need some advice on getting final cut and an external hard-drive

hey all.

so i'm trying to get my little home studio off the ground, and i need some feedback on what version of final cut is the best bang for the buck, and where i can find the best reliable deals. i can't afford to drop $1000 on the new pro version, and i would really appreciate some advice.

the same goes for an external hard-drive. need something 7200rpm, and where i can find a high quality product without spending a fortune on it.

pardon my ignorance, but i'm not 100% sure which mac i have. the components say - 1 gig memory, 232.57 capacity, mac osx 10.5.7, 2.4 ghz processor speed.

would really appreciate some help.
thank you.

I can sympathize. I just dropped $1,000 on FC Studio. The good news is from now on I can pay the upgrade price. Bad news is I am broke.

I wanted to do more with HD content which is why I upgrade. I think since Final Cut 6.05 you can do HD... but I am not sure if you can find that old software out there somewhere at a discount. I can't speak to FC Express... not sure what it does now.

Regarding harddrives.. it depends on the size of file transfers. But keep in mind, I have a 7,200 2.0 USB harddrive and it struggles to keep up with FC when editing (the video is all jumpy and laggy). I literally couldn't edit using it. I upgraded to a 10,000 rpm Firewire drive and it is smooth as silk, but Firewire drives are more expensive which defeat your intention. So the question is are you going to get into HD editing?

I think you will also need at least 2 GB of RAM to make final cut work well and 4 GB if you are planning on working with HD. I have 2 GB now using an iMac 20" with a 2.6 processor and i struggle to do anything with HD video and Motion is almost unusable. I am actually looking to step up to a Mac Pro soon.

the camera i got shoots 1080i hd so yeah i want the best quality possible.

any suggestions on where to find some good deals?

I shot a 1:07 HD video of my daughter with my new Canon HF20 this weekend. It was over 1 GB of data. When I put the video on my external drive with a USB 2.0 and linked it to FC it was uneditable... the sound played but the video would freeze for long periods of time. When I transfered that same video to my internal HD, it played fine. I think they are both 7,200 rpm, so the issue must be the speed of data transfer over a USB 2.0 cable vs. I then transfered it to my external Firewire drive and it worked fine. Problem is that drive is only 120GB and not nearly enough to do very many projects.

So I am debating a Mac Pro now, so I can get a RAID 0 going with multiple drives... but I am having trouble parting with $3k for that setup.

As far as where to find good deals... I normally find the best prices on computer equipment from Newegg.com there may be better prices from independent mom and pops on Amazon, but I don't trust em so shop at your own risk.

For camera equipment (both still and video) the best prices with great customer service I have found are from B&H.

yeah that's the same camera i got.

i haven't been in the field for a few years and am pretty out of touch, so feel free to talk to me like i'm a 5th grader...

so a 4 gig, 10,000rpm, firewire 800 external is the way to go?

another quick dumb question - the white usb cable that comes with the hf20, is that the standard cord you use to transfer video from your camera to your external, or can you use something like a hdmi cable for a quicker and better quality transfer?

i found this deal through b&h (who a buddy of mine says he goes through all the time and are very reliable)...is there a catch here? they're offering free delivery for $239

doesn't list the rpm either...

"Lacie 500 GB Little BIG Disk Quadra USB External Hard Drive
Desktop - 500 GB - USB, USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 FireWire
Back up your entire system or add extra storage space when your internal hard drive is full with the LaCie 500 GB Little Big Disk Quadra USB External Hard Drive. It provides high data transfer rates of up to 3 Gbits/s with the eSATA 3 Gbits interface. This drive is made up of sturdy aluminum alloy that dissipates heat and features a slender, stylish case that offers versatile desktop and rack-mount configuration options. This FireWire bus-powered innovation offers daisy-chaining to digital video"