Laptop question

[tony240sx]

I am in the market for a laptop to run final cut studio on. I really dont have $2500 to drop on a new macbook pro. i have an imac at home and i need a laptop too. i was looking at used powerbook g4's with upgrades and they go for a reasonable price. Do you guys have any experience with these and is it a good option considering I can get one for between 700 and 1000. thanks alot.

 

[Cools]

I worked exclusively on a last generation PowerBook G4 for a year and a half when I first started playing around with video. Working in standard definition in Final Cut Pro on a G4 is very much doable, as long as you keep the number of effects low.

Performance will be even better if you use something like Offline RT to work in a lower res than your source to create a rough cut, etc.

If you plan to use the other applications in Final Cut Studio, like Motion, is another story. Working in Motion was almost unbearable. I'm surprised that I was able to use it at all back then now that I've moved to a MacBook Pro.

Having said that. If you have a decent iMac (Intel), then you are more than likely going to experience better performance than on a G4, so I'm not sure how useful the laptop would be to you.

 

[NoahK]

Or go for a first generation Macbook pro used. If you want to use the latest version of FCP 6 and work in HD an older Powerbook won't cut it especially with Motion. But if it's just DV cutting in FCP, yep it will be ok.

Noah

 

[Ram S.O.S]

My 1.67 ghz Powerbook 17 inch handles DVCPROHD just find I used it to put together a clip while I was in Miami a couple weeks ago and it worked great. I'm using Final Cut Studio 2. Noah is right though, Motion won't even run on that machine. I have 2 gigs of Ram installed. My C2D 24 inch iMac is much better for HD work but the PowerBook can get the job done.

 

[dj_hype]

w00t, another 240sx fan! anyway. I picked up my 17" PowerBook G4 1.67ghz on ebay for like 1200 shipped and it came with a ton of accessories (Hard shell backpack, Griffin iStand, Wireless keyboard/Mouse, Office 2004, Halo, some other software) and then upped it to 2gb of ram and it handles SD stuff pretty well in FCP6. Motion I have to be ready to wait and render effects before I add more.

I plan on picking up a Mac Pro desktop before christmas since it will make film school projects plenty easier (and I won't have to spend so much time at school).