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Am I ready for HD video editing on Final Cut Pro X with the following hardware?
Hi all,
I’m totally new to the video editing world. I have read a lot on FCP X and video editing but my knowledge is only theoretical as at date.
I would like to start by creating 15 to 30 minutes HD videos. I will be shooting on a Canon 7D DSLR and my Mac configurations are as follows:iMac 21.5″ – Processor: 2.5Ghz Intel Core i5 – Memory: 8GB 1333 Mhz DDR3 – Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6750M 512MB – HDD: 500GB Sata
Software: Mac OS X Lion 10.7.5, Final Cut Pro X + Compressor 4My question is: Is my system strong enough to handle the creation of 15-30 minutes HD videos?
I’ve read at a few places that a Firewire external Hard Disk is strongly recommended for video editing. Do I need one? Or will I be taxing my internal HDD too much without one?Would you add some specific hardware or software to this set up?
regards,
Ali -
9 Replies
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Hi, Ali:
In general, it’s best to have one drive for your OS/applications and a separate drive for your projects/video, media, etc. You can try using your existing configuration and if it is problematic you can add an external firewire 7200rpm drive later.
Jason Jenkins
Flowmotion Media
Video production… with style!Check out my Mormon.org profile.
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Just try! The trial version of fcpx is free 30 days!
IMO you will be fine. I would recommend you more RAM and a faster HD (SSD or external RAID) -
I edit regularly with almost that system, although its an i3 processor rather than an i5.. I’d say you need an external drive as soon as you can get hold of ,one but everything else should be fine.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
Thank you Jason, Emiliano and Jeff! The only external Firewire 800 HDD available to me right now is the Lacie Rugged 1 TB (5400 rpm). I think I’ll go for it and hopefully, it will be enough to handle my video files.
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I strongly recommend you use a 7200rpm drive rather than the 5400rpm LaCie drive.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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ok Rick….i’ll.shop around for a 7200rpm hdd then. Any recommendations on a few models that won’t break the bank? 🙂
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You could check out LaCie’s website but a search brought up this 1TB USB3 FireWire 800 rugged drive.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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While I’ll always recommend a 7200 RPM drive and FireWire 800, I’ve done my fair share of editing on 5400 RPM drives connected via USB 2. Not ideal but useable if your projects aren’t too complex.
My advice would be get something really good (which means probably not cheap) as a main editing drive and shuffle projects on and off to other drives as needed. I’d recommend something like the Western Digital MyBook Studio series.
The reason I’d stretch to something higher end is that this week I’ve been hunting for a USB 3 drive to use with my new 27″ iMac and have discovered that there are huge variations in speed in lower cost drives. Three USB 3 Seagate drives I bought a month or so ago for a different project, same model, all purchased at the same time, have as much as a 50% variation in speed. The slowest doing 80MB/s the fastest doing 160MB/s.
Jeff Kirkland | Video Producer | Southern Creative Media | Melbourne Australia
http://www.southerncreative.com.au | G+: https://gplus.to/jeffkirkland | Twitter: @jeffkirkland -
Thanks, Jeff! I’ll shop around for a good 7200rpm model.
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