Time to Upgrade

DammitJanet

DammitJanet

Well-known member
I currently run FCP7 and Avid Media Composer 5 on my machine. I've got a bit of money left over from graduation to buy an upgrade for the computer. I would like it to be something that makes my editing life easier/faster (though if it improved gaming performance that would be nice too).

I'm thinking either an upgrade in memory, or adding an SSD. My budget is $200 and I've got 4GB of DDR3 RAM in there already. If I go the memory route I'd like to up it to 8GB or maybe 16GB.

The big question is, which one will make more of a difference? Will having all my footage on an SSD drive make editing a faster process, or would more memory do more? My big concern is for the current versions of FCP and Avid, but I'll probably be upgrading to the newest Final Cut when it's released, and I'm fairly sure its code works with rendering footage differently from past versions, and may rely more on GPU than CPU.

Anyway, feel free to throw in your thoughts here. Thanks.
 
What hard drives are you currently running and what sorts of work are you doing? Generally speaking RAM is the best thing for a boost but if you are often dropping frames a hard drive can help.

Noah
 
Depends on the model, and if you're gearing up for FCP X. RAM, GPU will be top of the list. Then again, what Mac model and what is your hard drive set up, as asked above?
 
Most importantly, what part of your system are you now dissatisfied with? Sorry to say, I think throwing money at your computer just 'cause you have it is a bad idea. Especially right now. New Macs, new FCP right around the corner.

Don't ask, "what can I spend $200 on?". Ask us something like, how can I best reduce my transcoding time for $200, or, how can $200 help me reduce the amount of effects rendering during editing, or how can $200 best help me increase the number of simultaneous video streams I can edit in real time.....
 
I believe "I would like it to be something that makes my editing life easier/faster..." is exactly such a question. He's not dissatisfied with anything, but that doesn't mean you can't improve your edit bay. I'm not sure how much RAM $200 will get you, but, the original question is valid and friendly. Take a deep breath.
 
I didn't mean that to sound unfriendly. Its just that "making editing life easier/faster" could be anything from a more ergonomic chair to an effect plugin, and knowing what type of paterial is being edited, and what parts of the OPs editing process are "least easy" would help. An SSD won't improve effects rendering time at all. More memory probably won't help transcoding. An effects plugin probably won't help back pain. And, as I said, at this point in time with many changes right ahead.. if there's nothing outstandingly problematic in the OPs setup, better to wait than to look for things just to spend money.

All this said very lovingly. With plenty of deep breaths.

Wait, now its sounding a little sleazy...
 
I vote for "more RAM" IF you are planning on using this same Mac for any length of time. (more than a year from now...)

I got 16GB of iMac memory for just over $300, but now you get can the same thing for $220.

However, if you are planning on upgrading your Mac this year or next, you might just want to get the card thing and/or save up your money.

The May 2011 i7 27" iMacs SLAY...
 
If I had two hundred dollars, I'd try to spend $150 of it and try to find exactly what I was looking for, that would normally cost $200. Not used, unless trustworthy. Bargain hunting.
 
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