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FAO: Craig Seeman – Mac Specs and FCPX
Apologies if I spelt your surname wrong. I know you are a tech head and you run tests etc.. I have finally bitten the bullet and opted to try and make FCPX work for me. I was hoping I could pop my Mac Pro specs up here and you could give me an idea of its power with regards to FCPX and whether I am fine or will come into issues. I appreciate the spec alone isn’t all and sundry but some feedback would be appreciated.
If there is anything I have missed please ask and I will ascertain and post.
2 x 2.26 GHz Quad Core Intel Xeon
16GB 1066 MHz DDR3
— 4 — 2 —
— 4 — 2 —
— 2 — empty
— 2 — empty
OS 10.8.2
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MBI have 4 internal 2TB drives and 1 external 2TB drive (I use for archive stuff only)
I run my OS on a 2TB drive partitioned into 4 sections with the other 3 as spare dumps for non editing related stuff and back ups for my Music drive and my other business related files (non editing)
I have all my rushes and projects on another 2TB drive, including projects and elements I use in Motion or DVD Studio etc.
hopefully that’s all you may need.
And to anyone else, not wishing to put anyone’s nose out if they have educated feedback, I just know from reading the forum over the last 2 years Craig is quite into being educated to and aware of the tech side of things.
Cheers
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6 Replies
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You might want to add what you want to do with FCPX in terms of the source of your video that you are bringing into FCPX and the type of deliverables you want to produce. And specify any handoffs or round-tripping you want to do such as DaVinci Reslve for grading for example.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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Cheers Rick.
I’m self contained on the whole. Make video for not for profits all on my todd. Using DSLRs these days. With FCP7 I would encode the DSLR files to Pro Res though I will experiment with using the footage straight from the camera, which I get onto my machine by using a SD card device and dragging and dropping.
Grading I do internally using plugins (with presets) or just colour correction. I deliver either via the web or on DVD using DVD Studio Pro. Web is mostly .h264 these days (flash now being a part of the past).
Have started messing with Motion 5. Used Motion 3 many years ago but stopped needing it, but decided to bring a bit of motion back in via licensed templates.
If I need audio adjustments I can’t do myself (used to use Logic 9 but that is now broken on Mountain Lion so need to think about that) a good friend is a sound engineer so I send him my file and he makes it sweet then sends it back.
Think that is it, but thanks for the pointer.
Cheers
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Julian, cannot comment on the plugins, but from what you said, your system will certainly work with FCPX. You might consider upgrading to a more recent graphics card and later in 2013, take a look at the update to the Mac Pro if you are interested in a new machine. You might even consider the iMac 2012 or iMac 2013 which will likely both outperform your current Mac Pro. But no need to spend money until you feel it’s needed. If you wanted to begin grading in DaVinci Resolve, you will have to make one if these three suggested upgrades to your machine.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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Cheers Rick.
my machine is no more than a year old so am sticking with it for the foreseeable future, plus I use two monitors and like to add Ram and change things internally (such as adding extra extra firewire ports etc., so not sure if you can do that with iMacs.
As for the graphics card, what would recommendations be and how much would they improve things and in what capacity.
Also, though I have 16GB of ram would more help or with my current graphics card would more make little difference?
Cheers
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Memory often helps but 16GB is likely fine. Since current memory is amazingly inexpensive and you plan to stick with the machine, I’d double the memory to 32GB. FCPX loves memory. As for the graphics card, take a look at Barefeats.com benchmarks to weigh some options like a GTX680. 512 MB of video memory is cutting it close; things will likely run better today with 1 or 2 GB video memory. If it is within your budget go for 2 GB video memory and that should be good for years to come.
Rick Lang
iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB
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Cheers rick, that’s great, will have a gander and yes, i’m going to stick with it for a while and do a fair amount of work so investing at this stage to make FCPX run faster is going to pay off in the long run. The more I can avoid spinning balls and pregnant pauses in loading and responding to my wishes, the happier I will be.
Appreciate the input.
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