933 or dual 1000?

[video activist]

I'm a student filmmaker looking to buy my first Mac. I'll primarily be using the machine to run FCP and other DV editing software. I've got $3000 to spend. Which machine should I get? If i go for the 933 I could have $$ left over to buy things like a wide angle lens for my GL-1 and other things (flat panel display, RAM, drives, etc). If I go for the dual 1ghz I'll have a screeming machine that won't be out of date quite so quickly and will render video effects faster.

Which machine?

Another question: does the new video card in the G4s allow you to hook up two monitors without any extra hardware?

Ready to buy....

[mac15]

go the dual 1000, FCP3 support MP like the dual 1000

[kishba]

the video cards on ALL new g4s support dual monitors (one apple display w/ADC and one normal vga monitor)

i have an 867 instead of a dual 800 b/c os 10 makes fcp fast enough for me and it let me use money and max out the ram, add another hard drive and buy the beautiful 17 apple lcd--it's the BEST monitor i have ever owned

i also bought an ipod... you have no idea how useful this is as a student... i can listen to music on the way to school and take my files to and fro

i love apple

oh yeah read my sig and you'll see what happened to me

[madamimadam]

The dual 1GHz would be SOOOOO good but, realistically, wouldn't it be better, if you have no more than $3000, to get more RAM and more HD space... esp. if you want to do a lot of video editing. Those HDs sound HUGE but you know just as well as I do that once you start doing video work it looks tiny all of a sudden. Also, the 933 is MORE than capable of giving you nice speeds for FCP.

Lets think realistic not "man, I would LOVE one of those"

[Digidesign]

tough situation man, I feel your pain :D

If you have a set budget (for example, $3000 firm and nothing more for the next six months) I'd say go with the 933Mhz. Especially if what you want to do with the computer is more important than the computer itself. What I mean by that, is that some people get really excited by hardware, some people by what they can do with it, and some people about both. But if you don't need to have the latest and greatest, go with the 933.

Who wouldn't want the DP 1GHz? ;) But realistically, I think the 933 + extras is a much better way to go. 933 is nothing to laugh at, it's still blazingly fast!!

[networkman]

when your are a student, unless you are very rich, you have to make do with less than you usually want and, you might hate to hear this, the experience will give you the real education a college gives you that you will remember for a lifetime

in the real world, no matter what it is, you will need to implement projects with deadlines and often limited budgets

i will catch heck for this, especially since i am a techie and "i should know better", but get the 933...i wish i had a 933 and i could do a lot on it and just a few months ago, a 933 G4 was totally unheard of!

[Jookbox]

get the 933.... maybe load it up with a gig of ram. you'll be happier with that extra equipment, even if you have to deal with a slower computer. remember, that 933 is blazing fast anyway. you'd be spoiling yourself otherwise. i've learned to do my work on a G3 out of necessity, and i'm not complaining.

[748s]

look at an 800 dual or 867. there should be a few still around at a good price.
use the extra $'s to max the ram and get a lot of storage (like a video array.....ACARD pci card and 2 x 80gb). the 800 dual can have 2 monitors hooked up. you might even have $'s for a lens.

[Hemingray]

If you're intent on raw processing speed, and it's between the 933 and dual1GHz, go with the dual. Definitely. More money but it will last longer.

Or, the ultimate advice: Wait for the G5. ;)

[MacAztec]

Get the Dualie. In the near future, most progrmas will have dual processing capabilities. It will also last longer, and comes with good hard drive space. OR. Get a teacher to buy you the best dulie, which ill drop the price to 3,000. 1.5GB RAM, 2x80, its loaded. Get a 17in diasplay from apple for 400 dolars more with discounts. Take my advice, you will be happy

[eyelikeart]

I say go for the 933...

u are a student still....u will have plenty of power from the 933, not to mention some saved money u can spend on something else....

I agree wholeheartedly with networkman as well...

when your are a student, unless you are very rich, you have to make do with less than you usually want and, you might hate to hear this, the experience will give you the real education a college gives you that you will remember for a lifetime

[MacAztec]

What happens when FCP takes more advantage of dualies? I say get the EDU. discount, and get the dualie for 3,000 with the works. Spend an extra 40 dollars and get a 15in LCD. Or you can get the lower model dualie with a 17in LCD from apple. I wouln't get the 933 because the addons dont make the computer much faster. The processor is all that matters, and you cant buy a new one of those...;)

[balliet]

I'm looking at the "Higher Education Student" page and the "Fastest" is 2819 and the "Ultimate" is 3430. Where is this 3000 number from?

