Which Mac?

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Hello all,

i am going to college next year for a 4 year film production course. We are going to be using avid and final cut pro and i hear mac's are good for all that. The question is which one? I want to invest quite a bit but nothing crazy. I will be moving into residence and i hear students bring laptops but ive always been a desktop person. I could get the Mac pro for the power (since i have 3+ monitors) but would getting a macbook pro suffice for the hard usage of video editing and other applications?

Maybe an iMac?

I just want to get a mac that will be powerful and one i wont want to switch for about 3 years(expensive)

Thanks everyone!
 
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Your Mac's Specs
MacMini 14.3, 8.1 & 4.1, OS 13.5, 10.14, & 10.11 & 10.6; Macbook Pro 8.2, OS 10.12.
My vote goes for iMac, perhaps the latest 2.66 GHz 20" model (US$1500 according to Mactracker). Question is, what about portability? You say you're moving into residence. Will you be required to have your own computer with you at lectures/workshops and the like?
 
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I have sent an email asking about that now. I think i am leaning toward the iMac 3.06 24" with 4gbs of ram. My only concern is being able to run all my programs, final cut pro, avid, adobe photoshop, after effects smoothly?(well, beeter than smooth. fast.)
 
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The imac would be your best bet but if you need something portable the macbook pro will do the job just as good but you will pay for the performance.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
2 x 20" iMac Intel Core 2 Duo
Also check out the refurbished Apple stores you can make a big saving.
These compters have been checked by apple and still carry the standard 12 month warrenty.
I have bought 2 and will only buy them from now on.
Normal macs are only randomly checked where every reburbished ones have to be checked.
 
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thanks for the replies! i found out i will need a laptop in class to take notes, but i need the power to run final cut pro studio and adobe PS. I might just get an iMac and a cheap pc laptop
 
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Your Mac's Specs
15-inch MacBook Pro
thanks for the replies! i found out i will need a laptop in class to take notes, but i need the power to run final cut pro studio and adobe PS. I might just get an iMac and a cheap pc laptop

If it were me I would buy a MacBook Pro and be done with it. You can get an external monitor on the cheap if you find you really need one. I bought an iMac and a MacBook. I ended up buying a MacBook Pro and I could not be happier. My wife could not be happier either since she got the iMac and the MacBook!
 
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I would wait and see what new notebooks Apple unveils at next Tuesday's event.
 
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thanks for the advice, i guess im getting ahead of myself since ill only need to one one before i start college in fall 2009. Ill wait it out, and just drool at final cut studio some more...
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Al iMac 20" 2.4Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
If you need portability, how about the MacBook Pro? It's basically a portable iMac.

New notebooks are released on Tuesday, so I'd wait until then.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
24" iMac 3.06 ghz 4gb Ram 1tb, Ipod Touch 1g, iPhone 3G, iBook G4 1.2ghz 1.25 GB
I have sent an email asking about that now. I think i am leaning toward the iMac 3.06 24" with 4gbs of ram. My only concern is being able to run all my programs, final cut pro, avid, adobe photoshop, after effects smoothly?(well, beeter than smooth. fast.)

I have the iMac 3.06 with 4gb or ram, it runs everything very smoothly...I am also in a film school. The Mac Pro would probably be best for you though, since it is very powerful and not likely to become obsolete in 4+years. It is very very expensive however. Also, like someone said how do you feel about portability? A macbook pro might be a good way to go also. If you have an Apple Store near you, you can go in and all the computers that I have seen have Final Cut Studio already loaded on them. You could mess around with them and see if it would work out for you.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
24" iMac 3.06 ghz 4gb Ram 1tb, Ipod Touch 1g, iPhone 3G, iBook G4 1.2ghz 1.25 GB
Don't forget you get a student discount on your purchases, it does help a little bit with the hardware, but Final Cut Studio is 50% off with the student discount.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Macbook Pro 2.4 GHz, 160 GB at 7200rpms 4GB ram...iPhone 3G
I'm in my first year University for a Media/film program. I have a Macbook Pro from last fall. You can read it in my specs... but it's the 2.4, 4Gb, 256 Gfx... bla bla bla... I'm running final cut pro, and ALL of Adobe cs3 master suite ( After effects, illustrator.... everything... u name it)

It handles beautifully. When at home i hook it up to my external monitor helpful when editing.

I would highly recommend this machine to anyone in a film or graphic design related field. Don't underestimate the power of this machine, and don't think FCP, or CS3 will lag or be slow or any of that.

Like I said the computer is already 1 year old, and I just started university, so I will easily be using this machine for another 4 years.
 
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I suggest you get the top of the line iMac first if you're on budget, then once the need arise, you can always get a mac pro.
 

LDB


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I can't really imagine portability not being mandatory. My guess would be you'd need to take it to classes, study groups, library etc. so an iMac wouldn't be a good choice. Pricewise it would be the choice but by the time you buy an iMac and a notebook pc you'd spend as much as a MBP. Additionally, do you really want to deal with both Mac and pc platforms? As Dave Ramsey says, "if I woke up in your shoes" I'd go for the MBP as the best overall solution.
 
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hmmm, im glad to hear a Macbook Pro can handle my programs. on the other hand the MBP is really expensive. Since i don't technically need a Mac before fall 2009, i will wait and see if the prices go down.

I was leaning toward the iMac because of the nice big screen and the power, but LDB has a point and i do have an external monitor i could hook up at residence.

anyways thanks for the responses, i cant wait to see what happens tuesday, and hopefully a new iMac will come out for fall 2009 so i can compare.
 

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