[Lautaro Lipani]

Larry and Jerry,

Thanks for your advice.
I think that after your counselling I would keep my laptop, build a cheap machine core i5 and test how it develops within my specific duties. If I notice any performance improvement in a DIY set up I would expect higher performance in a REAL Mac and I would pay with joy for one. Meanwhile I’ll have a machine specific for home Compressor/Color experiments, college and spare time without stressing my work equipament.

Or I would take the offers for my machine (now that it still has a market value) plus some savings and get the core2duo 2.4 (that has more disc space and 4GB RAM) and build a nice sys with a xeon procesor with a respetable base clocking (could speed it up if feel in the need) and no worry about burning any expensive Mac board or anything. Cheap replacement.

Now is time for me to put my pants on and make a decision!

Again, I really apreciate the time you took for answering me.
Please if possible, keep the thread open for others to reply and for me to post back what I finally did.

THANKS

[Lautaro Lipani]

Larry,
Thanks for your advice.
I have a 15″ MacBook Pro and a 24″ monitor at home. I end up using the monitor as primary and the laptop screen as secondary, but it spends most of the time dimmed down as my eyes are over the big screen and only sometimes I use it as a monitor. I got so used to edit over the 15″ that a 24″ inch is central park compared against my backyard.

Used Macs are very expensive as the demand is high and the offer low, market rules. For example I’m offering mine at U$s 1300 and I have two interested buyers. So imagine that getting a previous gen machine costs you about 250 bucks less than a new one and thank Gosh I can apply to credit lines to get new equipament, something inexistent for used gears.

So…less screen wont affect me.

As you are a software expert, maybe you could answer this questions to me.
Is it true that multi threaded apps get more advantage from the new core i5 architecture while less threaded apps take more advantage from high CPU clocking? And while we are here, Is it true that FCP is NOT a very multi threaded app?
If this two things are true, you WON’T have a lot of difference between a core i5 2.4 and a core2duo 2.4 running this program.
[YES! I KNOW the core i5 model has a LOT of other features like improved memory, two graph cards, etc.]

Thanks Larry for your time and concern.

PS: Any MacBook Pro core2duo 2.4 GHz who could give me some feedback on the equipament performance with FCS? Pretty sure core i5 machine works perfect, but for me it means to take a 36 month payment schedule. And on the core2duo situation I would end with two machines, and I’ll be using them for what they were ment for

[Lautaro Lipani]

Jeremy,
Same as Jerry, THANKS.

I would work with SD, 720p and 1080p and eventually visualize some RED (camera) footage and do MINOR adjustments just to give examples or a point to start for the guys at the company, and of course I do NOT have the imperative need to preview this kind of footage in full ress.

I would never expect from a laptop (even a Mac) to be able to handle 2K or 4k without any problem or witnout risking the whole sys every time I make it handle this sort of stuff. Even core i7 Mac ( extraterrestial machine) suffers a lot if you try to use it as a desk Pro. That is because it wasn’t built for long rendering hours or hi performance tasks, it’s a great piece of engeneering, but still a laptop.

On the hard drives subject, I use a USB 2.0 1TB drive and in 43 months of work use of my laptop i have never ever needed to use the expansion slot. Most camera rentals hire them with a suitable laptop (or racked up sys) for footage handling on set, and let you take their disks for apropiate editing room downloading.
So breiefing I don’t need to wire myself to RAID or eSata drives and if I request footage they send me edited or low ress material for preview in a normal firewire 800 or USB 2.0 drive.

Thanks againg or your concern!

[Lautaro Lipani]

Jerry,
Thanks for your reply.
Yes, I intend to run FCP, mostly Final Cut and Compressor. A littlebit of AE too. When I use Apple Color is just for learning. For work I use Color at the postproduction offices with a real monitor and real (they just jumped from 09 to latest 2010 8 core with 16GB, 5 RAID 1TB discs and its attached to a render farm) Mac Pro.

The questios is not to buy a MacBook Pro (there is no doubt about it) but WICH one would you recommend to me.

Again, Thanks for your time and consideration