Hello, I've been searching for a similar thred but with little joy for what im after. I am about to jump from PC to Mac in order to be able to run FCS2 (will be using after effects cs3 too), however im very worried that when it comes to purchasing a mac system i have no real idea what im after and how much power i need to run fcs2 smoothly. Ive been using sony vegas on my pc and due to it's easy use on nearly any pc system i have had great, fast and solid performance on my duo core 1.3ghz, 2gb ram pc to edit my high definition projects. Moving over to the mac i understand that performance will be based on many things including the graphics card i choose to use which is somehthing ive never had to consider before because vegas doesnt work through the graphics card.

My only major concern is that i see people on here with what seems to be 'beats of machines' at like 4gb ram, dual 2ghz etc and yet they are still talking of sluggish playback and various speed issues still.

So basically what im after is some feedback from people as to what they believe is a solid, fast and capable machine is to run FCS2 & AE CS3 on. i will be editing high def videos and hoping to take advantage of the pro res codec, also i will be doing alot of 3d work in after effects.

I think i will be buying second hand to keep the price realistic and i will be working on a budget of around £1500 which to my knowledge is around $2800. Thanks

Hi Daniel,

I just made the move to Mac from PC to run FCS2 and Adobe Production suite. You will need lots of power to run Motion. Not sure if you can do it for your budget but I am not a expert on building systems.

I purchased my Mac from Zotz Digital a DVinfo.net sponsor who are experts at building Mac systems. They are worth a call. Not sure if there is a DVinfo.net sponsor for the UK who builds Mac systems? Check the sponsor page on the top right of your screen.

great stuff, il give them a call.