Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Will a 2.8Ghz iMac be fast enough?
- Thread starter dannyboxer
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Your canon HF10 is a HD camcorder which captures in AVCHD format. The iMac will still be able to render but a little bit slower than SD video. Not sure if the HF10 lets you capture to SD also like my Sony SR11 does. iMovie will down convert it as well as FCE does.
After seeing this thread here
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/602581/
I'm not sure if it will be such a good idea to buy a iMac now. 😕
What with Snow Leopard coming soon and iMac updates just around the corner, it seems pretty stupid to buy a iMac now. I want one so badly though and am desperate to get one. It costs a lot of money though and don't want to blow it all on a iMac which is going to get outdated in a month. What would you do?
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/602581/
I'm not sure if it will be such a good idea to buy a iMac now. 😕
What with Snow Leopard coming soon and iMac updates just around the corner, it seems pretty stupid to buy a iMac now. I want one so badly though and am desperate to get one. It costs a lot of money though and don't want to blow it all on a iMac which is going to get outdated in a month. What would you do?
As much as I want a new mac pro with the new intel processors and snow leopard, I plan on waiting at least 6 months. Intels new processor is a totally redesign and snow leopard is being rewritten. Since your new to macs, might want to get the biggest and fastest iMac you can afford now. The prices are dropping to get ready for the new ones. One possibility though is a quad core in the new iMacs. If that happens, a quad core will definatetly process HD video. That and 8gb ram. Its only 2 more months for mac world so patients could be a virtue.
Ok, I might just buy myself a iPod Touch to keep me occupied while I'm waiting and buy all the accessories I want for my iMac now before I actually get it. That would make the wait seem shorter wouldn't it.🙂
akdj
macrumors 65816
Jeez!!! The Sky is Falling!!! New iMacs are coming!!!
Dude....seriously!!! You have let these boards change your mind. You want one now, buy it NOW! FCE is going to run just fine one ALL iMacs, you can't buy a ****** one right now!
I have a 3 year old G4 PowerBook 1.5ghz proc/1.5ghz RAM and I edit on Final Cut Pro with it in the field! (We use the older PB because the expansion slot fits Panasonic P2 media, the new ones have the Express slot, which P2 needs an adapter...another story🙂) It's not a speed demon, but it works fine and I'm editing HD...
I have alot of different Macs because of our business. We are in "the field" 80% of the time so we use MBPs and iMacs (with the iLugger). You will NOT be disappointed. If nothing else, wait til the new ones come out to save even more money on the older models (the ones out now). And don't worry about the "refurb" purchasing. It won't be marked up, they are interchangeable with new product, and the warranty is exactly the same. This is a hell of a way to save 3-400 bucks.
If you want it now, get it now. There is always new product on the horizon. But the software developers are almost alway two years behind taking advantage of what the hardware can do...at LEAST! You buy today's iMac and you will be editing 5 plus years into the future.
BTW, nice camera. AVC makes gorgeous footage.> Remember, anyone can learn Final Cut, it's learning to shoot compelling video (photo) that is tough! You can't shoot too much film! You won't even think about the computer anymore once you've made the purchase. It's all about the video from then out!!! Remember, as a videographer, the computer is just a tool😉
Dude....seriously!!! You have let these boards change your mind. You want one now, buy it NOW! FCE is going to run just fine one ALL iMacs, you can't buy a ****** one right now!
I have a 3 year old G4 PowerBook 1.5ghz proc/1.5ghz RAM and I edit on Final Cut Pro with it in the field! (We use the older PB because the expansion slot fits Panasonic P2 media, the new ones have the Express slot, which P2 needs an adapter...another story🙂) It's not a speed demon, but it works fine and I'm editing HD...
I have alot of different Macs because of our business. We are in "the field" 80% of the time so we use MBPs and iMacs (with the iLugger). You will NOT be disappointed. If nothing else, wait til the new ones come out to save even more money on the older models (the ones out now). And don't worry about the "refurb" purchasing. It won't be marked up, they are interchangeable with new product, and the warranty is exactly the same. This is a hell of a way to save 3-400 bucks.
If you want it now, get it now. There is always new product on the horizon. But the software developers are almost alway two years behind taking advantage of what the hardware can do...at LEAST! You buy today's iMac and you will be editing 5 plus years into the future.
