iMac 21.5 and Final Cut Studio

[NightStrikergp]

Hello,

I am in need of a mac desktop that can handle Final Cut Studio. In the ideal situation I'd get a Mac Pro no questions asked but due to limited funds (and needing to buy Final Cut Studio) I started looking at the iMac line.

I am considering getting the iMac 21.5" model with the ATI 4670 256MB graphics card. I know things won't be as quick and that there'd be some trouble running Motion from my understanding (though it should still run)

I'm a Television broadcasting student and require Final Cut Studio for editing school projects, so my needs are not up to a professional level and hopefully in 3 years when I graduate I'll have enough money to get a Mac Pro. But for now I need a 'bandaid' solution I guess you can call it.

Can the iMac 21.5 and the ATI 4670 graphics card be ok for my needs? Or is it going to be just a waste of money?

 

[spinnerlys]

An iMac will be fine, but what is it exactly that you do with FCS?
Do you process SD or HD footage or even booth? Is it uncompressed or are you using AIC or ProRes or the DV codec for your editing work?

 

[NightStrikergp]

Right now its all SD. Eventually we are moving to HD. The projects for school are not large, I think the largest project we will be doing is 30 minutes, with most projects being 5-10 minutes.

Right now we use the DV codec. I think when we move to HD we are using AIC but I do not know off hand.

The big thing is the school has a final cut lab, with top of the line, maxed out Mac Pros, which is great but because there are only 20 machines, they are constantly booked out which is why I wanted a home solution. I know things will be a lot slower but as long as I can still edit and use FCS, I'll be happy.

 

[spinnerlys]

Then the iMac will be up to the task. Be sure to get a good FW800 drive as a scratch disk.

I once edited HDV footage with the ProRes codec on my 20" iMac with 2GHz and it worked fine, though the CPU usage was quite high compared to DV - 60% I think. But what is the CPU there for if one does not use it?