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Newbie needs crystal ball
Just took delivery of our first FCP machine (MACPRO, AJA KONA LHe). We actually are going to buy as many as 6 machines but did not want to get caught in a product life cycle shift.
So, any hints as to what we might expect from Apple in terms of new hardware and software releases in the next couple of quarters?? Also any predictions for AJA on the I/O side?
Thanks from the Great White North.
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15 Replies
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We can give you predictions but no actual plans. Sorry!
Steve Eisen
Eisen Video Productions
Board of Directors
Chicago Final Cut Pro Users Group -
NAB is in April. All things Apple and AJA will be released there, maybe. Anybody who knows what is coming can’t speak publicly so if anyone wagers any guesses in this thread, that’s all they are, guesses. And you certainly don’t want to purchase anything based on a guess.
If you need 6 systems, purchase the fastest Mac you can afford, put at least 8GB RAM in there and get the AJA Kona 3’s. And for storage look at the new SATA Expando chassis from Maxx Digital and Dulce.
I have to say, hardware developed by AJA years ago (AJA Kona 2) is still cutting broadcast HD today so AJA equipment is pretty solid. So long as Apple stays PCIe the current AJA boards will still be cutting on them. We have three Kona 3’s in our shop.
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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Hi Pat,
This is a place to start:
https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
Their recommendation right now for the Mac Pro is ‘Don’t buy. Updates soon.’
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Walter’s 100% right. buy the fastest box you can now and put in Kona 3. Kona 3 is on top of it’s game and there’s nothing really else you could do that would impact how future-proof that hardware is.
Anything Apple does on the software front, if they do anything at all, will run great on today’s top end gear for at least a couple years. (all speculation of course, but common sense)
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[Joel Peregrine] “This is a place to start:
https://buyersguide.macrumors.com/
Their recommendation right now for the Mac Pro is ‘Don’t buy. Updates soon.'”
Yeah, rumor sites, they’re a great place for accurate information. I’m still waiting to see Final Cut Extreme that was touted 2 years ago on… let me see what was the name of the that site…. oh yeah, macrumors.
These sites are useless. They just guess and guess and guess so when something actually does get released, they can go “See, we told you that was coming out and we were right.” Forget about all the predictions that were wrong.
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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That’s all true, still, for a long time we’ve had a policy to never buy anything in March, if it can wait until April and NAB.
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If you can go with the Kona 3’s do it. We have 6 FCP suites, 3 with Intel Machines and when we originally configured the newer machines with some of the other cards there was always something more that was needed from them so we went with the more expensive Kona 3’s. The Kona 2’s in the older machines are still in full force and the Kona 3’s in the Intel machines have done everything needed of them. A great card. As for the rumor sites, I check them often even tho nothing is for sure there. Apple is good at keeping secrets. Problem is some other editor friends of mine have gone to Adobe for lack of FCP 7 or FC Suite 3 news. Oh well, too bad for them.
Victor
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[walter biscardi] “Yeah, rumor sites, they’re a great place for accurate information.”
Hi
Apple doesn’t talk, but Intel does.
And Intel is talking at the moment…Its as if the last year’s chip was the 486DX66 (remember them?).
At the end of last year they brought out a Pentium-style upgrade (remember how much faster that was than a 486?).On March 29th Intel will launch their new server grade chips with integrated memory management (kind of like the Pentium with MMX for go-faster multimedia handling…).
These are the Gainestown (Xeon) chips Apple will need for their new Mac Pro range – 10-40% faster due to the elimination of data-flow bottlenecks.
The last time Intel brought out a new range of chips – Intel released the Harpertown/Penryn-series CPU (used in the current Mac Pro) on Nov 11th 2007 – Apple released the Mac Pro using this CPU on January 8th 2008.
Furthermore chipmakers are wont to discontinue their production lines as and when they feel the market has moved on – so Apple is oftentimes forced into making an upgrade of its model specifications.
Fact + fact + fact + fact = new Mac Pros soon (timing subject to the plans for theSnow Leopard launch and/or WWDC).
Interestingly Intel isn’t talking only about Gainestown – they’re bigging up its successor, due sometime early next year, which maybe will give Intel production-cost advantages, hence maybe their wish to move things along…
The Mac with THAT CPU, along with FW3200, USB 3 and SATA 6, is probably the one to wait for…
The one with the maximum built-in futureproofing 😉 -
[Paul Dickin] “The Mac with THAT CPU, along with FW3200, USB 3 and SATA 6, is probably the one to wait for…
The one with the maximum built-in futureproofing 😉 “Well, you go ahead and wait for “coming soon.” I don’t have a need for that here. Today’s Octo 3.2 runs quite fast for our needs which are HD Broadcast and Independent Documentary filmmaking.
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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Paul,
Great post, always good to hear tech stuff from those who know…
Have a wonderful day.
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