Ideal FCP X Setup

bbalser

bbalser

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With the announcement of AJA's T-Tap, a new 17" MacBook Pro is looking more attractive. For only $249 I can use it with my existing FSI broadcast and HDTV monitors both at the same time. Resolve and Smoke can both run on a MBP and read FCPXML. The new Blackmagic Cinema Camera is looking super awesome being the first camera that doesn't force some proprietary codec on us. So depending on what Macs Apple releases this summer, I may just move to a MacBook Pro and dump my Mac Pro and 3 year old MBP. Sell off all the hard drives, and add a Promise RAID.

17" MBP, FSI monitor, Apple 27" T'bolt Display, Promise RAID, T-Tap, and I could be all set. Yep, this summer I'm going to have to do a total studio hardware redesign. It's interesting I'd be scaling down and using less hardware to get more power.

What would be y'alls ideal studio hardware setup?
 
I'm currently running around with a macbook pro plus ssd. It was the closes thing I could find to a pro version of a macbook air.

For me its all about weight - I look forward to and hope for 15" pro air
 
Re engineered 4 months ago new iMac maxed out (i7 processor, 16 Gbytes Ram, 2 Gbyte graphics card, SSD for primary drive 2TB sata secondary internal drive) and a promise thunderbolt raid plus other FW800 and USB 2 drives
 
The frustrating issue with so many of these TB products is NO daisy chaining. We need second ports on all these devices otherwise they all just become dead-ends. The laptops only have 1 TB connector so it really causes issues if you want an external monitor AND something like the T-tap. The iMac's have 2 TB connectors so that's easier, but still.
 
KyleProhaska said:
The frustrating issue with so many of these TB products is NO daisy chaining. We need second ports on all these devices otherwise they all just become dead-ends. The laptops only have 1 TB connector so it really causes issues if you want an external monitor AND something like the T-tap. The iMac's have 2 TB connectors so that's easier, but still.
Click to expand...

Damn. Thats a good point. Are there any Thunderbolt 'hub's or splitters available?

EDIT: Ok, Both LaCie & Belkin have Thunderbolt Hubs available (that add in extra firewire, eSata & thunderbolt ports). Both are over $200, but look like handy additions to a ideal FCPX set up.
 
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"...so many of these TB products is NO daisy chaining."

Actually, very few devices do not have a second port. All the drives I've seen do. The T-Tap can easily go at the end of your chain. Let's see, on a MBP, you go out to your Apple T'bolt monitor, then to your RAID, then to your T-Tap, done. Or if you need I/O you wouldn't use a T-Tap you'd use an Io XT or some other such device, all of which have 2 T'bolt connectors. I don't see a problem if you look at realistic configurations. It's really not an issue for daisy chaining stuff with T'bolt as MOST of the devices on the market do in fact have dual ports. The very few that don't can easily go on the end of a chain.

And if you have a T'bolt RAID, why use FW and USB drives at all? What's the point?
 
My USB drives are used for non video stuff, documents, still images, any other old rubbish I want to hold to, the Raid is video only.
 
I just put it all on one big RAID, since I have the space, save money. I only buy drives when one fills up.
 
I just demoed FCPX on a newer iMac yesterday and was blown away... and depressed. Showed up my Mac Pro :( Guess the good news is, iMac's are inexpensive.
 
My 17MBP with the new Gdrive thunderbolt and a 27cinema thunderbolt works flawlessly. I also edit on my I7 Imac, but it was pre-thunderbolt, so I use FW800. New Imacs are around the corner and will have Ivy Bridge. Here's hoping Imacs will have the ability to have 32gb of ram with 2gb vid cards or more.
 
To clarify:
Current iMacs can only take 16GB RAM on "select models", the rest are only 8GB RAM.
Only the 27" can be purchased with the 2GB GPU, but it's not close to the top GPU in a tower.
 
Apple Store always says you can't upgrade the base model, so you have to move up a tier. I think most of us know to check at OWC and order ram from there. Does the 21" model have room for an ssd, and if so can you install that yourself, and then clone over the hard drive, and use that for media.

Does anyone know if the base i5's video chip is enough for Resolve, or must you move up to a top end 27". I don't need real-time.
 
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