FCP on new Macbook versus waiting for towers…

[Paul Nevison]

the towers are always going to be more beefy than a laptop – dual processors, better graphics cards, I/O etc…. but the macbook pro is here today and the towers are somewhere off into the distance. Personally I’m waiting for the intel towers and then for the dust to settle before making the switch, but that’s because my current machines are plenty fast enough for the timebeing (G5 2.0g)….the museum piece you are currently working on – would make me consider upgrading to something 🙂

even a low spec imac would be faster than your current machine….a faster machine is likely to make you more productive meaning you could cover the purchase with a couple of jobs.

an interim purchase of a G4 laptop, low end G5 tower could be a good interim measure – you will definetly notice the speed boost…and then jump on the G5 intel machines when they arrive.

G5 DP 2.0
4.0G RAM
OS 10.4.6
QT 7.0.4
FCP 5.0.4
BMD Decklink Extreme 5.5.1
PAL Land

[Cm Creative media]

Yes,

that’s my dilemma. Great point. Work faster now (and get it paid for) or work faster “sometime” in the future and work slower (and less income) now. I’m going to pop over to a local mac retailer (no store here, Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada) on Thurs to see how uch I’m missing. They’ve a 15 in macbook with FCP runnig on it. I may leave crying but I’ll get a real perspective on what I’m missing.

It may be a museum piece but you’d be surprized what I’ve cut and output with it :). She’s a sweet ole girl.

Thanks

Craig Moore BFA, BA
———–
CM Creative Media
Video Production

[George Loch]

My question is do you need portability? The MBP is indeed a more powerufl laptop but it comes with portable compromises. If you don’t need portability, I would be inclined to pick up a refurb Quad myself. That would provide great performance for another 10 years like your G4 😉

-gl < purchasing a MBP myself

[Cm Creative media]

Good points.

But now that everything is going intel i want to go with it as I’m getting in with new gear on the ground floor and everything else from here on in will be built for it.

Portability is not “necessary” today but I’m wondering what uses/benefits FCP “on-the-road” have over a tower. And damm, I’m itiching to go intel. Someone else mentioned MCP and a Imac to get the best of both worlds. One of my pitches for my company is speed and flexibility of production so I’m considering portability to go along with that philiosophy. I’m kinda fence sitting. I really want to wait for the tower but with a protential release date of August and at my door date maybe 6 weeks later I’m trying to justify the wait. Also I am trying to see those who use FCP on MCP if they are satisifed with thier workflow.

Thanks for helping the fence sitters 🙂

Craig Moore BFA, BA
———–
CM Creative Media
Video Production

[George Loch]

Personally, I think the MBP has more potential for FCP than the iMac. The main problem I see with the iMac is the lack of storage expansion. It would be fine for DV but that’s about it. In theory, the MBP will allow for eSATA raids and you could use the lone fw port for an AJA iO. Now if you go with the 17″ w/ the FW800 port thne you get even more expansion options.

IF you really are only DV and plan to stay there for awhile then you would be just fine with an iMac I think. If you upgrade the internal HD to a 500gig then you will have a fair amount of space even without external storage. Seagate has even been tagged as readying a 750gig sata drive.

-gl

[Cm Creative media]

Good points. fast sata raid are good to know for simple cost savings. I think the tower benefit is how I’m leaning now. I think that it will be better served to waiting unitll my client demand requires portability and then buy a MCP but they will always want speed and output options so a tower with expansion is better serving my needs…it’s just hard to wait :).

I think that as I can get around my workflow speed for now (i don’t know anything better/faster so I’m in a type of g4 bliss) so i think I will bank my dollars and wait for the towers. DV is my game today but I can see HDV and more broadcast work in the near future so I want to be open to that option.

Thanks for your help,

Craig Moore BFA, BA
———–
CM Creative Media
Video Production

[George Loch]

Happy to help. Honestly though, you would see a large productivity boost if you simply went to a dual G5. I would be inclined to pickup a dual 2.0 now and then when the dust settles on the Intel desktops add a second machine and use the G5 as a rendering/logging station.

Just an idea…hate to see small animals or anyone using a 500mhz computer to edit on suffer needlessly 😛

-gl

[Ron James]

“I’m going to pop over to a local mac retailer (no store here, Halifax, Nova Scotia Canada)”

A good piece of advice from a longtime FCP cutter/Mac user in Halifax: avoid the local authorized dealer like the plague. I’ve dealt with so many clients that have been burned with supposedly “preconfigured” systems with incompatible third-party hardware that are nothing but problems. And once they have your money, they don’t return calls. I’ve made a lot of money off their incompetence.

There is a dealer in Dartmouth, however, that I’ve heard good things about. But what I’d recommend is ordering directly from Apple. That way you can customize (add RAM, bigger HD, etc) and nobody touches it but Apple.

Or, go to Future Shop! I’ve saved so much money buying their extended care coverage. I’ve had a three year old external CD burner and a four year old LCD monitor (not to mention a few printers) replaced with BRAND NEW units. It’s great coverage for electronics. I would DEFINITELY buy an Apple monitor there, at least, and nowhere else.

HTH, from a fellow haligoon

[Cm Creative media]

Give it up for the real East Coast!

Yeah,

Bary Ring runs Mac East here in Dartmouth. But I wanted to actually get my hands on a MCP to see for myself how it runs with FCP. I definitely will take the Future shop advice. Drop me your email when you get a chance to stay in touch.

I’ve learned so far to strip it all down and build uit up as it works (systemwise) and check in with the usergroup for system advice. I don’t know too many FCP users here in HFX so it’s good to know there’s a few more.

Thanks

Craig Moore

cmcreativemedia@accesswave.ca