I am a young (read, not wealthy) amateur filmmaker in need of a new Mac for DV editing. Obviously I would love the 933 or dual gig G4, but that whole amateur thing leads to budget concerns. I am seriously tempted to just get the new iMac for the value it offers. But my question is, does anybody know how well the iMac deals with DV editing and how it handles Final Cut Pro? Is the iMac really a good value for my needs, or would I end up being disappointed and frustrated with its limitations for DV?
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iMac, DV, and FCP
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iMac and PowerMac
An iMac, 800MHz only has a 100MHz bus, and it is 1799. Go to the apple edu. store and get an 800, or a 933 for around 1600-2100. I guarentee a G3 Tower 733MHz is faster than an iMac 800 in FCP.
An iMac, 800MHz only has a 100MHz bus, and it is 1799. Go to the apple edu. store and get an 800, or a 933 for around 1600-2100. I guarentee a G3 Tower 733MHz is faster than an iMac 800 in FCP.
Dude, you NEED a tower. YOu can do it on an imac but it will be SOOO much faster on a tower. You can get a dual 800 for not too much and its SO much better. Especially since final cut is made for multiprocessors. YOu'll want that for your renders.
The problem there is not really the bus speed or the Mhz, is the screen. the new iMac has a 15", then you would work with only the main drive.
The botton line is what are you gonna do with it? If you want to edit some video for your friend or school get the iMac if you feel cool with it. It will do the job just fine. But if you plan to spend some hours doing some serious work (I mean with a short time line) get something pro with at list 17" monitor or bigger and a big hard drive just for the video, or you can get an small drive for the OS and Soft and the original drive that came with the computer for storage.
I work with a G4 400 with a 17' monitor, FCT runs fine, I use it just some times to do silly things but I see would be a lot better with a 20" monitor or the 17" flat Apple LCD that has almos real 17" view.
I wouldn't use an iMac for Pro things. Is not the same thing to get 140 m/h in a Toyota Corolla than in a BMW.
The botton line is what are you gonna do with it? If you want to edit some video for your friend or school get the iMac if you feel cool with it. It will do the job just fine. But if you plan to spend some hours doing some serious work (I mean with a short time line) get something pro with at list 17" monitor or bigger and a big hard drive just for the video, or you can get an small drive for the OS and Soft and the original drive that came with the computer for storage.
I work with a G4 400 with a 17' monitor, FCT runs fine, I use it just some times to do silly things but I see would be a lot better with a 20" monitor or the 17" flat Apple LCD that has almos real 17" view.
I wouldn't use an iMac for Pro things. Is not the same thing to get 140 m/h in a Toyota Corolla than in a BMW.
go with the iMac. I do a lot my fcp work on a 400 mhz g3 pismo and the only place i have trouble is with some types of rendering. But the iMac has a larger screen, g4 processor, dvd burner, and the same amount of ram slots as my machine and is less than the lowest cost G4 tower is by itself!
If screen space is an issue, i believe that you can hook up an external one to the new imac. If drive space is a problem, build yourself you own external 100 gig 7200 rpm firewire drive for less than $300. From the little that you said, it sounds like you are very much a beginer and are just hoping to get you feet wet in dv editing. Well the iMac will do that and more and is absolutely unbeatable at the price. You don't need a tower unless you need to add some pci cards or extra internal storage. Since you are a student, get the educational discount from apple and have some fun with you new machine. When you use it a while and decide to invest more into it, then you can upgrade to you dream cutting station. Untill then, get the iMac and learn.
If screen space is an issue, i believe that you can hook up an external one to the new imac. If drive space is a problem, build yourself you own external 100 gig 7200 rpm firewire drive for less than $300. From the little that you said, it sounds like you are very much a beginer and are just hoping to get you feet wet in dv editing. Well the iMac will do that and more and is absolutely unbeatable at the price. You don't need a tower unless you need to add some pci cards or extra internal storage. Since you are a student, get the educational discount from apple and have some fun with you new machine. When you use it a while and decide to invest more into it, then you can upgrade to you dream cutting station. Untill then, get the iMac and learn.
Get
Get a 733MHz G3 from Apple Edu. Store, and then get a 17in display from Apple. That would be your best bet. The tower is expandable, and that is a key in FCP. You need more than one HD, and an iMac cant cut it.
