View Full Version : Is a Dual 2.5 G5 good enough for HDV & FCP?


Bob Stovall
July 7th, 2006, 05:45 PM
Hi!
I'm looking at buying a new system for HDV editing, and wanted to see if anyone was pleased with the G5 dual 2.5 tower and Final Cut Pro.
What I'm trying to find out is.. Will I be happy with this system, or should I wait for the Intel Desktops whenever they come out? I'm just wanting to be happy with whatever system I choose...

Thanks for any input guys!


Bob Stovall

Boyd Ostroff
July 7th, 2006, 06:07 PM
I've had a dual G5/2.5 for about a year and a half and am still very pleased. I don't work a lot with HDV, but whenever I have it seems to perform fine. However I don't know that I'd buy one today unless it was a bargain. Apple has promised that the Intel transition will be complete by the end of the year, but many people expect the G5 desktops to intro on August 7 at WWDC.

I haven't followed it all that carefully, but see this thread from a few months ago which references some German tests of FCP Universal on a dual G5/2.0 vs a MacBook Pro and Intel iMac. The Intel iMac rendered a clip in less than a minute where the dual G5 took over 3 minutes. That's something to think about for the next month while we wait for even faster Intel desktop machines :-)

http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/showthread.php?t=64834

OTOH, if you really need a machine right now then go for the G5.

Jonas Nystrom
July 9th, 2006, 03:47 PM
I'm working on a G5 dual 2,7 - not so far from 2x2,5 - and i'm (as well) pleased. But it's not only the speed of the processors - get more RAM then you think you'll need - i have 8GB. Get fast HD:s - I use G-raid and a 10k RPM Raptor disc. Do some test which codec you edit in. And it's also depends what kind of work you are doing - if you are doing lot of grading and filtering in FCP, you will have to sit and wait.

Darren Rousar
July 9th, 2006, 08:52 PM
No problems here either.
Dual Core 2Ghz. The 4Gb RAM in it doesn't hurt however :)

Jason Matherne
July 10th, 2006, 01:30 AM
Yes! HDV is not a very demanding codec. You're talking about a very scaled down version of HD. I run a dual 2 G5 - just make sure your harddrive can access the data. The great thing about a PowerMac is the access to SATA drives. Instead of going through firewire, get a RAID via SATA! In my experience, your RAM is dependent on how easily the software can access your harddrive.