As for the original post, I went for the dual 1ghz because its a whole lot easier to add ram/hd/raid/dual monitors etc later than try to upgrade the cpu. I figure, get the dual now, and throughout the year upgrade stuff. IDE raid is probably next in a few months, then another 512mb (which would max it out) then another 17" lcd!

[Classic]

I'd say go for a dual 800. Then you'll have hella power and extra cash to boot.

http://www.smalldog.com/

Today's special for $3099:
- Dual 800
- Superdrive
- 80GB hard drive
- 256 MB RAM
- Twinview video card (for two monitors)
- 17" LCD display

Then go over to OWC - http://eshop.macsales.com/Catalog_Item.cfm?ID=3000&Item=OWC100SD512328

And for $250 buy two 512MB RAM chips for a total 1.25GB RAM.

[cmoney]

Originally posted by Mac_User
What happens when FCP takes more advantage of dualies? I say get the EDU. discount, and get the dualie for 3,000 with the works. Spend an extra 40 dollars and get a 15in LCD. Or you can get the lower model dualie with a 17in LCD from apple. I wouln't get the 933 because the addons dont make the computer much faster. The processor is all that matters, and you cant buy a new one of those...;)

Man, that'd be a nice setup. BUT:

This guy's a student filmmaker. No need to get a full all out production unit. He'll be ready to replace it once he graduates and gets a paying job. Heck, he may not even have to because the job will provide the computer anyway. The 933 is more than fast enough, heck, we got an Avid last year that was only 533MHz or something like that. (And well, who knows if we'll be able to buy faster processors in the future. We have been before, but that market seems to have died recently...)

My recommendation: as a student, you wanna get the best value for your money. Getting the duallie gets you nothing but faster render times. Getting the wide angle lens for the camera means getting the shot vs. not getting the shot! So do you wanna save 20 minutes from the final render time and potentially not get the shot you wanted? The lens wins hands down. (Unless you already have access to a wide angle lens and just want one of your own.) One tip: spend the money on things that get you more creative control!

No need for a 17in LCD when it still limits your resolution to 1280x1024. Instead, get 2 good 19" CRTs and an extra video card for the computer. This gives you much more screen real estate for FCP and you'll want lots of real estate for FCP.

You'll also want hard drive space. How much space will depend on how long your films will be, how lazy you are in logging and archiving your tape stock and how many concurrent projects you're working on at one time. I'm not sure how many hard drives PowerMacs can fit inside the case but go ahead and add one extra. If need be, you can even setup a RAID via the Disk Tools in OS X (if you'll be using OS X.)

Final spec:
933MHz G4 Tower (you may still be able to get an 867MHz tower, the speed difference is negligible but the L3 cache in the 933 could make a difference)
2 60-80 GB drives (possibly external FireWire if need be)
2 19" CRTs
1 Extra video card to drive second CRT
1 GB ram

This may run you close to a Dual 1GHz but you'll be better off with the extra screen real estate and hard drive space. Maybe even get some studio monitors for good audio if you've got a few bucks left. Get yourself a miniDV deck instead of using the GL1 for a deck. Or, if you've got access to decks at the school's studio, get a FireWire hard drive so you can capture to the drive at the studio and bring the footage back to your home/dorm/bedroom and work on it there. There's just so many more useful things than spending the extra money on something to save a few minutes!

[trinitishwar]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by balliet
I'm looking at the "Higher Education Student" page and the "Fastest" is 2819 and the "Ultimate" is 3430. Where is this 3000 number from?

Well, If you buy it through a dept. at school, cut the ram down to 1 gig, take the ATI card instead of the Nvidia and take off the modem you end up with $2988. It's not $3000 but it's pretty close.

[Kid Red]

Get the dual, it will make your life more pleasurable. Spend less and be less happy, or spend more and be more happy:)

I got the dualie gig-er baby and I love it :)

[AmbitiousLemon]

id definitely saw use the education discount and get the dual 1ghz. $2698 for a dual g4 is amazing. so just go for the 512mb ram and fill it out yourself later at non apple prices. mac_user knows what he is talking about, dont listen to these other people they just like telling people to get slower machine because they like feeling superior. "oh your just a student, well you couldnt possible need the same system i a PRO user needs. silly boy run along now and buy an used machine or an imac."

