laptop and editing question

T

teto29

hey guys, im at a dilemma here.
In a couple of months ill be leaving for college, and would like to work on my projects on my computer. (up to now ive been using my school's equip)
I currently have a macbook, 13" pretty much stock.
Is it possible to upgrade it enough to make it run smoothly with programs like AE, avid, FCP ect
or should I buy a newer macbook pro? please help me out! thanks
 
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teto29 said:
hey guys, im at a dilemma here.
In a couple of months ill be leaving for college, and would like to work on my projects on my computer. (up to now ive been using my school's equip)
I currently have a macbook, 13" pretty much stock.
Is it possible to upgrade it enough to make it run smoothly with programs like AE, avid, FCP ect
or should I buy a newer macbook pro? please help me out! thanks
Click to expand...

Could you list the spec (processor, RAM and graphics card) of your current MacBook? If it's one of the newer ones it might be up to the job, but the older ones probably won't be… but it does depend what you're planning to edit. What format does your camera shoot in, and is it SD or HD?
 
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its got 2GB RAM, 250 GB memory 5400 rpm, 2.2 GHz Inter core 2 duo. I dont know about the graphics card.
My camera shoots HD, now mostly planning to work on shorts, 10-30 mins gradually work my way to features
 
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teto29 said:
its got 2GB RAM, 250 GB memory 5400 rpm, 2.2 GHz Inter core 2 duo. I dont know about the graphics card.
My camera shoots HD, now mostly planning to work on shorts, 10-30 mins gradually work my way to features
Click to expand...

I'd definitely recommend adding more RAM - 4GB will be a massive improvement over 2. Final Cut should run fine - it won't be crazy fast, but it'll be perfectly usable. Depending on your graphics card, programs like Apple Color and the hardware acceleration features of CS5 might not work, so you'll have to look into that. You'll also need an external harddrive (Firewire or eSATA is best) for keeping your footage and render files on - it's always best practice, and your internal HDD isn't fast enough to playback footage smoothly when editing.
 
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You will need a MacBook Pro. They have a faster hard drive, great video card and you can add up to 8GB of ram and believe me you will need it if you want to move through your projects in a timely manner. Final Cut will need this to run effectively and yes you will need an external Firewire HDD. The MacBook Pro does not have an ESATA port on it.
 
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I TOO am curious about this-what is it about Imacs that are better for editing than PCs?


I am thinking of getting a laptop(though I will be using Premiere Elements, don't know if I have the budget for FCP). So seeing how much I am going to need is helpful.


Note, I am doing it for my own projects, not for school or working for studio, so I don't have "deadlines", thankfully!
 
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Wanted to bump this (and seeing one of my old questions) had another:

Chilepie you mentioned having a External drive for footage on a laptop-I'm guessing that you can process the footage "faster" from the External Drive compared to the internal on the laptop?

I'm thinking of getting a laptop, and I want to find out what I SHOULD have for memory. I'm currently using Premiere Elements, thinking of upgrading to a version of FCP-want to make sure my ducks are in a row!

EDIT: I bumped this one instead of starting a new thread, as this one is helpful as well to me :)
 
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