Since I am interested in older Macs (i.e. the PowerPC G3/4/5 crowd), I thought I would make up something like this, if anyone is looking to edit video on a used/refurbished older Mac, since video editing would require quite a bit of horsepower and memory. Here is what I recommend...
BASIC SPECS
Any G3 or pre-2004 G4 should have at least 512 MB of RAM or greater, and a hard drive bigger than 20 GB.
The 2004-2006 G4s and any G5 should have at least 1 GB of RAM for smoother performance.
For video editing on any G3 that has at least 400 MHz and is running Mac OS 9 (like the iMac DVs or the PowerMac G3 B&W models), iMovie 2 and Final Cut Pro 1 are the best choices, obviously. I have worked with both, and they are pretty good.
On a G3 that is higher than 500 MHz and running Mac OS X, iMovie 2 or 3 are the best choices, but on some of the much later G3s (like the 800MHz iBook G3s or something), iMovie 4 would work, though it would lag a bit. Final Cut Express 1 would also be a good choice, if you have enough memory and hard disk space. Adobe Premiere 6 is also a good choice.
The older Power Mac G4s, like the SawTooth and Gigabit Ethernet models, would also be good for the previously mentioned programs on OS 9 and OS X, and would perform even better than a G3 ever would.
On any iMac/eMac/laptop G4s that run under 1 GHz, I would recommend Final Cut Express 2.0, or if you are up for it, Final Cut Pro 3. On the consumer side, iMovie HD 5 is probably the best, if you only edit in standard definition. All of these are for running on OS X. Likewise for the digital audio and 733 MHz PowerMac G4 QuickSilvers.
On the later PowerMac G4 QuickSilver and MDD models, and on the iMac G5s, later eMacs and iMac G4s and PowerBook G4s, I recommend iMovie HD 6 for consumer editing. It runs REALLY WELL on G4s, and was the last version optimized for that sort of processor. It also works really well on the PowerMac G5s. For advanced editing, Final Cut Express 3 is good (though version 4 is more recommended for the G5 users), and Final Cut Pro 5 should run on most of them.
If you have a later PowerMac or iMac G5, iMovie '08 and '09 would work on them (I would recommend '09, as it has better features than iMovie '08 had.) On higher-end G4s that have CoreImage-compatible graphics cards, iMovie '09 can be run on them (using the appropriate hack of course), but will operate rather slowly when it comes to exporting.
Any Intel Mac made since 2006 should run iMovie '11 just fine, as long as they have at least 2 GB of RAM. They will also run iMovie HD 6 and Final Cut Express 4 pretty well. For Final Cut Studio, you would need a non-Intel GMA iMac, or a MacBook Pro or Mac Pro to run it, though just about any other Intel Mac that doesn't use Intel's crummy GMA graphics should run it just fine.
Final Cut Pro X will work just fine on any Mac that is capable of running Lion and doesn't have the Intel GMA graphics (it even works on my early 2009 MacBook without much hassle!)
Adobe Premiere Elements 10 also runs pretty well on most Intel Macs that exceed the system requirements, though you would need more horsepower for Premiere Pro obviously (I can run Premiere Pro CS5 on my early 2009 MacBook pretty well, to.)
BASIC SPECS
Any G3 or pre-2004 G4 should have at least 512 MB of RAM or greater, and a hard drive bigger than 20 GB.
The 2004-2006 G4s and any G5 should have at least 1 GB of RAM for smoother performance.
For video editing on any G3 that has at least 400 MHz and is running Mac OS 9 (like the iMac DVs or the PowerMac G3 B&W models), iMovie 2 and Final Cut Pro 1 are the best choices, obviously. I have worked with both, and they are pretty good.
On a G3 that is higher than 500 MHz and running Mac OS X, iMovie 2 or 3 are the best choices, but on some of the much later G3s (like the 800MHz iBook G3s or something), iMovie 4 would work, though it would lag a bit. Final Cut Express 1 would also be a good choice, if you have enough memory and hard disk space. Adobe Premiere 6 is also a good choice.
The older Power Mac G4s, like the SawTooth and Gigabit Ethernet models, would also be good for the previously mentioned programs on OS 9 and OS X, and would perform even better than a G3 ever would.
On any iMac/eMac/laptop G4s that run under 1 GHz, I would recommend Final Cut Express 2.0, or if you are up for it, Final Cut Pro 3. On the consumer side, iMovie HD 5 is probably the best, if you only edit in standard definition. All of these are for running on OS X. Likewise for the digital audio and 733 MHz PowerMac G4 QuickSilvers.
On the later PowerMac G4 QuickSilver and MDD models, and on the iMac G5s, later eMacs and iMac G4s and PowerBook G4s, I recommend iMovie HD 6 for consumer editing. It runs REALLY WELL on G4s, and was the last version optimized for that sort of processor. It also works really well on the PowerMac G5s. For advanced editing, Final Cut Express 3 is good (though version 4 is more recommended for the G5 users), and Final Cut Pro 5 should run on most of them.
If you have a later PowerMac or iMac G5, iMovie '08 and '09 would work on them (I would recommend '09, as it has better features than iMovie '08 had.) On higher-end G4s that have CoreImage-compatible graphics cards, iMovie '09 can be run on them (using the appropriate hack of course), but will operate rather slowly when it comes to exporting.
Any Intel Mac made since 2006 should run iMovie '11 just fine, as long as they have at least 2 GB of RAM. They will also run iMovie HD 6 and Final Cut Express 4 pretty well. For Final Cut Studio, you would need a non-Intel GMA iMac, or a MacBook Pro or Mac Pro to run it, though just about any other Intel Mac that doesn't use Intel's crummy GMA graphics should run it just fine.
Final Cut Pro X will work just fine on any Mac that is capable of running Lion and doesn't have the Intel GMA graphics (it even works on my early 2009 MacBook without much hassle!)
Adobe Premiere Elements 10 also runs pretty well on most Intel Macs that exceed the system requirements, though you would need more horsepower for Premiere Pro obviously (I can run Premiere Pro CS5 on my early 2009 MacBook pretty well, to.)
