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Buing a new Imac – what model to my use of FCP?
Hey out there,
First of all I’ve already spend hours reading earlier posts, but haven’t found the specific answers I’m looking for.
I’m about to buy a new Mac and I need some expert advise.
I’m on a pretty tight budget, and can only afford an Imac – so no Mac Pro.
I will be using it with Final Cut Pro 7 to make short films (maximum 15 minutes) and music videoes (3-4 minutes). And also for Photoshop and Dreamweaver – but mostly FCP. Im not a professional, but I do mess around with some filters and basic color grading – but it doesn’t have to be rendered in a snap (meaning if it takes 2 minutes or 5 minutes doesn’t matter).The absolute roof to my budget is the 21.5-inch 2.8GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7 but I’ve also been looking into the 21.5-inch 2.7GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 or maybe even the standard 21.5 2.5GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5 and then I would have more money to spend on external drives and stuff.
What model would you choose in my situation and on my budget?
With my usage would the Imac be an acceptable computer with FCP at all?
How big is the difference between the i5 and i7 on these models with FCP?
Is the i7 more future proof – having the forthcoming of FCP X in mind because of the multithreading?
And also how big is the difference between the i5 2.5 GHz and the i5 2.8 GHz with FCP?Is there anything else I should consider?
Again I’m on a budget and I need an acceptable FCP computer.
You help is very appreciated.
Greeting
Kristian V. Jensen
Denmark -
3 Replies
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Yeah, maybe that’s the cleverest move.
But isn’t it already possible to say if the i5 or i7 is best with a 64-bit system?
I can’t wait to buy until they launch a new series of Imacs again. -
I expect the most common opinion in the forum would be to go for the best you can possibly afford – each step up the ladder makes you’re life better (faster isn’t just rendering speed, it’s also the software appearing to run more smoothly).
Under severe financial constraints, well yes, all of those you mention will run FCP7, so you can choose how much you want to spend right now, but I’d agree with Dave that as the next version of FCP is released next month (and we don’t know too much about it right now), if you can wait just a little longer, it might be sensible to see whether there is going to be a big difference between the i5 and i7 for that.
Not an easy call right at the moment… but I’ve never regretted going for the max that I calculated that I could afford plus a little extra!
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I found some answers elsewhere. Here’s what I found about requirements for the forthcoming Final Cut Pro X in the PDF “Preparing for Final Cut Pro X” by Torrey Loomis at Silverado Systems (link: https://www.postmagazine.com/documents/SilveradoPrepforFCPX.pdf)
Due to the Grand Central Dispatch-technology in FCP X it would be a very very good idea to get the i7 instead of the i5 because of the hyperthreading technology in the i7 chip.
“Summary:
Grand Central Dispatch is a load-balancing technology that takes properly coded applications and effectively balances performance across multiple cores. Since performance is balanced, full utilization of all cores can occur. Intelʼs Hyper-Threading technology allows Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard to assign twice as
many tasks to available cores–effectively doubling the amount of processing power available in systems that support Hyper-Threading. And as the threshold of core speed is approached, Intelʼs Turbo Boost technology provides another level of speed by allowing cores to dynamically overclock themselves to a higher level of performance.Recommendation:
You can fully leverage the maximum amount of power available via Grand Central Dispatch by using Apple systems that support Intel Hyper-Threading and Turbo Boost (presently 2009 and later Mac Pro and 2011 MacBook Pro systems). To get the highest performance youʼll need to make sure the apps you are running are Grand Central Dispatch optimized–such as the new Final Cut Pro X.”Hope other people out there with the same speculations about i5 vs. i7 will find this helpful.
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