The mac mini.

H

hobox77

Hey peoples. I just started to get into film and have been doing lots and lots of research. I finally got a decent camera after months of prostituting myself to a heavy set woman named Boris with a mustache any masculine male would envy. (Ok... just joking.)

I still need to get lighting and sound equipment, that will take a bit longer for me to get. In the mean time, I saved a little extra and was able to get a really good deal on a Panasonic AGDVX100a so I was thinking of getting a mac for all my video editing needs. Since I'm quite on a budget, I was steering towards the mac mini.
I was looking into the iMac g5, but it's a bit pricey at the moment and before that I need some input on the mac mini.
Will it be able to handle video editing for feature length films? Or will I have to look into the iMac or Powermac for that?

I apologize ahead of time if this thread has been made earlier. I'm new to the site and did a search online and on these forums for mac mini's and didn't find the information I was looking for.

Oh yeah almost forgot, the reason why I was looking towards the mini is because I'll be able to afford a top of the line mini along with Final Cut Stuido with my student discount(s).
 
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The Mac mini is fine for editing standard definition footage. Make sure to add an external FireWire hard drive. If you get it with 512MB or RAM that is enough to get started with FCP, but you should max it out (1GB) if you are going to use it in conjunction with other software at the same time (although it will still work, but you'll notice a nice improvement in speed).

The new iMac G5's came out a few days ago, which means that most stores have lowered their prices on their old iMac's in stock by ~$300. If you can afford one of those it would be better than a Mac mini.

My only concern about the Mac mini is that it only has 32MB or ram. If you get Final Cut Studio and you want to use Motion, I don't think it will perform too well. You may want to check all the specs for Motion and the mini.

Also, if that's as far as you can stretch your budget (Mac mini with FC Studio), maybe you should opt for a G4 [tower]. It would be as powerfull as the mini, plus you can add up to 2GB ram and swap the 3d card. The mini is not very flexible in that sense.

Other than that, if you just want to edit SD footage, the mini is fine.
 
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I'm using a dual 1.42 Ghz G4 tower. It performs very well. See what you can get used or refurbished from the catalog places (maczone, macwarehouse - call them and ask if they have any refurbs).

ebay. Look for sellers with tons of sales and a very high rating. I just did a search for "g4 dual powermac" and came up with lots of auctions.

apple's online store has a "SAVE" tage in red down the right side of the main store page...there are some deals there as well. Including cheaper mac minis if you end up going that route. External firewire hard drive would be an absolute necessity if you end up going that route. RAM is always good...max it out. I'm editing a feature now and have a 6 tapes pulled in (for purposes of logging before capturing) takes up roughly 40Gb. I have 4 x 180Gb drives in my computer. One for the OS, one for scratch, one for captured media, one for other media (sound effects libraries, stock footage, music, etc.). I had already filled the 80Gb drive I had for the footage with jsut the good clips from the 30+ tapes I've recorded (2 camera shoots eat alot of tape).

Get 2 big harddrives...you want to be able to back up your project!
 
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Also you can check (here comes the commercial) PowerMax. I recently called to order the new iMac. they had just gotten in a shipment of refurbished ones and they made me a great deal. I spent less money and got more. I'm sure they do that hopping guys like me will mention them....

So it worked.

While the macMini is fine, I'm with DirectorX and knightly - a loaded G4 is pretty inexpensive right now. I cut eight features, a couple of music videos and a dozen or so shorts on my iMac G4 using FCP4.
 
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Thanks for the replies peoples, appreciate it. I took a look at the new iMac g5's and will be scoping places around for the older version models.

I'm also looking for an external hd, any suggestions? I was thinking of going for the Seagate 300gb external hd.

As for the iMac, anyone have a specific brand of memory or type of memory they recommend to upgrade to?
It seems that I might be able to pull off getting an iMac relatively soon and might just ditch the mac mini altogether.
Cause in order for me to get a mac mini, I need to purchase a keyboard and mouse and a monitor. With the iMac I get all of those and a better system.
 
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