Quad mac

Whether or not it's "worth the investment" all depends on what you need from your system and how long you plan on holding onto it.

It's not worth it for me, but I"m sure it's worth it for many people out there.
As far as the intel macs go, I think if I were in the market for a new top of the line powermac I would not wait. By the time a Quad Mac reaches the end of it's life hopefully the intel macs will be in their second generation.

I wouldn't want to be the first to adopt those.
The powermacs are at their peak right now, and that quad is lookin pretty sweet.

Then again, what do I know.....I'm the guy who bought the red headed stepchild of the powermac line...the dual 2.7 that only existed for a few months.
:)
 
That's true if you need it right now go for it don't wait. In the world of technology there is always something better. I was kinda upset when I bought the Dvx A a week before the B came out because EVS with the discount and rebate comes to about 200 more than I paid and the B has Magic Bullet V2.0. The only thing it doesn't have is the tapes
 
I bought a quad mac. I have been working off my old 867 g4 powermac I paid essentially the same as the Quad G5 for 5 years now--it's been a great computer and is still faster than editing off my 1.5 GHZ G4 Powerbook laptop. But, I have been wanting to upgrade for about half a year now. It just doesn't do very well with H.264 stuff, which is important to me. And I do enough rendering to want some more speed. I too wasn't very thrilled to be an early adopter of the Mactels, so I just waited until I felt the time was right and then bought the best that I could.

Sure it's expensive, but of the new releases, I think this will be the best price/performance for what I do. And hopefully it will last me another 5 years. By then I should be ready to get an Intel mac.
 
David Jimerson said:
Those links may well portend the foreseeable end of Apple as a computer manufacturer.
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I might even have to change my Poster Boy logo from "I'll never buy another PC' to "I'll never buy another copy of MS Windows." :laugh:
 
I posted some images of me running my copy of FCS on a generic intel machine a couple of months ago. It runs surprisingly well considering that the binaries are not native. Of course I am sticking with my G5 at the moment :)
 
Luis Caffesse said:
Then again, what do I know.....I'm the guy who bought the red headed stepchild of the powermac line...the dual 2.7 that only existed for a few months.
:)
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Don't feel bad, I made the same purchase. Great system! But the idea of quad processors does make me salivate a little bit.
 
Performance Needs for Feature

Performance Needs for Feature

I'm new to NLE and about to buy my first Mac. I will be using it with FCP5 to cut a feature shot in DVCPRO HD on a Varicam and an HVX. Assuming I have an appropriate storage solution and 4GB of memory, where will I notice the differences in performance between, say, a dual 2.0 or 2.7 and a Quad with a 7800GT? My transitions will all be pretty straightforward.
 
ximxou said:
Don't feel bad, I made the same purchase. Great system! But the idea of quad processors does make me salivate a little bit.
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I'm not feeling too bad now.
I waited for quite a while, holding out for an announcement of dual core G5 chips.
After the 2.7 came out, I had a few projects coming up and I just couldn't wait anymore. Between the time I ordered it and the time it got to my house IBM announced the dual core G5 chip. :) Just my luck.

But it's always something new around the corner.
I don't regret my purchase one bit. By the time the Quad Mac was announced, my 2.7 had paid for itself and then some... so I can't complain.

The best time to buy is when you need it.
(at least that's what I keep telling myself)
 
scarfhead said:
I'm new to NLE and about to buy my first Mac. I will be using it with FCP5 to cut a feature shot in DVCPRO HD on a Varicam and an HVX. Assuming I have an appropriate storage solution and 4GB of memory, where will I notice the differences in performance between, say, a dual 2.0 or 2.7 and a Quad with a 7800GT? My transitions will all be pretty straightforward.
Click to expand...


My guess is (and this is my GUESS) that you'll notice the bulk of the difference in rendering times. As far as moving the footage around, given the same hard drive speeds you probably won't notice too much difference there (though the Quads have a larger front side bus, so that could make a difference).

I think most of your gains will be in color correction and real time effects.
For just straight cut editing, I don't know if it will make that big a difference.

Check out www.hdforindies.com and read up on the HD FAQ that Mike has on his site there. He does a good job of outlining minimum requirements for HD work on the Macs, and what you can expect in terms of performance.
 
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