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G5 or Mac Pro
Hey All,
I’m making the switch to Mac after being with PC for a long while. I will be using it for Editing on Final Cut, Avid Express Pro and doing work in After Effects. I am on a budget, so I need to figure out what is neccesary vs. “nice to have” to run the above programs and render and such. My current PC can do the above one at a time, and slowly with 1gb of Ram, a 2.0ghs processor and horrible video card with no real open GL. So what specs should I concentrate on, and what about buying used?
Thanks for any help
-Dave -
10 Replies
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If you get a used or new old stock G-5 I would get one of the later models with the PCI Express slots. Otherwise you stuck with legacy PCI-X which is fast becoming legacy technology. I suspect that I’ll be replacing my 2.0 G-5 in the next year or so.
Lee Berger
http://www.leebergermedia.com -
Go for the Mac Pro
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Correct me if i’m wrong but there is no avid xpress support for intel Macs.
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Stick with a PC.
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[Tae] “Stick with a PC.”
For Final Cut Pro? Not an option.
As of the time of this posting, AE is kind of flaky in Intel Mac’s. It works, but there’s issues as AE is not a Universal Binary. This should change at some point this year.
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At least by June when the Production Studio comes out. And some of Adobe’s new software is intel only. You can bet in a year or so the same will start with other manufacturers. Even Apple. Think of Universal as a bridge. The next versions of software may be universal, but the versions after that will most likely be Intel only.
Go for the MacPro otherwise you’re just staying behind the curve and you’ll be in the same boat again later.
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Hi
I have both.
The Mac Pro is much faster. Renders FCP effects 2-3 times faster than a Dual 2.7 G5, even when reading the media across the LAN.
BUT
It’s not stable yet. We found that it falls over whenever we access it over the LAN, even to get just a small project file – it crashes instantly, or a few minutes later. If you don’t access it, its fine. It can access our G5’s and open complex projects while mounting 12 volumes over tha LAN. We have a Intel Mac Mini which does the same – crashes when you access it over LAN.
We are also running a fibre channel SAN, and the software for it does not run properly on the Intel system yet.
Rgards
Francois -
With the changes to cache sizes suggested in an article here at the Cow, AE runs very stable for me on a MacBook Pro. Right, it may not use the computer to it’s limit, but with the latest improvements in Rosetta it is quite workable. So, I’d also say: “go for the MacPro”. Only on a Quad G5 AE is still faster than on a MacPro. But our older dual G5 2GHz can’t keep up any more.
Regards,
Uli
Author of “DVDs gestalten und produzieren”, a book on professional DVD-authoring in German.
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G5 is a waste of money at this time to be purchasing brand new. If you’re on a tight budget, but the least expensive Mac Pro with at least 4GB RAM and you’ll be good to go for a while.
Always purchase the most computer you can afford today and know that a brand new, much faster machine will always be released a few months after that purchase.
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
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