Phil Hoppes
Forum Replies Created
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I beg to differ. A MacPro is simply a motherboard with 2 Xenon CPU’s, Ram, Ports, Slots, HD’s an a power supply. This is not rocket science. Tyan, Asus and SuperMicro all make Xenon motherboard that are very high quality. Apple limits the speed they run their Xenon CPU’s at as they don’t want hot boxes with noisy fans. Thats fine. My machine has faster Xenon CPU’s 24Gb of ram, SSD drives and a 1Kw power supply. It runs rings around any MacPro at a significantly lower price.
My point on iMacs is that on that line, I feel, and rightly so because I’ve done the price point comparison numerous times, Apple is actually quite competitive. On MacPro’s they are out to lunch, even compared to an HP or Dell workstation of equal specs.
For my Mac Video work it’s all exclusively my MBP and FCPX and now with 2 internal HD’s that setup is very, very sweet and runs extremely fast. My other work is all 3D CGI and there it’s all about threads and CPU speed. The more threads I can get for the fewer dollars is what I need. I can get a workstation AND a server for the price of one Mac Pro.
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Reminds me of the old “yoke” that Microsoft was going to release a new OS based on Windows CE, Windows ME and NT.
It was to be called Windows Cement………
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Really? I really do love Mac. My MBP is simply the best laptop I’ve ever owned bar none. I’ve jacked the memory to 16gb and thanks to MacSales added a second internal HD for plenty of space and with Bootcamp it’s the best Windows 7 laptop you can get to boot. That being said, my home built Win7 Desktop that I use for the majority of my work, at the time I built it and compared it to what was available to getting a MacPro was 20% faster and 2.5x cheaper. Mac Pro’s are simply crazy in price especially for what you get. Now, in general on spec for spec comparisons of an iMac to a HP or Dell machine, I continually show nay sayers, that Apple hardware is really not that much more expensive …… but in the case of MacPro’s these boxes are simply way stupid overpriced.
I’m a cynic. I’ll eat the crow if a new one comes out but I think Apple is going to push iMac’s and Air’s. The MacBook is gone and should the rumor be true, MBP’s are moving to the Air form factor. From a business perspective and marketing perspective I think it is brilliant. Par down the lines. Make a few things and make them really well. Spread your inventory across as many product lines as possible to maximize your purchasing power and reduce your costs as low as possible. A MacPro line shoe horned in between iMac’s and Air’s make no sense to me…. but what do I know.
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It would be nice to be able to mute audio without having to resort to hardware muting. Muting by clip is a major PITA especially if the audio is ganged to the video.
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Sorry but this article means nothing. It simply states that Ivy Bridge is finally shipping in production worthy volumes. It is a real extrapolation to say that that means Apple is going to release a MacPro let alone a MacPro with an Ivy Bridge CPU. I believe they would be much more inclined to include this on the highest end version of a 27″ iMac. All traditional MacPro’s have been based on a multiprocessing Xeon core CPU where you can put more than one CPU on a motherboard. More likely the CPU that would be used is the Xeon Sandy Bridge EP core (See here
And that will occur only if Apple really wants to continue making MacPro’s at all. Something I would not bet my business on.
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Although my current experience with FCPX is very limited, I just got my wife a new iMac and, of course, she needed it with the best graphics and fastes i7 core and then I upgraded it to 16Mb. Did not spring for an SSD but I can tell you that it is quite a sweet machine and FCPX run’s quite nice. She might have a hard time getting it back….. but to your other point. I have a Oct 2011 MBP with an SSD and I just upgraded it to 16Gb of ram and added a second internal HD (momentus 750Gb hybrid) using the optical drive conversion kit from MacSales. It was a great laptop before an now it plain rocks. FCPX as well as everything else I run works quite nice. Would have preferred a Quadro Graphics card for the other software I run but all in all it works great for just about everything. I have no need for legacy work (broadcast or tape) so the lack of an expansion bus is moot for me and with T-bolt raid drives showing up current and future iMac’s should work just fine for lots of editors. Precise color grading on a glossy monitor is not ideal but again. for lots of people this is not so much a “must have” as a “like to have”.
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I would not be holding my breath…..
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And so has Boston.
…. as co-leader of the AZFCPUG we we’ve been strongly considering it and now that we’ve seen SF and Boston flip we think that lends strong precedence for us to probably follow.
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Guess I don’t understand your question. I’ve put in 16Gb of ram in my Oct2011 MBP and it works fine. That you can’t purchase it direct from Apple I do not see as a downside. Apple, along with every other PC manufacturer, hoses you on memory and HD upgrades. I like Macs but I always purchase them with the smallest RAM and occasionally (depends on the model) smallest HD and then immediately replace or upgrade from 3rd party dealers. It does not void the warranty and there is no need to pay so much more. I tend to buy memory upgrades direct from Crucial and HD upgrades from Newegg.com. When I purchased my MBP I did get the Apple SSD as the price differential was not enough for me to substantiate getting a different 3rd party drive. I find it usually depends on timing. I gave up long ago worrying and waiting for a deal. If I need a new machine, then I would look for the best deal at the time and get a new one. On Mac’s it is easy enough on MacRumors to figure out if a new model is about to show up so I would always pay attention to where product releases are but no matter when I buy a computer, guaranteed, someone I know will point out the very next day someone had something a bit cheaper and a bit faster than the deal I just got the day before. I get a computer and NEVER look into the rear view mirror….. I always loose… 😉
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You can use all of your old fcp keyboard shortcuts in PP. If you have CS5.5 you simply go to Edit -> Keyboard Customization and pick Final Cut Pro 7.0 from the drop down menu. If you are using CS5.0 (like me) the installed version of the shortcuts is bad. Go here and you can download the proper file for this. Follow the instructions and install it an you are good to go.