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Sarc · Sep 12, 2003, 09:21 PM

I'm currently considering buying a 12in PBG4. The use is pretty light (Word, some PhotoShop, iPhoto) and one heavyweight, Final Cut Express.

Any owners of Final Cut that do DV edition have any opinions on it's performance ?

much appreciated
Sarc

MacsGalor · Sep 12, 2003, 09:45 PM

If you get one now you might want to think about purchasing the 1GB ram stick to put in. Now that stick is expensive I think about $500. Of course if you are not going to be getting into major editing then 640MB might work ok. That being said I would strongly suggest that you wait until Sep 16 and see if the new powerbooks everyone is expecting come out. My money is that they will. May be well worth the wait.

sith33 · Sep 12, 2003, 09:50 PM

I run FCP4 on my 12" with only 384mb of ram. It's not as zippy as on the dual 1ghz with 1gb ram, but it's really not too bad. I've got a number of 30 minute projects on it. Really I wouldn't worry. The screen size is a bit tight for editting, and as with any laptop, you'll really want a USB mouse if you're going to be doing a lot of work, but i wouldn't worry about the performance. It's better than on my G4 800 imac (512mb ram). Course, I ran FCP3 on my Pismo ...

Of course, if you think you're going to be rotoscoping every frame or something, then you might want more power, but if you're just using it as an editor, i think the 867 is fine. Put in the 640mb that apple will give you and be happy.

LfGrdMike · Sep 12, 2003, 09:59 PM

i don't run final cut express but I will assume the 12 will be perfect for you needs. Im a college student so im constantly on the go so thats why the 12 is the perfect size for me. Its also really powerful. So far its not slow in anything i have run on it. Good luck make sure to max out the ram to 640 dont buy the 1 gig chip until the price goes down some more. Who knows 640 might end up being enough.

Sarc · Sep 12, 2003, 10:54 PM

funny, I got into crucial but couldn't find a 1GB stick for the PBG4 12in ... anyone know what store sells it ?

Originally posted by sith33:

Of course, if you think you're going to be rotoscoping every frame or something, then you might want more power, but if you're just using it as an editor, i think the 867 is fine. Put in the 640mb that apple will give you and be happy.

No where near as that ... just as an editor. SO I take it that general performance is good enough ?

PeteWK · Sep 12, 2003, 11:25 PM

Originally posted by Sarc:
funny, I got into crucial but couldn't find a 1GB stick for the PBG4 12in ... anyone know what store sells it ?

You can get the chip at transintl.com for $500.

I've just purchased the 12 inch Powerbook to replace my wife's Pismo 500. I rendered a few things with iMovie and I thought it was just OK. I have 640mb or ram on it. I still prefer my 667 DVI Powerbook for video. I have a 5400 rpm drive, 1 gig of ram and most importantly 1mb of L3 cache. Until Apple puts the added cache on the 12 inch, I would stay away from using it for video work.

PeteWK

MacsGalor · Sep 13, 2003, 08:06 AM

Originally posted by Sarc:
funny, I got into crucial but couldn't find a 1GB stick for the PBG4 12in ... anyone know what store sells it ?

Heres a link to where you can get it.

http://www.transintl.com/store/categ...m?Category=941

LfGrdMike · Sep 13, 2003, 11:17 AM

Why don't you just wait for the price to go down on that chip. That is way to much money.

amazing · Sep 13, 2003, 01:40 PM

go to ramseeker.com and check the prices there. As long as the RAM has a lifetime warranty, you're fine. I suggest macsolutions.com because I've bought tons of RAM from them and have never had a problem.