A potential convert to Mac needs help

[Chris Hurd]

Denis Basic, if you're attending the MacWorld show in New York, please be sure to drop by the Canon booth. I'm working the show at the DV camera counter and it would be a pleasure to meet you in person. Looking forward to meeting you,

[Joe Redifer]

The sooner you buy a Dual G4, the sooner they'll come out with a G5. Please buy a G4 right away so that Apple will either introduce the G5 the very next day or at least lower the price by $1000 on the dual G4 right after they get your money. :)

[Denis Basic]

Hi all,

Chris, I wish I were in New York for a change, but I am stuck here in Seattle writing my dissertation. Ah, it would be so nice to meet you, hang around in New York, and visit the Expo. Maybe some other time. :-)

Today morning I also ran to the Internet to see what’s up in New York. Well, as we know, the new Dual 1.4 GHz was not introduced so the Dual 1 GHz is still about $4,100.00. Somehow, intuitively, I also guessed that this would happen. Thus, I am not too disappointed. In any case, I don’t rely too much on Murphy’s laws.

It would be nice to get the Dual 1GHz for $1,000.00 less, especially since I plan to buy the 23” display (about $3,500.00) in addition to FCP3, DVD Studio Pro, Cinema Tools and Mac Office. Maybe I should wait until September? What do you think guys? Somebody mentioned “later this year” as the time when the new Dual 1.4 GHz should appear and make the Dual 1GHz cheaper.

I am not looking for the latest version of G4 (i.e. the expected 1.4 GHz) or even for G5. If Martin and Joe R. were able to successfully complete their demanding projects with their 450 MHz Macs, I believe that I would be satisfied with my Dual 1 GHz.

So, I do not plan to wait until the next year and G5, but maybe I could wait until September. What do you think, guys? (It is true. I am getting nervous and it might happen that I go ahead and order the stuff this weekend.)

As to the Jaguar, I know that I would love to have the car. As to the program, I am not sure that I really need it.

Greetings,

[Paul Sedillo]

<<<-- Originally posted by Joe Redifer : The sooner you buy a Dual G4, the sooner they'll come out with a G5. Please buy a G4 right away so that Apple will either introduce the G5 the very next day or at least lower the price by $1000 on the dual G4 right after they get your money. :) -->>>

And of course 10 days ago I ordered my Dual G4! Well, I hope that helps in getting the price lowered for you. :)

[Jeff Farris]

I walked into an Apple store last January with every intention of walking out with a Ti Powerbook. I put the 14" iBook and a Ti Powerbook side by side, both connected to my website, scrolled through many of the still images on my site, had the Apple trained sales staff check the calibration of both monitors, and walked out with the iBook.

In my still photography, image quality is everything and speed is way down the list. Since I have taken up video, my iBook seems completely capable of everything I want to do in the field. Granted, I am an amateur, but don't dream of a Powerbook thinking that your display is going to be vastly superior to the less expensive iBook...it ain't.

By the way, the only time I wait for my iBook is if I drop in 8 or 10 transitions at once. It will take a couple of minutes to render them all, but I can still work, just not watch. And that is with the 600 Mhz iBook. The current crop is faster with a 700 Mhz processor. The one mistake I made was to accept the pre-packaged 20 gig hard drive. I should have ordered my unit for delivery with the 40.

[Rik Sanchez]

Jeff,
thanks for the info on the iBook, I've had my eye on it, a friend has the old 12 inch one he got a while back, likes it a lot. I've most of the cash saved up, I'll be able to get it soon. I mainly want it to store my videos as mpegs and do photoshop stuff on the go, someone else mentioned doing FCP stuff in the RT Offline mode, that sounds cool also, I would still do my major video stuff on the G4 desktop that I have.

I'm sold on the iBook, just a matter of time till I get one, can't wait till I'm mobile with it, just take it with me everywhere. I seem to be in more situations where it would be nice to have a laptop with me and do some work there on site at a shoot.

How much ram do you have in it? The only thing about living here is I have my family order it for me and they ship it out to me, I don't want to get one with the Japanese OS on it, so I get my computer from the states, I wish they would ship international but no one does.

[Jeff Farris]

I have 256 and in my never ending techie quest, would like more. Get the largest soldered in memory card offered, then buy the snap in DIMM from a third party. They're cheaper and bigger than what Apple offers. Snapping them in is no biggie.

If you find a company that will ship to Japan, you'll probably face stiff import duties and customs charges. Let your family ship it to you, then its just something you forgot to pack.

[Jeff Farris]

What's the break point, 25?