[MacAztec]

Thanks for supporting me Lemon. I believe that he can get his minor upgrades later on. Spend the few extra dollars and get something nice that you can say "wow" to. Remember this...you cant upgrade the processor once you buy the machine. I would get the NICE machine with not all the goodies, and wait a few months and get those goodies. Trust me on this one, you will be happy if you dont get the dualie...;)

I bought a G4 733 instead of the 800 for the same reason. I realized speed is better than the extra cash for the little add-ons. I have seen the rendering times on a dual compared to a single, and trust me, you can tell the difference.

[gbojim]

cmoney is right.

When working with FCP, RAM and screen real estate are the most important things to be able to work efficiently. If you are comfortable installing it, or know someone who is, minimize the RAM from Apple and get third party to max out the system - much cheaper and guaranteed.

When you're in school, it is usually difficult to move projects around between your gear and the school's studio. So check out using a firewire portable unless you have high speed LAN between you and the studio equipment.

If you are running, FCP3 on OS X, you can render real time with an 867. So use the $ left in your budget to get the fastest CPU you can afford.

[Onyxx]

I agree with Lemon and Classic. Go with the dual and steer clear of the "bargain" priced dual 800's. there is such a difference between the two chips that the money you "save" just doesnt make any sense. I don't know about you other FCP users but when i work in FCP I'm usually working in severl other programs as well at the same time ( Cinema, Commotion) and in this case the dual processor shines through the murk of doubt. All 3 apps i mentioned are out for osx and all 3 take advantage of the dual processors better than most. You can always add another monitor later but you can't say "hey apple I'm ready for an upgrade. How about swaping my 933 for that sweet dual board, eh?" If it were my money i would buy the dual with the ati card (better card by the way, i forget where the tests are but they are there) and buy educational for about 2700. add on a refurb 15 inch display and hook up your existing monitor (im assuming you already have a computer) when you need it. And considering you are only shooting dv the stock harddrive should hold you over for a while.
Bottom line: buy what can't be upgraded now and add on later.

[video activist]

Thanks for all the feedback and opinions. I'm looking now at the following DUAL machine:
ATI video card
speakers
zip drive
512 Ram
80 G HD
educational discount for individuals = $2,873

The 80 gig drive will satiate me for a few projects but I'd love more RAM and affordable screen real estate (I have a 17" ViewSonic GT775).
What's the best source for RAM?

Or then again... The 933 machine (w/ ATI, speakers, zip) = $2,215. I could tack on a 17" Apple Display with the $300 rebate is the same price at $2,874

I'm torn.

How much will 3rd party RAM run me? This newbie needs recomendations.

Oh, and how is the Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 73 (17" CRT)? Is it ADC or VGA? Is it worth $250?

So many questions...

[AmbitiousLemon]

i too have been looking for ram but im not sure ive found the best prices yet. so far transintl (http://www.transintl.com/) has the best price. they are quoting a price of $119 for a 512mb chip sdram @ 133mhz (3-3-3) or $149 for a 512mb chip sdram @ 133mhz (2-2-2). ive purchased from this vendor before and found them to be good. and after a stupid tech fried my hard drive that i bought from transintl they replaced it for free (i didnt even have to pay for shipping) no questions asked. they even let me remove the controller card from the new hard drive place it on the old one to recover my data without voiding the warranty.

if anyone can find a ram vendor with better prices than transintl then i would be very interested. ive been reluctant to buy since ram prices increased. i keep hoping they will go back down but i kinda doubt they will go back to the old prices any time soon.

[makkii]

Which one you should buy, realy depends on how you are going to use it.

[OSeXy!]

Buy the dual.

Steve wants you to.:p

[SPG]

My vote is for the dual 800. Dual is better, but 800 is cheaper...best of both worlds. Use the extra to get a good lens. Buy more drives, 7200 RPM IBM's are my call on that side if you're working with DV. Monitors? Flat panel is nice for show, but reality is a 19 and a 17 crt combo...works fine and it's cheaper. I work at home on a 400 single with two monitors and a MS intellimouse and I like it just fine. I cut 30minute shorts and promo spots on it all the time. Save the money where you can and spend it where it will make the biggest difference. A used dual is better than a slightly faster single for FCP.

