FCP and XDCAM -- requirements?

[spchrisk2]

Hello,
I'm new to editing HD content and am about to purchase a new Mac as an editing station. I'm wondering if anyone could help me figure out what my hardware requirements/recommendations are, not only for editing HD content generally but also for ingesting content from an Sony XD CAM deck in particular. Can it be done on a well-configured iMac (one of the new ones)? Only on a Mac Pro? Are there graphic card / RAM / processor requirements I must observe? I saw some listed on the FCP site but found them a bit vague, and wanted to know if anyone has some advice based on their own experience.

Thanks,
Chris

 

[Cromulent]

I'd go with a Mac Pro for expandability reasons. You will probably want to have a few hard drives and the ability to add extra cards to the system. Plus RAM expandability is a big plus for the Mac Pro as it has a max RAM of 32GBs compared to the iMacs rather small 4GBs.

I think you would outgrow the iMac fairly quickly and unless you were planning on having a large external RAID setup (even this would need a Mac Pro to take full advantage of as you would need fiber optic or eSATA connection) you would get tired of all the external hard drives that you would need.

Err, basically get a Mac Pro.

 

[spchrisk2]

Thanks for your response! Are there any graphics cards requirements I should know about, or will any of the choices in the configuration step be okay?

 

[Cromulent]

Thanks for your response! Are there any graphics cards requirements I should know about, or will any of the choices in the configuration step be okay?

The only graphics card that is really recommended for Colour is the ATI Radeon X1900XT. Check the requirements page though for specific information for each application.

 

[LethalWolfe]

The X1900 is also recommend for use w/Motion so you should definitely upgrade to it. You'll also need a way to monitor your video. The most budget way to get a decent HD monitoring solution is a Matrox MXO and a 23" Apple cinema display. For SD monitoring you'd just need to pick up an SD monitor as the MXO has SD outputs as well.


Lethal

 

[Cromulent]

I've seen some old video monitors on eBay for a reasonable price if you are willing to take the eBay risk.