How many RPM's is the eMac Hard Drive?

[Capt Underpants]

I've been lookin' around on apple.com, and I can't find any specs for the RPMs of the eMac hard drive. All it says is ata/100. Does anyone know? I am thinkin' about getting one as my first mac, and I do want to do some video editing on it. I have about 15 hours of home videos that need to be edited and burned. I'm hoping for a 7,200 RPM drive, as I've heard it makes for faster editing. Is this true? Will the eMac be enough to suit my needs?

Thanks

edit: Right now, I'm on a Dell Dimension 8100 with a 1.3 P4, and 384 MB RAM. I am expecting that the eMac will boot faster, and feel overall more smooth, no? I've played around with the eMac in the stores, and I love OSX, and the eMac's price. I just want to make sure everything will be increased over my current computer.... And, of course, the HD speed.

 

[7on]

The eMac's hd should be fine for video editing. You can only import at 1x the speed. Though you might want to get an external drive because 18minutes of footage is roughly 4GB. My Tibook has a 4200RPM drive and I can edit video on it fine, though I do have an external hdd because I only have 30GB free on my internal.

 

[Capt Underpants]

The eMac's hd should be fine for video editing. You can only import at 1x the speed.

So, if I have 15 hours of video, it will take me 15 hours just to put it all on the HD for editing?

 

[unixkid]

7200rpm

the drive is 7200rpm

the eMac has a great price but when u buy it dont buy apple's ram its way over priced. if i were u i would buy the base model and buy 512mb's of ram from crucial and buy a better Pioneer 8x DVD-/+RW for a lower price. that would save u a lot of money. u could even buy an external HD for ur eMac with the money u saved.

 

[Capt Underpants]

the drive is 7200rpm

the eMac has a great price but when u buy it dont buy apple's ram its way over priced. if i were u i would buy the base model and buy 512mb's of ram from crucial and buy a better Pioneer 8x DVD-/+RW for a lower price. that would save u a lot of money. u could even buy an external HD for ur eMac with the money u saved.

Apple's RAM, atleast for the eMac, is not overpriced. The upgrade to two 512 MB sticks is $225. At crucial, 2 512 MB sticks would cost 240.00 (at 119.00 each). Im saving 15.00 by going with Apple RAM.

 

[blue&whiteman]

So, if I have 15 hours of video, it will take me 15 hours just to put it all on the HD for editing?

to import 15 hours of video in one shot you would have to have an xserve raid. you're talking hundreds of GB.

 

[Capt Underpants]

to import 15 hours of video in one shot you would have to have an xserve raid. you're talking hundreds of GB.

Its like 15 videos, an hour each. I wont be importing all 15 hours at once. I'll import, edit, and burn one hour, then move on to the next.

 

[7on]

He'll need the supa-drive if he wants to use iDVD. iDVD only uses the internal drive.

And yes, it'll take 15 hours just to import it.

15hours * 60 = 900Minutes

900min at 18min/4GB (4.5/1)

900min x
18min = 4GB

18x=3600
x=200GB

15hours will "roughly" be 200GB


EDIT: Bah, that's what I get for doing Math... Long ass time to reply...

 

[LethalWolfe]

to import 15 hours of video in one shot you would have to have an xserve raid. you're talking hundreds of GB.

DV video takes up about 13 gigs per hour. 250gigs of space would be fine. You don't need an xserve raid or anything like that.


Lethal

 

[Capt Underpants]

Thanks, but after you gave me the 18min=4GB, I went and figured it up. I know that I will only get a 160 GB HD, so I will have to get an external HD. Atleast now I know that.

What about the speed of a 1.3 P4 w/ 384MB RAM versus a 1.25 G4 with a gig of RAM?

 

[thehuncamunca]

G4 should be significantly faster because of the 512Kb cache, 167Mhz bus, better ram and much more of it

Thanks, but after you gave me the 18min=4GB, I went and figured it up. I know that I will only get a 160 GB HD, so I will have to get an external HD. Atleast now I know that.

What about the speed of a 1.3 P4 w/ 384MB RAM versus a 1.25 G4 with a gig of RAM?

 

[aswitcher]

So, and forgive my stupendous ignorance, it doesn't matter what resolution your CCD is doing, ie 400k, 800k etc, or thats its 16:9 (eg Elura 70), its just that 1 hour of DV tape takes 1 hour to input, and always uses up 13 gig?

Also, iMovie, I have read it can handle 16:9 in widescreen but you have to fiddle with it. Anyone had any experience with this?

 

[Mav451]

What about the speed of a 1.3 P4 w/ 384MB RAM versus a 1.25 G4 with a gig of RAM?

Yo... it seems you have one of the original Williamettes. The G4 can beat ANY williamette out there, so when you go to the G4, I can tell you it will improve.

The 1.3p4, in PC side metaphor is slightly slower than an even OLDER school Pentium 3.

I'm a bit surprised you even managed to use the 1.3 that long to do video editing, when even just going to the Northwood (the 1.8A is enormously better than the Williamette, the A stands for Northwood 400fsb).
Why all the emphasis on this? Well, you probably don't even need a G5 yet if you've survived with a 1.3 P4 The jump in performance is probably easily 2-3fold, EASILY.

But, when you get on the G4 and realize how slow the 1.3 was, you start to wonder if you should have upgraded sooner...hopefully no G5 thoughts until at least a few years later haha.

*167 bus has nothing to do with it. His Williamette had quad-pumped 100 (400mhz equivalent), running with RDRAM. It was just a really inefficient chip...good riddance from the Williamette when you get that G4. Seriously.