[Rik Sanchez]

So it's no big deal to open it up yourself and pop in the extra ram? With the G4's it's a snap, but I figured it would be a hassle to open up a laptop.


here is the member rankings, congrats on becoming a backbone, remember, no slouching, sit up straight, we have a community to support, I'm actually looking forward to borrowing Chris' truck, it'll be nice to drive on the right side of the road again and not have to shift with my left hand :-)

"a Tourist has made fewer than 5 posts -- this is somebody who might just be passing through, or wants to use the board to get a specific question answered. Obviously this is someone who's just recently joined; no way of knowing yet how long they'll stick around.

a New Boot has made more than 5 but fewer than 25 posts -- this is somebody who seems committed to using the board but is still fairly new. It's like a probationary status. They're here and are part of the team; let's see if they can stick it out.

a Regular Crew member has made more than 25 posts -- these folks are the backbone of the community, who have earned the right to full-fledged membership status by virtue of all the posts they've made. They have "arrived."

a Major Player has made more than 75 posts -- it seems like they swing through here quite a bit, and they're very vocal, we always hear from 'em. At the rate these folks go, they don't remain Major Players for long, as they're always moving up.

a Trustee member has made more than 150 posts -- someone who's obviously committed to making regular use of the boards, answering questions and helping out. If this person asked to borrow the Ford, I'd probably toss 'em the keys. They've been around often enough, I feel like I can trust 'em.

an Inner Circle member has made more than 250 posts -- beer drinking buddies for sure. But you don't see too many of them because I've invited most of 'em to serve in a different capacity, as forum moderators. "

[Jeff Donald]

The cut off date was the 17th, so your safe. If you buy a Mac and 10.2 is not on it you will get a free upgrade. If you want a CD there is a $20 charge, I think, could be less. Sometimes if you call customer service and beg, they extend the grace period for maybe 2 to 4 weeks. But don't count on getting 10.2 for free if you just bought your Mac.

Jeff

[Denis Basic]

Hi all,

Once again I would like to thank you all for you great advices. You, guys, helped me save approximately $470 so far.

Hence, instead of ordering the "ultimate" Dual 1GH Mac (with two 80 GB drives, 1.5 GB SDRAM, and Titanium card), I ordered the "fastest" Dual 1 GHz Mac (with one 80 GB drive, 512 MB SDRAM) and asked them to put the NVIDIA GeForce4 Titanium card into my computer.

Jeff, thanks for the info about the sale with the CompUSA. I purchased from them the Western Digital 120 GB hard drive, which you recommended. As you said, with the rebate it will cost me about $140. The second 80 GB drive with Apple costs $250. With your help I saved $110. Thanks.

As to the SD RAM upgrade, I decided to do it again by myself. If I asked Apple to add another 1GB SDRAM to my computer, that would have cost me about $600. The guys at the Comp USA told me that I could get a 512 MB PCC133 SDRAM DIMM module with them for about $120/module. I also found one with Best Buy for $100 after rebates. So, on the SD RAM I could save another $360.

1. QUESTION: Are all of the 512 MB PC 133 SDRAM modules the same, i.e. do some factories manufacture modules of better quality than the others? Do some of them work better with Mac than the others? Forgive my ignorance. Any good deals? :-)

As advised by Ken Tanaka, I also purchased Griffin iMic. I also already got my FCP3 and Mac Office. I am still waiting for DVD Studio Pro 1.5. So, the 120 GB hard drive, iMic and all of this software look nice on my desk, but also a bit stupid without my Mac. :-) The computer should come by mid or end next week. I cannot wait.

2. QUESTION: I heard a lot of nice things about Adobe After Effects? What do you think, guys, about Adobe Video Collection? So far I understood, After Effects should work nicely with the material processed on FCP3. Am I right?

Thanks again, guys, for helping me get the right information and save a decent amount of money. I owe you a beer when I meet you. :-)

Sincerely your new convert to Mac,

[Jeff Donald]

Denis,

That is great. Your post put a big smile on my face. I'm glad you took all of our advice and it sounds like your on the way to a killer system. I'm even envious, I've only got a lowly G4 450 dual processor. Most memory is guaranteed for life. I'd buy from CompUSA, they at least support Apple and Mac. You won't find a single Mac in a Best Buy.

Unless there is a rebate on After Effects I would wait. It's a great program, but probably one of the hardest to learn. There are some great deals for FCP3 users right now. The new Boris Red 2.5 is out http://stores.yahoo.com/artel-software/fincutpro20s.html and they have some great deals.

The next version of FCP will probably be almost like After Effects. FCP is very strong in compositing, it does about 60% of what After Effects does right now. I expect the next version late this year or early next.

Jeff

[Martin Munthe]

If your into serious multilayer compositing with complete and total control of key frames and behaviour AE is the knock out app according to me. There is very little you can't do in AE Production Bundle. If you only want to ad som titles and simple composites without features like motion tracking, expressions and live paint you'll do fine staying in FCP3.

A lot of folks praise Combustion right now. To me Combustion is a way for Discreet to make people dependent on online in "real" systems like the Flame or Inferno (which is very expensive). Combustion is the Flame Light Edition.

If you are really looking for a compositing monster app i suggest you take a look at www.apple.com/shake. Shake is super fast. Has high end industry support and is an OSX app only (to the great envy of former Linux, IRIX and Wintel users). Smart move from Apple. It's a pricey system but very, very sofisticated. The software even outruns Inferno on the SGI.

[Jeff Donald]

Apple's recent aquisistion of Shake, is what makes me think some of that great technology will trickle down to the next version of FCP. Why? To keep Avid DV Express 3.5 at bay. Competition is a good thing.

Jeff

[Justin Morgan]

How much RAM are you guys running on your G4s with FCP3 and OSX?

I'm about to get the new i-mac G4 (17" widescreen) when it comes out and was wondering how much extra RAM I should get (it comes with 256 out of the box) and what difference it will make to rendering times.