you find your graphics card to be lacking, upgrade at that time. Barefeats.com does decent tests on graphics cards and you can read about what to get there. Save some money, then buy a protected RAID.
You can't change the bus speed, so live with what ships. Then buy a protected RAID.
How are you planning to monitor your footage?
Final Cut Server is not Final Cut Pro for windows. Final Cut Pro is only available on a Mac, legally. Final Cut Server also does not let you use Final Cut Studio on other machines where Final Cut Studio is not installed and licensed. Final CUt Server is a media backbone and collaboration application for a multi-seat FCStudio environment. It also allows collaboration from offsite places like your client's laptop, but they won't be editing in Final Cut Studio, they will be making notes to proxies that will then get sent to your editor, even via markers/XML if you want, but that's a different post.
Re: Looking for advice on a new Mac Pro system mainly for Final Cut Studio 2 by David Pearl on Jun 26, 2008 at 9:44:34 pm
Jeremy, thanks very much for all the info. We decided to stick with SATA hard drives only. We bought RAM 3rd party - newegg.com had the best price for 16GB. We went with the GeForce 8800 and will evaluate how well it works with FCP and maybe upgrade later. We got a couple 20" Apple monitors. The Final Cut Server info was really helpful - holding off on that for now. Oh, and I think you said something about a RAID array - holding off on that for now but it will likely be an integral part of the in-progress backup strategy. Any thoughts for us on *why* we need a protected RAID array?
Re: Looking for advice on a new Mac Pro system mainly for Final Cut Studio 2 by Jeremy Garchow on Jun 27, 2008 at 4:28:44 am
It's something I am a stickler about. 5 years is a long time in the video world. A raid offers protection from data loss and a number you can call when something starts to act a little funky. Sure you're working in dv now and life is grand as data is small. When you move to HD, your bandwidth, renders, captures, previews, web movies, throughput all become larger. A cheap raid offers speed and that's it, a protected raid offers speed and a bit of security. If a drive goes down, you continue working. Without a raid, a drive goes down and you are lost until you can restore your project, and perhaps you can only restore what's been saved to tape.
Re: Looking for advice on a new Mac Pro system mainly for Final Cut Studio 2 by David Pearl on Jul 7, 2008 at 5:27:16 am
Jeremy, thanks again for your thoughts. Sorry for the delay - we were focused on other issues while waiting for the new system to arrive.
I expect we'll be doing a bunch on Panasonic DVX series, or similar. We may or may not do some stuff on beta cam/full HD. And we are currently working through a 35mm project that was telecine'ed, and I expect we would do more like that if we are able to be successful.
As for RAID, we're considering whether to do a RAID 5 with 4 internal 1 TB drives versus sticking with the 1 internal drive we got with the system and adding an external solution such as TeraServer Pro II running RAID 5. Any thoughts on the trade-offs for that sort of thing?
Re: Looking for advice on a new Mac Pro system mainly for Final Cut Studio 2 by Jeremy Garchow on Jul 7, 2008 at 3:07:22 pm
I'd go external. Anytime you add a RAID to a system, you add a bit of complexity. If you build you own array, you are adding a failure point for each drive that you put in your machine and you have no one to call when it fails. Also, with Raid5, you need some sort of controller. If you put an internal raid in, where are you getting your controller from?
I'd look to a raid manufacturer such as Sonnet as the level of complexity is designed to ease user woes. Sonnet just reduced their pricing on all of their D800 Raid series drives. You really can't go wrong with it and they are good people as well.
You can build your own raid, but be prepared to deal with major problems if it goes down.
Re: Looking for advice on a new Mac Pro system mainly for Final Cut Studio 2 by David Pearl on Jul 8, 2008 at 8:06:40 pm
Jeremy,
This all looks like good advice. I've looked into Buffalo, Sonnet, and CalDigit for an external storage solution. The CalDigit RAID card enabling up to 16 TB seems pretty cool, though that may be overkill for us. The Sonnet 4 TB plus 4 TB expansion seems like it might be a good way for us to go and potentially expand, given some uncertainty on our longer-term storage needs. We're going to do manual backups for now as we get our Mac Pro into operation and keep evaluating our storage needs for the next weeks before making a decision. I'll probably make a new post then with our final questions - we'd definitely appreciate any more of your feedback at that point. Thanks again.
