Will the new Intel Mac Mini’s run FCP 5?

[Tom Wolsky]

FCP5 does not run on any Intel Mac computer. The Universal Binary version, which should be available this month, should run on it, though system requirements for that version have not been published yet.

All the best,

Tom

Author: “Final Cut Pro 5 Editing Essentials” and “Final Cut Express 2 Editing Workshop” Class on Demand “Complete Training for FCP5” DVD

[Catherine R]

thanks for your reply tom.

i guess i’ll wait and see what apple do with the universal version of FCP before buying then.

really want a 17inch powerbook – but need something to tide me over until that is released.

[Brian Pitt]

I’m sure the new Mac Mini’s will run FCP5 without a problem…assuming you are only planning on editing DV. I have to older G4 1.42 mini at home. I have edited a few small jobs on it without any problems. Render times aren’t near as bad as I thought they would be. However, if you plan on editing on the mini, you NEED an external hard drive. The internal drives on the mini only run at 5400 RPM. Get a 7200RPM firewire drive to store all of your video. Another plus with the new mini is that you can put up to 2GB of ram rather than 1 like it’s little brother. But DO NOT buy the ram from Apple. They will rob you. There are postings all over the internet that tell you how to upgrade the ram yourself…while saving a couple hundred bucks.

Now I’m just mad I didn’t hold out for the intel mini. But you know what they say about keeping up with the Joneses…

[Les Kaye]

One caveat: While FCP ran on the older Mac Minis, Motion did not. The folks at the Apple Store yesterday were unsure if that would change when the Universal Binary version of Motion is released.

[Jeff Carpenter]

Keep in mind that the Intel Mac Minis now come with integrated graphics. This means they use system RAM for the Video-RAM insead of a seperate card.

We’ll have to see how that plays out in real world testing, but I’d be inclined to say that you’d want to get the max of 2 GB of RAM in a new Mini if you’re going to use Final Cut.

If you’re really looking for something to just “hold you over” I’d suggest the refurbished section of the Apple page. Get one of the G5 iMacs on there and have fun editing with that for now. If you ever get that laptop the iMac can become a great home-computer or you can sell it, probably at a better rate than you’d get for a mini.

[Gary Taylor]

I usually buy my memory for Crucial but with these low end Macs I don’t know if it is really such a big deal. Apple only charges 300 bucks to have system come maxed out at 2 gig. I could see some people deciding to have Apple provide the memory.
Just a thought.
Gary

[Bill Dwyer]

I know FCP is not officially supported on the duocore mactels. But does it work?
Anybody have experience using FCP on the mactel pro-books or imac?

Also, what is the best place to buy a mac mini from? I saw that macmall has the mini for $20 cheaper and it comes with a free printer and and a free wacom tablet when you buy one.