Is imac Quad i5 enuf for FCP project ~ or do I need an i7?

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kron

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About to start a stills-heavy doc, lots of compositing, use of motion function. Will an imac quad i5 with 8gigs be enough to handle project or do I want an i7?
Getting started soon is the issue not price difference. Can pick one up apple store today or wait a couple of weeks to get i7 from Shanghai, hoping there are no traumas to navigate.
 
I've been told no over and over by everyone. This is the skinny, if you're using HDV or using and HCM100 you can do it, but to use the AVCHD cameras you will need an intel processor.

-Nate
 
Nathyn said:
I've been told no over and over by everyone. This is the skinny, if you're using HDV or using and HCM100 you can do it, but to use the AVCHD cameras you will need an intel processor.

-Nate
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I believe the i5 and i7 are both Intel processors...
 
Right the i5 is an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and the i7 is a Quad Core. I'd go for the i7 if price is not an issue and you can possibly wait for it. Huge difference in speed.
 
i7 is Hands down worth the extra bucks over the i5.

The i5 is a Quad Core chip, not a Core 2 Duo... You can also config a lower cost iMac with Core 2 Chips. but the performance gain is unquestionable when jumping to the Quad Core chips.

The i7 iMac features hyperthreading which creates a virtual 8 core iMac. This is beneficial in rendering, especially while using 64bit apps like Handbrake, or using Virtual Clusters in the current Compressor.
 
RyanBellaCine said:
The i5 is a Quad Core chip, not a Core 2 Duo.
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Right you are...got the i5 confused with the lower-end 27".

On a related note - have a totally tricked-out i7 coming and was wondering if anyone has suggestions for a good external drive solution. Have always used eSATA so am a little nervous about the FW800 giving enough throughput. Was looking at the G-Tech G-RAID 2TB (4th Generation) but the recent negative comments on the G-Tech Cow forum has me a bit nervous about recent G-Tech products. So am also looking at Lacie's 2TB 4big Quadra (4 drives) - figuring doing a RAID 0 on that would yield faster speeds than a drive configured with two 1TB drives.

All editing will be using ProRes 422. Any thoughts on the above drives or what you consider to be the best drive set-up for an i7 would be appreciated. Should add that the environment requires something relatively quiet and the budget is for something under $600. Thanks.
 
I use the CalDigit VR Mini... It has eSata, FW800 and FW400... It is small, has RAID, etc... It is an absolute awesome drive...
 
Thanks, harrisonbound! This is a little smaller than I was considering (space-wise) and a bit more expensive. That said, WOW - read a bunch of reviews and this does indeed look awesome.

Especially like the small form factor in addition to the other great features. Where did you buy yours?
 
RyanBellaCine said:
The i7 iMac features hyperthreading which creates a virtual 8 core iMac. This is beneficial in rendering, especially while using 64bit apps like Handbrake, or using Virtual Clusters in the current Compressor.
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Quick Q - I don't know what Handbrake is but I have the i7 and I'm still on FCP5, with Compressor 2. Are you saying that I have a lot to gain from upgrading to the latest Final Cut Studio (new Compressor)??

I use Compressor all the time and if compressing time can be reduced by a large margins it would be very beneficial to me.

Thanks
 
chromeboy007 said:
Quick Q - I don't know what Handbrake is but I have the i7 and I'm still on FCP5, with Compressor 2. Are you saying that I have a lot to gain from upgrading to the latest Final Cut Studio (new Compressor)??

I use Compressor all the time and if compressing time can be reduced by a large margins it would be very beneficial to me.

Thanks
Click to expand...


The big advantage to FCS 2 and newer is the addition of Virtual Clusters which is what Compressor has the ability to utilize. This is Apple's workaround for getting their old 32bit program code to utilize the horsepower in multi-core systems where around 50% of the power goes wasted without it.

If you've ever watched your activity gauges when Final Cut or Compressor renders, you'll see all that wasted power just sitting idle while your render bar reads 30minutes... Kind of irks you when you realize that your projects could finish in half that time if the darn software knew how to use Multi-core CPU's correctly. But unfortunately Apple is still working on their 64bit version of Final Cut.. So they give us Virtual Cluster's instead.

