IMAC for FCP studio show me the way

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fluxsingh

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Hi, I am just migrating to Mac and want to edit a professional movie using fcp studio on a IMAC! I know that this has disadvantages but can they be effectively overcome. I need help from the pros...the IMAC with a 20 inch screen has a 2.0 Ghz intel core duo. It can take upto a max of 2 GBRAM but in my view, these specs can be overcome. in other words, is there a way for me to put in 4 GB RAM into this machine? I think this computers specs are great except for the 2 GB RAM cap limit. But I think that this can be overcome somehow..how is upto you guys to bail me out...! Thanks, fluxsingh
 
For one. it is GB not MB. 2nd no 2 GB is the most RAM you can have as the new iMac's are not 64 bit CPU's. Without 64 bit CPU the most RAM that the 32 bit CPU's can handly is 2 GB of RAM. That is why there are no new Power Mac's out just yet. becasue Intel will be comeing out with there 64 Bit CPUs later this year. Right about the same time as Apple's WWDC will happen. Sorry to have to tell you that.
 
32-bit CPUs can support up to 4GB of RAM, not 2GB. Do the binary math: 32 bits will get you 4,294,967,296 bytes (2^32), which is 4GB (approximated 4 billion bytes).

This is not to say that all 32-bit motherboards can handle 4GB of RAM, though -- you are also limited by the number of RAM slots and the maximum RAM size that each slot will accept... for example, my machine will only take 1GB of RAM, even thought it's a 32-bit machine, because each RAM slot will only accept a maximum RAM size of 256MB (256MB x 4 slots = 1 GB).

Also, this is not the place to ask questions. This is the "HOW-TOs & FAQ" section -- your post is not a "how-to", nor is it a "Frequently Asked Question". Please read the following post:

http://macosx.com/forums/showthread.php?t=269015
 
Go ahead, max out that iMac's RAM as much as you can... but... don't worry about it. Final Cut is not as RAM-instensive as Adobe After Effects or Apple Motion... if the vast majority of your work is going to be editing in Final Cut... worry not. Your system's speed and RAM are fine.

Hard disk... now, that might be a completely different story. I don't know if you plan on using your internal hard disk or an external one, but whatever it is, make sure it's fast. Fast disk-access is essential to video editing.
 
Thanks for your message. Adam, - I think I'll keep in mind what you say and in the meantime, will try and see if I can cross the cap limit of 2 GBRAM and shove in 4GB into the iMAC, if the RAM slots permit. Then, I think that I can sail through. The new iMACS seemed to have reached the level of final cut pro studio editing because they have the 2.0 intel Ghz intel core duo processor, and as for my hard drive, I will use an external super fast hard drive. Thanks again, dude
 
Thanks for your message El Diablo, - now that I know that 32 bits can support 4 GBRAM, my next challenge is figuring out whether the slots can take 2GBRAM each and hence take me upto the required RAM.
 
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