Get a 733MHz G3 from Apple Edu. Store, and then get a 17in display from Apple. That would be your best bet. The tower is expandable, and that is a key in FCP. You need more than one HD, and an iMac cant cut it.
okay, as a proud owner of the new imac, im happy to say that the choice for you is the imac.
great price.
big enough hard drive for normal sized movies.
memory can be added to fit FCP's needs.
rendering is fast enough to not be frustrated.
monitor is not that big but can hook up an external monitor.
its just a great Apple product.
get an iMac.
irmongoose
great price.
big enough hard drive for normal sized movies.
memory can be added to fit FCP's needs.
rendering is fast enough to not be frustrated.
monitor is not that big but can hook up an external monitor.
its just a great Apple product.
get an iMac.
irmongoose
Thanks for the advice everyone. You all make good points, but unfortunately they are conflicting, so let me pose the question this way:
What I am trying to figure out is basically a cost/benefit ratio
[I am an economist by training, and that's probably part of my problem right there] . I am not a "beginner" with DV, I know how much better a tower with a 17+" monitor would be, but even with an edu discount it would cost almost 50% more than an iMac (based on $1800 iMac retail and $2663 discounted 933 G4 w/ 17"LCD). So would the benefit of the G4 be greater or less than its 50% higher cost? What about getting the 800Mhz G4 with a 60+ gig HD and losing the Superdrive?
ps-I could probably do it through friends but I would have to do some scamming to get the edu discount, because I've already graduated (with my Econ degree). I am only pursuing film on the side, but I make more than just simple cheesy home movies.
What I am trying to figure out is basically a cost/benefit ratio
[I am an economist by training, and that's probably part of my problem right there
] . I am not a "beginner" with DV, I know how much better a tower with a 17+" monitor would be, but even with an edu discount it would cost almost 50% more than an iMac (based on $1800 iMac retail and $2663 discounted 933 G4 w/ 17"LCD). So would the benefit of the G4 be greater or less than its 50% higher cost? What about getting the 800Mhz G4 with a 60+ gig HD and losing the Superdrive?ps-I could probably do it through friends but I would have to do some scamming to get the edu discount, because I've already graduated (with my Econ degree). I am only pursuing film on the side, but I make more than just simple cheesy home movies.
Re: Get
bull! Fire wire hard drives will more than handle dv footage! I edit off of a 60 gig aps hard drive connected to one fire wire port and my dv camera conected to the other which converts dv signal to component for a tv/monitor. And this is with only a max throughput of about 20 MB/s for my firewire (Pismos, and tibook rev A's have a problem with their firewire which severly limits its bandwidth. No such problem for snow ibooks) As for expandability, yeah but only if you plan on adding some sort of analog capture card/realtime card (useless in my opionion unless you are doing the nightly news). The only big upgrade i see as a necesity is a second monitor. The iMac has a vga ouput.
And no that 733 g4 tower will NOT beat out an imac 800. The 733 is sans level 3 cache, same as the 800. The imac has a 67 mhz clock advantage over the 733. Yes the 733 has a 133 bus but that really doesn't make that much of a difference. Now if it was a 733 with a 233 bus and an 800 with a 100 it would be a different story.
Save yourself a grand and use it for upgrades or a decent camera (if you don't have one). Get the iMac.
bull! Fire wire hard drives will more than handle dv footage! I edit off of a 60 gig aps hard drive connected to one fire wire port and my dv camera conected to the other which converts dv signal to component for a tv/monitor. And this is with only a max throughput of about 20 MB/s for my firewire (Pismos, and tibook rev A's have a problem with their firewire which severly limits its bandwidth. No such problem for snow ibooks) As for expandability, yeah but only if you plan on adding some sort of analog capture card/realtime card (useless in my opionion unless you are doing the nightly news). The only big upgrade i see as a necesity is a second monitor. The iMac has a vga ouput.
And no that 733 g4 tower will NOT beat out an imac 800. The 733 is sans level 3 cache, same as the 800. The imac has a 67 mhz clock advantage over the 733. Yes the 733 has a 133 bus but that really doesn't make that much of a difference. Now if it was a 733 with a 233 bus and an 800 with a 100 it would be a different story.
Save yourself a grand and use it for upgrades or a decent camera (if you don't have one). Get the iMac.
iMac will be ok if you stick with dv. if you get to the stage of doing uncompressed you will be making enough money to buy a tower for your cinewave/voodoo/etc. card. your only problems will be lcd size and dropped frames. re the dropped frames you will need to partiton the iMac hard drive or get an external firewire drive. ideally you have a seperate drive for captured dv. get a minimum of 512mb ram.