New iMac 24" as HVX Editing station...?

Cynic821

Cynic821

Carbonite Member
Ok, i guess i got to post before i buy, Im obviously waiting till tomorrow to order, because big news is dropping, but i really doubt its hardware related. Ive been mulling this over for the last few days and i just need a few other views because i personally think I have to be missing something.

I was going to buy a Mac Pro for the house as a main editing station for me and my partner to use. (I work 9 - 5, he works 4 - 10pm) so we arent together to use my Macbook Pro (which is our main system right now for editing and is also my main computer, i have 2 other Macs in the house but one is a G4 mini the other is my GF's iMac G5) Anyways, back to the point.

I wanted to get the Mac Pro with its uber ness and all, it is 2500 bucks, plus an extra 175 for the second video card to support 2 monitors at their full rez. (the second port on the DVI card it comes with doesnt support higher resolutions). After that i still need to buy atleast 1 more monitor to work with, and it has to be a 1920 x 1200 minumum rez, meaning it will be around 500+ and i would prefer it to be an Apple Cinema Display meaning it will be 1000.

So im at around 3700 already for the Setup. I would be using my current 26" HDTV for a second monitor.

Now i know its a quad processor setup, and i dont need all the internal HDD space.

The thing with the new iMac is that it is the only Mac with the new Core 2 Duo chips, and even though it is only a Dual Core processor, it is rated (by apple atleast) as 50% faster than the Core (1) Duo. So i think in real world standards that the iMac 24" would be (processor wise) about 50% slower than the Mac Pro with 4 processors and 50% faster than my Macbook Pro.

My Macbook Pro @ 2.0ghz 1gb Ram and 256mb video ram already screams in FCP 5.1.1 and i have never felt like i was sitting around waiting for anything to render at all!

Ok, the iMac 24" would be about 2150 after i add the better video card, and comes with the 24" built in Cinema display @ 1920 x 1200 that i want/need. It has the ability already built in to use a dual display at its full rez, so my 26" HDTV can still be used to help edit footage.

Now besides the obvious internal restriction with HDD's (like i said im fine with external drives right now, it helps me physically organize my projects) and the only thing i can think of besides that is that i wont be able to put an internal Blu-Ray burner in it when i decide to get one, but im sure i can make it an external burner and still have it work how i need it to. No?

So, what do you think of picking this up this week? Any thoughts, or notice something im missing? Am i wrong about the strength of this system. It just seems impossibly cheap!

Thanks for the help.:thumbsup:
 
The fact that they added fw800 to the 24" imac means it will be my next machine.

I too was going to go for the mac pro...but now there is no need. I will never use THAT much machine.
 
I dont think i will either, im not a 3D guy, and I strictly tell stories with movies and photoshop stuff.

Its not like in a year or 2 the HVX footage will become harder for the machine to handle if you know what i mean.
 
The Intel Quad Cores are just around the corner. The initial benchmarks are 80% faster than the current Core 2 Duos for applications that take advantage of multiple processors or multiple cores (basically all of your top video editing packages).

I don't know when these are due out (but I'm sure with a quick Google search you can find out all about them). I just know that the initial benchmarks are in, and they are looking good.
 
Those sound to be about January, and will probably replace the Mac Pro 2 Dual Cores at about the same price, i dont see those going into the iMacs for atleast a year or so.
 
MrPolarBare said:
The Intel Quad Cores are just around the corner. The initial benchmarks are 80% faster than the current Core 2 Duos for applications that take advantage of multiple processors or multiple cores (basically all of your top video editing packages).

I don't know when these are due out (but I'm sure with a quick Google search you can find out all about them). I just know that the initial benchmarks are in, and they are looking good.
Click to expand...


OK, but honestly gents... I have an older Dual G5 2.0 and editing for the HVX is awesome and realtime. I could understand the gains in encoding through compressor on a big project, but ur telling me u NEED more than the imac 24" to edit DVCPROHD???

At what point does it make sense or is it about GEAR? We do alot of compositing with Combustion and After FX and I can't justify selling mine for a couple of more years.
 
Im not saying i need more, no one is, i dont have a desktop right now though, strictly on my Macbook Pro, and since its MY personal system as well, my partner has nothing to edit on when besides the weekend.
 
Christ Cynic,

Why didn't you post this in a Mac forum, or at least under hardware?

If you want to work with an HD Cam, spend $$$ for HD peripherals already.

- John

btw - Quad 2.5 takes a half hour to compress a 1 minute HD clip at 720x.
 
?? I have an HVX almost fully loaded, just need a marshall:

I edit and kick ass in editing on a screaming Macbook Pro , but was looking for HVX user responses, just curious, it seems like such a great deal, i thought i might be missing something somewhere about the system.

1156192102.jpg


im confused about the HD Cam statement and spend mony on perepherals already.

??
 
John J. said:
Christ Cynic,

Why didn't you post this in a Mac forum, or at least under hardware?

If you want to work with an HD Cam, spend $$$ for HD peripherals already.

- John

btw - Quad 2.5 takes a half hour to compress a 1 minute HD clip at 720x.
Click to expand...

Well, somebody forgot to take their suppository this morning.
 
I wanted to checj the student prices just now but the acadmy of art apple store site gives me 404 errors. :(
 
Were you able to login to the website and check? Ive used their student discount on every hardware purchase ive made from them and its usually around 10%-12%, so i would look to save around 200 bucks.
 
I'm not saying an iMac wouldn't edit HVX footage just fine. I was just pointing out that there is a new breakthrough getting ready to come out. When it is takes you hours to render out some High Def footage with the popular H.264 codec, an 80% increase in speed can be helpful.

I doubt that the new Quad cores will come out for the Mac Pro desktop. The Mac Pro uses Pentium Xeon technology for multiple processors. This new processor isn't a Xeon, and isn't designed to be ran in a multiple processor setup. The first Mac that will see this new Quad core will most likely be the Macbook Pro (I would assume).
 
I think the Macbook Pro will be getting the Core 2 Duo Merom's. Power consumption and heat are big issues and these are already worked out for the Macbook Pro's. :P

But what about working with H.264? What do you mean it takes absurd amount of time to render out to it? Ive had no problems with it.

Please explain, maybe im doing it wrong.?
 
OK, you are missing my point. However long it takes you to render whatever you are going to render, your speed will be increased by 80%. If something takes you an hour to render, now it takes you 30-40 minutes.

I used H.264 as an example, because it is a popular codec that everyone knows and can relate to. I could've just as easily said WMV-HD or whatever.
 
ahh, well not having a problem with the rendering time right now, and i would be getting a 50% increase from already amazing speeds and of course im still keeping the macbook pro.

Also, would those chips be 50% faster than the Core 2 Duo or just the Core (1) Duo? Sorry if i missed this.

Another thing is the imac is out now and of course other stuff is coming in the future, there always will be stuff coming in the future thats better, but i want to buy now, and just trying to make sure im seeing the clear picture between the Mac Pro and the iMac 24"
 
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