Base model 13 mbp + FCE = ?

[Drago89]

Ok,so i'm planing to buy the base model and then upgrade myself the ram to 4 gb and probably the hdd to 7200rpm.Already got a 22 inch monitor which i'll hook up to the mac when i need more screen estate.The thing is that i have no idea if the mbp can handle video editing with FCE.So anyone using that mbp or similar for that kind of work can help me find out ?

 

[uaecasher]

Ok,so i'm planing to buy the base model and then upgrade myself the ram to 4 gb and probably the hdd to 7200rpm.Already got a 22 inch monitor which i'll hook up to the mac when i need more screen estate.The thing is that i have no idea if the mbp can handle video editing with FCE.So anyone using that mbp or similar for that kind of work can help me find out ?

it can handle it my friend got 3 years old and uses it for movie editing with FCE

edit: don't get 7200rpm just get SSD

 

[spinnerlys]

A Mac computer with a 1.25GHz or faster PowerPC G4, PowerPC G5, Intel Core Duo, Intel Core 2 Duo, or Intel Xeon processor
For AVCHD: A Mac computer with an Intel processor
1GB of RAM or more
An AGP or PCI Express graphics card compatible with Quartz Extreme; or an Intel GMA integrated graphics processor in a MacBook or Mac mini computer
Some FxPlug filters are not compatible with integrated Intel graphics processors.
A display with 1024-by-768 resolution or higher
A DVD drive for installation
Mac OS X v10.4.10 or later
QuickTime 7.2 or later
500MB of disk space to install Final Cut Express and LiveType
Additional 500MB to install LiveType content

from http://www.apple.com/finalcutexpress/specs.html


So it seems the base model will handle FCE quite well.

Editing video is not that CPU and GPU heavy, unless you throw a lot of many effects on every clip and so on.
HD might also be a little bit taxing, but it will work nonetheless.

At work we edit with 5 year old Power Macs, so a new machine will do the job.

 

[Sirmausalot]

I've been running FCS 2 on it without a hitch. The 800 FW port is awesome and you should make sure you have a fast external drive for all of your media.

 

[polaris20]

Lots of good posts in this thread. So often I see people asking about tasks related to video or audio, with people responding with complete overkill responses.

Will a 3.06Ghz C2D be better than a G4 for audio/video? Sure, absolutely. Is it 100% necessary? Not always.

I remember editing SD video on a 400Mhz DP PowerMac. Even that wasn't too bad.