I use a G4 Powerbook, 1.25 GHz, 512 MB and 60 Gigs (with a separate 120 gig external harddrive). I am worried that if I lay down the price for Final Cut Pro 4, it may not run smoothly with my powerbook. This is discouraging because I don't want to stick with "iMovie" my whole life. What statistics would I need to upgrade?
thanks!
Andres

Only thing I would suggest is maybe a little more RAM but other than that it should be fine. I have no problems running it on my Powerbook, a little slower than on a Dual but still runs fine.

You'll be cruzin! I agree that more ram will help but 512 is still a reasonable amount. Your laptop was DESIGNED to run FCP any way.

The requirements (http://www.apple.com/finalcutpro/specs.html):

System Requirements

* Macintosh computer with 350MHz or faster PowerPC G4 or G5 processor and AGP graphics card
* Mac OS X v10.3.2 or later
* QuickTime 6.5 or later
* 384MB of RAM
* For Soundtrack, 500MHz or faster single processor or 450MHz or faster dual processors;512MB of RAM recommended
* For RT Extreme, single 500MHz or faster PowerPC G4 (550MHz for PowerBook G4) or any dual PowerPC G4 and 512MB of RAM
* For DVCPRO HD, 1GHz or faster single or dual processors and 1GB of RAM
* 1GB of available disk space for application installation
* 5GB of disk space for Soundtrack content
* 9GB of disk space for LiveType content
* DVD drive for installation

I run FCP HD on a 1.3Ghz G4 (aluminium) with 768MB of ram and all is smooth in the world of FCP. 512mb is fine but as with all things computer more Ram is usually better.