Need advice on Mac upgrade

OKCPicker

OKCPicker

Active member
i'm presently editing on FCP 6 with an iMac (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 duo).
Now that i'm editing AVCCAM files using ProRes, things are slowing down a bit and I can't use and external HD monitor. Time for a Mac Pro.

Question - can I get by with a single 2.8 quad core or should I hold out for the dual 2.4 quad core.
I use Motion and Color but not extensively. The dual processor is almost $1K more and I'd rather not spend that if I don't really need it.
 
You sure could "get away" with a single quad core for those apps. A good video card will help with Motion. In the end it's up to you but using the single core will most definitely work.
 
before I got my mac pro, I searched a lot about them and read many review that the single chip performs as good as the dual-quod. it even said the single chip perfromed better iin some cases like photoshop.
but that was 2 years ago so unless things dramatically changed, you should be fine.
 
Single Quad performance with FCP & AVCHD

Single Quad performance with FCP & AVCHD

Speed is always relevent to what you have now. You might be satisfied, but I have to say, I use AVCHD and a dual quad 2009 MacPro with 12 GbS RAM, and have also done editing on Vegas 10.c on both a i5 laptop with 4 GBs RAM and a i7 with 8 GBs RAM, and the MacPro is the slowest of the three. The transcode is painful, to say the least, and many jobs I do I am less and less using Mac & FCP simply because in a small shop the time spent is time wasted, with little to show for the quality difference, if anything. A good buddy of mine is seriously entertaining Premiere for this very reason as well, so I would have to recommend to seek a better solution at this point. Unless you think you can afford to throw this out sooner than later. NAB is just around the corner and with the assumptions that FCP will have a new release, maybe they finally got 64 bit working right, who knows.

Either save up and buy bleeding edge to make your investment last the longest possible, (a new machine will have a Thunderbolt port which in my mind is a gamechanger), or go into this knowing that trailing edge technology might last shorter than you think. I view all gear as something I can sell in a year or so, and the difference between what I paid and what I sell for is my rental cost...by the way, I'm waiting to see when the next generation of Windows laptops come out with the Intel Thunderbolt technology, given what I've experienced. That combination is worth waiting for unless you want a MacBook Pro. I assume the new MacPro's will likely also feature it. Maybe those are announced at NAB also?
 
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Re-reading your post I would say your mentality is wrong about the computer. Instead of "can I get by with" it should be this is my budget what can I get with it. I have been in IT for over 10 years and I have seen technology change faster and faster, computers are longer treated as fixed assets but rather as supplies or consumables. There are a lot of good points here but in the end the decision is up to you. Unless you can give us a price point you are comfortable with you will get nothing but open ended opinions. I don't use AVCCAM or AVCHD much but I can tell you a dual quad core 2.8 Xeon (Mac Pro) rips through those files much faster than my MBP i7. Generally speaking a Mac Pro will always defeat a MBP. The new quad core MBP is closing that gap though.

So what is your budget?

OKCPicker said:
i'm presently editing on FCP 6 with an iMac (2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 duo).
Now that i'm editing AVCCAM files using ProRes, things are slowing down a bit and I can't use and external HD monitor. Time for a Mac Pro.

Question - can I get by with a single 2.8 quad core or should I hold out for the dual 2.4 quad core.
I use Motion and Color but not extensively. The dual processor is almost $1K more and I'd rather not spend that if I don't really need it.
Click to expand...
 
OKCPicker said:
Now that i'm editing AVCCAM files using ProRes, things are slowing down a bit and I can't use and external HD monitor. Time for a Mac Pro.
Click to expand...

I wonder why things are slowing down? ProRes takes up more space but is NOT very demanding on your CPU or video card -- that's why I use it. I can edit on my MBP c2d or my iMac i5 quite well, as long as I use an external HDD with a FW800 connection. Heck, in a pinch my Mac Mini can do plenty, and it has just 2GB of RAM. My point is: It doesn't matter that your material was AVCCAM -- once you convert it to ProRes the files become big, but should edit with ease with the rig you have. 'Slowing down' should not be a problem with a 2.4 c2d -- that's the spec of my MBP and it does just fine.

I enjoy new hardware as much as the next guy -- but be sure you know where your bottleneck lies before you start spending money, IMHO.

Cheers,
GB
 
Hi Guys,

Some very good advice above.

My five cents, I have just purchased a 17" MBP 2.3GHz Quad Core Intel i7 with a SSD.
I tried a test SD 1min PAL encode on my old powerbook 1.67, to a H264 720x576 file, that took 14mins.
did the same test (1 min file to to a H264 720x576 file) on my Early 08 2x3GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon Macpro, that took 48secs.
the New MBP test (with same 1min file, to a H264 720x576 file) , took a mere 24 secs to encode.

Encodes for my news content supply are very time critical, so speed and portability are foremost in my business.
I suggest you buy what will do the job, don't buy just to get by.. you'll regret that down the track.

PS I have also very recently mounted a SSD OS 10.6.6 in the early 08 Macpro, that sure does make it much faster compared to the old Spinning drive, a very good low cost up grade indeed.
any of the new Intel processor Macpros since 08 are all great machines in my opinion, so much more grunt than Macs of old, and I go back to the early 90's.

Goodluck from downunder.
Tom 4
 
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