BTW, nice camera. AVC makes gorgeous footage.> Remember, anyone can learn Final Cut, it's learning to shoot compelling video (photo) that is tough! You can't shoot too much film! You won't even think about the computer anymore once you've made the purchase. It's all about the video from then out!!! Remember, as a videographer, the computer is just a tool😉
phrehdd
Contributor
To Consider
Danny -
You seem to have very specific needs and lots of good advice here if* you end up dedicating your system for FC.
To consider:
CPU - The diff between the two speeds of the CPU can make a difference based on the types of applications you run. Applications that misbehave will try to take all of your CPU time and you end up in a waiting game. Faster CPU will get over these pauses faster (assuming it hasn't freezed you out entirely). In general work, items such as converting large files will be a little bit faster but not significant. FC does take advantage of processor speed but in your case, the diff between the two is relatively small with no major gain for the price.
Scratch Drive - an absolute must for what you are doing. While I am usually not one to overly recommend "solutions," you would really get a benefit from using Firewire 800 to an external drive. To speed up that external drive, consider using a striped enclosure. This is an enclosure with 2 drives that work together as one and over 50-80 percent more speed than the single drive. The drawback to this mode is that if one drive fails, the entire volume of data is lost. Just make sure you are not saving anything to these drives but only use it for scratch and, you do back ups.
Back Up - another absolute must. Plenty was written on this and you can pick how you want to do this whether its an external drive, external mirror drive, NAS or.... etc.
Video - in spite of what people say about the video, opt for a better video card. FC may not NOW take advantage of the GPU, but could in the future and certainly, you will find that you may add other applications that will. Why live with regrets over a couple of pounds well spent? Remember, some playback software do use the advantage of better video cards. For me, I have high end video in my system and as of recent, one of the applications I use daily is upgraded and a new feature is exploiting the GPU/video OpenGL for faster rendering. So my investment in the better video paid off faster than expected.
RAM - you are limited to 4 gigs. This is unfortunate but livable. Mac Pro as mentioned is a better graphic station not only by CPU (quad/octo) but ability to add more than 4 gigs RAM. Nothing to do here as you know the limit of populating your iMac to 4 gigs. (Video too has better choices)
----- List
2.8 imac with min RAM offered, best video you can afford
3rd party RAM to populate for 4 gigs (easy to do, far cheaper than Apple)
External drive enclosure with USB2/FW400/800 or 2 drive stripe raid FW800.
Some type of back up solution - external drive, NAS etc.
Remember, you will want at least 2 years of use out of your system. Hardware keeps changing and we always want to get "more" <grin> so its to your advantage to consider the next 1-2 years on the machine you decide to purchase.
- Phrehdd
Danny -
You seem to have very specific needs and lots of good advice here if* you end up dedicating your system for FC.
To consider:
CPU - The diff between the two speeds of the CPU can make a difference based on the types of applications you run. Applications that misbehave will try to take all of your CPU time and you end up in a waiting game. Faster CPU will get over these pauses faster (assuming it hasn't freezed you out entirely). In general work, items such as converting large files will be a little bit faster but not significant. FC does take advantage of processor speed but in your case, the diff between the two is relatively small with no major gain for the price.
Scratch Drive - an absolute must for what you are doing. While I am usually not one to overly recommend "solutions," you would really get a benefit from using Firewire 800 to an external drive. To speed up that external drive, consider using a striped enclosure. This is an enclosure with 2 drives that work together as one and over 50-80 percent more speed than the single drive. The drawback to this mode is that if one drive fails, the entire volume of data is lost. Just make sure you are not saving anything to these drives but only use it for scratch and, you do back ups.
Back Up - another absolute must. Plenty was written on this and you can pick how you want to do this whether its an external drive, external mirror drive, NAS or.... etc.
Video - in spite of what people say about the video, opt for a better video card. FC may not NOW take advantage of the GPU, but could in the future and certainly, you will find that you may add other applications that will. Why live with regrets over a couple of pounds well spent? Remember, some playback software do use the advantage of better video cards. For me, I have high end video in my system and as of recent, one of the applications I use daily is upgraded and a new feature is exploiting the GPU/video OpenGL for faster rendering. So my investment in the better video paid off faster than expected.
