Imac vs powermac

L

Ldogg

Active member
What are the benefits of editing with a powermac G5 vs. an Imac G5? Which is better? Are both usable?

The thing is..is that I already have a Imac G5, but if the powermac is worth it it could be arranged for replacement. Just need some help putting it to the scales. Thanks.
 
The PowerMac is certainly more expandable (addign cards, adding more memory, extra internal drives, etc) Most (all?) PowerMacs have higher specs that iMacs.

That said though if you alereay have an iMac you might try to do some editing with it first.
If you're doign a lot of rendering and effects then the PowerMac will be faster but normal editing, especially of short material, it may not make much of a difference.
 
I have the 20" 2ghz iMac g5 and find it suits my needs for editing just fine. What type of work are you doing with it?
 
I think it all comes down to your needs, and expectations. I edit on a dual G5 2.5, and an old WindTunnel dual 1.4 G4. Both are fine - but realtime performance and rendering on the G4 are of course noticably slower, but perfectly usable. Put your G5 iMac through it's paces, and if you're happy great. The only down side I've heard about the iMac G5's are the OEM hard drives Apple ships with them aren't really fast enough for error free DV capture. You might just need to upgrade your hard drive to at least a drive that spins at 7200. Or get a fast external F/W drive...
 
I'm actually editing a feature length documentary, and will be cutting quite a bit of footage. I have two 500gb externals but I'm concerned about the speed, and especially about the error free DV capture you guys spoke of on the imac.

The subject matter I'm working on actually is a bit time sensitive as well. I REALLY want to finsish this in a year, however I am a full time student and also a new editor so I'm wondering if the powermac might help compensate a little. Thoughts? What would you do?

Also...can you order the powermac essentially "edit ready". I don't know much about computers, however I have a few prospects breathing down my neck about completing a trailor. Getting the correct system.. very soon and begining editing for the long haul is my biggest concern. I am basically just afraid to start on the imac if I know that the powermac would make everything so much better in the long run.
 
well, put it this way, you can never have a computer that's too fast, and if you're working on a lengthy project a faster mac will make your life a whole lot easier. That said, there's nothing stopping you starting on the iMac and moving later to G5 should you need to since your material is captured on external drives. Since you have two identical external drives (are they fast drives?) I'd suggest to get the best performance out of them stick them in a OWC dual drive case and stripe the two drives together into one fast performing Raid drive. Since your material is going to be essentially portable, you could edit any where - the only other issue you'd have then is how you'd back it up - so you probably either have to dump your material to DVD regularly, or get another set of drives and set them up to mirror your first two. Well worth doing if you're working on a lengthy job... actually any job ;-)
Either way, if you have a fast drive to capture to, you shouldn't have any errors during capture.
 
Yeah, I work on large projects on a G5 iMac.

It has some heating issues, but it's ripping fast. The top-o-the line iMac will get you equal performance to the bottom-o-the line PowerMac. Again, the bigger tower is way more expandable. Way less portable.
 
How do people get big editing jobs when they don't even know anything about about the system and tools their going to use????
 
In my case Mr. Wrock... I basically produced a documentary project and directed its filming. Having no money to spend on an editor....that is how I got a big editing job knowing nothing about the system and tools I'm using! I do have a little experience with final cut pro, but yeah like you said I basically know nothing!

I imagine it is more common in Documentary work. Thanks for the advice.

Oh and Duffdaddy. It is an "imac" "G5"....just not a powermac G5. Does your advice change at all? To recap....I know nothing:)

The two drives are identical 500GB Lacie drives.
 
In my opinion I own both a Imac and a power mac.
I miss the dual screen ability of the expandable PM when working on th imac, but thats about it.
 
That's cool Ldogg. I guess nothing better to learn on then the your own stuff.

My personal opinion on iMac G5 vs. PowerMac G5 is that I know the iMac has a slower FSB (Front side Bus). The PM is almost twice as fast in this spec.

I guess depends on if you are getting this system for the long haul? Or are you just getting the system to get the current job done?

If it's for the long haul and the ability to do future editing projects then with out a doubt PM G5 is the way you should go.

Oh and Taylor you can do dual screens (spanning) on an iMac G5.
 
I use an iMac. I've also used a dual Powermac and honestly, other than expansion (fwiw, I've got >1TBs of disk space on my iMac), I haven't felt very cramped by 'downgrading' to the iMac. Final Cut Studio isn't fully multithreaded so there's not terrible advantage in 2 cpus yet. The main benefit is running two programs seamlessly at the same time - but for me I like that that I have a enforced stretching of the legs.

Hope that helps..

Btw, go to Energy Saver Control Panel and change CPU performance to highest. :thumbsup:
 
Word. I'm gonna try to edit my feature on my 2ghz iMac next summer and like patrickj says other than hd space issue(that's what firewire is for) I don't think I'll have a problem.
 
I think the folks here that are using an iMac G5 have pretty much said more than I can - their experience speaks for itself I think. I think the only thing you'll feel a hit on performance wise are some of FCP's realtime effects and rendering.
But as I mentioned I still edit on an aging G4 too and I find that just fine for regular editing - no fancy effects or renders. Cheers
DD
 
A cut is a cut, whether it's on a Mac Mini or a Quad 5GHz PowerMac special edition. Most of the time you'll be cutting footage. Your iMac will do that perfectly well. At the end of the day (year?) when you're in the middle of color correcting, you might be a bit slower on the iMac than the PowerMac, but until then, it's all good.

Spend the money you'd use on the Power Mac and get another two 500 GB drives for backup.
 
The powermac is definitely more expandable than the iMac, but I've heard and experienced some very good performance from the 20" iMac. I use a dual 1.8 G5 and thought the performance of the iMac was good, but, I would still lean to the side of upgradeability, if my finances allowed it. Here is a good article that talks specifically about the 20" iMac running Final Cut Pro. It says it does a great job!
 
From what I've seen, the iMac does a good job with the studio package.

<a href="http://www.geniusdv.com/weblog/archives/20_inch_imac_soars_with_final_cut_pro.php">.</a>
 
The iMac G5 should be more than enough and I don't know about any capturing problems. I can capture just fine on my 800mhz G4 and on some days I would swear it has a 300rpm disk drive (heh).
 
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