[John Davidson]

[Sam Lee] “The big issue is overheating when doing intensive effects. “

I definitely hear the fan crank up when I’m running 4k footage in AE and using plugins like Form to do some 3D work – but nothing that requires any additional interference from me to keep from overheating.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

[Neil Paisnel] “Thanks for the comprehensive reply John.”

You bet! I think it speaks to the value of mac machines that – in many cases – they can just run forever. 7 years in computing is a lifetime. Imagine buying something today and knowing you were going to be running it until at least 2022. Self driving cars probably be very common at that point, 7 generations of iPhones/watches will have been released, and who knows what else will have changed in the world of technology. Figuring out how to keep older machines on point is a nice problem to have. 🙂

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

We use our old 5,1 12 core as a server mac now. It became too frustrating working with FCPX in an older hardware system because they’re just designed for an older generation of software. Now that it has just one job to perform of managing a 10gb ethernet server and 2 60TB arrays, it’s great.

With all due respect, it seems like your preconceived notions about iMacs, laptops and “dustbins” are clouding your understanding of what these systems are actually capable of nowadays. The type of RAM you can put in these systems just isn’t as fast as the RAM you can put in a new mac system of any flavor. In fact, I think I once priced out a RAM upgrade on the 3,1 and it was so overpriced (because it’s no longer in production perhaps) it wasn’t worth the effort.

There are other really important things you might be overlooking. Thunderbolt 2 is no joke. USB3 is also a game changer. Connected to something like a RAID5 Areca 32TB Thunderbolt Array, these systems all beat the pants off of an internal 4 drive array in RAID 0 (in 3,1 as well as 5,1) that isn’t even capable of taking advantage of 6G drive speeds. Lastly, the internal SSD’s on new macs really do rock.

Life moves pretty fast Neil. If you don’t stop by your local apple store to smell the upgrades, it might pass you by :).

You can compare any model of mac to another here:
https://www.everymac.com/ultimate-mac-comparison-chart/?compare=all-macs

I made the comparison for you here.

For what it’s worth, I decided to reduce our home system from an office to just a desk last year to make space in the home. I now have a retina MBPro 15″ feeding to a tastefully hidden Promise Pegasus 8Tb array which is ample. When I want to view something on a big screen, the new mac systems are capable airplay to the apple TV 60in screen in the same room. Older systems can’t do that. If I want to see something in 4K, I run the HDMI out of the iMac into the TV. It’s a simple, beautiful and surprisingly robust system – that will get out of the way if I ever need to use the desk for something like changing a diaper :).

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

Let the Mac Pro just become a backup machine. You’ll get better and more powerful performance from a new i7 iMac. It’s not worth the effort. We have the same one and it collects dust now. Even a 2012 iMac kicks it’s butt in performance.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

I’ve found freezing issues with Adobe rendering to NFS connected servers, but that’s all I have :(.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

HI Daniel, what NLE are you editing with? Also, what are you connecting to a central server with? Or are you working with local Thunderbolt RAIDs?

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

If it’s super low, you can always throw the logic / compressor effect on a clip and that’ll give you an additional gain option. Sometimes though, everything is just too loud and lower clips are getting buried. In that case, select all and lower everything except the quieter clip. Then just bring up your master volume and voila, you’ve made it louder.

It’s a bit like the old Rodney Dangerfield ‘If you look fat in pictures, just surround yourself with fatter people’ gag.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

[tony west] “[Bret Williams] “Nobody owes me anything.”

It’s a nice line, but I’m sure slaves back on the plantations didn’t have the luxury of using it.”

Wait wait wait. Did you just indirectly accuse Reading Rainbow, owned by Lavar Burton, actor from “Roots” of being the equivalent of a slave owner?

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

[Charlie Austin] “Oh I see, the 3D poo wasn’t enough for you huh?”

I didn’t realize the finger was going to become an option. Gotta say though, maybe Microsoft is turning it around!

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.

[John Davidson]

Taxes are a pet peeve of mine too. 🙂

Something tells me that porn company isn’t terribly concerned about withholding taxes for their freelancers.

John Davidson | President / Creative Director | Magic Feather Inc.