[UnixMac]

Ok, so I've got a copy of FCP3 from way back when I owned my Dual G4... it's served me well on my Dual G5, but now I'm going to the Mac Pro...

Here is my quandry..

Am I better off to keep my FCP3 and use it to edit Video (home stuff, nothing too fancy), OR Buy FCP 5.1HD Pro with my wife's education discount ($699).. OR.. Should I get FCP 3.5 HD Express? I would rather not spend the money on Pro unless there is a "performance" advantage in terms of Multi-Processor, etc..

I haven't been using any of the "power" features of FCP, and Express has all I need.. but I'm sort of a speed freak.. so my main concern is how fast it will run on the Xeon's when it was originally coded for PPC and has to go thru Rosetta?

So.. in a nut shell, Is FCP 5.1Pro as fast as FCP 3.5 Express? in terms of how it uses my computer's resources? or is the Pro version faster? Maybe Multi-processor aware or something that Express isn't?

Thank you all for your expert opinions..

[iMOTOR]

Technically speaking, Apple's Pro Apps (FCP, FCE, Motion, Shake, ect.) have to be Universal to run on Intel.

I was however, able to get Final Cut Express 1.0 to load and run on my 20inch Intel iMac, but it has considerable trouble rendering and playing footage from the timeline.

In my opinion, you'd get by with FCE 3.5 rather than Pro.

Performance wise, I'm pretty sure that the Universal versions of FCP and FCE have the same core code.

FCE 3.5 does scream on my CoreDuo iMac with 2GB ram.

[UnixMac]

thank iMotor... that's just it... I don't need to "pro" features, but I do want the pro speed...