I just got final cut studio 2 and am using it on my 24 inch imac. I have an external harddrive were I store all my footage from my camera. I am editing 1080i 24p HDV mostly. Is there a way to speed up discs or make my computer faster so that I can use my programs and they wont be working as slow??

How is your drive plugged into the computer (USB, Firewire 400, 800?) For the speed of the computer itself, you can add more memory (up to 4GB.)

the drive is hooked up by USB. Where should I get more memory from and around how much would it cost

the drive is hooked up by USB. Where should I get more memory from and around how much would it cost

USB is definitely slower than Firewire, hopefully your External HD has FW400 at least, to get faster responses when editing. Editing Native HDV is pretty processor intensive, many people choose to import as Apple Intermediate Codec (AIC) or ProRes HQ which are larger files but less demanding to display.

Other World Computing (OWC) is great for memory. As long as it costs less than from the Apple Store you're on the right path. Find out exactly which type you need and shop around a bit. I usually come back to OWC to purchase.

Yeah...I agree on firewire. As far as drives...you are looking at a drive with the following specs at least.

Firewire 400 or greater
7200 RPM or greater
8mb cache or greater

What Mac are you using?

I am using the 24inch imac. I have an external harddrive but just a simple one with USB. Im looking to get a new external drive, do you have any recommendations for any really good ones?

G-Tech, CalDigit or Dulce Systems. Go for a nice Firewire raid and you'll see much better performance. Still an iMac is not the system you want if you want speedy HDV editing. That would be a MacPro desktop.

Noah

Currently I use a 20' inch iMac as well. I recently did the 4GB upgrade from OWC paired it with a OWC Mercury Elite Pro 1TB running in RAID 0 - Doing 4 streams of multi-clip HDV with out any real slow downs. So more memory and a fast drive go along way.

In the meantime while your trying to decide you can try and few other things.

Using Apple's Disk Utility Repair Permissions on system drive. Restart once done.

Make sure you have at least 20 percent free space on your media drive. If you drive has less than that it could contribute to performance problems.

Make sure you have the latest updates through "Software Update"

And last, my favorite is to clear the PRAM - you can do this by shutting down your computer, turning it on hold all four keys "Option, Command, P and R" hold it until you hear three chimes then let go. This clears your systems RAM.

Hope this helps some.

I am using the 24inch imac. I have an external harddrive but just a simple one with USB. Im looking to get a new external drive, do you have any recommendations for any really good ones?

you may hear different on this site about Lacie, but i have been using a Lacie Big Disc Extreme for about a year, editing HDV on a 17" iMac with 3GB, and it has worked perfectly with FW 400. am now using it with MBP 4 GB FW 800 and no problems with speed!
on another note, i have also bought a 500 GB Iomega (FW 800, 400, USB 2.0) for very cheap and it has so far been fine. That said, i've only used it about two months and back up everything to other drives religiously until i establish a more trusting relationship with it...
the Lacie Rugged 7200 has also been great with the MBP...

I am with Jeff on the OWC external drives(i.e. Mercury Elite). That's all I use. Plus they have a pocket size 7200 RPM with Firewire 400 and 800 and USB 2. I am ordering one today.