Thoughts on a new system
 

Hello everyone,

I am looking for some input in regards to a Mac based editing system. I am just getting into doing some video production work for my employer and am looking at setting up a system to run FCP. The videos would mainly be for in-house training and shot primarily in SD (my camera does however have the capability to shot in HD).

Now for the options, obviously I would like to get a Mac Pro system but I have a feeling that my boss might not bite on the price tag. So these are what I am looking at. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Thought 1:

MacBook Pro, 17-inch

2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
3GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 1x2GB, 1x1GB
100GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
MacBook Pro 17-inch Widescreen Display
SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Accessory Kit
Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS


Thought 2:

iMac, 24-inch, Intel Core 2 Duo

2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
3GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 1x2GB, 1x1GB
250GB Serial ATA Drive
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB SDRAM
SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X (US English)
Accessory kit

Additionally, I am looking at adding:

Apple Cinema Display (20" flat panel) &
G-DRIVE 500GB External Hard Drive

to which ever system seems to pan out. My rational to this is that these options will afford me more space for the video and a second monitor.

I guess one question that is in the back of my mind is how well either of these systems will handle working in HD if I decide to go this route and will they work well with Motion? (I guess that is two questions)

Again I would appreciate any light you might be able to shed on this.

Thanks!

Both of these systems will handle HD exceptionally well. I would opt for the 24" iMac. You can easily edit with one monitor, it has a 7200 RPM drive, plus it's portable. Maybe not as much so as a laptop, but there is a company that makes a travel bag for the iMac that is airline carry-on approved.

i would check but my g5 imac only supports display mirroring on a second monitor, making it quite pointless for you. The macbook pro does support a second monitor (using the 17" as one) or you can use it as the main monitor with the laptop closed. The 24" screen would be good, i would get a matrox mxo box to let you display video real time on any tv or monitor. Making editing so much easier.

i would check but my g5 imac only supports display mirroring on a second monitor, making it quite pointless for you. The macbook pro does support a second monitor (using the 17" as one) or you can use it as the main monitor with the laptop closed. The 24" screen would be good, i would get a matrox mxo box to let you display video real time on any tv or monitor. Making editing so much easier.

Dave and Phil,

Thanks for the input.

As for the monitor issue, I did not even think about the iMac not supporting dual monitors. This is what the Apple site says:

"Mini-DVI video out with support for DVI, VGA, S-video, and composite video output (requires adapter, sold separately)
Support for external display with digital resolution up to 1920 x 1200, analog resolution up to 2048 x 1536"

I guess it can be done with the adapter?

i think it still means display mirroring. I would check! My imac needs an adaptor to use a second display, but it is only mirroring

Phil and Morey,

The Intel iMacs DO support dual displays. Scroll to the bottom. For that matter, even the MacBooks support extended desktop. Apple has listened to its customers.

Phil, here's how you can get your G5 iMac to support extended desktop. I used it for the 2 years I owned a G3 iBook and it works great.

The Cost of the two systems you built are comporable to a Mac Pro. You might as well just go with it then.

I would take the Macbook Pro above the Imac for portable reasons.

Dave and Phil,

I did look after Phil's post and also found out that the Mac's do have extended desktop built in but disabled. Thanks for the info.


Steve,

You do make a valid point and I actually was thinking about this. I decided on one of the other two systems only because with either one of them I can add the second monitor, the additional drive space, goto 3MB RAM and still save money over the MacPro. Heck the cost to upgrade to 4GB RAM is over $1000 alone right now.


Thanks agian for the input.

Also let me ask this, I am not overly concerned about the portability factor, granted it is a nice feature but would the larger screen size of the iMac be more of a plus over portability?

The larger screen size is a big plus. It's HD ready at 1920x1200. Also, the Intel iMac extended desktop is NOT disabled. It's good to go right out of the box when you use the mini DVI adapter. Same with the MacBooks.

You can just buy an additonal 1 Gig of Ram and add it in yourself. The Mac Pro supports Dual Displays although that would require you to buy two. The drive space is excellent on them as well.

You might also want to consider the Dell 24" LCD over the 20" cinema display - they're currently about the same price, but with the Dell you get enough resolution for 1:1 display of 1080 material plus a variety of input options - dvi, vga, component, s-video and composite.

Thanks for all the input. I think I am going to go with the iMac set-up.

why not wait until the end of the week? Apple has a habit of announcing new computers at macworld, adding shipping today right after the announcement. The keynote is scheduled to happen tomorrow.