Slightly off topic: new iMac specs and X

[Erik Lindahl]

I’d imagine the i7 with it’s hyper threading (8 virtual cores) and the almost 10% faster MHz will benefit an app like FCPX quite a ot. As a work-machine it’s defiantly worth it.

Don’t forget about the 680MX card – it’s a powerhouse (relatively speaking). But people are comparing it to a desktop GTX670 which by all accounts is a great card. It’s also recommend at least 16GB of RAM. 32GB wouldn’t be bad though (64-bit apps like FCPX and AE are memory hogs).

[Rick Lang]

I concur with Erik’s recommendation. You might also consider the Fusion drive on either the 1TB or 3TB system drive. I wish it was larger than 128GB, but may still do a great job giving you extra speed overall. A little pricey but would have a been a no-brainier if it was 256GB instead of 128GB. Don’t know if you can wait for the benchmarks that should be available by the end of this year from Barefeats and Macworld among other sites.

Rick Lang

iMac 27” 2.8GHz i7 16GB

[Erik Lindahl]

Ah, yes, the Fusion Drive seems like a great option. It’s on the pricey side but again – worth it for a work machine. It does make backups even more important though since you basically double your chances of a drive-failure. You’d probably want some kind of external RAID for media also.

[Michael Hadley]

Yes, would go for the fusion drive (in for a penny). And definitely, yes on backup. I plan on using a Time Machine for backup of the system drive and then for media–primary storage on a T-bolt Raid 1 and then backed up again to a esata Raid 5, which gets backed up every night–or therabouts.

Hope the speedtests come out soon. This purchase is in part motivated by end of year taxes so need to make it by 12/31.

Big picture, I’m pretty sure the 3.2 or 3.4 iMac will be beefy enough for our needs. We don’t do 4K, Red, etc. Mostly C300, XDCAM, DSLR these days.

But really wish I knew what the roadmap is for towers. I know if I pull the trigger I’ll have buyer’s remorse. That’s always how it goes…

[Mark Dobson]

[Michael Hadley] “Big picture, I’m pretty sure the 3.2 or 3.4 iMac will be beefy enough for our needs. We don’t do 4K, Red, etc. Mostly C300, XDCAM, DSLR these days.

But really wish I knew what the roadmap is for towers. I know if I pull the trigger I’ll have buyer’s remorse. That’s always how it goes…”

I’m in the same situation but think that I will hold out a bit longer for the Mac Pro tower , that is if it is a tower, it could be a rack mounted slab, or an expanded Mac Mini type of thing.

I almost bought a Retina MacPro but again I think I’ll just hang on.

I just wish Apple would get a move on. And the trend is that things are starting to pick up with Apple, their support for FCPX has been really good and the new products such as the new range of iMacs and the MacPros are also really solid.

[Michael Hadley]

Yeah, always a tough decision: buy something pretty damn good right now or wait for the next best thing.

And FWIW, I have found the FCPX support team to be very responsive and helpful. They’ve reached out to me a number of times after I have filled out the support form on the website.

And with the enhancements/fixes of 10.0.6, I’m a pretty happy camper.

[Craig Seeman]

[Michael Hadley] “And FWIW, I have found the FCPX support team to be very responsive and helpful. They’ve reached out to me a number of times after I have filled out the support form on the website.”

Shhh! You might disturb those who say Apple doesn’t listen or communicate. Apple isn’t interested in professionals so they say.

[Michael Hadley] “Yeah, always a tough decision: buy something pretty damn good right now or wait for the next best thing.”

And I have a hunch they have professionals in mind with whatever replaces the MacPro. Waiting for the unexpected is the hardest part given the good chance (I believe) it’ll be something other than the current box with just newer Xeons, USB3, Thunderbolt added.

[John Davidson]

I ordered the day they came out and will get delivery by the first week of January. I don’t think Apple will bill until they ship it, so you probably won’t make the 12/31 cutoff.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[Bret Williams]

The fusion sounds neat, but I don’t put anything on an internal except OS and Apps. Both of which boot up plenty fast. And with plenty of RAM you don’t need to be booting or launching much for weeks on end. X projects are on the external raid for space and backup. Anything like family pics would be on a mirrored raid.

I’ll be getting a 1 TB internal just like my 2011 iMac. All I need. I’m basically switching for the nVidia graphics card. Not much else will have changed. Except the loss of FW800 and lack of DVD Burner. Gotta go with the maxed out iMac except for the than the fusion. 3.4, better card, better (2 gig) card memory, and max the ram from OWC or Amazon.