Help

[George Ferrell]

Hello everyone I am being offered a 2007 Mac Pro to edit on. It is loaded with Avid and FCP7 and I want to know if it will do what I need it to do. I am a retired cameraman working with a JVC GY-LS300 shooting community videos etc. I work in 1080P and for the time being am happy to keep doing so.I have cut with avid but have no experience with FCP and don't want to commit to much money just yet as I prefer to spend my money sailing😊 but am happy to upgrade some hardware if needed.
I've included the specs so hope someone can help.
George

Apple Mac Pro (CTO)
SERIAL NO. YM73603CUPZ
Purchased 12/10/2007
2 x 2 GHz Dual-core Intel Xeon
Mem: 5 Gb 667 Mhz DDR2 FB-DIMM (2x512, 2x2Gb)
17/09/09 RAM upgraded to: xxxxx500 Serial ATA 3GB/s drive – 7200rpm
250GB Serial ATA 3GB/s drive – 7200rpm (used for XP using Bootcamp XP emulator)
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB SDRAM
1 x SuperDrive
Airport Extrreme & Bluetooth 2.0 + ERD
Apple Wireless Keyboard & Mighty Mouse
2 x Western Digital 1TB SATA2 7200rpm HDD

Installed with Avid Media Composer 4.0 (dongle with limited upgrade to v5.0) and Apple Final Cut Pro 7
Other related Programs inc Apple DVD Studio Pro, Apple Compressor, Apple Color, Apple Motion,Apple Soundtrack

[Larrie Easterly]

That machine should with 1080 projects with the software that is on it. Unfortunately there is no upgrade path to go from FCP7 to FCPX. In addition the machine may not be able to be upgraded to the latest version of the Mac operating system, Big Sur.

[John Nantz]

Originally Posted by George Ferrell

don't want to commit to much money just yet as I prefer to spend my money sailing😊

I can relate to that!

Like Larrie said, the machine should work with 1080 projects. The caveat will be if all the applications one needs will work together, and with the cam file type which may be *.mov.

I punched the serial number into EveryMac.com to find a little more about it. The model is a 1,1 Mac Pro “Quad Core” 2.0 (Original), 2.0 GHz.
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/m...2.0-specs.html

Given how much work it is to learn a new application, if you already are familiar with Avid (and I've never used it), it might be better to continue with it instead of using FCP7, which I have also never used. Reason being, many have said that the transition from FCP7 to FCP X was difficult due to the lack of similarity. Depending on the age of the Avid app, one might consider FCP X in the future, though.

Background: Back in 2010 was when I picked up a 1,1 MP (price was right; son-in-law gave it to me) and tried to get FCP7 but it became discontinued so I got FCP X instead. Even though FCP7 would be installed as part of the acquisition, one might consider getting FCP X for use instead (if you don't use Avid). There is a lot of learning to do with a new application and support by FCP7 users will likely be limited. The nice part about FCP X is the updates have been free ever since it was originally released, and hopefully with the new M1 system that will be continued. Having said that, I don’t know off hand what the minimum requirements are for X.

[Pete Cofrancesco]

I have a 2009 Mac Pro. It's still my primary computer. This store is helpful upgrade source
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/m...splayport.html

Here’s a list of upgrades ranked by importance:
1. Video card (Get a Radeon 7950. The stock card is slower than a dial up modem)
2. SSD
3. Ram
4. USB 3 card
5. Wifi card
6. cpu (I did but don't recommend for your situation)

I was able to upgrade my OS to Yosemite but I believe the old version of Final cut gave me strange errors but I switched to FCPX

[Robert Withers]

Bon Joon Ho won academy award for parasite cutting with FCP7. Others have used it lately and exported for sound mixes. but feeling a little clumsy for interface.

[Boyd Ostroff]

I used the old FCP for many years, but the new version (Final Cut Pro X) is much faster and more stable in my experience. Also, projects that you create in Final Cut Pro 7 cannot be imported into the new Final Cut Pro X. IMO, if you are just starting out, it would be a mistake not to use the current version of Final Cut Pro X. They are completely different programs with very little in common. So, learning the old version will just confuse you if you decide to upgrade later.

You can download a three month free trial, I posted a link in your other thread.The full version costs $300 but includes free updates. This is quite a good deal compared to what many of us paid for the other version, which did not include updates and ended up costing thousands over the years!

[George Ferrell]

Thanks everyone
George

[Pete Cofrancesco]

I forgot to mention that computer would be an excellent source of ballast. ;-)