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I need advice on upgrading my Macbook Pro
Dear friends:
I’m in a crossroads.
The bottom line is: The HD is knocking my door and I’m trying to solve my problems.
I’m using my MacBook Pro as described on my profiles and FCS on a “Blue Screen” production that has mixed materials from Canon D5 (HD) and a Sony HDV camera.
First I captured everything to Prores 422. So far so good …..
But when I start to apply filters (Chroma Key, Color correction, Denoisers) and increasing the number of tracks, FCP start screaming asking for render. Sometimes, based on experience (not as great as some of you guys), I do things and pray to be ok after rendering some clips. But I can not live like that ! It is frustrating most of the time.
I can’t increase the speed of the processors but I’m thinking to make better connections to my external drives and put more RAM.
Three things I’ve read here and there on internet and I would like some advices and a word if they are right or not.1- Use a Express Card/34 with a eSata connection which is faster than FW 800.
2- Build a eSata RAID. (Which RAID would be better ?)
For that I would need an enclosure to use 4 or 5 HD that are getting dusty on a drawer. They were used only once on an old production.
Capacity- 750GB
Interface- Sata 3Gb/s
RPM- 7200
Avg.Seek- 8.9 ms
Buffer- 16MBDoes anyone know the product: OWC Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2 ?
Link: https://eshop.macsales.com/item/Other%20World%20Computing/MEQX2KIT0GB/3- Now it is possible to put 6GB of RAM on MBP
In a short past, 4GB (2 x 2GB) were the most you could use on MBP but now I can see on internet, companies selling 6GB Kit (1 x 4GB + 1 x 2GB) for MBP. Does it really works ?As buying a Mac Pro or change the processor of my Macbook Pro are out of question, would those things above help me ?
thanks fellows.
Fredy.MacBook Pro 17″
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
(2) External HD LaCieMac (400/800 FW and USB)with 500GB -(2) USB External HD Western Digital (in cases) with 750GB
OS X 10.6.5
Final Cut Studio “3” -
17 Replies
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Drives will not speed up rendering by that much. If will help with playing the extra streams but not the filters and effects, that is processors.
Denoiser is a heavy filter and anything like that is going to make your system crawl.
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Fredy, OWC does have a chart at https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/. I like Other World Computing and upgraded my smaller version of yours to the max it could take (4GB and 500 GBs HD). They make it quite easy to do the upgrades. Great how to videos even for old Mac hands like myself. Unless you are doing it all the time in a service shop, it’s worth seeing how it’s done. There are some tricks to it.
I agree with Michael, you might be pushing the processors to their max, and might just need to making jello or take up marathon running while you wait… but people did use this computer as “state of the art” a few years ago. The difference is HD which you are finding out. I ended up using my MBP as a ProRes Proxy editor, and for field use. Had to get a Mac Pro to really do the job…not sure how many others are able to use MBP’s like yours. I’ll let the pros chime in. I ended up changing editing platforms to get faster video rendering…I was doing a similar thing to you…green screen with Boris in my case. Needed i5/i7 processors to really crank it up. Apple does offer them, but…as you say, it’s out of your options.
Alf
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One bottle-neck better than three.
I would go eSATA and increase the RAM.
The only bottle-neck would on the processor.
rafael -
CPU is usually not the problem. In fact, when we’re spec’ing out servers for people, we usually have them buy the slowest clock rate. Memory and disk performance are the big bottlenecks for most people.
Unless you are running lots of things on the system at once, I’d consider disk first.
The eSATA raids I’ve tested (and it wasn’t many) were not very good.Steve Modica
CTO, Small Tree Communications -
[Steve Modica] “CPU is usually not the problem. In fact, when we’re spec’ing out servers for people, we usually have them buy the slowest clock rate. Memory and disk performance are the big bottlenecks for most people.
Unless you are running lots of things on the system at once, I’d consider disk first.
The eSATA raids I’ve tested (and it wasn’t many) were not very good.”This is true. Keep in mind, people were happily doing Uncompressed HD on G4’s a few years ago…albeit on very fast disk arrays.
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This is NOT true for his situation. His bottleneck is rendering, which has very little to do with disc speed. You can run Uncompressed HD on a G5 if you have fast enough HDs, but drop any filter on it and it will choke. Add Denoise to that footage and go get lunch or dinner while it renders. The poster whats to speed up RENDERING which is PROCESSOR, if you are looking at getting more streams, then yes you look at DRIVE SPEED. Compressor is the other processor-centric app, disc speed only plays a little in it.
Fred can spend his money anyway he likes but he will not see much bang for his buck, in this case. IMO
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Thanks everybody for your responses but what I can see from them is that I would have to go for a Mac Pro, lots of Ram and a big Array/Raid.
I’m sure, Mac Pro is the right way to go. But I’m out of budget now. I live in a country where Macs cost more than twice comparing to US. Most of the time I have to wait for a travel to US to buy my stuffs. When I do it, I always, when I can, try to buy the top of the line of the moment.
As I’ve mentioned before, I have those 5 HD kept in a drawer and using them on a good enclosure with eSata connection could also be useful in a future Mac Pro and I would be saving money instead of buying those “whole” storing solution from Sonnet, CalDigi and etc .. that already comes with their HDs.
And even when I get my Mac Pro, having the Express Card on my MBP is worth.
Moreover, upgrading the RAM of my MBP from 4 to 6GB wouldn’t be bad.Greetings,
FredyMacBook Pro 17″
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
(2) External HD LaCieMac (400/800 FW and USB)with 500GB -(2) USB External HD Western Digital (in cases) with 750GB
OS X 10.6.5
Final Cut Studio “3” -
[Michael Sacci] “His bottleneck is rendering, which has very little to do with disc speed.”
I understand what you’re saying Michael, but I as I told Fredy elsewhere, adding a SATA RAID will make his day to day editing experience on that older laptop better.
It won’t make rendering faster, but it will a) maximize RT performance; b) minimize renders; c) allow him to render when he decides to render rather than when the machine dictates.
A 5-disk SATA RAID will give him a lot more RT performance than what he’s getting now with FW800.
David Roth Weiss
Director/Editor/Colorist
David Weiss Productions, Inc.
Los Angeles
https://www.drwfilms.comPOST-PRODUCTION WITHOUT THE USUAL INSANITY ™
A forum host of Creative COW’s Business & Marketing and Apple Final Cut Pro forums. Formerly host of the Apple Final Cut Basics, Indie Film & Documentary, and Film History & Appreciations forums.
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You are right Michael. At the moment I dropped the Chroma Key filter, it asked for render. I did it to see the work. I had to do some color correction on footages that came from the Sony HDV camera and …. more render ….. At the Denoiser moment …. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz and sometimes during the render it looses the sample and I had to stop the render, resample and render again …. . What a hell !!!
MacBook Pro 17″
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
(2) External HD LaCieMac (400/800 FW and USB)with 500GB -(2) USB External HD Western Digital (in cases) with 750GB
OS X 10.6.5
Final Cut Studio “3” -
David …. that what I was thinking !
thanks for your understanding.MacBook Pro 17″
2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM
(2) External HD LaCieMac (400/800 FW and USB)with 500GB -(2) USB External HD Western Digital (in cases) with 750GB
OS X 10.6.5
Final Cut Studio “3”
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