"Switcher" needs advice

E

eschance

Registered
Hello,

I am about to make the big switch but am hung up at which is the best for me. The iMac or PowerPC. My main use besides net surfing and basic spreadsheeting etc will be to edit all my digital video and put it on DVD. Not professional editing but just family videos so basic stuff.

I was told that a dual 1.42 was overkill when only using iMovie and iDVD and that a 1ghz iMac would be more than enough. I know that hard drive space would be less with the iMac without an external drive but my main concern is I don't want it to take forever to edit and then burn onto DVD.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated before I make the purchase.

Thanks in advance.
 
I don't have any experience with burning DVD's, but I did some video-editing on a Powermac (800 Mhz single processor) and my parents G4 iMac (I believe it's also 800 Mhz). And I think it runs quite smooth on these machines and as such the dual G4 would probably be overkill. The only isssue I have is that the most recent version of iMovie seems slower with long movies (almost 2 hours + maybe an hour more in the archive), but I think this has more to do with iMovie and not with my machine (haven't tried final cut extreme yet).
Of course, if you can afford a Powermac dual and accesoires you might as well go with that, but I am quite sure an iMac and an external drive would do the job in your case!

Enjoy!
 
Anything with a big HD is cool for video. But a good CPU can help on some tasks. I have a G3, it's already a powerful computer, but I think a G4 is more appropriate to run OSX.
 
Originally posted by eschance
Hello,

I am about to make the big switch but am hung up at which is the best for me. The iMac or PowerPC. My main use besides net surfing and basic spreadsheeting etc will be to edit all my digital video and put it on DVD. Not professional editing but just family videos so basic stuff.

I was told that a dual 1.42 was overkill when only using iMovie and iDVD and that a 1ghz iMac would be more than enough. I know that hard drive space would be less with the iMac without an external drive but my main concern is I don't want it to take forever to edit and then burn onto DVD.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated before I make the purchase.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...

Sure Dual is overkill for that kind of job but if you have the money let's just say that you would not regret it by buying that Dual PowerMac ;)

But what about the Single GHz PowerMac? Between that and the iMac I would chose the PowerMac :D
 
Never buy the highest model of a low-end series, always buy the lowest model of a high-end series. So I would suggest you buy this machine:

Powermac G4 w

1GHz PowerPC G4
512MB DDR266 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
60GB Ultra ATA drive
Optical 1 - Apple SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
Optical 2 - None
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX w/64MB DDR
56K internal modem
Apple Pro Keyboard - U.S. English
Mac OS - U.S. English

Subtotal $1,799.00

I just made the combo-drive a superdrive and doubled the RAM. Why this machine?

1) It's the same price as the iMac with SuperDrive but has twice the RAM (512 instead of 256). Of course you don't have a screen yet but those aren't that expensive.

2) The G4 has L3 cache which will speed up your video-editing a lot.

3) HD is faster, though slower, but you can always add other HDs if you wanted to. But I have a 60Gb HD myself and it's more than enough to edit video's.

4) The PowerMac is much, much, much, MUCH more exapndable!

5) The PowerMac will probably be loads faster overall because if I'm not mistaken the G4 in the iMac is weaker than the one in the Powermac, the Powermac has more cache, and L3 cache, twice the RAM, faster HD, ...

I'd go with the Powermac if I were you. Or a Powerbook of course, wonderful machines but idiotic that the Superdrive is 1x :mad: oh well :rolleyes:

Hope this helps!
Ciao,
.anerki
 
well if u don'r really got millions $ I'd say go with iMac - it's cheaper than the tower + u get everything with it (lcd, mouse, keyboard) I'd say go for the 1ghz one :)
 
I agree with the postings here, the top Powermac is overkill. The deal with the iMac is limited upgrade capacity. I have a G4 tower, and over time have added two additional hard drives. If you are one to store everything on CD's and DVD's and free your hard drive, the iMac is good. Secondly, you can get external drives for the iMac. Certainly, to purchase a tower then a monitor is $$$$. If you buy a tower, the Apple monitors are my personal choice. The 17' iMac, 1 gig is a fast machine, with a beautiful display. What I like about it the ports are easily located.
 
Originally posted by hulkaros
Sure Dual is overkill for that kind of job but if you have the money let's just say that you would not regret it by buying that Dual PowerMac ;)

But what about the Single GHz PowerMac? Between that and the iMac I would chose the PowerMac :D
Click to expand...
I agree. If you can afford it, but the PowerMac and an external monitor.

It will be much more upgradeable and serve you well for much longer.

(And when it get's old you can just put it in the closet and run it as a "headless" server. :D )
 
CPU speed for video editing is never overkill :)
When the computer is two-three years old, see how well the 1 GHz performs with the newest apps then...
Right now, if you've got the money, the dual 1.25 GHz gives the best value for the cash.
 
