How powerful of a laptop for Final Cut?

[Shane Ross]

Well, it has to be a Mac because FCP only runs on a Mac.

FCP runs fine on all the powerbooks, and reasonably well on the iBooks. But when you throw Magic Bullet into the mix, you are talking processor power needs. Most towers take a while to render Magic Bullet effects.

Get yourself the current 15″ Powerbook model. Good speed and good monitor size. The 17″ is too much IMHO, not worth the additional real estate.

[Louis]

whoops, lol =X I didn’t know that.

that sounds great, I was hoping it would be ok. Maybe I’ll save the magic bullet for the school comps then.

I agree about the 17inch, I think the 15 seems to feel the perfect size to be nice and compact.

Thanks alot!
Louis

[Bryce Whiteside]

I got what Apple calls the PowerBook 15″ Ultimate that includes 128MB of video RAM.

See my sig,
Bryce

Don’t worry Mr. B. I have a cunning plan…

PowerBook 1.67 Ghz ATI 9700 128 MB 2 GB
Final Cut Pro HD
DVD Studio Pro 3
Motion

[Bill]

I have a 15″ and the only reason I would get the 17 is for a couple reasons. 1: the latch system is much better with 2 clasps instead of one. 2: 20 more gigs The Production Suite will hog up alot of your alooted 74.whatever gb’s. Don’t get me wrong the 17 is too big to lug around most of the time. For the meantime my 15 will do just fine. Max out your 2gb of ram and your good to go. Buy a good bag for it! keep it off your lap if you ever wan to have kids. People look at me funny and my co-workers give me doo-doo for it but I have ausb fan that works wonder in keeping chernobyl cooled down.

[Louis]

Thats great to know. I’m really glad knowing there shouldnt be a prob. I think I’m going to most likely go with the 15 inch and juice it up as much as it goes, lol, and keep it off my lap!
Thanks,
Louis

[Mitchji]

Hi,

If you don’t need to run it on batteries you could get a G5 iMac. Here is some information on a case:
https://www.luggerbags.com/G5.htm

See how you can go from desk to bag in 30 seconds.
Just SLIP the iLugger over the monitor, then FLIP the bag over, then after putting you mouse, keyboard and misc. items in the iLugger, just ZIP it up! SLIP – FLIP – ZIP

The same iLugger fits both 17″ and 20″ iMacs!
OK, we all wanted a G5 Powerbook… but it doesn’t look like they are going to make one for a while…. so make your G5 iMac portable! After all, its only 2 inches thick, weighs 18 lbs & has a dazzling display nicer than any notebook!

We’ve designed airships & balloons on Macs since 1984 and wanted G5 processing power that we could take from home to office to boardroom presentations. The G5 iMac filled the bill in every way except we could not find a case that it would fit in. So we designed & built this bag & we love it!

Now we’re making them available for all you power users who want a little portability. Our offices are in Middle Tennessee using the same quality materials, & detail used to construct our balloons and blimps. This custom made, quality bag is easy to pack, well-protected, and airline carry-on size! One size bag fits EITHER 17″ or 20″ iMac.

The following is what a friend of mine had to say (he needs a portable for FCP but he always has access to AC):
I just got my iMac today – infinitely faster than any powerbook I could have bought at three times the cost. I got the cheapest I could find: a new 1.6gHz 17″ with a CDRW/DVD and 256 RAM on eBay. I upgraded to 1GB RAM and got the iLugger bag.

[Bryce Whiteside]

You want at least the 100 GB 5400 RPM drive. If 7200 RPM is available–which I doubt–get it. Stay away from the 4200 RPM drives.

HTH,
Bryce

Don’t worry Mr. B. I have a cunning plan…

PowerBook 1.67 Ghz ATI 9700 128 MB 2 GB
Final Cut Pro HD
DVD Studio Pro 3
Motion

[Louis]

The iMac is an idea, but i really like the laptops. working outside and having everything contained in one unit are big factors for me.

I added the 100GB and 5400 RPM drive to my list of features.

Thanks again =)
Louis