Most bang for the buck? $40 Intellimouse set up like this:
left = click (duh)
right = a (resets from any tool to the arrow)
left side= home (back to the beginning of your clip or sequence)
right side= space (play/pause)
scroll = right/left arrows (single frame advance)
push&scroll = up/down arrows (next&previous clip)

Try this setup and you can edit twice as fast as the keyboard peckers, and with one hand. I set up every suite I put together like this and all my buddies have adopted this standard too, everyone loves it for pure cutting speed.

[AmbitiousLemon]

SPG: that is the worst advice ive ever heard. a dual 800? i seriously doubt he can get a dual 800 for as good a price as he can get a dual 1000ghz with an education discount (remember if he buys used no education discount and he will likely pay for extra bto options he may not want, apple ram for instance). you have to remember he can buy a dual 1ghz (also remember that the 933 and dual 1ghz are the new apollo, its not just about mhz even a dual 800 apollo (if they made one) would be 30% faster than a dual 800 non dual) for $2600. now maybe you can get a dual 800 for about $2000 but id say that $400 difference isnt worth the drop in speed. especially considering how long he will likely be using this machine. students typically want to get 4 -5 years out of their machines since this is the amount of time we spend in college, in order to make sure your system is usable 5 years from now you need to get todays bleeding edge. as for teh advice about the mouse and monitors, probably good advice (as long as he has room for a couple of crts), but SPG ive heard you mention your intellimouse like a dozen times, get over it alright.

[video activist]

Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
SPG: that is the worst advice ive ever heard. a dual 800? i seriously doubt he can get a dual 800 for as good a price as he can get a dual 1000ghz with an education discount (remember if he buys used no education discount).

I agree Lemon,

I think I've finally settled on my machine:
DP 1GHz Steve wants me to
512 RAM + 512 RAM 2-2-2 from Transintl.com
80 gig HD
zip drive
speakers
Intellimouse
$3063
I'll suffer with my ViewSonic until I come up with $250 for another monitor. And tackle drive space when I need it.

As Lemon said, I do expect this machine to last 4+ years. If I went with the 933 I'll be outdated with the next major proMac release (G5) while the DP 1GHz will last a few more speedbumps down the road.

The tip about the Intellimouse and the CTRs is spot on though, thanks. Your intellimouse setup is dripping with efficiency - love it. Cheaper and better than a FCP keyboard.

No Lemon, I don't have room for two huge CTRs but I'll improvise.

For future reference, which drives are better:
Western Digital Caviar IDE
Seagate Barracuda ATA IV IDE (best price/gig ratio at Trans Intl.)
IBM Deskstar
Other?

Monitors?

[blakespot]

Originally posted by madamimadamtimallen
The dual 1GHz would be SOOOOO good but, realistically, wouldn't it be better, if you have no more than $3000, to get more RAM and more HD space... esp. if you want to do a lot of video editing. Those HDs sound HUGE but you know just as well as I do that once you start doing video work it looks tiny all of a sudden. Also, the 933 is MORE than capable of giving you nice speeds for FCP.

Lets think realistic not "man, I would LOVE one of those"


I think the Dual 1GHz is the better route. It will be more than twice as fast for your FCP3 processes.


blakespot

[blakespot]

Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
you have to remember he can buy a dual 1ghz (also remember that the 933 and dual 1ghz are the new apollo, its not just about mhz even a dual 800 apollo (if they made one) would be 30% faster than a dual 800 non dual) for $2600. now maybe you can get a dual 800 for about $2000 but id say that $400 difference isnt worth the drop in speed.

I've seen no real data to backup any sort of same-MHz speed increase on the Apollo vs. the G4 used in the DP 800. There was speculation based on RC5 generation speed, but that was simply applying basic math to numbers that didn't really exist. Not convincing.

Can you point to other data?



blakespot

[SPG]

Wow, stepped on the landmine there. Okay, I skimmed past the post with the educational discount...you're right the price is really good. I've seen some good deals from people dumping machines to have the latest greatest so without the educational discount it's a good route to go, and besides aren't we all waiting for a G5? (SPG ducks to avoid the flyimg lemons)
Intellimouse a dozen times? Hmm, maybe three times and each one was for someone looking to set up an edit system and I still think it's good advice and if anyone else asks I will say it again...INTELLIMOUSE!!!! (or at least any multibutton mouse or edit controller)

[Choppaface]

right now I believe the western digital caviar has been reviewed to be the fastest ATA drive...not to mention its huge-120 gb. price per gigabyte isnt as important as speed IMO....
either the caviar or the deskstar...you can see some comparisons at www.barefeats.com

of course the drive situation will probably totally change when youre ready to upgrade

if you do get a dual 1ghz, try waiting until they put the geforce 4 Ti in them next month. from what I read its a *lot* better than a geforce 4 mx.....