RAM - you are limited to 4 gigs. This is unfortunate but livable. Mac Pro as mentioned is a better graphic station not only by CPU (quad/octo) but ability to add more than 4 gigs RAM. Nothing to do here as you know the limit of populating your iMac to 4 gigs. (Video too has better choices)
----- List
2.8 imac with min RAM offered, best video you can afford
3rd party RAM to populate for 4 gigs (easy to do, far cheaper than Apple)
External drive enclosure with USB2/FW400/800 or 2 drive stripe raid FW800.
Some type of back up solution - external drive, NAS etc.
Remember, you will want at least 2 years of use out of your system. Hardware keeps changing and we always want to get "more" <grin> so its to your advantage to consider the next 1-2 years on the machine you decide to purchase.
- Phrehdd
phrehdd
Contributor
Glad this is working out for you. I know you just got your new system and added the extra RAM but there is some discussion that your model of iMAC can handle up to 6 gigs (unofficially). You may want to check up on this.
Btw, what Video did you get for your system?
Congratz,
- Phrehdd
I've finally ordered my iMac last weekend and it is coming on Monday 😀
I ordered the 2.8Ghz 24" model with the normal graphics card and wireless keyboard and mouse.
What RAM do you recommend i buy to max it out to 4 gigs? I'll need to buy 4 gigs won't I (2 2GB sticks), as the iMac has 2 RAM slots and it comes with 2 1GB RAM sticks doesn't it?
Also, what external hard drive should I get? Will 500GB be enough for Time Machine and for using as a scratch disk? I've been looking at the G-Tech ones but they are quite expensive so can you recommend anything else?
Thanks. 🙂
I ordered the 2.8Ghz 24" model with the normal graphics card and wireless keyboard and mouse.
What RAM do you recommend i buy to max it out to 4 gigs? I'll need to buy 4 gigs won't I (2 2GB sticks), as the iMac has 2 RAM slots and it comes with 2 1GB RAM sticks doesn't it?
Also, what external hard drive should I get? Will 500GB be enough for Time Machine and for using as a scratch disk? I've been looking at the G-Tech ones but they are quite expensive so can you recommend anything else?
Thanks. 🙂
czachorski
macrumors 6502a
Check out OWC RAM. They seem to have the best prices. Crucial and Ramjet also have nice on-line tools for getting the right RAM for your Mac.
I'm pretty sure that you don't want to share time machine with your scratch disc. Time machine will keep writing to the disc until it is full, and then it will start to erase older backup data. You don't want anything like that on your scratch drive.
And I have to comment on these people who are saying they can't recommend an iMac for video editing. What planet are you living on? The original iMac DV was a 400 MHz G3. A 2.8 Ghz iMac will render HD in real time. You'll be fine doing HD on that iMac. I can certainly understand that there are better computers for video editing, and that there are some video editing needs that are best not done on an iMac, but a blanket statement that iMacs can't be recommended for video editing is drop-dead-wrong.
My Imac - Plenty Power
I got my Imac the 2.4GHZ one in August and it came with 1GB and I upgraded the RAM my self buying the RAM from Crucial, It was very easy. I can run anything on my system. It might to be the fastest but I can run my Windows XP Pro and Linux Ubuntu 8.10 at the same time on Vmware and there is no lag. 😀
Upgrading the RAM your self is cheep and easy. Go for that
I got my Imac the 2.4GHZ one in August and it came with 1GB and I upgraded the RAM my self buying the RAM from Crucial, It was very easy. I can run anything on my system. It might to be the fastest but I can run my Windows XP Pro and Linux Ubuntu 8.10 at the same time on Vmware and there is no lag. 😀
Upgrading the RAM your self is cheep and easy. Go for that
phrehdd
Contributor
Multiple makers provide RAM options for MAC. I got my Mac Pro Quad 2.66 RAM all fro OWC. I have zero problems and the price was decent. Yes, I would definitely recommend them.
As for Vid editing - this can be done on "any" of the newer Macs. I think the point was depending on how large your projects are, what applications you use, how many are open, the more "speed" across CPU, Drives, RAM, Vid card etc. would benefit you.
I believe the original poster purchased a decent system for his needs. As for external drives, I would strongly suggest he exploit the FW800 capability of the iMAC. OWC has some nice external FW800 drive enclosures and as well some pre-populated with a drive. I prefer to get my own drive but to each their own.
- Phrehdd