Have specs on iMac for FCP Studio

brownhood

brownhood

Well-known member
These are the specs of the iMac G5 I'm considering purchasing. I plan to use this system primarily for FCP Studio(Final Cut Pro 5, Soundtrack Pro, Motion 2, and DVD Studio 4) and Pro Tools LE(M-Audio Version).

iMac G5
2 GHz Power PC G5
2 GB DDR400 SDRAM - 2 DIMMs
ATI Radeon 9600 w/ 128MB DDR Video Memory
20" wide screen LED
250GB Serial ATA drive
SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW)
Airport Extreme
Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR
Keyb. + mouse
Mac OS X "Tiger"

This would be my 1st Apple/Mac purchase... have been PC guy for over 12 years. I feel its time to take advantage of this technology in my work on various projects. I would like to make sure with this system I can use the software to its advantage.
I would appreciate any feedback from experienced users,....... are these specs ok?

Chris
 
That iMac should be pretty good for FCP. However, have you considered a dual 2.0 G5? If you really want to use FCP studio to its full potencial, I would recommend it. Also, are you comfortable with installing your own RAM? If you are, I would highly recommend getting some crucial RAM, which is much cheaper than apple ram.

What ever you decide to do, good luck. What ever you get, either one is a great choice.
 
Hey Chris-
I just priced out your proposed iMac, came to $2,274. Correct me if that's wrong. If you can stretch your budget any farther though, I'd go for this Powermac @ 2 GHz with a 160 GB HD, a 250 GB HD, 2 GB RAM and a 20" Dell Screen. It's a stock 2 GHz Powermac, a 250 GB Seagate SATA from Zipzoomfly (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101571), a 20" widescreen Dell directly from them (http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=320-4111&category_id=4009) and 1.5 GB from Crucial (http://www.crucial.com/)
Total it comes to 2820.23. Is this $600 more than you bargained for? Yes. Is it a better machine that will last you longer? Yes. Also, I presume you're also buying the Studio pacakge now since you're coming from PC. If you buy it through the store at http://www.lafcpug.org you'll save $100. So you're at $500 more than you origianally planned. Then you can save that $500 if you use a screen that you already have.
I know I may souund like a salesman here but I'm just trying to share my viewpoint. I've been cutting on a 1 GHz iMac for about 2 and half years know. I'm not complaining and I do love the thing but I kind of consider it a mistake. It was the first time I dove into any sort of video (iMovie at the time) and now at FCP 4.5 I'm kind of bummed that I can't expand it. I may go for a Powermac in September. I think you should do it from the get go.
But that's just one guy's opinoion. Hope it helps
Peace,

-Harry
 
RAM is a good thing if you intend on using Motion.

I'd run a similar machine through its' paces at the Apple Store before buying, honestly.
All the Macs have all the software (FCP, DVD, etc) loaded at the Apple Store for hands-on.
 
Thanks Harry, the iMac price was exact....... I did consider the PowerMac dual 2.0 Ghz, only I built it with Apples' products.... e.g. ram, hard drive, 20" widescreen, etc.... and it was a little more than $1,000 over the iMac price.
Never considered using what I have or purchasing elsewhere....... guess I'm an apple/mac newbie.. lol..
Also thanks for info on FCP Studio......

I'm still weighing my options... I finally got my Prem. Pro 1.5 capture problem solved... I'm still reading reviews and white paper on FCP.

Thanks again Harry and all......

Chris
 
I'm a PC guy since windows 3.1. I have a 3.2 Ghz Ht machine. Just orderd a Power Mac dual 2.0 processor. I bought a mini mac and was very surprized with how well it worked but It would not capture from my fire wire to FCP, only to imovie. Well, apple suggested if you are running power apps. to get a dual processor. Mine will be here tomorrow. Can't wait. I have had enough of P.P 1.5 and windows to last me. Good luck with your new machine. I too wanted a G5 Imac, seems you get more for your money. Will have to wait and see if my Power Mac rocks.
 
I just made the switch. I am still a pc guy but the screen flicker in Preimer Pro was the last straw. I've been patiently waiting for the fix on that one for two years. My PC was a 3.0 P4, 4GB of ram NVidia FX 3000 (for After Effects) with 1.4TB of internal storage. My Mac, when it arrives will be a Dual G5 2.7, 8GB of crucial ram (half the price of Apple) NVidia 6800 and 800GB of internal storage. The lack of storage inside is a little disappointing, however I have seen some interesting mods for 4 more internal SATA. I am planning on taking about a terabyte out of the PC and moving it to firewire 800 or adding another Lacie Big Disk extreme at 1.6 or 2.0 TB.

The big cost was software. FCP Studio 5, Adobe Creative Suite and After Effects is a big hit especially when I already have all of that for the PC. I am really excited about the switch. I spent several hours at the Apple Store playing with the G5 and FCP and was able to pick it up within about 15 minutes of playtime. Overall the machine was pretty nice. I researched all that I could but it basically came down to the fact that Premier has a 2 year old bug that still isn't fixed.
 
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