Final Cut Pro running on Intel Macs

[Walter Biscardi]

The two biggest changes I notice are that the audio waveforms draw much much faster and the renders are noticeably faster. We’re running the Quad 3.0 which is definitely faster than our G5 Quad 2.5 but not by a whole lot. We have 4GB RAM for the machine, but are only running 2GB at the moment due to an ATTO issue with their fibre channel card and more than 2GB of RAM installed. Supposedly we’ll see a fix in November.

Not running AE or Photoshop on it yet, will be installing those later this week.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Tim Langston]

Boris Red and Continuum…and a new Driver from Sonnet, that’s holding me back from moving my Mac Pro into my main edit suite. I’ve tried using the Boris that comes with FCP and have noticed some funny little circles in the drop shadows. It’s sitting here collecting dust.

Tim

Tim Langston
Cryin’ Out Loud Productions
Fort Wayne, IN
http://www.colproductions.com

[Ernie Santella]

I spoke with Sonnet yesterday and they are planning to post a Beta driver for their E4P SATA PCI Express card up by the end of the week. That’s been hold me up too. No Raid.

[Zak Mussig]

They’re fast. I have the Quad 3 GHz like Walter, but with 5 gigs of RAM. Everything is noticeably faster compared to the dual 2.5 GHz PowerMac this system replaced, even Photoshop. We don’t use After Effects here, so I can’t really speak to that, but Photoshop’s speed is just fine for me, even under Rosetta. I definitely don’t spend my day in Photoshop like a graphics person does, but it hasn’t at all been a weak link in work I need it for. I could see wanting to wait for CS3 and a Universal version of AE before moving an entire group of people who use PS and AE constantly over to Intel Macs, but I don’t think you’d take much of a hit by doing it now… especially if your G5s were older. Editing on my dual 2 GHz G5 at home drove me nuts after getting this thing. Just make sure any G5s you keep around are kept at the same FCP version number as the new systems, or you won’t be able to open projects from the newer systems should you have the need. I don’t think you’d be disappointed

Hope that helps a bit,
Zak

[Mark Maness]

Walter,

I just got my new Mac Pro this past Thursday, and its the same as yours with the exception that I purchased it with 7 gig of RAM (of which I had to remove all but 2 gig). We are using the ATTO Celerity card with this one connected to a TerraBlock.

Are you using it with the Kona 3 card? If so, can you tell me your slot configuration.

The reason I ask… My system doesn’t seem very stable at the moment and I have ATTO and Facilis Tech looking into my problem. Here’s the problem. After FCP 5.1.2 came out, I updated my systems to it since we use the XDCAM system (SD & HD). Well, when I got in my new Mac, I installed the ATTO card drivers and reconfigured my memory and restarted it. My Terrablock drives come up just fine and I have full access to them. But here’s the real problem. When I open a HD timeline (specifically a DVCPRO HD 720p timeline) and play it back, I get dropped frames, the audio looses sync, and I hear pops and clicks in the audio.

I’ve reinstalled the drivers. I’ve booted from non-updated backup drives. I’ve called tech support at ATTO and Facilis Technology. AND everybody is stumped with this one. Yes…. I know… There will be a new driver for the ATTO card in November BUT I was hoping to use this system now. Can you help me with some info on yours.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com

[Walter Biscardi]

[Wayne Carey] “Are you using it with the Kona 3 card? If so, can you tell me your slot configuration.”

Yep, I installed it exactly as recommended in the AJA Read Me file that came with the 3.1 drivers. There’s also a PCI Express slot configuration tool that pops up when you install a new card and I set that up per AJA’s read-me instructions as well.

Honestly the System Profiler is not showing which card is which under the PCI Express listing, but the the ATTO 42ES is in the top slot and the Kona 3 is right below it. So I think that means ATTO is Slot 4 and Kona 3 Slot 3.

The system has been rock solid since Friday so far. Only crash was yesterday when I forgot I never set the Energy Savings on this thing to “Never” and the hard drives went to sleep when we went to lunch. That locked up the system, but we fixed that.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Mark Maness]

[walter biscardi] “The system has been rock solid since Friday so far. Only crash was yesterday when I forgot I never set the Energy Savings on this thing to “Never” and the hard drives went to sleep when we went to lunch. That locked up the system, but we fixed that.”

Thanks, Walter. I was hoping that you might have seen the same issues. BUT I am happy that you have not.

Let me ask…. Are you running on all of the current verions of the software? How about OS 10.4.8? FCP 5.1.2? Did you run software update and update all of it at the same time?

Sorry to ask all of this, but I’m trying to find a common denominator here.

[walter biscardi] “Honestly the System Profiler is not showing which card is which under the PCI Express listing, but the the ATTO 42ES is in the top slot and the Kona 3 is right below it. So I think that means ATTO is Slot 4 and Kona 3 Slot 3. “

There is one thing different… I’m using a ATTO 41ES. Hmmmm… I wonder if that has something to do with this. Are you running a TerraBlock system?

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com

[Walter Biscardi]

[Wayne Carey] “Let me ask…. Are you running on all of the current verions of the software? How about OS 10.4.8? FCP 5.1.2? Did you run software update and update all of it at the same time?”

Yep. Right out of the box I ran Software Update on the system. Then I installed Studio and let it run Software Update twice after that.

Kona drivers are 3.1.

I downloaded an ATTO Flash update, but it didn’t install so I guess it didn’t need it. Ciprico highly recommended the 42ES as the card I wanted.

Running a brand new Ciprico Media Vault 4210 (5TB / 10 drives / 4gig Fibre Channel)

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Food Network’s “Good Eats”
HD Editorial for “Assignment Earth”

“I reject your reality and substitute my own!” – Adam Savage, Mythbusters

[Mark Maness]

Well, that’s very similar to what I am running. So, I guess I’m back to the drawing board….

Thanks for all of your help, Water. You have an awesome setup there! Great job on the shows, too!

Oh, by the way, we are using the TerraBlock 12D with 6TB of storage, and they recommend the ATTO FC-41ES card.

_______________________________

Wayne Carey
Schazam Productions
http://www.schazamproductions.com

[Walter Biscardi]

[Wayne Carey] “Well, that’s very similar to what I am running. So, I guess I’m back to the drawing board….

Thanks for all of your help, Water. You have an awesome setup there! Great job on the shows, too!

Oh, by the way, we are using the TerraBlock 12D with 6TB of storage, and they recommend the ATTO FC-41ES card.”

My pleasure. Facilis was actually my second choice, almost went with them. Really the deciding factor was Don McDonnel who used to be at Med