Need help to spec a MP for editing

[yoak]

HI
I´m a cameraman that some times edit small stuff. Normally I hand over my footage to editors
So far my iMac has served me well, but me and my partner got a job that involves 4 * 30 min sports programs for TV.
The plan was to use his PC and Premiere for editing because he got a very powerfull machine.
The thing is (surprise surprise) we have had too many problems with the set up. To top it off, Premier dosen´t fully support our cameras (Sony EX1).

He came to me and suggested we get a MP to run Final Cut.

We can´t afford to spend alot just yet, but will upgrade as we go.

I´m thinking of the 2.8 8 core as it looks like the best bang for the buck.
I will get RAM elsewhere

My main concern is how to set up the HDs, and what HDs to buy?

The other thing is ofcourse the GPU, there are conflicting threads as to get the 8800 or not.
Won´t it be easy to get this card later if needed?

It seems peaple have problems with the RAID card, can I use an external RAID set up? (I know very little about RAIDS)

How easy is it to install a video card and what slot does it use?
(This will be in the future as we only use USB and firewire to capture footage for this project)

Any help appreciated.

PS I´m off to an Apple center tomorrow, but I would like to read myself up on this before talking to a sales rep

 

[nick9191]

The graphics card is easy peasy to install however you need to buy it off the Apple store (PC cards don't work, without some hacking and a lot of trouble), and it just slots right into the PCIE X 16 slot. I would use the 2600 to begin with, then if you find you need the extra power, get the 8800GT and sell the 2600 on ebay. HDD's- you can use what you like, as long as there 3.5" SATA, I'd recommend a Raptor as a boot drive. Don't know about RAID although I havent heard that many problems with the RAID card.

 

[bigbird]

I do a lot of video editing and I have a MP dual 2.8 with the 8800GT card. I don't think you will get any benefit for editing with the 8800 card, the standard card will be fine. I have 4 HD's. I replaced the stock 320. It was slow and noisy. My boot drive is a 500GB WD Caviar 16MB cache. I have 2 X 320GB Seagate 16MB cache HD's set up in software RAID 0 (striped) for the editing. They are fast and editing goes very smoothly. I also have another 500GB WD Caviar for archiving finished movies. I would get at least 8 GB of RAM right off the hop. Hope this helps.

 

[yoak]

Thanks for the input guys. I´ll let you know how it goes

 

[yoak]

Lucky me found one in stock here in Oslo. They even let me pick it up from their main office so I didn´t have to wait until tomorrow.
I got the stock 2.8 8 core.
HDs are ordered and what I now wonder is how I go about changing the system from one HD to another.
Do I just do clean install on the new disk and wipe the other?
Where is it best to keep a partition for Windows?
Thanks guys, it´s a monster in the house now.
Have to wait for my friend to bring down a monitor so I can fire her up. Where is he for crying out ..?

 

[bigbird]

.
Do I just do clean install on the new disk and wipe the other?
Where is it best to keep a partition for Windows?

Here's what I did. I first booted my new Mac without replacing/upgrading anything. I wanted to make sure everything was working perfectly stock.
Then I installed whatever programs I needed, including the free Carbon Copy Cloner. Then I shut down and unplugged all cables and added 3 new HD's and RAM. On restart, I cloned the original HD using Carbon Copy Cloner onto one of the 3 new HD's. When that was done, I chose the new HD as my startup disk. Then I restarted on the new cloned HD. Once that worked perfectly, I shut down and removed the original HD and replaced it with the 4th HD.

Can't advise on Windows, as I refuse to install and use it on my MP. I don't want to "contaminate" my MP.

 

[yoak]

Can't advise on Windows, as I refuse to install and use it on my MP. I don't want to "contaminate" my MP.

He he. I couldn´t agree more, but as you know from my first post, we are 2 who own this thing together, and he is coming from the PC world.
Hopefully after some weeks we never have to boot in Windows again as he will see the beauty of the Mac world.

Thanks for the advice on the installation process. I will do what you did.
I´m using the MP now just to test is as you did. Seems in perfect condition.
We have 2 750Gb HDs coming in the next few days. We´ll keep the 320 for a while as well I think. Have to make some money on this machine before upgrading further. Shouldn´t take too long is my guess

 

[yoak]

I did make a copy on to my new HD using Carbon. I changed the start up disk to my new HD, but all I get is a grey screen.
What do I do?

 

[bigbird]

I did make a copy on to my new HD using Carbon. I changed the start up disk to my new HD, but all I get is a grey screen.
What do I do?

Shut down your MP. Remove the original HD with the original startup disk. Then reboot. Try that and hopefully you'll get more than a grey screen. Is your monitor hooked up properly?