A Mac for all seasons (Intel Mac that is)

[Ken Latman]

How do you plan to run windows while in the Mac environment?
You will need Parallels or something similar.
If you do run Parallels you need to devote RAM to the Windows OS. So if you have 8GB of RAM and you divide it, the Mac side will be running 4-8GB (depending on what is available) and the Windows side will be regulated to 4GB (in this senerio). You will not be able to dynamically allocate RAM between simultanious running OSes.

Can you wait in a few months and just get the CS3 versions of these apps? AE and Premiere will run natively on Intel based Macs with these apps.

I have AE7 running on a MacPro with 4 processors and it does not recognize them all, but with Nucleo I can render my files with all the processors working on it. Supposably CS3 version of AE will have this built in and if you upgrade to Nucleo Pro2 there are more improvements to multi-processor rendering.

Are you migrating from an older PC box to the MacIntel box? Is that why you wish to keep the apps strictly running on the Windows side?
I’m not sure how well your Decklink card and RAID would work in a video production environment in the method your asking.

[Kevin Camp]

yeah, i think you will be asking for problems trying to run them simultaneously… actually i think you will run into problems trying to windows on a mac and trying to gain full functionality of you periferals.

but if you really want to pioneer this, you’ll want to check with the blackmagic guys and whoever you’re going to buy your raid host adapter from. make sure that the cards themselves are do not have platform specific roms and such. better yet find out if they’ve tested their products the way you intend to use them.

there have been documented issues with video cards not working correctly and work arounds to get the drivers to load.

but like ken said, if you want a mac wait until cs3. i’m curious why you’re looking to switch. i actually use them both… i prefer mac, but i think it is because i have used them for longer and can troubleshoot them better. i’m just curious….

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW

[Danny Princz]

i think your best bet if you want to get a mac pro is to run windows on it till cs3 ships.
it sounds like you have the windows software versions already so load them up for he next few weeks, then once you get CS3, id start over on the mac side.

i dont see how a 3 drive raid is going to get you any reliable 10bit HD though.

i know blackmagic tested that config and said that 8 bit should be fine for capture and playback.

who is that masked man…
https://www.exposedideas.com/

[Brian Charles]

I’m currently running a MacPro Quad with 4 GB of RAM which I dual boot into XP Pro.

While my setup is different from the one you propose I can answer a few of your questions.

1) On Win XP AE 7, Premiere Pro run very well, fast as smoke on these machines. No tweaking RAM settings necessary. AE is much faster than on OS 10.4.9.

If your RAID 0 array was created in XP it is unlikely to work for writes on OS X though it should work for reads.

No one knows what Leopard will actually be until its released, I think the BlackMagic guys are being careful. It should work.

Yes AE 8 uses all processors (confirmed in Activity Monitor). As I understand it (I’m sure someone will correct me) AE lauches one background process per processor each uses RAM up to a 3GB limit per process. You can limit the amount of RAM in the application prefs though more physical RAM is better the process can run in less that 1 GB per processor, I set mine to 512 MB and its bloody fast.

I’m switching OS’s via bootcamp, not the most convenient — its really either/or not both at once.

Finally, I get asked this all the time, “why bother??”. I need applications that run on each OS, I prefer Final Cut (perhaps because I know it better than Premiere) and need some PC tools. I used to have 2 cpus on my desk, this has cut down on the clutter.

[Ricardo Ellstein]

Hi everybody,

Thanks for all your help. The reason I want to have this setup is because I already own a lot of Windows software that I want to use with the new machine. My idea is to use bootcamp (which should be perfected by the time Leopard comes out) and setup the Mac mainly as a Windows machine.

So I can hear the crowd saying, why don’t you just get a PC? Well, there are many good programs for Mac that I’d also like to use, and this gives me the opportunity to have the best of both worlds. Also, like moldyboot posted, I know my way around a Windows machine better, and am more confident I can solve the problems that arise with Windows than with OSX.

Thanks for the info on the array Brian. Do you guys think that a raid array made in OSX could work in Windows using MacDrive? I’ll try and ask Mediafour, and if I get any solid info I’ll put it up.
I’m a little dismayed that nobody has actually tried all this out. I’m pretty sure that I’m not the only guy that’s thinking about this, so if someone has any experience, any info additional info would be appreciated.

Ricardo

[Kevin Camp]

i think that there aren’t many people who have tried it out for two reasons…

first, one of the main things you want in an editing or effects station is stability and running windows on a platform that it was not intended to run on and having to use beta software to do it will put stability in jeopardy.

the other, there is not much of an advantage to do so. i can see some advantage for a programmer or web designer to have both operating systems on one platform, but not so much for editing and effecting.

but you should check out more tech oriented sites like the boot camp page at xlr8yourmac.com and apple’s boot camp forum.

Kevin Camp
Designer – KCPQ, KMYQ & KRCW