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Activity Forums Apple Final Cut Pro Legacy Which Mac to buy?

  • Which Mac to buy?

    Posted by James Bishop on March 29, 2009 at 7:38 pm

    I’m thinking about buying a mac and want to make sure i get one that will be ok with running final cut. Will it work on a basic macbook? or would i need to get a macbook pro? my budget is £1000 so i shall probs have to get one second hand (if i need to get a pro..)

    any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

    Elijah Lynn replied 17 years, 1 month ago 4 Members · 4 Replies
  • 4 Replies
  • Walter Biscardi

    March 30, 2009 at 12:22 am

    [James Bishop] ” Will it work on a basic macbook?”

    Not really. MacBook Pro is the bare minimum.

    Walter Biscardi, Jr.
    Biscardi Creative Media
    HD and SD Production for Broadcast and Independent Productions.

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  • Zach Love

    March 30, 2009 at 5:25 pm

    I had a guy in the Apple store tell me a year ago that Final Cut Studio won’t let you install it on a Macbook. I stopped asking questions after that and left shortly after that because the twitch in my eye was getting bigger and I didn’t feel like making a scene.

    The twitch in my eye came from the fact that I had just installed FCS on a Macbook a couple weeks prior w/ no problem what-so-ever. Add to that, I used that MacBook off and on (when I was freelancing for a company) editing DVCPro and HDV w/ no problem.

    Now all the editing I did was very simple, cuts only, a dissolve here and there. Just about any Mac out today will be able to handle that. But once you start getting into graphics, Color, rendering, etc. etc. you will see the MacBook come to a halt with a lot of HD.

    It really depends on what you are doing and how much you can live with rendering. Any Mac has its limits, I’ve slowed down a Mac Pro w/ a graphic intensive timeline to about 0.5fps until I rendered. If you are a student, you can probably live with a MacBook and the limits it comes with.

    I would say, buy a last Generation Macbook if you go that route. Firewire is NEEDED for video and Apple disowned FW400 w/ the latest release of Macbooks.

    If you go the MacBook Pro route, you’ll have an easier time editing & such, but go for the 17″ or the 15″ w/ extra video RAM. The extra video hardware in the MBP will make a difference and is worth the money if you have it.

    If you don’t have ANY money, I wouldn’t be surprised if you can edit w/ FCP on a Mac Mini. Although Apple will probably never admit to it from their sales department.

  • Zach Love

    March 30, 2009 at 5:51 pm

    One more thing, unless you already own FCS, I would say wait a few weeks. There is a fairly good chance that Apple will announce a new Final Cut Studio at NAB in April.

  • Elijah Lynn

    April 10, 2009 at 5:17 am

    [Zach Love] “One more thing, unless you already own FCS, I would say wait a few weeks. There is a fairly good chance that Apple will announce a new Final Cut Studio at NAB in April.”

    That would be nice! I was guessing it would be after Snow Leopard is out, ya know Grand Central (power).

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