Mac purchase suggestions

[Kevin Monahan]

You need FCP 6 minimum for HDV footage from the Z1. You can hobble around with an iMac for awhile. Used is fine. Just make sure it has an Intel chip, OK?

Kevin Monahan
60 Blu-ray Templates for Final Cut Studio 2009
http://www.fcpworld.com
Author – Motion Graphics and Effects in Final Cut Pro

[Roli Rivelino]

Mmm, my moto on this is buy cheap, buy twice. You could get an imac and editing hd footage you’ll realise almost immediately that it isn’t good enough.

You need at least 4 gb RAM and two internal drives, try and get a used 4 core or 8 core mac pro, I don’t know what country you’re in but I know that second hand prices for these should have come down a bit as Apple have brought out a successor to the Pro.

If you buy an iMac for FCP 6, I guarantee you’ll regret it when you’re sitting there staring at it rendering for all it’s worth and hardly making any progress.

aka Newbie Wan Kenewbie. “The young Newbie, is now a Padawon.”

System
Mac Pro 2.8Gb quad core
8Gb RAM
1x 320Gb 7200 hardrive
1x 1Tb 7200 hardrive
Nvidia Geforce 8800 512mb Graphics card
1x 1Tb external WD ‘My Book’ eSata

Equipment
Panasonic AG-HVX 200
Firestore FS-100

[Christopher Hill]

[Roli Rivelino] “I guarantee you’ll regret it when you’re sitting there staring at it rendering for all it’s worth and hardly making any progress.”

I completely agree here. I use an 8-core MacPro at work editing HD footage from our XDCam and it works wonders. On the other hand, I also have an early 2007 MacBook Pro that was good for it’s time that I use for personal projects shot on my Canon XH-A1, but it pales in comparison to the MacPro at work (and that’s the last model G5! [aka: not Intel]). So in essence, go for the better model and not only will your workflow actually flow, it’ll flow a lot longer than if you went cheap.