I need to learn Final Cut Pro (I need to self-teach myself it) over the next few months and need to aquire an inexpensive Mac to learn it--even if it's used. I'm assumiong this means I need a Mac laptop. Anyway, this Mac (and FCP) is just for learning purposes; I won't be switching from the PC NLE I currently use. Other than eBAY, what sites offer affordable Macs that I can aquire--just to learn the software?

You can buy an iMac also... they offer very much bang for the buck, pretty cheap, and pretty powerfull!

At the official Apple store, you can buy refurbished Mac's also. Price differences aren't always so big, but I've heard they are mostly in good condition.

You could place a want ad in our private classifieds forum here: http://www.dvinfo.net/conf/forumdisplay.php?f=16

Google will lead you to a "small dog" which may also be of interest :-)

Get an iMac G3... the "DV" version. It'll be sloow, but cheap! and run OSX 10.3 fine. (I have an old one myself.)
You'll need a little older version of FCP though.

Or get a G4 powerbook.

You'll need intel for the newest, anyway, and that won't be cheap, unless FCE is ok.

A new Mac Mini will use a monitor and keyboard/mouse that you already have from your PC (or on a KVM switch) and is relatively cheap. There are good discounts for students and teachers as well as corporate discounts for FCS as well to save some money...the teacher/student educational discounts have license restrictions on the distro of output.

Thanks for the suggestions. Is there a video tutorial (DVD/DVDs) that you can recommend which will get me up to speed and teach me Final Cut Pro---something down to earth and easy to follow.

Regarding the Mac Mini, isn't it true that Final Cut Pro won't work on it because FCP needs an AGP or PCI graphics card and the Mac Minis have an Intel graphics processor? I'm referencing the Apple Website requirements for "Final Cut Studio 2." Perhaps the older versions of Final Cut Pro run but not the newer versions?

Nothing aside from the new machines will fully run FC Studio.
Macbooks, mac minis will not either. The pre-intel iMacs won't (even the G5s), and I'm not sure about the current models. No pre-intel computers, or, especially G4- computers will run it.

HOWEVER, that is the studio in full. In fact, it will run. But the newest graphics cards are required for certain features:
-Motion
-Color
-Certain features of FCP (mostly plugins that require advanced processing, such as time effects like motion trails-- not something you need to do too much practice with if you're just training/learning)

On a computer without the card, it will install but motion and color won't work, and FCP will be missing a few features. The rest should be ok, though.

Using FCS 2, the above is true.

I believe that FCS [1] will run just fine on these computers, though I haven't tested it. It works just fine on my Macbook Pro, and seemed to work fine on my G5 powerpc tower, but I haven't really used it on there-- I had 10.3 installed, needed to update to 10.4, and by the time I did, I started doing most of my work on the laptop anyway.

You could certainly learn using this stripped down version of the suite (including Soundtrack and DVDSP, etc.), or just use FCE.

I need to learn Final Cut Pro (I need to self-teach myself it) over the next few months and need to aquire an inexpensive Mac to learn it--even if it's used. I'm assumiong this means I need a Mac laptop. Anyway, this Mac (and FCP) is just for learning purposes; I won't be switching from the PC NLE I currently use. Other than eBAY, what sites offer affordable Macs that I can aquire--just to learn the software?

Sounds like an expensive learning process!
Why purchase a Mac computer and FCP Software if as you state, you are not going to switch from editing on your PC?

Why not start the learning process by just going the the book store and purchasing one of the many books on editing with FCP?
It sure would be cheaper than spending $3k on a computer/hard drives/software that you are not going to be editing with.

No, I need to get hands-on experience with it ASAP and want to get a bare-bones Mac anyway. My school is upgrading in the spring to either FC or Adobe Premiere and I don't want to wait until the computers are up and running (in April) to start learning. The Mac Mini and FC (an older version) will do nicely. I already have the Adobe line.

No, I need to get hands-on experience with it ASAP and want to get a bare-bones Mac anyway. My school is upgrading in the spring to either FC or Adobe Premiere and I don't want to wait until the computers are up and running (in April) to start learning. The Mac Mini and FC (an older version) will do nicely. I already have the Adobe line.

Make sure the older versions match the hardware of the mac...PowerPC (PPC) or Intel.