Just noticed this: the dual 1.42 Ghz has 2 Mb L3 cache! This definitely makes it a worthy video-editing machine!!! But let's not forget, eschance is going to use iMovie and iDVD. I never thoroughly used iMovie but from what experience I have iMovie doesn't have complex transitions and effects like FCP3 ... Getting a dual seems overkill for iMovie ... iDVD doesn't need that much power, except for converting but then again, on my Powerbook it runs just fine and nothing obliges you to use iDVD to write everal times the same DVD. Toast does that just great!

Hope this helps some more!

Grtz,
.anerki :confused: (I just LOVE this smily!!!)
 
I've spent 10 years on Mac now, and started video editing 6 years ago with Adobe Premiere, under harder conditions than now. Last Dec 2002 I bought a 2x867 G4 MDD, 768 Ram, with GeForce 64 and Superdrive. I have burnt my first DVDs last week. Despite a few bugs concerning integration between iMovie and iDVD, I'm SO HAPPY e.g. to be able to import pics from iPhoto, mount them as a slideshow under iMovie, import music from iTunes and export all that to iDVD to watch the show on my TV. Even with the G4 you need some patience, for some imports/exports may take some time (encoding always takes time). I needed to test and retest the best parameters before I was sure that I wouldn't waste my DVD-Rs. My brother who owns a PC saw some of these features at my home yesterday. He couldn't carry his jaws after that - his regret is not to have such pieces of software for PC (he doesn't know MovieMaker, but the critics say the Apple iLife suite is better). I definitely suggest you buy a G4 tower, for HD space and RAM are issues Nr.1 in video editing. Be sure you can add a HD or more RAM anytime you need it - both are so easily and quickly added in the towers (every component is quite accessible, no need to go to your reseller).
 
you will DEFINITELY want the dual 1.25 rather than the iMac! video work is taxing on the CPU and the more power, the better. whenever the video editing software you use needs to render, etc, faster CPU will help tons. you might want to double check with Apple regarding the dual processor - that iMovie / Final Cut Pro WILL take advantage of it (i think it does). regardless, OS X does, along with Photoshop and many other app's these days. and for $2000, that's not much more than the upper end iMac (which i figure you'd be getting for the larger screen). then, you can pick up a screen locally anywhere for not much $$. also, as other said here, upgrading will be easier and cheaper. for example, you'll be able to purchase a low cost internal HUGE drive (say, 120G) for a lot less $$ than an external. anyway, these are things to consider... GOOD LUCK! :cool:
 
i would say since you're not a hardcore video editor the 17in imac is fine. that's what i use (actually i use a 17in pb, but the imac i still use, too)
 
If you can afford the Power Mac, go for it!

I've got a 1GB PB, a 15" iMac and a Dual 1GB Power Mac... (lucky, lucky me!)

I basically use my PB on the move, and, at home, use it in "slave" mode as a HDD for my Power Mac - the difference is dramatic...

The iMac can do everything, but it just takes a bit more time...

As time passes, programs bloat, and if you're anything like me, you'll wish you'd bought the faster machine...

Having said that, is any machine ever fast enough?!?!?!

Also, perhaps, as you get more into your video editing, you may move from iMovie to something like FCP... Then you'll definitely wish / be glad you got the fastest Mac you could!!! :p

PS - In my experience, when you're ready to buy your new Mac, wait a couple of weeks and then buy it at reduced prices when they bring out the new line!! :rolleyes:
 
Originally posted by eschance
Hello,

I am about to make the big switch but am hung up at which is the best for me. The iMac or PowerPC. My main use besides net surfing and basic spreadsheeting etc will be to edit all my digital video and put it on DVD. Not professional editing but just family videos so basic stuff.

I was told that a dual 1.42 was overkill when only using iMovie and iDVD and that a 1ghz iMac would be more than enough. I know that hard drive space would be less with the iMac without an external drive but my main concern is I don't want it to take forever to edit and then burn onto DVD.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated before I make the purchase.

Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...



But think about it, maybe it is overkilled now but not in 3 or 4 years anymore. See how all the standarts changed. How still uses an 5 year old computer knows how it is to be with an slow and old processor (that used to be one of the best). So if you spend a little bit more money now you maybe can keep your computer longer.

Lars
 
Originally posted by ksv
CPU speed for video editing is never overkill :)
When the computer is two-three years old, see how well the 1 GHz performs with the newest apps then...
Right now, if you've got the money, the dual 1.25 GHz gives the best value for the cash.
Click to expand...



uppss ... didn't see this post. That kinda the answer that I juust gave. But now you know there is more then one guy that thinks this way. And by the way, I have the same question for me, what I should buy. Look here here !

Okay have a nice day!
 
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