What PC/Mac for $4000 for importing and editing from XHA1?

H

hitman

Member
I realise my current laptop is too old for importing and editing HD footage from the XHA1 (see previous post)
Have approx £2000 - £2500 ($4-5000) to spend on a new desktop
Torn between Mac Pro/i-Mac and PC
Do not want to spend more than $4000 if I can help it
What should I go for? Any recommended manufacturers/models/specs?
Sorry for lots of posts but deperate to shoot some film and start editing
Hitman
 
20" iMac with the faster processor
As much Ram as you can afford
Don't bother so much with getting a huge hard drive - just get external ones and capture footage to the external drives. Leave the main drive for the software applications.
Best graphics card on the configuration list too.

PERSONALLY (so just me here people) i went from PC to Mac 2 yrs ago and i think that Macs are the way forward. I had 6yrs with PC's and my Mac has made more of an impression in 6 days :)

Overall though, i would say it would depend on your software. If you want Final Cut then there is no choice but Apple. If its one of the Adobe greats, then you can go with either. I went and tried a iMac at the London apple store and was blown away - so this question has no answer i'd say, as its down to personal preferance.


Too many Mac vs PC threads already, lets hope this doesn't become number 1,243,567,453,566,345
 
Cheers, I don't want to start a Mac vs PC debate either
To be honest I'm leaning towards the Mac if only for a change
Have you found the 2.6ghz processer works ok with final cut?
If so I'm likely to go with that and then upgrade to 4GB ram
thanks for the advice
 
Ewww another mac vs. pc thread. Mac has the better software as far as I am concerned. However my two G-5's are hefty paperweights right now because the hardware is so expensive. Can't afford to get em up and running, so back on my trusty pc now.
$4000 should get you a nice mac system with extra ram, nice monitor and all, just remember you need to buy the editing software as well. But whatever system you are more familiar with, I'd go with that.
 
Save some $ and get a previous generation MacPro (Intel quad core) and have both a Mac and PC. It's very easy to install Windows and have a dual-boot machine. Get a few cheap internal SATA drives and stripe them RAID 0 and enjoy good disk performance. (If you're paranoid about disk failure, get a cheap external drive and use backup software)

If you want really great performance go with at least a Quad core machine and as much RAM as you can afford. I think it's worth paying a bit more for a Mac given that it can also double as a PC.
 
cheers for the advice guys
Want to make sure that if I shell out for a new pc it does the job
Seriously considering the Macs although split between the Macpro and i-Mac
Can get a Mac Pro Quad Xeon 2.8GHz with 8GB Ram and 1Tb Hard Drive for £1999 with extra £150 for RAID graphics card (and 3/4 week wait if I go for this extra) - I'm assuming this would run Final Cut with little difficulty
What sort of specs would people recommend for a windows PC? I'd like to do some shopping around for the equivalent before I spend my money
Many thanks
Hitman
 
Just because you can max the system out, do you really need to?

The only time I've needed 8gb of RAM I was doing greenscreen work with the Sony F900 and Motion. 4gb would be plenty for basic HDV editing. And don't buy your RAM from Apple, they overcharge hardcore.

Do you need a 1TB primary harddrive? You should not plan on using your primary hard drive (the one with applications, OS, etc.) as your scratch drive (for storing media files). I mean, I'd love to have a 1TB hard drive, but don't be expecting to use that as your scratch drive for your projects.

Have you factored in the cost of software, monitor, etc? And what is a RAID graphics card (RAID and graphics are 2 unrelated things)?

You aren't ready to buy yet. Sit down, browse the forums, and keep asking questions.
 
Trudd
from what you say then, I could use an i-Mac instead of a Mac Pro and simply upgrade to 4GB RAM - would the 20" screen 2.4GHZ model be ok in your opinion?
You're right, I'm not ready to buy yet, just trawling for ideas b4 I take the plunge - btw meant NVIDEA graphics card not RAID!
many thanks for your help
Hitman
 
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