Power Mac vs iMac

How much better (faster) would a Power Mac Duel G5 be then an iMac G5. Would the extra money for the Power Mac be worth it?

I would start out with Final Cut Express, and then move up to Final Cut Studio, and then I would try to learn Shake in 2-3 years.

the more processor intensive task you are planning on doing then get the power mac, but i doubt you are going to go from just starting final cut express to using shake in 2-3 years.. Shake is a very hard program to dive into in such a short period of time, unless you get pro cerified in the software, but starting with final cut pro and motion before you even start to think about shake.... but back on the line of the computers I would say that the powermac g5 is more of what you need since all the programs you have mentioned allow for dual proccessor support and therefore would make your life alot easier if you had the dual proccessors.

go imac

get the imac g5 20" and load it with 2gb ram

I'd say the extra money is worth it for what you are wanting to do, plus you get more expandability and tweaking options for your hardware!

MPW said:

How much better (faster) would a Power Mac Duel G5 be then an iMac G5. Would the extra money for the Power Mac be worth it?

I would start out with Final Cut Express, and then move up to Final Cut Studio, and then I would try to learn Shake in 2-3 years.

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I just recently came onto the FCP scene about 2 years ago. Before that I was using Premiere, and Avid Xp on PC for years. I started with FCP 3, and am now using 5 + the whole suite. There is a tremendous difference in performance between a PM G5 and an iMac G5; it's definitely worth the money. I have a Dual 2.5 G5 PM in my editing studio at home and I "rented" (I say rented because I returned it shortly after) an iMac G5 for my 2 week vacation this summer. I needed something easy to transport on a plane to get some editing work done while I was in Cancun, and my Powerbook just wasn’t going to cut it.... unfortunately, neither was the iMac. I admit I am a bit spoiled by my PM at home, but I just couldn't take it. I really wasn't able get the editing workflow fluid enough to suit my own production. It became so frustrating, I gave up completely until I got home... and then I returned the iMac. Also keep in mind that with the iMac, you are stuck with first screen - you can add another, but theres no exchanging, selling or trading the first - and the screen really isn't that great, for video edting that is. When it comes to a video editing enviroment, the higher the screen resolution the better... I even have trouble sometimes fitting everything I want onto a 30'' & 23'' display (no, I'm not kidding).

It only took me about a day to learn shake... and quite a few days to get use to it. It's a very unconventional environment (stringing effect nodes to subject nodes, applying masking nodes to those nodes, etc), and it really doesn't seem very intuitive at first... but once you adjust, it makes a lot of sense, and then it's actually hard to conceive why all other compositing software doesn't use a similar interface.

With the new consumer-level HD Camcorders like the HDR-FX1 and the AG-HVX200, HD has finally arrived at an affordable price and it is definitely a good time to jump on the bandwagon.... You most certainly won't be able do that with an iMac (as HD is EXTREMELY demanding). It's also almost pointless and tacky to try and do decent compositing (with Shake, for example) with standard resolution (720x480) DV... there just aren't enough pixels to work with - projects will always end up looking very amateur, no matter how much time you spend on them. Low-end HD (1280x720) is about the lowest you can go to make a compositing project look decent.

Go with a PowerMac.

I beleive I have a solution. This person is selling his powermac g5, 8gb ram, dual 2.7, 30 inch screen, for 3000 dollars. He even has pictures. I would go for it. Heres the link: http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=26080&page=2&pp=15
-bpublisher

thats seems like a very good prices
the screen is 2500(new), 8gbs of RAMhas to be worth a few Thou , the PowerMac was 3k when it was new

and the guy has 6 post

perhaps meeting him for the trade would be the best idea


and the HardDrive is 400gb

falltime said:

I even have trouble sometimes fitting everything I want onto a 30'' & 23'' display (no, I'm not kidding).

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I would love to have your troubles

I just recently came onto the FCP scene about 2 years ago. Before that I was using Premiere, and Avid Xp on PC for years. I started with FCP 3, and am now using 5 + the whole suite. There is a tremendous difference in performance between a PM G5 and an iMac G5; it's definitely worth the money. I have a Dual 2.5 G5 PM in my editing studio at home and I "rented" (I say rented because I returned it shortly after) an iMac G5 for my 2 week vacation this summer. I needed something easy to transport on a plane to get some editing work done while I was in Cancun, and my Powerbook just wasn’t going to cut it.... unfortunately, neither was the iMac. I admit I am a bit spoiled by my PM at home, but I just couldn't take it. I really wasn't able get the editing workflow fluid enough to suit my own production. It became so frustrating, I gave up completely until I got home... and then I returned the iMac. Also keep in mind that with the iMac, you are stuck with first screen - you can add another, but theres no exchanging, selling or trading the first - and the screen really isn't that great, for video edting that is. When it comes to a video editing enviroment, the higher the screen resolution the better... I even have trouble sometimes fitting everything I want onto a 30'' & 23'' display (no, I'm not kidding).

