Computer help!

C

C.A.V.

Active member
so this ski season is coming up and my computer shat the bed, doesnt work anymore.

i am only a apple user obvi, i love apple, i use final cut and iphoto and i will only use a mac

i was wondering whats the best setup thats not too pricey for editing, i have a external harddrive of 1000 gigs so memorys not a problem, i just need a computer that will be fast and wont take long to render.

i am not sure if getting a laptop or a monitor set up is better, i have no idea really im not a computer smart kinda dude, so let me know.



+k for help and bumps

 
How old are you? A good desktop setup is cheaper than a good laptop rig, so if you're not going to need it for college/school stuff, get the desktop.

Just pack it with as much as you can afford, there's not much more to it than that, especially with Apple. Get an i7, plan to upgrade your RAM aftermarket.

Do you already have auxiliary shit, like keyboard, mouse, trackpad, etc?
 
^just to add to that, on new macs they are making it so you cant upgrade them, so unfortunatly you have to max them out when you buy them, which really makes them a huge waste of money.

If you are willing to try a windows machine you will be able to get more speed and power , for around half the price.

There is no software only for mac left really now which is worth using, so it may be time to make the switch to a real computer ;)
 
yeah macs really are not an option for most profesionals now. It used to be with software like Apple Move and FCP you got a mac to use the software. But now that apple has pretty much given up making pro software there is no real point in getting a mac.

As a home user I can see that I may use one, but certainly for any type of pro work, macs are not even on most peoples radar any more. Good computers but they cost way to much and apple is not letting customers get the most out of the machine, without paying apple to do it.
 
hm... i never knew this, i thought people loved apple, im a senoir so im going to college next year, but i love apple, i dont even know how to use a pc thats how long ive had apple, i dont want anything else.
 
If your wealthy enough to buy a mac desktop with max setting (over 4 grand ive checked on the website a bit ago) you might as well build your own pc. It'll be mindblowingly cheaper and then just buy snow leopard or whatever os is being used currently and install it on the pc. It will be cheaper, you will always be able to upgrade parts and you'll have mac software so it'll feel just like one.
 
or you can build a PC desktop, that's better than any Mac offering in the pricerange, and then run OS X on it.

I
 
Build a desktop, for $1000 it will be better than anything you can buy directly from Apple. You can also build it "Intel" based, which would allow you to install an OSX operating system as well as Windows if you choose to do so.

This is called a "Hackintosh" if you'd like to do further research.

PM 1337. or Jamie for more details on the build.
 
boom. my roommate made a bomb ass computer for like 1000-1200 ish and runs linux, windows, and snow leopard. he is more anti apple so he doesn't use the mac part but hackintosh FTW for real.
 
if you need to save money get a refurb mac from their site. if youre good on budget get a nice 15" or if youre ballin get a rmpb 15"
 
yes! thats what i was thinking, ill only use the memory on the computer for rendering and programs and then use my external hard drive just for movies and photos
 
you know the internal hard drive has nothing to do with rendering right? render speed is based off of RAM and processor speed.
 
Not exactly correct. When rendering the video files you used must be read then processed by the CPU. if you have a slow hard drive like a 7200 then there is a bottle neck as the files cant be read as fast as the CPU can process them. That is the reason it is advisable to use a SSD or a Raid setup for your OS and currently used files. This way the CPU gets all the info as fast a possible. It will make a huge difference on big files.
 
final cut pro after rendering always says render files full , please delete the rendered files or something like that its weird
 
I see what you're saying, but that does not have as much of a impact as CPU/GPU speed and RAM amount. Those are the main factors. HD speed is more for opening programs and booting up.

and cole, set your scratch disk to your external hard drive and it wont matter, the issue you're having is with settings, not speed/size.
 
^ no thats what your not seeing I think. You could have the fastest CPU in the world but if your using a slow drive the data can only be processed by the CPU at the rate the Hard drive runs at. This is what is known as a bottle neck in computing.

To solve this issue most people will run a SSD or a Raid system for the current projects. What you have is a fast drive or drives which have your OS, programs and files you are currently working with, and slower 7200 drives for storage. For processing you want the data transfer to be as fast as possible but for storage it does not really matter how slow the drive is.

And also generally the GPU will not be used for final rendering, it is only used for viewport feedback. In premiere for example you use the mecury playback engine to process the viewport fast so you can edit in real time. However when you render its still the CPU doing the rendering. Now there are some renderers for 3d which use the GPU such as bunkspeed, but for 2D the GPU generally deals with viewport and the CPU rendering.
 
Why would a desktop be a waste. You could easily take it with you to college. Really the only reason to get a laptop is if you really need to be able to work out of the house. At college there will be computers so the most he would be doing is taking notes which any old laptop could do.

It would be better off getting as fast a computer as possible for the least money and that will always be a windows desktop.
 
I'm like two weeks into college and being able to take my computer on the go is already pretty damn crucial. Other people will go through different experiences, but think I only know one kid here who uses a desktop. He's not really a fan of it either.
 
Well its going to come down to what you study I guess. I did animation so a laptop was not an option. We used workstations in school and I had my desktop at home.

There will be some courses where if you dont need much processing power a laptop will be ok, but in general you get so much more for your money from a desktop.
 
well im going to college to major in business managment, not photography and videography, but im going out to somewhere near skiing and when im not in class illbe on the slopes filming if that makes sense
 
^ will you have computers in school to use, or do you need to take your own. I cant really think of any schools which would make you provide a computer to use on campus.

So it will come down to if you want to write essays out of the house, like the cool kids in starbucks for example.

Obviously fr your editing a desktop at home will be by far you best bet. But if you want to be able to work out the house it may be worth picking up a cheap laptop.

What I would do is work out a budget, then spend most of it on a desktop then spend a couple of hundred bucks on a super cheap laptop. If all it has to do is word processing then you dont need anything good. But to get a laptop which would be good for editing would cost alot, so your better off spending your money on a desktop and super cheap laptop.
 
If you want to go laptop route, maybe look at this or somthing like this setup,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152337

The equivalent mac, well actually no where near as powerfull is well over $2000.

There are a few good laptops in that sort of price range which should be ok for editing. Obviously it costs alot more then the equivalent in desktop form, but if you want mobility unfortunatly you have to pay for it.
 
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