 

[Capt Underpants]

Now that's the kind of response I was lookin' for! I was wondering why my a G4 with a 167 MHz FSB would out perform my P4 (with 400 MHz FSB). That clears it all up. I haven't been video editing on this thing, which is probably why I am still on it. My grandparents have some old tapes that need desperately to be preserved digitally. Plus, I am a high school student, and can't afford anything more than an eMac. Thanks again for your insight

 

[PismoGuy]

the emac will kick the sh*t out of the 8100

I am writing to you right now from my neighbor's dimension 8100 1.3P4 386 Ram. It runs great ... after I fix it every month or so... high maintance piece of....

I have a 800 mhz emac (superdrive) and it is more responsive than the 8100. I have edited on the 8100 and my emac and hands down the emac wins. Don't get me wrong the 8100 is a good computer but you have to be on top of it (good for games)

The 1.25 Mhz emac with DDR will Rock!!! I am a college student and am debating over the new emac or a stripped down G5 tower.

Oh... can I get some love ... My Powerbook DIED!!! After exactly 4 years

 

[Capt Underpants]

Kind of ironic that you are writing from the exact same computer as I am using. Believe it or not, I haven't had any problems with it, other than it being slow. Horribly slow. Like 3 minutes to boot slow. I've had it for 2.5 years, and it's time to upgrade.

The more props I get for the eMac, the more you guys are making me want to get one. I really do appreciate all of the advice you guys have given.

 

[blue&whiteman]

DV video takes up about 13 gigs per hour. 250gigs of space would be fine. You don't need an xserve raid or anything like that.


Lethal

my mistake. I thought it was more like 40GB per hour.

 

[crazzyeddie]

my mistake. I thought it was more like 40GB per hour.

Raw video is around 30-45GB per hour, I think. However, when people talk about video editing on a home computer, they are almost always using DV, which is what all the digital video cameras use.

 

[blue&whiteman]

I have a question about the emac thats off topic but its not worth starting a new thread over either so please excuse me for being off topic.

my wife wants one but wants to use video mirroring so she can use her high res. crt. my question is with mirroring on would the external display be able to do its max res.? I know for sure the video power on the emac is more than enough to handle 2048x1536 that her crt does but just want to be sure it will work. the built in screens max of 1280 just isn't enough room for her.

also. is there a way to have the emac on with the built in screen off but the external on? the extra light of the built in would be annoying and having it on is useless since she will only want to look at the external.

for her the emac is the way to go because she needs more speed and doesn't want to spend much.

my last question is for anyone that has an emac now. can you do 1280x960 @60hz? apple shows it has being able to do 60hz at 1024 but only shows 75hz for 1280 in the specs. its odd and defies all but on any crt I have ever looked into 60hz has no flicker and 75hz does.

thanks in advance

 

[Marble]

Hmm. Maybe you could tape a piece of cardboard over the front. With a little latch so you could open and close it if you had to, maybe. It's the new aesthetic. Forget aluminum, go corrugated!

 

[LethalWolfe]

So, and forgive my stupendous ignorance, it doesn't matter what resolution your CCD is doing, ie 400k, 800k etc, or thats its 16:9 (eg Elura 70), its just that 1 hour of DV tape takes 1 hour to input, and always uses up 13 gig?

Also, iMovie, I have read it can handle 16:9 in widescreen but you have to fiddle with it. Anyone had any experience with this?

Yes. I hour of DV will always take 1 hour to input and will always be around 13 gigs.

I don't have very much experience w/iMovie so I can't answer your 2nd Q.

Mav451,
Video editing is not CPU intensive. Rendering can be if you have a lot of effects, but the proccess of editing is not. I dare say much, if not most, of what you see at the movies and on TV has been cut on PowerMac 9600s. Probably some Blue & Whites and Graphites too, but the 9600s just keep popping up.


blue&whiteman and crazzyeddie,
The amount of HDD space video takes up depends on the format and the codec used. For example, MiniDV/DVCAM/DV/DVCPro are all basically the same and they take up 13gigs per hour of video. Broadcast quality, standard def. analog video captured uncompressed takes up about 74gigs per hour of video (although many times compression is used to bring it down to around 20gigs per hour). And if you are working in uncompressed High Def you're looking at around 500gigs per hour of video.


Lethal

 

[johnnyjibbs]

Apple's RAM, atleast for the eMac, is not overpriced. The upgrade to two 512 MB sticks is $225. At crucial, 2 512 MB sticks would cost 240.00 (at 119.00 each). Im saving 15.00 by going with Apple RAM.

Yes but you're fortgetting that the eMac already comes with 256MB RAM, so you're only getting 768MB more RAM for that $225 dollars with Apple, not 1024MB that the two 512 Crucial sticks would give you... Better to upgrade to a single 512MB stick with Apple (from the 256 soldered on) and then buy the other 512MB from Crucial.

Good luck with your eMac. They are now brilliant computers, and compettitvely priced.

 

[solvs]

Better to upgrade to a single 512MB stick with Apple (from the 256 soldered on) and then buy the other 512MB from Crucial.

Actually, both slots on the eMac are user upgradeable (is that even a word... upgradeable?). You may be thinking of the iBook. Or the iMac, with 1 SO-DIMM slot that can be upgraded, and a DIMM slot that either needs professional installation, or a lot of thermal grease, which can void your warranty.

Plus, if you don't need the extra 256MB, and just want to pay Apple to add the RAM for you, it's not such a bad deal. Not compared to what it is on other computers (and not just Apples, most OEM's overcharge for RAM).

blue&whiteman: there was a hack to enable dual display instead of just mirroring on the old eMacs and iMacs. It works for the 9200 in the iBook, so it should work in the new eMacs' 9200. Plus, it's just a software hack, so you're not damaging anything. If you want to run higher displays, you may want to get a refurb G4 tower, or wait to see if the prices come down.