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Upgrade to Dual Quad Core or just take leftover Dual Core Intel?
Our Power Mac G5 Dual 2.5ghz that is powering our Final Cut Edit Suite is in desperate need of an upgrade, and I have been presented with some options from my bosses.
We have a Mac Pro (model MacPro1,1) Dual-Core Intel Xeon 3GHZ with 2 processors (4 Cores) with 8gb of memory that is currently being used for After Effects and DVD authoring in our graphics area.
Here is the dilemma. The bosses here are looking to buy a new MAC, and they are contemplating on some things. Here are the possible scenarios:
Scenario 1 – Buy the newest fastest Mac Pro(Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon) and put it into our graphics area for After Effects, and put the old one (Mac Pro (model MacPro1,1) Dual-Core Intel Xeon 3GHZ with 2 processors) into our Final Cut Studio 2 edit Suite, which would upgrade our old Dual 2.5 G5.
Scenario 2 – Buy the newest fastest Mac Pro(Two 3.0GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon) and put it into our Final Cut Studio 2 Edit Suite, which would replace the old Dual 2.5ghz G5, and hold off on the graphics area computer update.
The dilemma from my point of view seems to be that my bosses believe that they can save a buck by updating the Graphics area computer, and just using the old Dual Core Intel Xeon for the Final Cut. They are convinced (without doing any research mind you) that Final Cut Studio 2 won’t need or utilize the power of the newest available Mac Pro, and that the money would be better spent to update the graphics computer.
We also have the After Effects artists chiming in, whining about the rendering, and trying their best to state their case that “After Effects needs it more.” What do you guys think?
In my opinion, I think it is not the smartest of moves. I think putting anything less than the best available into the Final Cut Suite is kind of a stupid, considering they want to be able to take full advantage of Color, multi format timelines in Final Cut, the ProRes Codecs, and everything else the new studio has to offer.
Any ammo you guys could give me to back this up would be awesome!
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3 Replies
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I think what makes most sense is who really needs the speed? Which area makes the most money and who has the ‘savey’ clients? Will the editing clients know you don’t have the most current Mac and will that keep them away from your shop?
Or will the graphics guys benefit by getting more graphics created on say… a bid, where there’s no clients sitting there.
Ernie Santella
Santella Film/Video Productions
http://www.santellaproductions.com -
Hey, thanks for the input. I guess I am effectively answering my own question in asking this, I just wanted to see if anyone out there had any input on what they would opt for in this situation. Since finding out that Final Cut Studio 2 is more processor intensive, I was interested to know what others would do in this case. Anyone else have any suggestions or thoughts?
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I’d probably give the graphics guy the new computer, especially if he is running Nucleo Pro or will run AE CS3 (both programs have great funcionality for multiple processors).
The “old” Mac Pro is still a really great machine. For Color and Motion, make sure you get the ATI X1900 XT. If you use Compressor a lot then you can secretly form a cluster to his computer 🙂
“Hey, why the heck is my computer processing like mad when I’m surfing the web?”
He’ll never know….
In all honesty, the new Mac Pro just has more processors than the “old” one. I don’t think you’d see a huge preformance increase in FCS2, but I could be wrong.
-Russ
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