Click to expand...

i find this post to be incredibly odd personally. I don't know what kind of Powerbook you were using but i am using a 17in 1.5ghz g4 with only 512 ram and i edit perfectly fine. it is extremely rare for me to have any kinds of problems with it. the only time i will start dropping frames is when i run FCP, DVDSP, LiveType, Opera, Aim, Quicktime, Mail, iPhoto, and Photoshop (although i don't recomend running WoW while doing all that too ). the only thing i do see a need for is more ram because i would like to be able to run all those programs on a regular basis together with out having to worry about dropping frames.

I have also used a G5 iMac for editing and i find it to do it fine. it has more power then my Powerbook so it easily does all of it smoother. I personally would not buy a desktop with less then 1.5 gigs of ram. I would be personally fine with a iMac with 1.5 gigs of ram if that was the best i could do with my alloted money. just don't forget that you also have to put in a couple hundred (or several hundred) in for the monitor for a PM dual G5.

Also i would recomend skipping FC express. its a waste of money and is just a stripped down version of pro. I personally found FCP incredibly easy to learn and straight forward. I picked it up with little help in about 1 month and became good with it in about 3.

trpnmonkey41 said:

I would love to have your troubles

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So do I...

Though I can understand that for video editing you can never have enough screen size. I recently installed Final Cut Studio HD on a Mac that has a 23" Cinema display...after opening FC, I really had the feeling that the screen was too small!!

Avalon said:

So do I...

Though I can understand that for video editing you can never have enough screen size. I recently installed Final Cut Studio HD on a Mac that has a 23" Cinema display...after opening FC, I really had the feeling that the screen was too small!!

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I've still only got the 17" screen neye:, I recently tried to follow a tutorial guide to do some editing trick or other and after about 5 minutes I was hopelessly lost because I'd shoved some windows off to the side and had to keep hitting F9 to find them. The tutorial assumed a 30 inch screen!

Amen-Moses

Kutless217 said:

i find this post to be incredibly odd personally. I don't know what kind of Powerbook you were using but i am using a 17in 1.5ghz g4 with only 512 ram and i edit perfectly fine. it is extremely rare for me to have any kinds of problems with it. the only time i will start dropping frames is when i run FCP, DVDSP, LiveType, Opera, Aim, Quicktime, Mail, iPhoto, and Photoshop (although i don't recomend running WoW while doing all that too ). the only thing i do see a need for is more ram because i would like to be able to run all those programs on a regular basis together with out having to worry about dropping frames.

I have also used a G5 iMac for editing and i find it to do it fine. it has more power then my Powerbook so it easily does all of it smoother. I personally would not buy a desktop with less then 1.5 gigs of ram. I would be personally fine with a iMac with 1.5 gigs of ram if that was the best i could do with my alloted money. just don't forget that you also have to put in a couple hundred (or several hundred) in for the monitor for a PM dual G5.

Also i would recomend skipping FC express. its a waste of money and is just a stripped down version of pro. I personally found FCP incredibly easy to learn and straight forward. I picked it up with little help in about 1 month and became good with it in about 3.

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Hmmm...I don't know about that. My powerbook, as much as I love it, is still sluggish in media editing of all kinds, be it print, audio, or video. Sure, it is capable of doing it, but an iMac or Powermac will simply blow it out of the water. When you do this kind of work professionally, laptops just can rarely cut it. For a hobby, sure, it's fine. It does the job, just not incredibly well.

I would have gotten a powermac instead of my 17" PB (they are close in cost), but I already had access to a desktop mac, and mobility was important for me, I travel a lot. But if I was buying on the basis of performance only, powermac is the way to go.

Hello There ! I have an old iMac original version G3 and I installed a panther on it, which works fine. So, I tryed to set it up warelessly with (USB DWL-122), apparently, doesn't work. It seems to get the signal, but I can't have access to the internet. Is my iMac G3 Bondi blue, too old? Is the USB incompatible with my iMac? Help, please!!!!

Yorg30

yorg30 said:

Hello There ! I have an old iMac original version G3 and I installed a panther on it, which works fine. So, I tryed to set it up warelessly with (USB DWL-122), apparently, doesn't work. It seems to get the signal, but I can't have access to the internet. Is my iMac G3 Bondi blue, too old? Is the USB incompatible with my iMac? Help, please!!!!

Yorg30

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You should really make a new thread for this.