New Mac

[Michael Gissing]

If you upgrade your hardware and also want to run the latest OS, then you will need to upgrade your Final Cut to something a bit more modern (FCS3).

If you intend to stay with FCP4.5, then keep that running on the G5 and use the new Mac & OS for other up to date apps.

[Walter Soyka]

One quick thought on expansion:

With the iMac, you are limited to a single FW800 bus for expansion. With the MBP 17″, you have that same FW800 bus plus the ExpressCard34 slot — for either faster disks or video I/O like the Matrox MXO2.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Biscardi]

[Dale Yakaites] “I do some video work in Final Cut and am currently using 4.5HD.
I am cringing at the price for a computer upgrade an am leaning toward an iMac 27″ with 8gb of memory as an upgrade.”

You will have to upgrade Final Cut Pro at the same time. 4.5 won’t run on an Intel machine or if it does, it will be very slow.

iMac 27″ is an awesome machine BUT cannot be expanded nor can you use something like an AJA Kona board for output to a broadcast monitor. So if you don’t need a broadcast monitor for finishing your project (though you should have one) then you’re good.

Personally I think the iMac 27″ is the best machine going these days from Apple. Gorgeous screen and definitely powerful enough to run the suite.

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“Foul Water, Fiery Serpent” Winner, Best Documentary, LA Reel Film Festival.

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[Tom Bucknall]

There are very quiet rumours going around of a possible upgrade to the MacBook Pro line in April. If you can hold off this long it might be worth it to either pick up the new better model or get the now out of date models (the ones your currently looking at) cheaper.

In terms of which system would suite you best I agree with Walter that an iMac sounds more than capable of handling what you need. However I would say if you already have a good setup with you’re current G5, monitor, mouse etc, swapping in a new Mac Pro would be simple and would allow for future upgrades.

[Jerry Hofmann]

You might look very seriously at a refurb or other used machine. I’d look at a 1-2 year old tower especially if you want to get serious with expansion and capabilities. Computer displays can be had used too. You might end up with more power, and get expansion capabilities. You’re really tied down with a laptop other than a 17″ and any iMac is great for home movies or as a secondary edit station etc.. depends on how much speed you’ll need for the format you acquire and deliver.

Will an iMac run the current software? Yep. That’s not the issue, expandability and capability is. Speed… The software is likely to be upgraded next year sometime I’d guess, and that will be the second gen intel only version of Studio… so you need an intel machine to upgrade yourself.

Jerry

Apple Certified Trainer, Producer, Writer, Director Editor, Gun for Hire and other things. I ski. My Blog: https://blogs.creativecow.net/Jerry-Hofmann

Current DVD:
https://store.creativecow.net/p/81/jerry_hofmanns_final_cut_system_setup

8-Core 3.0 Intel Mac Pro, Dual 2 gig G5, AJA Kona SD, AJA Kona 2, Huge Systems Array UL3D, AJA Io HD, 17″ MBP, Matrox MXO2 with MAX – Cinema Displays I have a 22″ that I paid 4k for still working. G4 with Kona SD card, and SCSI card.