FCP X on a PC

[Marvin Holdman]

“FCPX is designed to sell Macs.”

Don’t you mean iMacs?

Sorry, couldn’t resist.

Marvin Holdman
Production Manager
Tourist Network
8317 Front Beach Rd, Suite 23
Panama City Beach, Fl
phone 850-234-2773 ext. 128
cell 850-585-9667
skype username – vidmarv

[Craig Seeman]

[Marvin Holdman] “Don’t you mean iMacs?

Sorry, couldn’t resist.”

Actually that’s a reasonable statement. I think the iMacs has limits of course. That’s why I’ve made speculation about what will replace the MacPro. It has to be at a low enough entry point so it can be a “headless” (monitorless) alternative but it has to be a bit more expandable.

[Devin Crane]

Soon FCPX will be used to sell iPads. That’s the more likely reason we haven’t seen a quicker update for FCPX, they are too busy working on a iPad version.

[Craig Seeman]

[Devin Crane] “Soon FCPX will be used to sell iPads.”

Do you really think there’s a large market that has held off buying iPads because there’s nothing like FCPX for it? I don’t think there’s a big financial incentive in that.

iCloud may sell more iPads.
FCPX is there to boost Mac sales. It will once it gets to the point a broader range of people can use it.

[Gary Huff]

[Craig Seeman]Do you really think there’s a large market that has held off buying iPads because there’s nothing like FCPX for it? I don’t think there’s a big financial incentive in that.

There is if the plan is to eventually drop OSX and have only iOS.

[Craig Seeman]

[Gary Huff] “There is if the plan is to eventually drop OSX and have only iOS.”

The two may be merged. I don’t think it’s either/or. They move towards and OS that’s scalable. There still will be a reason to sell higher priced computers. Both iOS and Lion use AV Foundation now.

[Bernard Newnham]

There seem to be some strange ideas on this forum about the differences between a Mac and a generic PC . There’s great play with words like “workstation”, and the HPZ400 is held up as a shining example of what to buy.

One lone voice a few threads down said something about building PCs and pointed out the completely modular nature of the machine – any machine, including Z400s. I thought I’d try to offer some clarification.

First – Macs and PCs are extremely similar. In fact a Mac is little more than a operating system, and most of that is a close cousin of Linux. A Mac uses an EFI to start instead of a BIOS – a little ahead of the PC game, but not hughly important. All the rest is pure Intel based PC, with motherboards made by Foxconn.

“Workstation” is marketing speak for an expensive PC. What’s in a workstation varies from week to week, probably from day to day, as all the components are commodities. Today we buy ten thousand memory chips from Crucial, tomorrow 500 from Kingston – or some Taiwan company you haven’t heard of. The word workstation is just a guarantee that you paid too much.

I don’t know much about HP, apart from seeing the website, but in the UK Acer sell a range called Aspire. They’ve done so for years, but the clue that the guts of the things are endlessly changing is in the numbers after the name. Today – Sept 7th – they’re advertising the M3870-L, M3400 and others. Next week the numbers will be different, but Aspire will still be there to comfort the punters – “my friend bought an Acer Aspire, he says they’re good”. But the Aspire the punter buys after the recommendation will be completely different inside the box.

Macs are a little different, as Apple tend to more or less freeze the design, and sell that version for ages. There’s lots of discussion here about what the next model will contain, because there isn’t the endless incremental change that there is in the PC world.

It’s rather limiting really.

It isn’t actually difficult at all to build a Mac with the latest bits and pieces, hardly more difficult than building a PC. See https://tonymacx86.blogspot.com/2010/04/iboot-multibeast-install-mac-os-x-on.html . I don’t know about use with Lion, as I haven’t tried it, but I suspect that to many people Lion is about as attractive as FCPX.

After people write this sort of stuff, someone always pops up and talks about maintenance. “Use HPZ400s, because that’s the machine the engineers test on…” Which HPZ400 – this week’s, last week’s? PCs are all different, even in the same product line, and all the same. And if there’s a problem – some major failing, it’s easy to just replace the individual parts at no great time or cost. When I needed to replace my G4 a while back, I was horrified at the cost of a new Mac, as I’ve built lots of PCs and know what they normally cost. So I built my own.

Bernie

[Walter Soyka]

[Bernard Newnham] “”Workstation” is marketing speak for an expensive PC. What’s in a workstation varies from week to week, probably from day to day, as all the components are commodities. Today we buy ten thousand memory chips from Crucial, tomorrow 500 from Kingston – or some Taiwan company you haven’t heard of. The word workstation is just a guarantee that you paid too much.”

I don’t agree with this at all.

Workstations offer things like multiple sockets, more RAM slots, more PCIe slots, higher-rated PSUs, better cooling, and better-engineered internal design than standard PCs.

Yes, the components are commodities, but workstations use components specifically engineered for performance and reliability, not cost. Yes, if you have the time, knowledge, and inclination, you can build your own from the same parts for less money.

Not everyone needs a workstation to do their work anymore, but for those that do, these things are worth paying for.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Bernard Newnham]

“Workstations offer things like multiple sockets, more RAM slots, more PCIe slots, higher-rated PSUs, better cooling, and better-engineered internal design than standard PCs.”

You mean – slightly more expensive motherboards and PSUs, bigger and more fans. Once again, it isn’t a step change, just a matter of buying different parts from the parts shop. Have a look – on this page https://tinyurl.com/3om9kk9 there are over 200 motherboards to choose from. What makes a particular one suitable for a “workstation”? Depends on what you want in it really. All levels and prices are catered for. None say workstation.

HP offer a page on their website so you can configure your workstation (if you can stand the wait), so what will make it a workstation rather than just another high spec pc? Marketing, that’s all

…and a Mac is just another PC with lots of marketing and a different operating system.

B

[Tom Klein]

I have next to my 3ghz Macpro a Windows box with an i7 processor,and efi-x usb switch,(https://asem.com.tw/en)
it performs just as fast as the Macpro,at half the set up costs, but i prefer the mac after many years of Editing etc.

cheers
oline

olinevideo.com.au