Just got my HVX - What is the bare minimum FCP workstation out there?

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crookedpictures

Active member
I'm amazed by the amount of knowledge on this board. Amazed, and overwhelmed. I sadly don't know much about this stuff.

I just got my hvx, and would obviously like to shoot HD.

I'm on an old-ish PC system with premiere pro 1.5.

While I could just upgrade and/or get raylight...I'm thinking with the little cash I have left, I might a well get FCP, to make my post work as enjoyable and satisfying as possible.

I spoke to a few sales reps in the Mac store, but they didn't know much about pro HD video, so I didn't feel totally comfortable with the suggestions they were giving.

What do people on this board feel would be the most basic, yet functional Mac system for an HD editing workstation?

Any info would be greatly appreciated.
 
If you are considering a mac the apple website has a final cut minimum requirement list on their Final cut studio page.
 
Make certain you get an Intel.

No Mac Minis and no MacBooks not Pro.

A dual core iMac Intel with a 20 inch screen, plenty of RAM and a decent video card will work for everything FCP.

Remember that capturing with a iMac will present problems due to a singular FW bus.

The better approach is to indicate what your budget is for screen and Mac and we'll suggest from there.
 
My brother has a 19" HD monitor that he's been using as a TV, that he's willing to donate, as he's upgrading...so I was hoping to use that for the screen...and that would be no cost.

Budget-wise, I could safely spend around 1500, (not including FCP). I could go into some debt and spend up to 3000 on the computer, if need be.
 
If money is so critical you could get a macbook pro laptop for 1999.99. It has the ram and it has a monitor. You can take it with you to download footage. All you need is an external hardrive.
 
I don't see the value in an 8 core system over a 4 core system given the huge price difference.

I would stay with a quad core, plenty of RAM (not from Apple, but transintl.com or macsales.com), and a couple of fast internal SATA drives.

Then a X1900 video card for Motion and Color.

Consider a good refurbished MacPro at the Apple Store,
 
I use a G5 1.6ghz /2gig ram with final cut pro 5 and it works great! You can probably pick one of these towers pretty cheap.
 
David S. said:
I don't see the value in an 8 core system over a 4 core system given the huge price difference.

I would stay with a quad core, plenty of RAM (not from Apple, but transintl.com or macsales.com), and a couple of fast internal SATA drives.

Then a X1900 video card for Motion and Color.

Consider a good refurbished MacPro at the Apple Store,
Click to expand...

What would you consider plenty of RAM?

BTW thanks for the input everyone.
 
I'm in the same boat. Purchased HVX200 yesterday. I'll be hitting the road in October to make a documentary. I too expect to pick up an FS-100 shortly (unless I get credible reasons to go another route).

The goal is to make the film solo, start to finish, so I'll need to pick up a Mac and FCP Studio 2 also. I anticipate shooting in 720p/24P. To keep a lid on storage requirements I might shoot partially in 480i letter box as well.

I know tht Apple says FCP isn't supported on the MacBooks (even Pro), but I've found articles via Google saying that older versions worked just fine. Does this hold true for the latest version?

While it would be great to be able to use / do / play with all the features in Studio 2 while on the road, it *isn't* a requirement. I could limit my MacBook use to timeline editing and sound editing and save the compute intensive work for later.

If that sounds practical, I could hold off on spending more money until I'm ready for post production and then buy a quad or eight core Mac Pro.

Suggestions?
 
Wrong. FCS 2 is supported in MacBook Pro. MacBook has no Express34 slot. Your best bet for on the road editing is MacBook Pro with Express34 eSATA card and one or more large exteran eSata drives. Even if you got one enclosure and threw a Hitachi 1 tb drive into it, that would give you tons of storage.

But don't short change yourself with a MacBook and don't try to kludge together an unsupported system of earlier versions of FCP not supported on Intel machines. When you go to upgrade to FCS 2, then, there are often problems people run into when upgrading in the middle of a project.

Just do it right the first time.

Ned Soltz
 
At least 4 GBs of RAM

I run that much and more on our MacPro, and 4 GBs on our MBPro.

The laptop will run FCP 6.x without an issue. Color is a different story although I wouldn't attempt CC on a laptop.
 
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