[AmbitiousLemon]

SPG: sorry i went so over the top there. im glad you saw past my insanity to see i had something to say. and sorry about teh intellimouse, i think i had just read a couple other posts about it and then was already venting at you so i just kept on plowing ahead.

videoactivist: as far as hard drives go id have to say pat attention to brand name. western digital is known (much like maxtor and whoever makes those crappy que burners) for making very cheap and shoddy hardware. sometimes this doesnt matter, so often i will reccomend a cheap drive for someone if they dont care much about the data on it and dont mind that it may spontaneously break down. its sometimes worth the risk considering the cost. ibm in my mind is the best (and usually most expensive) hardware manufacturer. i say "in my mind" because there are some other good manufacturers out there i havent had too much experience with. seagate is one of these, to my limited knowledge on seagate, they make very nice hard drives. choppa face is very right about speed vs price. especially on these large drives you will want something that can easily access and transfer large amounts of data. so again maybe the western is the best choice depending on how much risk you want to put into this drive. personally id go with an ibm or seagate, but i often buy maxtor (or some other low quality cheap manufacturer) when i want another extra drive for overflow sometimes (but i also have 4 or 5 other drives so im not too dependant on the cheap ones). for your first external you will probably want quality and dependability over price. however the speed issue can complicate things if the western outperforms the ibm and seagate drives (im not sure this is true).

[AlphaTech]

AmbitiousLemon

I have several Maxtor hard drives, and have never had a problem with any of them. I bought one back in late 99 and it has been working wonderfully ever since. I also purchased one for my G4 desktop a while back (over a year ago) and it performs better then the 27GB drive that came in the G4.

While they might have made a bad batch a while ago, and I am sure that people have gotten defective drives, I wouldn't bash the entire company over it. From my experience, they stand behind their drives 100% (provided it is still under warranty, which is about all you can ask from any company). I had to call them about two weeks ago since we had a Quantum drive go dead (fried controller card, litterally). They shipped out a replacement drive that arrived a few days later (called on Friday, drive arrived before Wednesday).

I am also using my second Que burner (QPS Que-Fire 24x10x40). I sold my 12x10x32 to a person at work, after I upgraded their beige G3 with more memory, a larger hard drive, a USB card and a FireWire card. I used the drive for over a year with never a bad burn. I have just started using the 24x10x40 drive, but expect it to perform just as good.

[AmbitiousLemon]

AlphaTech: i wont argue about the maxtor. you might be right, i could have just been dealing with a bad batch for about 6 months everyone who bought a maxtor had it break down within a year and have maxtor refuse warranty.

but que is another case. que has always been the cheap and shoddy and i will stand by that. personally i think que is one of the worst things to happen to macintosh since... hm i dunno but lets just say its really bad. que is the ONLY burner you can find in most major computer retailer so people buy them. then mr peecee watches his friend with his cute lil que have problem after problem and says "macs suck." ive seen it a hundred times. que drives have serious overheating issues so have just a couple burns it will misburn without fail. ive never gotten more then four consecutive burns out of a que drive and that was on a good day. in fact que drives overheat and misburn quite often after a single burn. im surprised to hear that you bought a second one because i have never heard of anyone buying two. in fact quite a few nonsavy people i know just didnt buy another burner because they didnt even know there were any. they woudl rather go without then shell out more money for a cheap que burner.

[cmoney]

Originally posted by AmbitiousLemon
AlphaTech: i wont argue about the maxtor. you might be right, i could have just been dealing with a bad batch for about 6 months everyone who bought a maxtor had it break down within a year and have maxtor refuse warranty.


heh, i'll argue that maxtor! i've got three dead maxtor drives sitting on my shelf arguing that point!

anyway, has anyone heard anything the ACARD AEC-6880M? It's an IDE RAID controller that works with Macs, even OS X. it's got two ATA/133 channels both of which can control two IDE drives, and can stripe the drives also. sounds like it should make for a very fast setup...

http://www.acard.com

[AmbitiousLemon]

Originally posted by cmoney


heh, i'll argue that maxtor! i've got three dead maxtor drives sitting on my shelf arguing that point!

anyway, has anyone heard anything the ACARD AEC-6880M? It's an IDE RAID controller that works with Macs, even OS X. it's got two ATA/133 channels both of which can control two IDE drives, and can stripe the drives also. sounds like it should make for a very fast setup...

http://www.acard.com

:) good to hear actually. i wasnt sure if my experience with maxtor was an isolated event or not and for the moment i was willing to trust alpha.

