Have you been using Premiere Pro? Final Cut is so much faster and slicker. It should be fine with SD footage with that spec.
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I won a Mac Pro for a video contest!
- Thread starter ckfoot01
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I've actually used Premiere Pro at school for a while. Wasn't too impressed but its better than what I actually use. For my projects I do on my own at home I use Pinnacle software which is very easy to learn but super limited. I'm definately in for some good times when I start to edit with Final Cut with a new mac.
Haha yeah I wish it was that good. They did actually give that to the second place winner. I think I made out pretty good on the deal so I'm not complaining.
Oh I know I saved a ton and I'm super thankful for that. I do have to pay taxes though on it which isn't too bad. I'm definately going to keep stuff and just add more things to the computer as time goes on and save up here and there.
Congratulations, firstly!
What you will need for editing largely depends on whether or not you want to do edit high definition source material and how much polish you want to put onto your videos.
To capture HD material direct from an HDMI source you'll need a lot of fast storage and a capture card like an Intensity Pro. You can also use the Intensity Pro as a way to connect an HDMI television in order to color correct and proof your videos. Even if you're not doing a real calibration against a high quality display, this still comes in pretty handy for editing purposes.
Regardless of source material you'll want more RAM. I would recommend going to 10 or 16 gigs. Try to fill out as many of the memory banks as possible, there is a performance gain to be had from doing that. Running a set of eight two gig DIMMs would be ideal if you're going the 16gb route.
You may also want to consider a second display. I had a hard time deciding between a pair of 23" displays or a single 30". I've found that for editing the dual 23" display setup works better. You may want to grab a cheap LCD for a second display that can be used for palettes and tools.
If all you're going to be doing is editing then I think the included ATI card will be enough for you. But if you need any kind of real 3D acceleration then you need to go to a faster card. I would recommend the ATI 3870. Not because it's faster than the nVidia 8800GT - quite the contrary, the nVidia is slightly faster. But unfortunately the 8800GT has had problems with certain core graphics apps in OSX, particularly in FCS2.
What you will need for editing largely depends on whether or not you want to do edit high definition source material and how much polish you want to put onto your videos.
To capture HD material direct from an HDMI source you'll need a lot of fast storage and a capture card like an Intensity Pro. You can also use the Intensity Pro as a way to connect an HDMI television in order to color correct and proof your videos. Even if you're not doing a real calibration against a high quality display, this still comes in pretty handy for editing purposes.
Regardless of source material you'll want more RAM. I would recommend going to 10 or 16 gigs. Try to fill out as many of the memory banks as possible, there is a performance gain to be had from doing that. Running a set of eight two gig DIMMs would be ideal if you're going the 16gb route.
You may also want to consider a second display. I had a hard time deciding between a pair of 23" displays or a single 30". I've found that for editing the dual 23" display setup works better. You may want to grab a cheap LCD for a second display that can be used for palettes and tools.
If all you're going to be doing is editing then I think the included ATI card will be enough for you. But if you need any kind of real 3D acceleration then you need to go to a faster card. I would recommend the ATI 3870. Not because it's faster than the nVidia 8800GT - quite the contrary, the nVidia is slightly faster. But unfortunately the 8800GT has had problems with certain core graphics apps in OSX, particularly in FCS2.
Wow thanks for the input Fast Shadow...you really give me a lot of great ideas. I'm still debating on the 30'' or the 2 23''. I know a lot of people say keep the 30'' which I think I'm going to end up doing.