Best HARDWARE set up for FCP5 and G5?

[RomanJaquez]

So I want to upgrade from my 17" PowerBook G4 to a G5 with the best hardware Set-Up for capturing/exporting/authoring HD, HDV and SD video. My PowerBook is a kick a$$ computer and I am attached to it... but it is time for me to move on to higher performance tools. My budget is 5k.

Can you please share your sugestions? Best capture video cards?, suggested amount of memory?, and so on... I don't want to have more that what is needed for good performance. Per say, if I can just work with 2GB of memory RAM instead of 8GB to have the program running smoothly for the money that will be nice.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE... any coment will be apreciated.

 

[JoeFowler]

I run off a dual 1.8 G5 (not available new) with 1.25 gig of Ram and three harddrives (one 80g internal one 120g internal and one 250g external LaCie firewire 800.) I have no capture card. This amchine runs circles around the 733mhtz G4 I use at work.:thumbsup:

 

[235 Studios]

for capturing/exporting/authoring HD, HDV and SD video.

When working with HiDef, you are going to want the fastest processor you can get, the most amount of ram you can afford, and a lot of harddrive space. Personally I'm waiting until the next batch of processors come out - dual 3gig before I upgrade my dual 1gig.

But in general to work in HiDef with any kind so speed - aka real time preview- your going to want to spend monre money on the processor, ram and harddrive space.

If you're main work is in SD, then the mid-line power mac will be your best bet as it offers the best value per what it offers. (I've heard it romured that the top current processors as the same as in the mid line, but that they're over clocked.)

 

[jdh3334]

Adding storage space for video

Adding storage space for video

I run off a dual 1.8 G5 (not available new) with 1.25 gig of Ram and three harddrives (one 80g internal one 120g internal and one 250g external LaCie firewire 800.) I have no capture card. This amchine runs circles around the 733mhtz G4 I use at work.:thumbsup:

I want to add hard drive storage to my Mac G5 for broadcast quality video productions, shooting with the DVX100a camera.
Is an external hard drive a practical choice?
If I were to go with an external hard drive, LaCie firewire 800, do I need to purchase and install additional parts? What connects the external drive to the computer (firewire, USB, other?)

Thanks!
- Jeff


Current specs: Mac OS X v 10.3.9
Processor: Dual 2 GHz PowerPC G5
Memory: 1 GB DDR SDRAM
Internal HD capacity: 152 GB
Software: FCP HD

 

[235 Studios]

Is an external hard drive a practical choice?

Yep it works great for me.

If I were to go with an external hard drive, LaCie firewire 800, do I need to purchase and install additional parts? What connects the external drive to the computer (firewire, USB, other?

No additional purchase needed. It connects via firewire, firewire 800 to be specific.

 

[235 Studios]

This was taken from the apple web site- ( http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/finalcutpro/specs.html )

You will want nothing less then what is recommended here: (Note the HD requirements)

System Requirements
Macintosh computer with a PowerPC G4 (500MHz or faster) or G5 processor; HD features require 1GHz or faster single or dual processors

512MB of physical RAM; HD features require 1GB of RAM or more (2GB recommended)
AGP Quartz Extreme graphics card

Mac OS X v10.3.9 or Mac OS X v10.4 (or later)

QuickTime 7.0 or later

1GB of disk space required to install application; additional 10GB required to install all optional templates, loops, content and tutorials (may be installed on separate disks)

DVD drive for installation

 

[jdh3334]

adding storage space for video

adding storage space for video

If I were to go with an external hard drive, LaCie firewire 800, do I need to purchase and install additional parts? What connects the external drive to the computer (firewire, USB, other?)

DOH!
I looked at the LaCie site. The FireWire 800 PCI card is the device installed to connect the external drive to the computer. The connection is FireWire 800. Correct? My previous post was probably a bit confusing.... I'm still learning and want to learn more about it.... Will FireWire 800 work on my Mac G5 OSX? What are your experiences with the LaCie Big Disk Extreme 500GB?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[jdh3334]

Thank You!