upgrade my my MAC... help suggestions... at DVinfo.net

Michael Cody · September 7th, 2011, 04:08 PM

So I hope I'm putting this in the right place on here...
I have an older 2.2 GH MBP 15 in. 200 G HD and only 2 Gig of RAM....
I loaded FCP studio 3 on it yesterday, loaded some footage and its already dropping frames... bummer... SO I kinda assumed I would need to upgrade it, but now Im wondering if I can make a big enough difference! I can max out RAM with 6gig... and add a fast firewire external hard drive. Is that going to be a big help? Im thinking at least 3TB... Any suggestions on what to get? Maybe something without that cute little apple on it to save a few bucks?
Opinions? suggestions and comments PLEASE!

Michael Cody · September 8th, 2011, 07:11 AM

wow was this a dumb question??? no one has an idea on this?? :/

Andy Wilkinson · September 8th, 2011, 07:39 AM

For a start put all your media clips on an external drive (FW800 is good) and then see how it runs. It is well known that you'll get much better performance with your media on a different drive to your system drive (i.e. the internal drive in the MBP with the operating system and FCP on it) as this will reduce lags due to head seeking/reading. One drive trying to do everything will slow things down....

Once you've tried that I'm sure more RAM would help things become a bit snappier too (although FCS can only use a smaller amount of RAM than you're talking about maxing out on - so read up first!).

For the record I've happily edited native XDCAM EX3 35Mbps VBR in FCS2 on a mid 2008 MBP (2.5Ghz, 4MB of RAM and 7,200rpm drive) using external HDDs connected by FW800. Best results were with GRAID4 2TB (RAID0) units connected but 1TB individual external HDDs worked OK too. I tried eSATA connections into the Expresscard 34 slot but had lots of freezing problems - so went back to FW800 which was rock stable. Using USB HDDs was more painful....

I rarely edit on my MBP now but what speed is your system drive, 5,400 or 7,200rpm? (hopefully the latter).

Michael Cody · September 8th, 2011, 08:34 AM

Hi Andy thanks for the post.... looks like I have the 5400 drive... 200 gig.. most of it now full of FCP studio! lol oh well thats what I bought the computer for. So it sounds like my best bet would be to grab a FW800 external drive. I can also up my RAM pretty cheaply... 4 gig runs about 60 bucks new... 6 gig maybe 100 or so. Hope this wasnt TOO silly a question... Im new to Mac... new to FCP, new to ALL of this...
THIS one looks pretty good....

G-Technology G-DRIVE Q 2TB External Hard Drive w/ eSATA, USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 Interfaces 0G00203

September 7th, 2011, 04:08 PM	#1
Michael Cody New Boot Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: maryland Posts: 8	upgrade my my MAC... help suggestions... So I hope I'm putting this in the right place on here... I have an older 2.2 GH MBP 15 in. 200 G HD and only 2 Gig of RAM.... I loaded FCP studio 3 on it yesterday, loaded some footage and its already dropping frames... bummer... SO I kinda assumed I would need to upgrade it, but now Im wondering if I can make a big enough difference! I can max out RAM with 6gig... and add a fast firewire external hard drive. Is that going to be a big help? Im thinking at least 3TB... Any suggestions on what to get? Maybe something without that cute little apple on it to save a few bucks? Opinions? suggestions and comments PLEASE!

September 8th, 2011, 07:11 AM	#2
Michael Cody New Boot Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: maryland Posts: 8	Re: upgrade my my MAC... help suggestions... wow was this a dumb question??? no one has an idea on this?? :/

September 8th, 2011, 07:39 AM	#3
Andy Wilkinson Inner Circle Join Date: Sep 2007 Location: Cambridge UK Posts: 2,853	Re: upgrade my my MAC... help suggestions... For a start put all your media clips on an external drive (FW800 is good) and then see how it runs. It is well known that you'll get much better performance with your media on a different drive to your system drive (i.e. the internal drive in the MBP with the operating system and FCP on it) as this will reduce lags due to head seeking/reading. One drive trying to do everything will slow things down.... Once you've tried that I'm sure more RAM would help things become a bit snappier too (although FCS can only use a smaller amount of RAM than you're talking about maxing out on - so read up first!). For the record I've happily edited native XDCAM EX3 35Mbps VBR in FCS2 on a mid 2008 MBP (2.5Ghz, 4MB of RAM and 7,200rpm drive) using external HDDs connected by FW800. Best results were with GRAID4 2TB (RAID0) units connected but 1TB individual external HDDs worked OK too. I tried eSATA connections into the Expresscard 34 slot but had lots of freezing problems - so went back to FW800 which was rock stable. Using USB HDDs was more painful.... I rarely edit on my MBP now but what speed is your system drive, 5,400 or 7,200rpm? (hopefully the latter). __________________ Andy K Wilkinson - https://www.shootingimage.co.uk Cambridge (UK) Corporate Video Production

September 8th, 2011, 08:34 AM	#4
Michael Cody New Boot Join Date: Sep 2011 Location: maryland Posts: 8	Re: upgrade my my MAC... help suggestions... Hi Andy thanks for the post.... looks like I have the 5400 drive... 200 gig.. most of it now full of FCP studio! lol oh well thats what I bought the computer for. So it sounds like my best bet would be to grab a FW800 external drive. I can also up my RAM pretty cheaply... 4 gig runs about 60 bucks new... 6 gig maybe 100 or so. Hope this wasnt TOO silly a question... Im new to Mac... new to FCP, new to ALL of this... THIS one looks pretty good.... G-Technology G-DRIVE Q 2TB External Hard Drive w/ eSATA, USB 2.0, Firewire 400, Firewire 800 Interfaces 0G00203