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Am i mad to be considering this?

fluidedge

fluidedge

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Nov 1, 2007
1,365
16
Using a mac mini to run final cut express. Just final cut express. Keeping the mac mini clean (with the exception of a healthy itunes library say) and just using the mini for 'home office tasks' and video editing.

Perhaps i should explain.

I need to kit myself out with a new machine(s). I have a plan to:

a) buy a mac mini to use with final cut express, build myself a windows box to do my work (maya/cs3) on.

b) buy a mac pro

now don't shoot me down straight away and say get the mac pro! It would be at the top end of my budget to get one, and since i can do maya and CS3 on a powerful windows machine with 8GB RAM, 1TB drives etc for cheaper than the base spec mac i'm leaning towards that.

Its just i need to *infrequently* do some editing on Final Cut (i cant be bothered to learn another system, i like final cut too much)

However the work i do on Final cut is of a 'semi-professional' standard.

So my question is:

Can you run Final Cut Express on a Mac Mini 'comfortably'?

HDD space is my main worry i guess
 
Do you already have Maya and CS3 for Windows? If you need to buy them anyway, then to get a powerful enough machine, you will be spending similar to a Mac pro for the Windows machine, and buying the mac mini, it would be cheaper for you to just have one computer and get the mac pro.
 
yes i do already have them for windows. But they are student versions, and i don't *mind* buying mac versions if i need to. I also have an older version of Maya for mac
 
The Mini+PC option will work for some time... But in the end, it will come short, so save yourself money and go for the MP (second hand, if needed). You can put a second hard drive to get Windows running on it, so you don't have to buy anything. You'll still have two empty hard drive bays.
 
I have been a long time user of Final Cut Pro.

So, when I bought my girlfriend a MacBook, I decided to also purchase FCE to test it out (since I already had FCP, and also because FCP won't run on the MacBook).

FCE runs just fine on a MacBook, and so, I would think that it would run fine on a Mac Mini, since they are basically the same machines with same hardware.

However, I would not recommend less than 2 GB RAM and you will also want an external drive for a scratch disk (try to get 7,200 rpm firewire).

I would recommend the Mac Pro only if you are making money from your films (or unless you just have a lot of money to burn).

What is it that you need to do with FCE that iMovie can't do?
 
i have already been using final cut express for years. In fact i'm wondering about the push up to FCP?

I'm almost certain i'm leaning towards a MP - i'll be living off baked beans for a while, but it'll be worth it!
 
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