Should I purchase G5?

scorsesefan

scorsesefan

Veteran
I have a chance to purchase a g5 for really good price. The system specs are 1.6ghz 1.25 gigs of ram and 80gb hd. Airport card. CD/DVD-RW drive. Comes with fcp 4.5. My question is: will I be able to upgrade to, and effectively run fcp 5>. Also I will most likely be editing DV to begin with. Any opinions?
Thanks
k.r.
 
Sure you can upgrade to 5.1. The real question (in my opinion), is how much of a bargain are you talking about here? If it's a great price, grab it. If it just a fairly good deal, I'd save up for an intel.

I'm running a dual 2.0 G5 right now, and love it... but I'm soon going to be ebaying it and upgrading to the intel. I've been using my maching for over 2-3 years, and never had a problem, and I'm a full time editor which means LOTS of hours behind the desk.

Keep in mind that the 1.6's are the lowest end g5 they made, so it won't be a powerhouse, but it'll surely get the job done.

-brown
 
What do you currently have?

Remember too -- IF 4.5 is loaded, does that mean it comes with the discs????? If not you won't be able to 'crossgrade' to 5.1 and it will cost you full price to get there. If the discs come with then you should be able to crossgrade for $199us. Unless it's Studio then you can crossgrade for $49.

Else - $1200 baby.

CaptM
 
they want 800 but I can get them down to 700. As far as the discs i'm not sure if she has them. My other question is about the expandability. Will this be an issue, as well as running new fcp on non-intel mac.
 
If you can upgrade to studio (that is: you get the original disks & transfer the licence), this is a good buy. If not...

I wouldn't.

G
 
I can probably get fcp studio for about 400 from nyu computer store (with college I.D.) What I'm really worried about is the unit becoming obsolete quickly. The fact that it's a single processor and I may want to edit HD eventually... but I guess for the money... what do you think?
 
I would look at new MacBook core2duo with your student discount. It will edit DVCProHD just fine, and a laptop is great to have. A 1.6 G5 will really struggle with HD.
 
It will become obsolete faster than any other Mac on the market that's up to par for video editing, yes, it will very quickly. Rule of thumb, the older, slower, smaller the machine, the shorter it's life span.

Also, you'll want to bump the RAM up to at least 2Gigs at least for editing. And it's the absolute minimum Mac that will do HD editing, too. Here's the URL for FCS tech specs.
http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/specs.html
 
thanks for all the responses. I think I may just have to bite the bullet and go for a new Mac Pro. It really sucks because I'm going to have to put it on pla$tic.
 
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