3,000 bucks and an itch for a mac

[David Delgado]

Ok, Say I have 3,000 dollars and I need to buy

I would like to buy a mac with final cut pro for video editing.
I like it because of the no-rendering thing. I will be using it for a 20 hour video project very soon.

What do I buy to get the most bang for the buck.

I have had a PC with Adobe premier but the rendering Got Really crazy and eventually i had to retire the computer. (P4 with a adobe premier 6)

I would stay with PC (they are just tools) but that means a new PC too so i would like to go with Mac but I have not a clue what I would really need.
I read so many different things.

[cmchamp]

Well David:
Don't think you're gonna get there for $3k.
$2799.00 - MacPro - 2.8GHz 8-core, 320GB HD, 2GB RAM
$250.00 - Kingston 4GB RAM kit
$150.00 - Seagate Barracuda 750GB SATA300 7200RPM HD
$1299.00 - Final Cut Studio 2
$249.00 - AppleCare extended 3 year warranty

Plus your favorite display(s).

So, without displays you're looking at around $5150.00 for a Mac Pro with 10GB Ram, 1.5TB footage storage and Final Cut Pro.

C.

[cmchamp]

I go the itch too.
My MacPro comes tomorrow.
Now, I'm a member of a reseller consulting network as well as a public school teacher. It was less expensive for me to purchase from the Apple Education store than it was to purchase through the reseller chain. The prices I provided above were direct from the AppleStore without any discounts.
I understand there are channels through which churches can get a break, but I don't know what they are.

[JHVideoGuy]

As usual it depends. A MacPro is going to give you the most power and as a result to longest life span. But the computer itself is going to eat up your budget. I think it would be odd to have a kicking MacPro but working with the bundled iMovie and iDVD.

So unless you can scrounge up some extra cash you're looking at an iMac. Get one with the better graphics card and max out the RAM from a 3rd party (I usually pick mine up at Other World Computing). The iMac is a solid computer and for most editing tasks but it lacks the muscle and expandability of the MacPro. But it's substantially cheaper. I pushed some old macs a G3 and G4 back in the day. They were several years old but help up well in production. They were stable, just slow.

What format(s) do you primarily plan on working with? DV/HDV/EDCAM EX/ DVCPRO-HD? Of course HD files take more processing power and RAM. But it will also impact your storage requirements. I wrote up my thought process when we made some upgrades during the summer. You can read it here.

If you want the best bang for the buck it's hard to beat Adobe CS4. They have great non-profit pricing. Compared to Final Cut Studio there are aspects I like of both suites. I have both and use different pieces of each to do what I need to do.

[[Director] Joseph B]

My son got a MacBook for college - he just put windows on it (so you can really have the best of both worlds). He got it because he said the PC's kept crashing (and it wasn't his fault) and Macs didn't crash. He crashed it within two or three weeks. I'd say check around - if you get the macpro you can still put windows on it (and they seem to run windows better then the PCs).

[cmchamp]

The reason why I recommended a MacPro is because he said 20 hours of footage to editing. That's a lot of footage to edit with an iMac. Is it capable? Yes, however, I don't believe it would be the best in the long run as the iMac is not built to take such abuse, CPU heat and I/O traffic.
iMovie-HD I think would be capable of editing the 20 hours, however, iMovie '08 - not so much. iLife '08 is much more consumer friendly, however, for those of us used to utilizing a true NLE, iMovie'08 really bites.
One might be able to get away with FinalCut Express, but you'd loose the benefits of Compressor, DVD-Studio Pro and SoundtrackPro.

[Gracetech]

You always have to render no matter what platform your on.

If you can manage not being part of the in crowd you can get a beast of a laptop or an insane desktop for 3k in poor ole lonely PC world.

crt

[cmchamp]

Depending on what transitions or other editing done in FCP, the only 'rendering' that may be required is using Compressor to compress to DVD. FCP-Studio2's full features will not run on a MacBook or MacMini as they have do not have a dedicated Pro quality graphics card.
Yes, Chad is correct, you can get a killer PC machine for 3k, however, personally I'd rather have a platform that works when I need it every time.
Is the MacOS glitch-free? No.
Are there less glitches than a comparably equipped PC with XP-Pro? Depends.
With both OS's these days, the more 3rd party EPI or BIOS (I think I got the Mac version correct there) language and 3rd party drivers, the more likely there are to be incompatibilities.
I personally have little experience on the Intel Mac products, so I can't speak to that. I can say that over the past 22 years, the only issues I've ever had with a MacOS were user driven.

[hoosierdraft]

Originally Posted by cmchamp

Depending on what transitions or other editing done in FCP, the only 'rendering' that may be required is using Compressor to compress to DVD.

Wow, so you never use any transitions besides a cut or any type of filter or effect?? That is some camera operator that you have there!

As for platform choice, I just Newegged a new projection PC that will double as a video editing station for about $1500 for hardware only. Core2Duo, 2GB RAM, 2 500GB HD, 512MB video card, 19inch monitor. Add in Vegas for editing. Under $2K. I'll vote PC.

[Gracetech]

Don't forget to add that you still have to render anytime you export to a different file type. If you add any audio plugins or do any effects on the video or what about CG. Yep you still can't get around rendering but the fact is your stuck with it no matter where you go. The good news is that the hardware is making it quicker than real time. I can transition between FCP and Premeire Pro and they both perform equally well but i still can't pay the premium for Apple hardware(too rich for my blood).

I too like a platform that works when i want it to. Oh wait i already have it.

Trust me i'm as neutral as they come on platforms(when i'm not aggravating the mac'ies). If you stacked both machines and OS side by side you'll find that they are identical before you start into the software they run. Oh and then there's that price thing.

crt

[katanna]

Just max out an iMac. I have a two year old iMac, and I use it all the time for editing. IMO, you don't need a MacPro unless you will be doing a lot of graphics.

Matthew

[cmchamp]

Even if an end user were doing a lot of graphics intense work, an iMac would be sufficient IF, as I stated earlier, the end user weren't editing 20+ hours of footage. The speed of the internal SATA bus and multiple target and render drive options is enough to merit the purchase of a MacPro. Even with an external FW800 RAID, you're still constrained to the bandwidth of the FW800 bus. Now, were Apple to include an Expres32 cardslot in their iMacs, that would be a different story all together.