mac pro which one

[Jerry Hofmann]

I’d be looking at the fastest computer I can buy if you’re going to work natively with HDV…
I’d start with 4 gigs of RAM, but figure you need 8 with an 8 core machine, and the hot ticket graphics card is the X1900… it’s in the middle of the pulldown menu in the Apple store online.

You can save some bucks if you buy the extra RAM from a third party too.

You might find that working in ProRes would ease your workflow a lot. the perfect thing woud be an Io HD if you can wait until sometime in July, or a Kona LHe card to capture the HDV to ProRes. The Io will do all the compression and decompression on board where the LH card will rely on the CPUs for this. In theory you might ge a bit more RT playback of unrendered material with the Io HD.

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D

[Peter Wiggins]

Dont do anything until the WWDC

Peter

[Rj Miles]

Unfortunately, waiting can be an endless loop.

Wait until WWDC
Wait until Sept
Wait until January
Wait until NAB
Wait until WWDC

and so on…

The 8-core is priced very competitively and we went with the X1900 and 16GB of ram for our new AE, FCPro workstation.

Certainly, a new memory buss & multi threading design could make an 8-core even more efficient. But again, once you embark on the waiting game, one can procrastinate years away.

[Jim Finn]

This has been helpful. I don’t think i’d be able to afford more than 4gigs of ram to start but maybe that won’t be enough. I’m not sure what prores is going to be able to do. I’ll be getting FCS 2 with the tower. I won’t be getting it at least for a couple weeks. These tips are helpful.

macbook pro intel dual
Sony HDV-V1U 24p

[Michael Sacci]

Make sure you do not over look the advice on the extra RAM, buy 3rd party save and you will even end up with 5GB.

Do the same with hard drives if you are planning to add them, go 3rd party and save.

[Jim Finn]

i bought some bad third party ram. any suggestions of where to get it?

macbook pro intel dual
Sony HDV-V1U 24p

[Andrew Kimery]

[RJ] “Unfortunately, waiting can be an endless loop.

Wait until WWDC
Wait until Sept
Wait until January
Wait until NAB
Wait until WWDC”

Yes, but WWDC is only a week away. On the other hand, Intel is supposed to cut prices in July so now it’s:

Wait until WWDC
Wait until July
Wait until Sept
.
.
.

Andrew

[Jerry Hofmann]

https://eshop.macsales.com/shop/memory/Mac-Pro-Memory

https://www.crucial.com

I think either of these vendors would be fine. i personally have had some ram replaced by crucial, and it was easy to get it done. A quick phone call was all it took.

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer

Author: “Jerry Hofmann on Final Cut Pro 4” Click here

Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D

[Jim Finn]

Happy to wait until at least next week. But why this conference? Do they unveil brand new stuff?

macbook pro intel dual
Sony HDV-V1U 24p

[Walter Biscardi]

[gnomebard] “But why this conference? Do they unveil brand new stuff?”

Because this is a developers conference for the folks who actually make the software / hardware for the Mac, typically high end machines like new desktops are revealed at this event.

Apple unveiled the Octo Cores right before NAB this year which was unusual, but I’m sure it was because they wanted them on the show floor. But if there is a new Mac Pro upgrade on the near horizon, it would probably be mentioned at the show. At the very least, Intel may lay out a roadmap for the coming upgrades to the processors which could be useful information.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
https://www.biscardicreative.com
HD Editorial & Animation for Broadcast and independent productions.

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