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Spec My Ride
So, what is the best configuration for a documentary editor using FCP Studio?
— Bob C.
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6 Replies
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The new Mac Pro Tower baby! Just announced at $2499.
Kevin Monahan
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fcpworld.com
Pres. SF Cutters -
A lot of it depends on what format you plan on shooting and editing.
More Info Please
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[zrb123] “More Info Please”
Thanks! SD and HDV for now, but I want to be ready for HD.
Appreciate any advice you can give. I’m also curious what this means for AJA cards.
— Bob C
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G5 Tower or the new Mac Pro Tower
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I’d really appreciate a detailed opinion of an appropriate configuration of a MacPro for FCP Studio. I’m budget-conscious enough to want to buy the computer that will be great for the next three years of SD/HDV and HD editing.
Processor: two 2.66 GHz or two 3 GHz? (+ $800)
Memory: (I’ve read here that one should look to other suppliers besides Apple for memory.) The Mac Pro comes with 1 GB (2x512MB). 2 GB (4x512MB) (+ $300), 4 GB (4x1MB) (+ $1100). There are 8 slots, and I assume there are some rules for adding memory. Any rec’s on what to order, from whom?
Bay 1 Hard Drive: no question — getting the 500 GB for an added $200.
Bay 2-4 Hard Drives: 500 GB 7200 RPM SATA’s @ $400, or an external SATA box? I edit short and long form, and it would be great to be able NOT to power up an external SATA box for the weeks that I don’t really need it. Is there going to be a performance advantage to using internal SATA’s?
Graphics: (I want to be able to use two Dell 2405’s) ATI Radeon X1900 (+ $350) or 2x NVIDIA GEForce 7300 GT 256MB (+ $150)
Thanks for your perspectives on these questions.
— Bob C
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The faster processor will save time in render times… so in 3 years of it… it pays possibly.
Buy the RAM from Apple this time… it’s not much more than Crucials… And you only deal with one company for warranty that way.
The SATA question is a lot more “touchy”… internal SATA’s not part of an array will do 8 bit uncompressed and lower only… HDV? yes. DVCPROHD, yes… uncompressed 10 bit or uncompressed HD? NOPE… you need an array for that. Stripping 3 of them internally may not give you enough speed for uncompressed 10 bit HD.
You only need one card to run BOTH of those monitors. I’d buy the Radeon, because Motion, Photoshop, Arpeture will all benefit from it, and running Two displays cuts the VRAM in half using one card…
Jerry
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