Advice for first Mac purchase.

Hi there, hope everyone's doing well ^_^

Basically, I love making films, I always have, but Ive recently started to take this more seriously and have realised that a handheld £120 mini dv camera just won't cut it.

Nor will Windows Movie Maker or my old, slow laptop.

I've been using Macs at my college for my media production course and have found them an absolute dream for editing. So I was wondering if anyone had any advice on what specs I should include on my first Mac, my budget is roughly £1000, which probably won't get me much, but I was just curious as to what people suggest.

Thanks for your help.

Hi DiscoTuna,
Welcome to MacForums! I hope some of us could help you decide on a suitable Mac.

IMO, a mid range iMac would do the job. Since you are going to do some video editing, try to add more RAM (Maximum you could afford). This would help immensely to boost the performance.

Good luck!

novicew said:

Hi DiscoTuna,
Welcome to MacForums! I hope some of us could help you decide on a suitable Mac.

IMO, a mid range iMac would do the job. Since you are going to do some video editing, try to add more RAM (Maximum you could afford). This would help immensely to boost the performance.

Good luck!

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I agree with this, but I would buy 3rd party ram, the ram from apple is way to expensive. I personally use crucial. Good luck to you.

gomez1018 said:

I agree with this, but I would buy 3rd party ram, the ram from apple is way to expensive. I personally use crucial. Good luck to you.

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Oh really? Thanks, that's useful to know. But (please forgive the amateurism) I have no idea how one would attach third party RAM to a Mac.

Also, would you recommend a laptop or...?

Do you want to edit on the road or in a computer room?

Imac would be great for video editing
so would a macbook pro

To change ram in laptop you need to take out the battery, remove a metal plate and it pushes out...
Its in the instructions

mikeyman said:

Do you want to edit on the road or in a computer room?

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Computer room.

Well, my bedroom to be more precise.

I'm thinking an iMac would be better than a Macbook considering the space I have in my room, but I would invest in a Macbook if my funding would allow it. Gives me more freedom to work etc.

Does anyone here have any specific Mac setups that they recommend for video editing?

Just to update everyone, I'm pretty much set on:

13 inch Black 2.2GHz Macbook.

4GB of Crucial RAM.

Final Cut Studio 2.

And a 250GB Lacie external hard drive.

And for the record, I'm getting the Sony HDR-FX1 camera.

Any thoughts/suggestions?

You might need a separate big screen if you haven't already got one

louishen said:

You might need a separate big screen if you haven't already got one

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I'm using a 19" monitor for my Xbox 360, but the only other montior I might be able to use is the 17" one that my father has running on our pc, but hopefully he'll be investing in a mac soon so I could use that one.

The reason for the Macbook is the mobility that it gives me. I'd spring for a Macbook Pro but that would leave me having to buy a lesser camera.

Since you're a student, as I am too, and you have the same budget I had when I bought my iMac, I'll tell you what I got.

If you don't need a notebook/laptop, I'd go with an iMac. You can get a 20" 2.4GHz and upgrade the hard drive to 500GB. Then go to someplace like KRCS (if you have one near you) and get a 2GB RAM stick to up it to 3GB RAM. KRCS has a sale right now for the 2GB sticks for £34 a piece, which is a great price, IMO. That will put you right at your £1000.

If you need the portability, play around with the MacBook options. Remember it's a lot cheaper to upgrade the RAM yourself after you buy, so don't upgrade the RAM from Apple, it's super expensive.

I understand that you want mobility but I'm not sure that's a quality one should be looking for when searching for an editing computer. I'd choose an iMac just because of it's larger screen already built in (yeah, I know you have an external monitor you can use, but still...) plus it has a dedicated graphics card unlike the MacBook, and the option for a 500GB - 1TB hard drive. If I were you, I'd choose the 20" 2.4GHz iMac which runs the same price as the black MacBook. Then go through a third party like someone suggested earlier to upgrade it to 4GB of RAM and then you'd be good.

Sexy Patrol said:

I understand that you want mobility but I'm not sure that's a quality one should be looking for when searching for an editing computer. I'd choose an iMac just because of it's larger screen already built in (yeah, I know you have an external monitor you can use, but still...) plus it has a dedicated graphics card unlike the MacBook, and the option for a 500GB - 1TB hard drive. If I were you, I'd choose the 20" 2.4GHz iMac which runs the same price as the black MacBook. Then go through a third party like someone suggested earlier to upgrade it to 4GB of RAM and then you'd be good.

Click to expand...

Hm... good point.

It'll be a while till I get it anyway, so the more help and advice I can get now would be great to help me make my choice later on.

But whatever I go with I'm getting a 500GB external HDD for roughly £60, can't remember where from, kinda spaced atm. But I've gone off the Lacie.