[AlphaTech]

AmbitiousLemon

I had burned over 200 disks with my first QPS burner, without incident. There were days where I was burning one after another, although I wouldn't need to do more then 6 at a shot. I have actually had better results with my Que burners then with the superdrive inside the 733MHz G4 (pre-QuickSilver) at work. I only use Toast to burn cd's and not Apple's burning software. I prefer Toast since you can stop the verify where you have no such option under Apple's version.

I don't know which Maxtor drives you guys have been having problems with, but they must be different then the ones I have. I actually picked up a pair of the 40GB ATA100 drives about 6-8 months ago, and have had no issue with them. Maybe it's because I haven't purchased anything over the 40GB drive, although I did put a 60GB into another system, and it has been running no problem either. I also have a 20GB drive that I picked up over a year or longer ago that is running fine. Back in 1999, I picked up a 13.5GB drive, and it's still running.

[AlphaTech]

On a similar note, I have a cousin that used to build computers for a living and he used Maxtor drives all the time. He only had one give him issues, and Maxtor replaced that within a week or so of him reporting it. It was in one of the computers he built for himself, not a customer. They have about 5 or 6 computers at his house (at last count) and I believe that all of them have Maxtor drives of various sizes in them.

Maybe Maxtor has a problem with a few of the drive sizes. I would like to know which size Maxtor drives you guys are having problems with and how long ago you picked them up. All the ones that I have purchased, have a 3 year warranty on them. They are also the 7200 rpm Diamond Max drives in ATA66 and ATA100 interfaces.

I have seen more dead Quantum, Western Digital, IBM, and even a few Seagate drives then I have Maxtor drives. I have had a few 9GB Cheetah's go dead on us at work, where they simply refused to work any longer.

[SPG]

You can point fingers at every drive maker and everyone has heard the saying "It's not a question of if a drive will fail, but when."
I had a western Digital go down after only two weeks, have a maxtor that I abuse the hell out of, swapping it from machine to machine and it still works fine after two years.
IBM has always been the benchmark of reliability, but then a few months ago they put out a bad batch of 80gig drives.
So who knows? Is there anyone putting up a MTBF benchmark based on real world applications?

[morrisonmuzk]

Last night, I ordered my first desktop upgrade in 4 years - a new G4 PowerMac Dual 1 gig, with an extra 512mb installed, for a total of 1 gig of memory!!! Very cool, but I don't get it until tomorrow.

As I saw some people posting prices, I'd thought I'd mention where I ordered mine as I felt I got a good deal. I went to MacSolutions (yes, Apple Authorized - http://www.macsolutions.com)

$2999 - g4 dual 1 gig, with extra 512mb memory added (no install fee) and free Fed-ex 3 day shipping

[Jookbox]

i'm not sure why everyone's recommending the dual system to a student on a budget. that's such horrible advice. like i said, get the 933 + camera accessories. spending your entire budget on that dual system is approaching stupidity.

[madamimadam]

Originally posted by blakespot



I think the Dual 1GHz is the better route. It will be more than twice as fast for your FCP3 processes.


blakespot

What good is that when you run out of HDD space and a lack of RAM is hindering the ability to do many simultanious actions?

[Onyxx]

when you consider the amount of ram that comes with the machine, i think it is more than adequate for running fcp (i wouldn't run too much more than that at the same time, but fcp alone will be just fine). When buying a machine you have to take into consideration that there are things that can and cannot be upgraded.
ram can be upgraded
hard drives can be upgraded
video cards and monitors can be upgraded
the processors in your machine cannot be upgraded (yes i know that there are upgrades but a dual upgrade is never cost effective)

That simple fact coupled with the ultra low cost of hard drives and ram today make the choice an odvious one.

Go dual now, upgrade later.

[Onyxx]

not to mention that once he has upgraded the dual 1ghz machine will crunch a heck of a lot more data than the single 933 (especially under osx, don't forget the os that is involved)