[Mitchji]

Hi,

Probably too late to help but I would get a G5 iMac and this case:
https://luggerbags.com/G5.htm

Best Wishes,

Mitch

[Mitchji]

Hi,

His tests are with After Affects. A few years ago G4 Dual 800 or 1k (I forget which) DV magazine compared a PC and a Mac with AE and Premiere. The PC was about twice as fast. Several readers responded that with FCP their Mac systems were about twice as fast as the PC running the same tests the magazine did with Premiere.

Why? Did Adobe spend more time optimizing their applications for the PC? Were the PC’s inherently much faster but by optimizing their code Apple was able to provide better performance?

The bottom line is that these tests don’t show which computer is faster. They ONLY show which computer is faster running AE. If most of your work is AE then this is very important information. If most of your work is in FCP, Motion, Compressor etc. then these tests don’t mean anything.

Best Wishes,

Mitch

[Mitchji]

[Gunner Jones] “Don’t screw around. Get yourself the fastest and best Mac TOWER you can afford. Stuff it with a fast Video Card and you’ll be set for Motion. Motion needs a fast video card and the iMacs is rather a slowpoke. With the iMac, you’ll be forced to daisy chain your deck and an external FW device and this has been known to be very problematic for many folks.

Get 2 GB of RAM and a separate 400 GB internal SATA and you’ll have a machine that’ll last you 2-3 years no problem.
“

Hi,

Another approach is to purchase a less expensive Dual G5 tower (not the best you can afford) then upgrade in a year or so for minimal outlay. Mac’s hold their value so well that its possible to upgrade for a few hundred dollars if you buy and sell intelligently. That can make more sense than keeping a system for 2 or 3 years. Your original system is a little slower but 12 to 18 months down the line when you upgrade you have a faster system and your total outlay is less.

I’m not disagreeing with your advice to get a Tower or a fast video card.

Best Wishes,

Mitch

[Mitchji]

[michael o] “My dilemma is what is the best value in apple hardware presently that will also provide adequate performance for FCP5 and Motion 2. I believe the best value right now is the Imac G5 2ghz with 128mb 9600 with 2g ram which can be purchased for around 2k. Question is does the board think this is the best deal in terms of price/ performance and will it be able to do the job of editing/motion graphic design. “

Hi,

If you look around you can find a Dual G5 discontinued model or refurb (with warranty) for well under $2k. After adding one or two LCD monitors your total cost will be similar and you will have a much faster more expandable system. Here are some recent (maybe one or two current) prices:
https://dealmac.com/categories/Computer/Apple+Systems/PowerMacs/44.html

I would get a Dual G5 with 8 RAM slots and PCI-X as a minimum.

Best Wishes,

Mitch

[Mitchji]

[peter] “Does the 2.7 have PCI-X and 8 RAM slots as well?

Also, what graphic card would someone recomend at this point for top-of-the-line performance with FCP 5 and a Decklink HD plus card. With the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL taking up an extra PCI or PCI-X slot, will that severly limit my options for maximizing performace with Decklink and a SCSI or Fibre Channel card?

How different is the performance of the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL from the ATI Radeon 9650 w/256MB DDR SDRAM?

Or should I go for the ATI Radeon 9650 w/256MB DDR SDRAM from the apple store and replace it with a ATI 800X?
“

Hi,

Yes the 2.7 has PCI-X and 8 RAM slots.

A summary of the various graphics cards is here:
https://www.barefeats.com/radx800.html

I would choose the ATI 800X over the GE6800 just because it doesn’t take an extra slot.

I don’t think that the GE6800 or ATI800X are going to make a big difference for FCP. For Motion they will make a big difference.

Best Wishes,

Mitch

[Mitchji]

[MrVideo] “Just look at Microsoft today. They will be gone in another 20 years because they care more about money than quality. “

Hi,

And they don’t know what quality is.

Best Wishes,

Mitch

[Mitchji]

Hi,

With the current models the 2.3 is a good choice (PCI-X and 8 RAM slots).

You can save some money by ordering the RAM from Crucial.com. I wouldn’t even dream about buying additional RAM from Apple.

If you are sure you won’t want to go over 4 Gigs you could add 4 one half gig chips instead of 2 one gig chips. This will cost substantially less but will fill more slots (you will still have two free slots).

Best Wishes,

Mitch

[Mitchji]

[Filip Vandueren] “Try un/re-plugging the USB lead of your keyboard, possibly even to another USB-port.”

Hi,
Or try unplugging the 3 party keyboard and plugging in the Apple Keyboard.

Best Wishes,

Mitch

[Mitchji]

[Rob G.] “Is Quick Time Pro automatically installed when you install Final Cut Pro? I have FCP4.5, installed as an upgrade from 3 My QT player says it is 7.0. Thanks. -Rob
“

Hi Rob,

QT Pro 6 is installed when you install FCP 4.x (assuming you enter the key). If you upgraded that to QT 7 you will lose the Pro features. You can either reinstall QT6, pay the QT Pro fee for QT7 or install FCP5.

Best Wishes,

Mitch

[Mitchji]

[Jeff Carpenter] “It looks like a great product, try submitting it to that page and you’ll probably get a better response than you will here!”

Hi,

I have no commercial interest in this product.

I posted it here because in the past there have been questions about using G5 iMac’s for portable editing and I thought some people would be interested.

Best Wishes,

Mitch