POWERBOOK/ final cut OR notebook/ PREMIERE, please help!

[digipoet]

sold my laptop and pc, want one notebook, deciding between a mac:

17" 120 GB G4 2GB Ram 1.67 ghz superdrive + final cut, soundtrack, etc

AND a 'comparable' windows machine - 3+ ghz, etc

need it to edit a feature-length. not any effects, really, maybe a little blue screen, but no 3-d anim, etc

the reason for my dilemma, is of course money, both hardware and software

is the extra money for mac/ fcp worth it??

i have heard the line of ‘it's up to your preference' a hundred times, and its balloney.
my preference is BETTER MACHINE.

i will adjust to whatever new software, if it is a better one.

what should i go with, considering all he possible plug ins, software for composing music, the complains about pc's crashing, viruses, etc, etc…?


how about rendering? are 5400 (120 gb) or even 7200 (100gb drive) rpms on mac's hd that important? (4500 on pc).
is ddr2 (mac) better than ddr333 or ddr sdram memory? what’s that so-dimm 1 or 2 stuff?


how about the difference between ATA (mac) and EIDE (pc) harddrives?

thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Digigenic]

I haven't been editing anything in a while, primarily because I took to Final Cut Pro like a duck to water, but I don't own a Mac, can't afford it, and haven't adapted very well to editing apps on PC, which is what I own.

I know the hardware (Mac v PC) can be equally as powerful, but the apps are what come into question. I know there are a ton of NLE solutions available for the PC, the closest in comparison to FCP being Avid, but Avid is pretty high priced. Then, there is of course Adobe, particularly their suite, which is now being upgraded to feature the recently acquired macromedia tools; making Adobe even that much more attractive.

With regard to hardware, next week we'll see an announcement from Apple regarding their new line of ibooks, and possibly PowerBooks. It's been speculated the hardware will feature the new Intel Yona dual core processors along with a series of other upgrades to provide a significant increase in performance.

Also, something I haven't researched extensively, but I'm aware of its development is the OSX86 Project.

Evidently, since Mac announced thier move to Intel processors, there's been a group who've assembled themselves to hack the OS so that it works on a PC, thus allowing the PC user running the Mac OS & Mac applications – like FCP.

As I said, I haven't researched this extensively enough to speak openly about its benefits, and even if I had, I can't necessarily condone performing such an action on your PC, but I can provide the analysis that this is an interesting development that could lead way to Apple actually providing software that will operate on both Mac and PC platforms.

 

[DBXMe2]

well look at it this way... most of the pro editing softwares are on a Mac..


So if not a Powerbook, get a G5.. and you can pretty much call it a day..

Gl man... :?

 

[Guest]

PC vs Mac laptops

PC vs Mac laptops

Obviously GI man is a MAC man unfortunetly he's wrong about the fact that most major editing softwares are made for Macs.
Pinicale, Premire, and Sony Vegas are all PC software programs.
Avid has only recently returned for Macs and has been PC based for the last few years, but as GI man correctly pointed out, is very expensive and proprietery.
Additionally there are considerably more audio editing programs available for PCs.
With that said though, I have to give my kudos to Final Cut Pro!
As a program it definitely out features the other programs and it integrates well with all the other programs in the suite.
I have had issues with Final Cut Pro however.
Running on a G5 with dual 2.5 Ghz processors, 4 gig of ram, and a 400 gig ATA raid drive, I would ocassionally have crashes and problems after upgrades to software.
I would definitely, disable automatic upgrades if you went with a Mac and thouroghly investigate any upgrades before making them.
Apple's upgrade from Quicktime 6 to Quicktime 7 really screwed with my Final Cut Pro 5 and I wound up having to rebuy Quicktime Pro 7.

On the other hand, crashes aren't so much an issue with PCs but ocassionally PCs will also hang up and viruses are definitely an issue if you use the machine online!
Virus protection is a MUST if you are online with a Windows based PC
but should be disabled when editing because the virus protection uses a lot of resources and will disrupt your editing or at least slow it down considerably.

Drive speed is definitely an issue!
A faster RPM drive will speed up renders and allow for smoother or better quality video preview.
ATA also has faster transfer rates than EIDE and will also speed up the editing process.
PC laptops are available with faster and ATA drives but they will cost you more.
RAM is another issue and more is definitely better.
At this time PC RAM is less expensive than MAC ram.
I know that someone out there is just dying to explain the difference in RAM, but truthfully the difference is negligible.

So!
PC or MAC?
Both can do what you are looking for if they are properly equipped.
I personally feel that a PC will offer more bang for your buck just based on cost, availability of programs, cost of those programs and hardware, but Final Cut Pro has no match in terms of editing software vs price.