Buying a new editing station
 

The guy at the Mac store recommended:

-MacPro 2x2.66GHz/1gGB RAM/ 250 GB HD/SD/GeForce 7300GT
-Kit: 2 x 1GB DDR2 (667MHz) FB ECC DIMM for MacPro
-Final Cut Studio 5.1 Retail, Universal Binary
- 2x Apple Cinema Display 20" TFT aluminum

I am a touch over budget with this so I was wondering if I should go with one screen (and maybe a larger one). My question here would be, do regular LCD screens that work to PC's work for Mac's?

Any other last minute recommendations or suggestions?

That is pretty much the same setup I have. Normal monitors will work on a mac.

I have acer 24" monitors on mine and they work perfectly.

When I bought mine, I saved a bunch of money by getting edu discounts. I don't know if you apply for that or not but it really worked out for me.

Thanks! if i get rid of that one monitor I am back under budget again, no discounts but I do get VAT's back (that's 25% here).

By the way do you like your set-up? Anything you'd like to add?

I like my setup alright, however I have had many issues with the software.

Are you a veteran mac owner?

If not, and you are coming from pc and think that mac software/hardware is more stable, bug free, and user friendly then IMO, your in for a surprise.

Since this Mac Pro was my first mac, I still can't believe how wrong I was in thinking it was a superior machine. I have talked to too many people who swear by them.

I also thought it would be less messy but for some reason I have been having lots of problems organizing my files. I still can't figure out if there is an un installer included with the OS X so I have been having to uninstall things the old fashioned way.

The one thing I have to say that I like about it is it does a great job of compressing footage. My footage looks a lot nicer coming from a mac then it did when I was using premiere pro because of fcp studio. Color correction in fcp is also a big plus coming from premiere.

OS X has a very nice gui and that part is very impressive. There are loads of features I enjoy that were clever of apple to include such as a firewire mode.

The quality of the computer is absolutely awsome. The metal around the case is almost as thick as a frying pan. It's not a very mobile computer. Everything is pretty nice on it and wires are hard to find. Like I said before, this is my first mac so I am not use to such quality hardware.

Another good piece of advice is to stay away from the mighty mouse. That is the worse mouse I have ever used and the right click works %5 of the time. I thought it was broke and I got a replacement but it has the same issues. The mighty mouse is the best example of form over function.

Thanks for your responses! I am actually coming from a good little computer (G4 ibook) but not powerful enough for Final Cut Studio, (I've been pretty satisfied with Final Cut Express up until the DVD authoring with iDVD which is horrible)

Now I can have a mobile editing station for those quick on the go jobs and now this MacPro with FinalCut Studio for anything bigger.

By the way, I shoot in HD, this is powerful enough eh?

Oh yeah, this computer handles hd like it was nothing. It has been great for editing the 720p hdv coming from my hd100's and hdv isnt exactly the most cpu efficiant codec.

Um, try dragging the app to the trash can :)

It might take time to get used to the mac but it's an awesome platform (in my opinion). I've used UNIX, All forms of DOS, Windows, Linux, BSD etc. and nothing for general desktop use comes anywhere close to OS/X in my opinion.

Final Cut, however, I do have other opinions about right now!

Um, try dragging the app, its folders, its receipts, etc to the trash.

You also have to figure out which receipts belong to the program and so Apple says: "Drag the whateverprogram.pkg receipt to the Trash, as well as any other items that have the same modification date within 3 minutes of the whateverprogram.pkg's modification date."

IMO, that is just way too much work just to un install a program. I am still finding folders of software I thought was un installed.