[Malt Magics]

hey everyone,

a friend of mine is planning to buy a Mac, but isn't sure what to get. He plans to use it for Photoshop, Illustrator, but primarily for AVID and Final Cut Pro. He's a director and does a lot of editing. Since I do not use the latter 2 apps, I'm not sure what his basics should be in a machine.

So which device would fit his needs suitably? he plans to spend around $2k, but could save up a little more. he wanted to know if one of the new G5 iMacs could meet his needs or will he have to go with a tower, and if so, what customizations should he upgrade to, concerning GHZ, RAM, and HD space? though I figure GHZ and RAM are probably the most pressing concerns, and expensive, but please correct me if I'm incorrect.

hey thanks for the help

cheers

[dlefebvre]

I use FinalCut Pro on a regular basis on my Powerbook and on my 1GHz upgraded G4 tower. Besides renders that seem very slow as oposed to the dual 2GHz G5 at work itworks just fine on both the Powerbook and the G4, so an iMac G5 should be no problem. 1Gb of RAM is a minimum for heavy image and video editing. A tower is more expensive but if his projects involves more than cuts and simple transitions it's really worth the difference in the long run.

[Malt Magics]

Originally posted by dlefebvre:
I use FinalCut Pro on a regular basis on my Powerbook and on my 1GHz upgraded G4 tower. Besides renders that seem very slow as oposed to the dual 2GHz G5 at work itworks just fine on both the Powerbook and the G4, so an iMac G5 should be no problem. 1Gb of RAM is a minimum for heavy image and video editing. A tower is more expensive but if his projects involves more than cuts and simple transitions it's really worth the difference in the long run.

hey thanks, i'll keep that in mind when I tell him, though he will be editing entire moives, so I guess a tower would be recommened then. Do you think a G5 imac could handle the load or is that asking too much?

[k_munic]

if he's doing that on a more pro level, he should buy a G5 "tower" - GHz is enough on all Apple machines, what he needs is RAM (esp. when using Photoshop + FinalCut simultanously) and disk space. did I mention disk space…?

if he likes to edit whole movies, keep in mind: a single hour of dv standard needs ~12Gigabytes of disk space…- if he produces in dvpro or whatever pro standard even more!

even when he selects the clips while importing from camera, the minimum for a movie would be 100 - 200 Gb…_for safety (and speed) reasons, I would use different hds, not the system hd… so, get a G5, 2GbRam and two drives 120Gb (or as much he can afford).

btw: usage of FC (or Avid) is MUCH improved using TWO screens (I do so with my Cube)! …_a G5 tower is doing so out of the box, the iMac needs some "hacks"… adding another videocard makes it even possible to use FC on two screens and see the result on another third tv…

[grovberg]

It's also worth noting that if he starts using FC, he might be interested in Motion as well and I'm pretty sure it won't run on on iMac because of the video card (anyone tried it?). Also, anyone serious about video editing really does need two screens (though the 20" iMac is awful close).

Originally posted by k_munic:


btw: usage of FC (or Avid) is MUCH improved using TWO screens (I do so with my Cube)! …_a G5 tower is doing so out of the box, the iMac needs some "hacks"… adding another videocard makes it even possible to use FC on two screens and see the result on another third tv…

So there's a dual screen hack for the G5 iMac? Any idea where I might find info on that?
-Grover

[k_munic]

Originally posted by grovberg:
…
So there's a dual screen hack for the G5 iMac? Any idea where I might find info on that?
-Grover

have a look here
http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/supportlist_e.html

…

[grovberg]

Originally posted by k_munic:
have a look here
http://www.rutemoeller.com/mp/ibook/supportlist_e.html

…

Okay, that seriously define the word cool. Thanks for the tip.
-Grover