Mac Mini and FCP just for basics

J

jwolford76

Member
All I can really afford right now is a mac mini. I'm sick of the PC crap and want to ween myself off to mac. I know the mini's meet minimum requirements for FCP, but I wonder if anyone has actually used it on a mini. I don't want to do any real work with it until I can afford a better machine, but I really just want to learn the interface and maybe some basic editing with it. If I throw a gig of ram in it, does this sound like enough for basics?
 
If you're just going to learn with DV footage, a gig of ram and perhaps an external firewire drive for your footage would suffice... the internal drive will probably get bogged down trying to pull footage off... (i believe it's only a 5400rpm drive)
 
I am using FC Express v2.03 on a Mac Mini 1.42 with 512M RAM.
For just some basic editing of DV and learning the interface it is ok. But one needs patience as even the simplest things need to be rendered. Color Correction is already very painful as the interface becomes extremely unresponsive.
Plus the Mac Mini is most of the time at its full computing power while editing, meaning the fan kicks in and the machine becomes annoyingly loud.

You will soon yearn for a faster machine -- I certainly do. I am considering a Power Mac now, but it's a lot of money for just a hobby... If I knew in February what I know now I would have saved a bit more money and went with the Power Mac immediately. YMMV.

cheers, ScrollLock
 
Yeah, mac mini will work (I am a PC guy who's trialling macs with the mini) but it is barely enough. You WILL need more RAM, 512 is good, 1GB better. I have used FCP Express on it for a test, but I decided to stay with my PC.

I too long for a PowerMac. You will soon be sick of the mini's lack of speed - especially if you come from a PC background with a grunty PC.

Aaron
 
I'd recommend finding a used G4 desktop it will blow the doors of any mini for probably a similar price.

Noah
 
I bought a Mac mini and had it for a week. I liked it alot but had trouble with the firewire. It would work with I movie but not with my FCP. I took it back and went for a powermac dual 2.0 with 4 gig ram. Works nice, but is it ever fast enough? :-). I stll like the mini. Great computer. Oh I am a pc guy. P4 3.2 ht. Havne't turned it on for awhile.
 
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