Compressor has the ability to use these Virtual Clusters when transcoding pretty much anything. And there is some manual setup & configuration on the user's part. It's not too hard, but it's not there by default, Compressor won't automatically create Virtual Clusters. It also requires Qmaster to be installed. Instructions on how to do this are included in the Final Cut Studio manuals.

You can cut trancoding times down SIGNIFICANTLY when it's setup right. And if you're lucky enough to have a network with multiple computers all having access to the same volumes, you can link your towers together for even more fun...

That's right, you could make your desktop iMac or MBP jump in on the game and help out that Mac Pro... In fact all your multi-core machines ( At least the intels. not sure about the G5s ) could have a render party provided your hard drives & network could keep up....

If i recall correctly you only need to install compressor & Qmaster on those additional machines, which you are allowed to do for that purpose from a single software license. I think it might be a partial install of compressor. I can't remember right now.
 
In regards to the thread starters original question:

Yes the i5 is good enough for a FCP project. And 8gbs Ram(or possibly more) is ideal for using Motion.
From all accounts these quad core imacs are awesome machines and are professionally capable, only lacking the expandability and storage capacities of the towers.
The i7 is an upgrade on the i5 for rendering and compressing as has been stated. Plus, it has more potential for longer shelf life with future programs utilizing cores more.
Most times the upgrade cost for cpu's is too much to justify the additional cost, but the majority of mac-heads agree the i7 is worth the meager price increase.
 
get atleast 10gb..i have a macpro 3.2 quad-duo with 10gb of memory and it takes about 3-5seconds to render a transition..i want to upgrade to 32gb of ram and end any waiting time at all!!!!!!!!!!! i hate rendering every alter in the timeline..
 
Anwar said:
get atleast 10gb..i have a macpro 3.2 quad-duo with 10gb of memory and it takes about 3-5seconds to render a transition..i want to upgrade to 32gb of ram and end any waiting time at all!!!!!!!!!!! i hate rendering every alter in the timeline..
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I'm guessing you are talking Motion. In FCP:

Option + P. Just found out about this yesterday. Lets you view what it looks like without rendering. Plays every frame, gives you a glimpse of the outcome of your render.

Isn't perfect but can save time when trying to figure out which filter works best.

I just got the i5 Quad Core iMac. So far I freaking love it!! I love the screen space, love the little wireless keyboard and love the magic mouse. I'm coming from the old school mouse that only had left click. Using the slider on the mouse you can do so much in FCP. I had bought the Euphonix Transport, but decided to return it as it just wasn't as intuitive as advertised. With the new Magic mouse I hover over the viewer or canvas and jog back and forth with better stability than with the actual Jog Shuttle. I can also hover over audio sliders and even do keyframe adjustments using the middle slider on the mouse. (chances are the mighty mouse did this, but it's new to me and I love it!!)

I've hooked up my 21.5 inch widescreen LG as a second monitor and have set up a dual screen setup for FCP. The viewer and canvas are huge in my setup, so I do not even need to view full screen, but whenever I do, I click cmd+f12 and watch it in 27inch glory.

So far I've only played around with Pro Res HQ files transcoded from 7d 1080 footage. Works great. I cannot comment on render times as I haven't really rendered anything. But, I'm one to set up a render and go do something else while rendering takes place, or do big renders at night... so far I love this machine and am very happy I finally got it!
 
I recently edited some 2k footage along with some heavy motion stuff and shake... I use an iMac with the Intel Core 2 Duo 2.16 ghz (i5???) 3 GB of RAM... It all ran fairly well except some of the rendering...
 
Please excuse my ignorance. I'm thinking of getting an Imac for editing with final cut pro because I cannot afford the price of a Mac Pro Tower. However the fact it only has one firewire port concerns me. I need at least 2. One for connecting external storage drives and another to capture footage from tape and to record finished projects back to tape via my dvcpro vtr with firewire. So, can you split that firewire port into two, like you can a usb port?
 
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