• Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy

  Looking to set up a basic FCP System

  Posted by Matthew Avis on October 19, 2005 at 4:28 pm

  Hi, im trying to set up a basic FCP system at home for some video projects of my own. So far i believe the minimum spec i can get away with is as follows

  500 mhz Processor
  512 Mb Ram
  External Hard Drive (as big as poss)

  Few other questions though:

  What spec does the graphics card need to be?
  How do i run dual monitors?

  Im really sorry i know these are basic questions

  I will be using Dvcam footage and possibly some mini Dv. I will only use the system for FCP and Possibly DVD authoring

  I really would appreciate any help at all

  Mitchji replied 20 years, 7 months ago 3 Members · 4 Replies
• 4 Replies

• 

  Jeff Carpenter

  October 19, 2005 at 4:37 pm

  Go to Apple.com
  Click on the “Store” tab
  Look for the big red “SALE” tag in the lower right part of the page
  Look at all the refurbished G5 iMacs, pick ANY of them
  Go to Crucial.com and buy some more RAM for it (they have 2 slots) Try to get up to 1 GB, total
  Get an external firewire hub and an external firewire hard drive
  =====

  That should easily handle some home projects.

  I could walk you through ways to get an even cheaper system put together but then you’d end up waiting a lot longer for things like DVD compression. Overall you’d save a little bit of money for a big hit on performace. This would be my suggestion if you’re looking at overall value instead of simply the lowest price.
• 

  Mitchji

  October 19, 2005 at 4:41 pm

  Hi,

  The minimum I would recommend would be one of the Dual 533 G4’s. A very good choice in terms of price/performance. One of those systems won’t cost that much more than a slower system and the performance will be relatively good. Here are the results of an FCP benchmark:
  (FCP 2.0 or higher, render files sent to an internal HD.) Place a 10 second clip (DV25) on the timeline and apply a gaussian blur with a setting (radius) of 25. Cut the clip in half and apply a 5 second cross dissolve on the cut. Time from the click of “Render All” to the point at which the render status window disappears.
  G4 SP 500 1:10
  G4 SP 733 (Original ver./not Quicksilver) 1:08
  G4 SP 533 1:05
  G4 SP 867 (Quicksilver) :49
  G4 DP 450 :47
  G4 DP 500 :40
  G4 DP 533 :39
  G4 DP 800 :37
  G4 DP 1gHz (Quicksilver) :28, :29, :30
  G4 DP 1gHz (DDR RAM) (OS10.2.1) :28
  G4 DP 1.42gHz (OSX w/FCP 3.0.4 : :20, :19, :19
  G5 2.0 12 seconds

  Best Wishes,

  Mitch
• 

  Matthew Avis

  October 19, 2005 at 4:59 pm

  Hi thanks for the quick response

  I should point out im based in the Uk so applestore is a little far away and shipping costs etc make it a rather unwise choice basically incase anything goes wrong it will cost a fortune in postage

  Ive been looking at second hand systems in the UK

  I am trying to find a good dual processor at the moment thanks very much for the little table that is very useful and gives me an idea of performance etc.

  What interface do i need to run dual monitors etc??

  Thanks Matt (see you tommorw)
• 

  Mitchji

  October 19, 2005 at 5:11 pm

  Hi,

  You need a graphics card that supports dual monitors (I don’t know if the DP533 comes with that or not) or you need to add a second graphics card. The forums at Dealmac.com would be a good place to post that question.

  Best Wishes,

  Mitch

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