Deck the Halls of my Powermac G4 Quicksilver ($500 mac)

codycartoon · Dec 10, 2003

I have $400-$500 to spend on an upgrade for my:

Powermac G4 Quicksilver 867mhz
256MB Memory
60GB Main HD
80GB Film HD
15inch Apple Studio LCD
10.2.6

I am a filmmaker and use Final Cut Pro 3 sometimes daily, I am running out of space on my Hard Drive and am felling cramped on my 15inch LCD.

It is possible that I may be editing a feature film in the future, and I am shooting a 20-minute short now, which has already accumulated 80 minutes of footage.

What would you buy with the $400 - $500 budget? Remember it will be from Santa Clause himself so take it easy, there are other children.

If your interested in my flicks, Here are some links:
Matinee: http://www.electronicscene.com/m1/35/34/media/8927.mov
Judy: http://www.uwm.edu/~celarkee/judy.mov
Pop: http://www.uwm.edu/~celarkee/codybrown.mov

Thanks a bunch
-cody

jrv3034 · Dec 10, 2003

Well, it's always nice to have a larger monitor for editing video, but it's not necessary. Hard Disk space, however, is essential. Right now you can buy a 250GB LaCie firewire hard disk for $289.

Ask yourself if you really need an LCD monitor. If the answer is no, the sell your 15" Studio Display on eBay (you should get at least $250 for it) and with what you have left over get a nice 21" CRT for around $450-500. Or, if you really want LCD, there's some nice 17" ones (NEC I think) for around that price.

Hard Disk space is your #1 priority. Then, sell your monitor and get a better one.

codycartoon · Dec 10, 2003

Well, it's always nice to have a larger monitor for editing video, but it's not necessary. Hard Disk space, however, is essential. Right now you can buy a 250GB LaCie firewire hard disk for $289.

Ask yourself if you really need an LCD monitor. If the answer is no, the sell your 15" Studio Display on eBay (you should get at least $250 for it) and with what you have left over get a nice 21" CRT for around $450-500. Or, if you really want LCD, there's some nice 17" ones (NEC I think) for around that price.

Hard Disk space is your #1 priority. Then, sell your monitor and get a better one.

Thanks for the help.

I was thinking of just adding a CRT monitor and having dual displays. What are some good ones?

What about RAID?

thanks
-cody

blue&whiteman · Dec 10, 2003

viewsonic make about the best crts I would say. they sell reconditioned ones through tigerdirect.com that come with a 1 year warrantee. very good value.

Gymnut · Dec 11, 2003

Hmm how's FCP3 running with 256MB of Ram?

DavidFDM · Dec 11, 2003

I too have a Quicksilver and the first thing I did was max-out the RAM. The would be my first suggestion.

Second, upgrade to Panther.

Third, add a second monitor. I do work in Director and love having 2 monitors.

Fourth, maybe add a ATA-133 or Serial ATA card and the appropriate hard drive for better performance. I have an ATA-133 with an 80GB attached and its pretty fast.

- David

edesignuk · Dec 11, 2003

For video editing I'd say you need to get that up to 1GB RAM, which is very cheap now a days anyway. And of course get another big HDD, I wouldn't go for the HUGE drives (250GB) as you tend to pay a premium for it, get a 180-200GB drive and save yourself some cash towards a 2nd monitor of some sort.

blue&whiteman · Dec 11, 2003

Originally posted by DavidFDM
I too have a Quicksilver and the first thing I did was max-out the RAM. The would be my first suggestion.

Second, upgrade to Panther.

Third, add a second monitor. I do work in Director and love having 2 monitors.

Fourth, maybe add a ATA-133 or Serial ATA card and the appropriate hard drive for better performance. I have an ATA-133 with an 80GB attached and its pretty fast.

- David

the quicksilver already has an ata 100 bus so adding an ata 133 or serial ata 150 would offer little to no gain at all. if you want proof just check out the benchmark results at http://www.barefeats.com. when upgrading you need to shoot for what will give the the highest performance gain for the smallest amount of money. ram should give a good boost and is quite cheap.

codycartoon · Dec 11, 2003

Hmm how's FCP3 running with 256MB of Ram?

umm... I run photoshop while FCP3 is up and it's fine... Is it just me or is this whole RAM thing hyped?

What are some good flat screen CRT monitors? What about external firewire drives? Is panther worth it?

I thought this looked like a nice monitor: http://reviews.cnet.com/Sony_STYLEPRO_CPD_E240_B/4505-3175_7-9663969.html?tag=t51

what do you think?

Thanks a lot, I know $500 doesn't seem like a lot, but it is a ton to me and I need to make sure it is well spent.

-cody

blue&whiteman · Dec 11, 2003

trust me, the ram thing is far far far from hyped. ram is everything, ram is computer food. osx needs lots of ram, the apps you run need lots of ram. obviously you can run those apps with only 256 but they would run FAR BETTER with more. for what you do I would get 1GB min.

this is not opinion, this is fact.

please help me convince him how much ram would help final cut pro.

krimson · Dec 11, 2003

get at least another 1Gb of RAM first, get another drive with the money you'll have left over.. new FW enclosure $60, then you could easily get a large capacity drive with what's left over.

[edit:] im on a Sony G520, and i love it.. too bad i can't take it home.

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