iMac - lack of eSATA/USB 3.0/extra HD space a problem?

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prodigal

Active member
So I'm looking to do some fairly serious editing, mainly 720 - 1080p HD footage with some SD thrown in here and there, and probably even some media work with motion/after effects.

I'm interested in buying an iMac with the following specs:

# 2.93GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7
# 16GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
# 2TB Serial ATA Drive
# ATI Radeon HD 5750 1GB GDDR5 SDRAM

But my real question is about the HD performance. iMac's don't have any eSATA/USB 3.0 compatability currently, nor any way to expand the 2 TB HD it comes with and so I'll be forced to make use of FW800 and USB 2.0 via Externals for all my current and future editing. So my question is: what impact will this have on my workflow or the general quality of my editing on this system? Is the read/write speed on HD's very significant? What does R/W speed actually effect in the end?

Thanks very much in advance for any help.
 
If you plan on editing off an external hard drive, it will have to be FireWire 800. USB simply won't cut it.
 
OWC (macsales.com) retrofits new imacs to allow external eSata connection. Otherwise FW800 is your next best option.

You'll get about 60-80MB/s with FW800 and 100-120MB/s with the eSata connection. The quality of the external affects the speed as well. Look at Barefeats.com for external products speed ratings.
 
Thanks a lot for replies guys. I understand that I'll simply get higher speeds with eSATA>FW800>USB2.0 but what do higher rates of data transfer actually do in the end when editing? Faster response time, ability to handle more data-intensive footage with less snags?
 
prodigal said:
Faster response time, ability to handle more data-intensive footage with less snags?
Click to expand...

Yup, more streams can be played back at the same time as well.

If nothing else, moving video files around can be a PITA and anything (eSata) that makes that process go faster is welcome. I don't edit off FW800 regularly anymore, but did in the past off of OTC external RAID FW800 drives if I am remembering correctly. Seemed to work fine.
 
draven4 said:
If you're serious don't get an iMac.
Click to expand...

That's a strong pronouncement. I know of more than a few "serious" projects being done on the new iMacs. How about providing some specifics that would be helpful to the OP to back up your statement.
 
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