Imac vs Octocore

[Shane Ross]

[Don Walker] “Would not a tricked out IMAC (4GB of RAM) edit Footage in Final Cut Pro just as fast as an Octocore with say 8 gigs of RAM?”

YOu can’t “trick out” an iMac. Only thing you can add is RAM…that’s it. And no, when it comes to rendering, the Octo will be much faster. 8 cores of processor, not 4 of the highest end iMac. So you want to compress a movie to DVD or as h.264 for the web, those 8 cores some in REALLY handy. Plus, the MacPro can have different graphics cards installed, and many of the filters in FCP take advantage of the graphics card and provide real time performance.

[Don Walker] “I also am aware of the speed of fibrechannel or eSata storage. I use an SATA raid everyday.”

Well, you ain’t gonna be able to hook up an eSATA to an iMac…no expansion card option like the MacPros or MacBook Pros. Firewire only. AND…you might run into a bus issue when you capture from a firewire camera to a firewire drive. Might not, but some people do.

Shane

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[Walter Biscardi]

[Don Walker] “Would not a tricked out IMAC (4GB of RAM) edit Footage in Final Cut Pro just as fast as an Octocore with say 8 gigs of RAM?”

Not even close.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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[Don Walker]

Walter,
So FCP is multithreading and using the other processors to render, handle real time effects and whatever other processes can benefit from multiple processors?

John 3:16

[Don Walker]

Shane,
The point of my post was as far as FCP goes, can it take advantage of the extra processors. This post is being typed on a 8 core mac which I just love to compress footage on. But i was trying to determine what to buy for a postion that will just be editing primarily through a SAN on gigabit ethernet, no compressor, no motion, no AE.

John 3:16

[Shane Ross]

STRICTLY editing? You might not see a difference, other than with many of the filters, as I described…graphics cards help with many. Also, dealing with certain processor intensive formats like HDV and XDCAM…but I can’t say for sure. Never edited on an iMac, must less compared them side by side.

GIGe networked storage? Might work then. Can’t guarantee, so..

Shane

GETTING ORGANIZED WITH FINAL CUT PRO DVD…don’t miss it.
Read my blog, Little Frog in High Def

[Walter Biscardi]

[Don Walker] “But i was trying to determine what to buy for a postion that will just be editing primarily through a SAN on gigabit ethernet, no compressor, no motion, no AE.”

I’ve never heard of or used an iMac on a SAN or gigabit ethernet so I can’t comment there. We’re going to get some iMacs for ingest for a new series we’re setting up, but there will be no editing on them. They’re just slower to any sort of rendering that is required so we won’t use them for editing.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Biscardi Creative Media
HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

STOP STARING AND START GRADING WITH APPLE COLOR Apple Color Training DVD available now!
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[Andy Mees]

An iMac on a MetaLAN SAN certainly seems to be doable according Bob Z
https://library.creativecow.net/articles/zelin_bob/build_your_own_san.php

In such a setup I would think as a dedicated edit station the iMac would be a pretty efficient and cost effective solution, especially if set up as part of a larger cluster for Compressor output. At the time of writing 4GB RAM is a sweet enough for a FCP setup if you don’t expect to have other apps open or active. We all live in hope however that this will be addressed in a future version, but you can’t make effective purchase decisions today based on what may or may not be available tomorrow.