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When to buy a new Mac?
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The way I see it:
Proven 8-core, used, plus a new Kona card ~ $5,500.
Unproven new 12-core, plus Kona card ~ $8,500.Are you going to see $3,000 worth of productivity difference in Final Cut? No way.
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What he said.
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Obviously the new 12 core machines don’t make much of a difference in running FCP. But what about Compressor, Motion and Color? If you regularly use these programs, the additional CPU power will matter but the GPU power from an upgraded card will matter too.
Do you use AE? Do you have to crunch a lot of footage down from 1080 to smaller web formats? These too should be factored into your decision. If all you do is edit using FCP, I agree with Mark P. If you really push your machine are crunching a lot of H.264, AVCHD or AVC Intra footage through your pipeline, the extra processors could be worth it.
As usual, which machine to buy all depends on you. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with having a reputable VAR setup your machine as long as you check them out, solicit testimonials from satisfied customers and make sure that they don’t get too markup happy or rip you off on hourly.
Once again, goes back to how you are going to use it. If you are editing with FW and only SSM, you may not need a VAR. If you are editing with a Kona card, need to setup reliable RAIDS, I would go with a VAR, money well spent and someone to fix it when it gets sick.
Dan
A Producer Who Is Also A DP? Yep, that’s Me.
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For the love of god, if you need a new machine to do a job that you otherwise cant, buy a used 8 core. The chances of apple releasing a 64 bit version of fcp any time soon must be small, (probably equal to them abandoning fcp these days!) And the chance you would feel that difference in any meaningful way, at least until new camera formats come out and become established is even smaller.. The chance of 1st gen teething problems and that 3k difference- very real indeed.
Sounds like you just like to splash the cash though and are looking for validation… I’m kidding, but we’ve all been there! -
I’d give it a couple of weeks after they start being sold. You’ll know then if there are any problems. You’ll also know how much the old ones are selling for. And lots of comparisons between them. If you can really wait it out, there should be a new FCS by the end of the year. I’m shopping too. My VAR says the new ones should be faster due to the new graphic cards. But he said he’ll know more when he gets his hands on them.
OSX 10.5.7; MAC Book PRO (EARLY 2008); Camcorders: Sony Z7U, Canon HV30, Sony vx2000/PD170, Canon xl2; Pana, Sony, and Canon consumer cams; FCP certified; write professionally for a variety of media; teach video production in L.A.
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