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Final Cut Pro versus PC Editing Software
Hi guys. I am having discussions with my district’s I.T. dept. regarding replenishing my lab with PCs. I personally do not use more than FCP and Live Type, and to save $$$ the I.T. person (who I respect) has suggested that my 7 yr. G5s will have hard drive crashes which has apparently been occurring, but I understand that to replace my 04 g5s would not be costly because the hard drives could be replaced and formatted, and even Apple Minis for like 699.00 could work with my G5 monitors.
1. Is Adobe Premiere even in the same galaxy as FCP??
2. Can a 7 yr. old G5 function for longer periods with a new hard drive installed?
Thanks
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3 Replies
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[Lee Olivas] “1. Is Adobe Premiere even in the same galaxy as FCP??”
Yes and then some, but I’m an Adobe guy, so don’t take my word for it. You can download and try a CS5.5 from the Adobe website. It requires a 64-bit OS (Mac or PC)
[Lee Olivas] “2. Can a 7 yr. old G5 function for longer periods with a new hard drive installed?”
Yes. You could get a new HD, install the Mac OS for your system and keep going. Eventually though, something will fail and the cost for replacing it will be high.
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I regard Avid as the natural competition for FCP in the professional editing world, but whether another package is appropriate for you depends upon what precisely you’re intending to use it for.
If you’re not at what might be termed the top end of the editing market it might be worth considering alternatives, not just Premiere but also Grass Valley’s Edius and Sony’s Vegas.
How long a computer will last is hard to say. Disk drives have physical movements with contact between components, so there’s a chance for wear to shorten their lifetime, but for components that have no moving parts the sensitivity is to physical shock/vibration and excessive temperature variations. So if a computer (or other electronic device) never gets too hot for you to put your hand on it and is kept in a nice cool and stationary place it’s likely to last a lot longer than one that is moved about and never has the cooling fans cleaned. I have seen computers last for more than 10 years (with the occasional hard drive/power supply replacement), it’s often the desire to have the latest software and/or higher processing speed that drives their replacement rather than having them fail.
So I can’t say whether it’s best to keep your G5s going or not, but if they’re doing the job you require them to do efficiently at the moment the question arises of what is the risk of them failing to you? If the inconvenience of having one go down when you’re working would be serious it might be wise to replace them while you have the opportunity.
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You could purchase ‘last-gen’ Mac Pros from professional resellers for very reasonable prices soon, when the new ‘thunderbolt’ Mac Pros rear their head soon. Even the 6-core ones would be a vast improvement over your G5s.
If you move to Adobe, whilst I have no problem with it, you’ll have to pay Adobe’s prices, whereas you already own the software you need – and can pick up cheap upgrades to FCS3. In addition, FCP X will be $299.
No brainer for an existing FCP setup.
Edit Out Ltd
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