Alright guys, here we go. Yes, I do know three billion other people have discussed this but to be ABSOLUTELY SURE I want to confirm it with my own specs. I have a 13" MBP that I use in college and have a HP running Sony Vegas 7.0 at home for editing. I film with a Canon XHA1 and there's no point in owning a multi-thousand dollar HD prosumer camera if the editing software can't handle it. Here at school (Penn State), I get free access to Final Cut Express but not Pro or Motion as my account is not authorized (Kinesiology not comm major). I want to get FCP and be able to run Motion. FCP 5.1 runs about $300 on eBay so if I use an external to hold all of the heavy data, would running FCP 5.1 be smart on a MBP 13" that was just bought in August?
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Final Cut Pro 5.1 on MacBook Pro 13"
- Thread starter rfh1317
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FCP 5.1 can run on any Mac since 2006, it is just Motion that needs a dedicated GPU, though it will run on a 9400M or 320M, just not fluently.
Motion might even have a minimum resolution and the 13" has quite a low resolution.
Motion might even have a minimum resolution and the 13" has quite a low resolution.
Motion needs a resolution like 1600x1000 something to run. You will probably need an external monitor for it but apart that you will be fine with this MBP.
Here are my specs
I figure this would help in the discussion:
My 13" MBP has:
2.66GHz
4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SD RAM
320GB 5400-rpm hard drive
1280x800 display
NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics card with 256 ram
Not the highest version but I'm pretty sure I did upgrade to the mid-level so would this help support Motion? Also, as long as it works with my quality screen I don't care. I have a HP desktop with better resolution but it doesn't run Mac so I can't use FCP or Motion on it
Besides putting the hefty video files on it (thank you 1080i at 60fps), would the external hard drive be able to have FCP, Motion, Color, etc installed on it to keep the laptop running faster or does it need to be a direct installation? I'm trying to find ways to keep my MBP running fast since it's also my school computer and goes through heavy, important use. The less clatter the better if possible.
Thanks a lot guys. This is really important as it involves about $5K-$6K worth of technology and software haha
I figure this would help in the discussion:
My 13" MBP has:
2.66GHz
4GB of 1066MHz DDR3 SD RAM
320GB 5400-rpm hard drive
1280x800 display
NVIDIA GeForce 320M graphics card with 256 ram
Not the highest version but I'm pretty sure I did upgrade to the mid-level so would this help support Motion? Also, as long as it works with my quality screen I don't care. I have a HP desktop with better resolution but it doesn't run Mac so I can't use FCP or Motion on it
Besides putting the hefty video files on it (thank you 1080i at 60fps), would the external hard drive be able to have FCP, Motion, Color, etc installed on it to keep the laptop running faster or does it need to be a direct installation? I'm trying to find ways to keep my MBP running fast since it's also my school computer and goes through heavy, important use. The less clatter the better if possible.
Thanks a lot guys. This is really important as it involves about $5K-$6K worth of technology and software haha
Graphics
It's also not possible to upgrade a graphics card on a laptop right? Since it's built into the motherboard? If need be, I can attach my external monitor from my desktop to view motion but with the 320M graphics card untouchable in the macbook pro, there's nothing I can do to help speed up the process/performance of editing and make it more fluid, correct?
It's also not possible to upgrade a graphics card on a laptop right? Since it's built into the motherboard? If need be, I can attach my external monitor from my desktop to view motion but with the 320M graphics card untouchable in the macbook pro, there's nothing I can do to help speed up the process/performance of editing and make it more fluid, correct?
No need to put FCS onto an external HDD, unless you talk about the additional media (templates, presets, sounds, ...).
An external HDD, especially if USB and not Firewire or Thunderbolt, is quite slow, especially when starting applications from it.
It is not possible to upgrade the GPU on an Apple notebook, especially with the 320M, as it is inside the chipset chip.
And again, the GPU is hardly used when editing. You will be fine with that GPU, it is just Motion and Color that would like some dedicated GPU, but FCP can handle an IGP.