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Questions on an ‘ultimate’ Fcp editing machine
Hello. I hope the FCP forums is right place for this. I am interested in putting together a Mac Pro tower with basically the best possible components, for once, budget isn’t the main concern. Right now it will be used for editing HD video and effects on several projects with target lengths of close to two hours. We want a lot of headroom and room to grow as we progress from ‘serious amateurs’ into more professional applications. Any advice or suggestions of things not on my list here would be most appreciated. If what we’re looking at seems like more than we might need…we’ll, we’re just tired of pushing iMacs and Macbook Pros past their limits.
I have some questions about the possible components as seen on the Apple online store.
The maximum possible two 2.93 quad-core processors seems like the way to go.
The 16gb of ram option is comfortable within the budget. However, will that give maximum performance? I’ve read some things about lower amounts of memory working better on these computers and I was hoping to have some help understanding that.
Next is graphics cards. It gives the options for up to 4 Nvidias, but only one of the supposedly more powerful ATI radeons. I want to be able to drive two screens initially…maybe another one later. Will the ATI run two Cinema displays? And should I be getting perhaps an ATI plus one of the third party cards from Kona or intensity or I’m not sure whom else?
On hard drives, if I already have a drobos, will two 1 terabyte 7200 rpm drives be sufficient for editing as long as regular backup to drobos is performed, or should I be attempting some sort of internal RAID?
I’d also like to have a blu-ray burner. Is it fairly easy to install the internal ones, or do you think I’d be better off going external?
I’m curious if it’s best to buy what I can from Apple and then install the extra graphics cards and blu-ray burner on my own, or if there are companies who sell already built systems like this?
Thanks for any help you may provide…we’re pretty good on the editing side, but a little lost amidst some of the more customizable computer options.
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5 Replies
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do get the 8-core systems with 16gb of ram minimum.
less memory would make it run slower as each core needs 2gb to run optimal.I would recommend a Kona-3 for the capture card.
my 002 cents
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This question is generally asked at least twice per week. You can do a search on this forum for many of the answers.
My “ultimate” fcp editing system are the ones we run in our shop. You can click on my profile to see the various systems we run here. We also have the latest Mac Pro on order with 16GB of RAM to replace the G5 quad.
Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author.
Credits include multiple Emmy, Telly, Aurora and Peabody Awards.
Owner, Biscardi Creative Media featuring HD Post
Biscardi Creative MediaCreative Cow Forum Host:
Apple Final Cut Pro, Apple Motion, Apple Color, AJA Kona, Business & Marketing, Maxx Digital. -
Every graphic card will handle two monitor (the new 24″ has a special connector so you can only have one of those, but frankly they are over priced anyway). You do NOT want more than one graphic card if you plan to use color.
A lot people don’t buy the memory from apple they get it for about 1/2 for a 3rd Party, I buy mine from macsales.com.
If you get into multi-stream editing or the higher HD codecs you will want a RAID drive system. drobos are best for backing up rather than editing off of.
There is a saying in the computer buying game, don’t buy for the future. While you can take this too hard and not put any thought into what is down the road, but if you are looking one or two years down the road you have to realize that whatever you buy today will be below low end in 2 years. But the faster the computer the longer the life it has.
There are also a lot of piece to the puzzle that require $$$ to go “Pro” video card, once again, you don’t need a Kona3 if the newer cheaper LHi, but what if well let that play out down the road.
Other things to think about, external monitor, have you budgeted for than. Decks for delivery, when a lot of people never you tape to acquire we all still need to deliver on tape, will that be your case?
If money is in fact no object, get top of the line everything, but make sure you get everything, a Kona3 with no external monitor or decks doesn’t make much sense.
You should describe what you plan to be going also. That is helpful to get better recommendations.
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First off, thanks for the quick responses, and Walter, I’m sorry if this is somewhat redundant. I did some searches before posting, and found a few specifics but didn’t run into anything considering the whole system, so I thought I’d ask, especially with an eye towards someone who sells these solutions pre-assembled. I will continue to dig a little deeper, and of course your profile information has already been helpful.
Michael, we are editing mostly AVCHD and some XDCAM EX, with really no current broadcast or cinema aspirations. The two main users will be a retiree and video buff, and myself, a performer and traveler. Between his pet projects and what I collect on the road, we tinker with quite a bit of HD video! The desire to move to seriously powerful system just comes from the now fragile and sluggish response in tweaking ten or so 50-120 minute HD projects on an iMac.
So…if we weren’t serious enough about color correction right now to buy a proper monitor for it, and we aren’t going to be delivering or capturing from tape, then would there be any reason to get one of the Konas? And if we do one day go that route, these capture cards don’t count as the multiple video cards you say interfere with Color, right?
On the hard-drive, would a RAID 0 starting with say two 1 terabyte drives and regular backup to the Drobos be inline with what you are suggesting? Would all four slots make a RAID 0 dangerous?
Hopefully these questions aren’t too week, it’s a little confusing to piece together the overall interactions from the posts around the forums about specific components. Maybe this should have been in the ‘basics’ forum…
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I’ve got a little better with the search terms and have found several of the other threads mentioned! My apologies for the overlap!
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