Pelican
Well-known member
HVX coming soon, and can't wait for some Vegas/Ppro/PC workable method. So, I just bought a used G5 1.6, powermac, for FCP. Call me cheap, not a professional shop, or just sick of outlaying cash as of late, and I'd say you must know me. 6k for the camera, and $1200 for FCP is enough already! So I tried to cut my expenses, with an interim solution,, it wasn't an easy decision and I considered quite a few options:
Option 1. A new G5 Dual or Quad that would cost somewhere between 2500, and 3500 with tax. I found that a bit too expensive considering I don't do much compositing or anything terribly processor intensive. And I just don't feel all that certain that I'll totally abandon Vegas/PC. note: if I love FCP after a year,, I'll plunk down this kind of dough.
Option 2. A new Powerbook. I know I've read a ton of posts touting how it works, but I just don't want to make it my sole editing machine. I'd probably have to buy new to get the dual firewire ports (and be able to have an ext. drive and capture - for the time P2 is not the acquisition) and the fastest 1.67mhz processor. A new 15" powerbook with the right amount of memory, will set you back about 2500, for a long-in-the-tooth processor, G4. It may be announced today that Mac is putting that to pasture with the new Intel Macs. So investing that much in a dying product line is not an option (to me)
Option 3. A Mac Mini. To me this is cheap (roughly $700), but seemingly the worst of both worlds.. not portable like a powerbook, and limited by the weak G4 processor.
Option 4. Imac G5. This is attractive and could be considered a good method of portability, and the power of a G5. But this seems to the have the same limitations of a laptop. It's limited ports, and absence of expansion capabilities (hard drive and memory) make it less attractive.
Option 5. My Choice,, a used G5, 1.6 for a $1000 bucks (easily picked up on Craigslist or eBay). It meets the memory requirements of FCP 5.0, with it's 2gig, and I toss in my terabyte SATA drives from my PC,, and hook it up to my Dell 2405, and get editing. Cheap, effective, and re-sellable ( without a ton of depreciation) if I don't like it.
Option 1. A new G5 Dual or Quad that would cost somewhere between 2500, and 3500 with tax. I found that a bit too expensive considering I don't do much compositing or anything terribly processor intensive. And I just don't feel all that certain that I'll totally abandon Vegas/PC. note: if I love FCP after a year,, I'll plunk down this kind of dough.
Option 2. A new Powerbook. I know I've read a ton of posts touting how it works, but I just don't want to make it my sole editing machine. I'd probably have to buy new to get the dual firewire ports (and be able to have an ext. drive and capture - for the time P2 is not the acquisition) and the fastest 1.67mhz processor. A new 15" powerbook with the right amount of memory, will set you back about 2500, for a long-in-the-tooth processor, G4. It may be announced today that Mac is putting that to pasture with the new Intel Macs. So investing that much in a dying product line is not an option (to me)
Option 3. A Mac Mini. To me this is cheap (roughly $700), but seemingly the worst of both worlds.. not portable like a powerbook, and limited by the weak G4 processor.
Option 4. Imac G5. This is attractive and could be considered a good method of portability, and the power of a G5. But this seems to the have the same limitations of a laptop. It's limited ports, and absence of expansion capabilities (hard drive and memory) make it less attractive.
Option 5. My Choice,, a used G5, 1.6 for a $1000 bucks (easily picked up on Craigslist or eBay). It meets the memory requirements of FCP 5.0, with it's 2gig, and I toss in my terabyte SATA drives from my PC,, and hook it up to my Dell 2405, and get editing. Cheap, effective, and re-sellable ( without a ton of depreciation) if I don't like it.
