I'm really thinking about the upgrade. I know this question about new Apple's is probably still thrown around a lot here, but now it's my turn, and yes-- I really wish this site had a "search" function (and if they do, I'm sorry that I didn't find it).

I have been using a Powerbook religiously for years now. Standard stuff;

- 80GB external USB 2.0 drive, 1.5 Ghz, 1GB RAM, 17" display and a second CRT monitor.

I've had a great time with it. I haven't had any problems running Final Cut on it, and honestly, it's been the most stable editing system I've ever had.

About two months ago now, it died on me. The HDD, specifically. Before this, it was the sound card, JUST after my only year of Applecare expired on the sucka'. It's apparently, once old data is transfered to a new drive, is going to cost an estimated $450 to fix.
The price isn't TOO high, no, considering my full time graphic design job and such not. Regardless, it's TOO high for a ******* hard drive, I reckon.

I began to look at the Macbook. I wanted a cheap replacement. I have a widescreen extra monitor now, so the fact that it's 13"s really didn't matter to me. I talked to some Apple fellows though, and they claimed that because it didn't have a dedicated video card, it wouldn't do to well with FCP. I countered saying my PB technically didn't have a GPU, either, but they said "whatever", essentially.

So did I, eventually.

I figure I'll fix my PB at some point, but I'm wondering, what with Rosetta and all, how exactly does FCP run? Is it decent? Seems all the reviews of the hardware are based upon Photoshop results, and since overall, I do little of that sorta' work at home, I figure it irrelevant.

For some reason, Bowes Media in Canada, a semi-major corporation, owned by Sun Media, owned by Quebecor continues to use OS 9 and Photoshop 7 (although I have version 5 on my work station... I can't wrap my head around that).

Anywho's, does anyone else render on the newer iMac's? Is it "decent"? Should I wait till they're upgraded again? What here, what!?

They become cheaper, actually than the MacBook once you factor in employee discount. Mostly because they ship with stock RAM of 1 GB, rather than 512MB.

Anywho, this is pretty important, so... do answer in a timely fashion.

I do loathe my upper-middle class PC here. I feel so dirty. Even though I work with Mac's 8 or 9 hours a day, it just... they aren't mine. I can't call myself a Mac user anymore, it feels like. Like it's a lie, or something. And I feel like a trend *****, since I own two iPods.

God, this is serious, lol...



EDIT: And why the hell does Quark 7 suck so much? Is it because of Rosetta, or is it just poorly crafted these days? I hear it's lost a ton of ground to InDesign.

I'd be a bit hesitant about the Macbooks. They've had a whole slew of problems recently, from turning yellow, to mooing, overheating and shutting down randomly. Might want to wait a generation...

I would suggest waiting also, I was worried about them switching to intel and there r still alot of bugs... FCP will run well on any machine I'm using a 1.2 mac mini for my video editing and before that I was using a G3 400mgz machine with fcp 3

If you do decide to upgrade to the intel macs, I'd say wait for the next generation, unless you absolutely need it now, then I'd say go for it and get as much apple protection plan as you can. And if you have the extra cash you might think of upgrading to the universal version of FCP.

Good Luck

Okay, so there is a universal version out now? I remember hearing that there was a $50 dollar download (which if you ask me, should have been either 80% cheaper, or free). Is this still the case, or is it something that has to be boughten anew?

Another question I should have glanced at, was... do any of you guys own a Core Duo machine, or know anyone who does?


This is an important thing for me.
And I was all for waiting till the next gen, until my Powerbook died, that is. What a sad week that was...

I owm a core duo mac, just sqitched over from PC like 5 months ago...Its a 20` Imac with 1 gig ram. Runs like a charm if you ask me, its fast and a wonder to edit on...even tho i am still learning finalcut, I did have some compatibility issues when the duocores came out but now everything runs great! Highly reccomended!

Kind of pissed that I didn't wait for the 24` Imac that just came out...o well...O ya and I had the apple bluetooth mouse...it sucks..don't get it!! The Computers awesome tho!