Boot From External Drive on iMac?
 

I'm still weighing my options with the i7 iMac vs a Mac Pro. I'm really on the fence, but economically I'm starting to think the iMac is the best bet, especially this one on eBay that is FULLY loaded with Logic 9, FCS 3, Aperture 3, Adobe CS5, Windows 7, etc.: 27" i7 iMac 2.8GHz QUAD CORE 8GB ram 1TB HD MB953LL/A - eBay (item 270592399819 end time Jul-11-10 09:22:12 PDT)

He's got 8 of them available. It's between that and me getting a bare bones mac pro, and spending a fortune getting it up to working order. Not to mention it seems they're going to update the line any day now (as well as Final Cut Studio, but that's another story).

Anyhow, obviously the iMac is a dead end machine, and less desirable than the mac pro, but the top of the line iMac still has decent specs, and as of now I'm not doing any heavy graphics intense work. I was wondering if it would be a more appealing choice if I was to boot from a firewire 800 device and keep my media files on the internal SATA. It would be a pain to begin with considering I'll get the system shipped with everything already loaded on the internal, but if it's what I'd have to do to get it operating more efficiently, then I'll do it. What I'm thinking is I'm not up to the level of the big boys in terms of experience with heavy editing work, but perhaps by the time I am I'll be able to get a new machine, anyway.

One other slightly related question, what do you guys think of the screen on that iMac? Is it calibrated correctly for video work? I've read that it's too saturated and bright. I'd like to have my colors accurately represented on the screen so I don't have a false sense of color representation.

Sorry to disappoint you if you think that you found a bargain but there is no way that all that installed software is legitimate. The giveaway is that no disks are included for any of the software. That particular configuration iMac with AppleCare is available from the Apple Store for about $2500 so basically you are paying the seller $500 to install stolen software for you. A nice little profit for him as all he does is install the software on one machine & clone that disk to others. The old adage that 'If it sounds too good to be true then it probably is' is never more true than when applied to 'bargains' Ebay.

Even aside from the moral issue of using stolen software do you really want to give $3K to someone who pretends that the software is legal & charges you a $500 premium for something that cost him nothing? Far better to buy that configuration direct from Apple & buy the software that your budget allows.

Yeah, it seemed fishy as hell, but the ad says, "The following software is pre-installed FULL VERSIONS from GENUINE retail copies with VALID serials." I emailed him and asked if these were legal copies and he said they were. I emailed last night to ask if the disks were included.

In any event, even if I don't buy from that particular seller, the iMac is still more economical, so my other questions still stand.

btw, I would prefer to buy from Apple anyway, because then I can get 12 months no interest vs. lump sum on eBay.

As suspected, no discs are included. Pass.

It is just possible that he bought all the software & installed the FULL VERSIONS from GENUINE retail copies with VALID serials & it was all legal right up until the point when the disk was cloned onto other systems though I really doubt it. Adobe CS5 has only recently been release but costs about $2500 for that package alone. FCS is near $1000. Logic Studio about $500. Shake was over $500 although it can no longer be purchased from Apple.

Software aside, I'm still wondering about whether it's a good idea to make an external drive the boot disk and the internal storage as well as if the monitor is color balanced/calibrated correctly for photo/video work.

Patrick, no offence but you have asked the same or similar questions several times in this forum & received answers. There have been similar answers to other similar questions that you can easily find (search for threads with iMac or Mini in the title). Bottom line. The consensus is that that 27" i7 iMac will be just great for editing. People use FCP on lesser machines including laptops & even the Mac Mini. So while a Mac Pro would be ideal you will not be dissatisfied with the iMac.

Putting your OS on an external FW drive seems needlessly complicated. I get that potentially the internal drive could be slightly faster but its far simpler to keep your project on the external drive. In fact use one of those FW disk docks & when you finish a project you can pull out the disk & put it in a drawer as an archive & stick a new drive in for your next project.

I don't have a 27" iMac so don't know how accurate the colour is but it looks a damn fine screen & you can easily calibrate it yourself using a Colorvision Spyder or similar.

Hey, Nigel, I apologize if I'm being a pest. I know I've asked about the iMac before, but this question was a new angle on it. I want to get all the information I can before making a big purchase like this. My main concern was that I want to be able to view the preview window in full quality, but I'm wondering if I'm using a Firewire 800 device it might not be fast enough to allow me that. I'm not sure if that's more a processor/memory issue or if the speed of communication to the device also factors in. Thanks for your help =)

If you're going to run into issues of throughput that FW800 can't handle, you're editing something like Uncompressed HD and you shouldn't be on an iMac then. I've said this before: I edit HDV converted to ProRes on input and my externals are ALL FW400 connected - half the speed and I keep up JUST fine.