Michael Bloodgood
Forum Replies Created
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I guess it comes down to how many hours a week you expect to use it. If it is a boot up once a month affair, then sure, any Radeon 9000 series cards will give it that extra push over the cliff to make it useable.
As far as Mac Minis or it’s same part cousin, the Macbook go, do people use FCP on them? Yes. Do Pros? No. Again, it comes down to how many hours you are going to use it.
If you are going to buy a used Mac Mini or iMac, get at least an Intel model as they would greatly benefit from the Snow Leopard update.
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The primary problem that you are going to run into is that your computer only has an AGP 4X slot and not an 8X. This means that a Radeon 9600 or better will work but operate at a slower clock speed negating any benefits. You are talking about upgrading very old hardware that a current $600 Mac mini can run circles around.
Do you have FCP 5 or 4.5? If you do not feel like paying for a new computer you might consider using an older version. They would run better on your hardware than version 6 and you’ll have a less frustrating time editing with it. Let’s face it, the whole point of all this is to edit video and an older aluminum hammer will drive in a nail just like a newer carbon fiber one.
Do you have a requirement for version 6? Honestly, the primary upgrade to version 6 is color and motion which definitely won’t run in which case there is little reason to even use version 6.
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Short answer: no.
Like others have mentioned, the build differences between PPC and Intel will pose a problem but the primary problem will be driver differences. The pre-installed OS software on your Mac Pro will only have drivers for that particular Mac Pro. Not a previous generation Mac Pro nor a G5. That is why the pre-installed OS (and also the discs) that came with your computer will only work with that computer and not, say, an intel iMac or a G5 or any other computer. Only a retail version of Leopard has all of the drivers for all of Apple’s machines.
Michael
Michael Bloodgood
Senior Editor
Horizon Entertainment GroupAh yes, the laser fields
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Franklin said it right:
Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
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Sorry for the duplicate posts, the server was running so slow
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There are three major reasons why you want the Macbook Pro for it’s graphics card:
Reason One: Most NLEs can use the graphics card to offload some processes for real time editing (not rendering), even with straight edits with no effects. You can get more RT with a graphics card than without especially if you use any of the FX plugins. All of this is relevant for editing and not for AE which is all processor and RAM based.
Reason Two: So you are saying to yourself, “I do not do a whole lot of NLE work and use mostly AE, maybe the Pro is too much for what I need.” Not so. When Snow Leopard comes out in a year with Open CL, AE with then be able to use the GPU and the VRAM as a third processor for rendering. This will be a huge performance boost that the consumer Macbook would lack.
Reason Three: The graphics card resides on a PCI Express bus that the consumer Macbook does not have. This would allow you expansion options for say, a SATA RAID array in the future.
And remember, even if the NLE is only using limited GPU resources, the OS is not, which in the case of the Macbook Consumer, offloads GPU RAM requirements to the main system RAM which gives AE less RAM to work with. Save yourself the hassle, start calling yourself a professional, and get the Macbook Pro.
Michael Bloodgood
Senior Editor
Horizon Entertainment GroupAh yes, the laser fields
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[Sean ONeil] “The Intel Core 2 series (what the Mac Pro’s Xeon is part of) is known for being able to overclock quite a bit without increasing the voltage. Regardless, this tool doesn’t alter your voltage, so increased heat is not an issue. Even if it did, the Mac Pro already has excessive overkill in regards to CPU cooling.
“Slightly incorrect. The Xeon shares the Core Micro Architecture (which by the way is a marketing term) of the Core 2 Duo but is not a part of the Core 2 Duo series. The Core 2 Duo is an excellent overclocking chip. The Xeon is downright lousy. And when it comes to real overclocking (not this change the system bus with a program BS) it all has to do with the motherboard hardware and the BIOS (which Macs don’t use a BIOS).
This is all a mute point anyway cause in non mac land, you don’t overclock Xeons. Period. Motherboard designers don’t build easy or extensive overclocking features into server motherboards which, lest we all forget, the Xeon is a server processor. Overclocking is for gamers.
I’m with Sean on this one, the things that this program alters is asking for kernal panics.
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As others have said, the Core 2 Duo Extreme is just marketing hype. The reason why Apple doesn’t offer it as an upgrade option as before is that it is an expensive processor. It would be about a $400 dollar upgrade which really isn’t in the iMac’s target consumer group since it would only mean about a 200 MHz speed increase. The Extreme is a gamer’s processor since it is designed to be overclocked, something you can’t do with a mac. Put it this way, the 2008 3.06 Core 2 Duo iMac is faster than the 2007 Core 2 Extreme iMac.
Michael Bloodgood
Senior Editor
Horizon Entertainment GroupAh yes, the laser fields
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You can only get 10 gigabit with 10 gigabit Ethernet HBAs which would be far more expensive than an entire Fibre SAN for 25 users. As for six streams of uncompressed HD, Walter is right in that there is no one array capable to deliver the 1500 MB/s. You could build a SAN using XSAN or RUSH’s SAN development (I can’t remember its name) using dual 4 gig Fibre to all hosts and about three to four arrays (example: the array by Promise). If you were to build it yourself, the cost of components would be about 45 grand.
Or you could get an EVO HD for each station which would deliver six streams of Prores for a grand total of 15 grand but you would lose the shared storage capability.
Michael Bloodgood
Senior Editor
Horizon Entertainment GroupAh yes, the laser fields
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This has nothing to do with FCP and everything to do with OSX. Leopard reduced (although not completely eliminated) the requirement of extensions on all files. It’s beginning to use logs to identify files instead of extensions. Different versions of 10.5 will have different extension requirements and to make things even more confusing, it isn’t the same across the board. 10.5.3 will have different requirements than 10.5.2.
As you have figured out, you’ll just have to find a workaround