Macbook pro on a budget...

[cooked]

need a macbook pro to view material on set... (i am a pc guy), needs to be mac because of fcp....

I know it needs to be intel core duo or core 2 duo, but is there any other specifications for my computers configuration I should take into account, what is the lowest I can go....

thx

mahvo

[Brent J. Craig]

The new base model A1260 Macbook Pro is, as they say, badass. Got mine for $2099 CAD. Upped the RAM to 4 Gigs (not thru Apple!) for $75.

I was a lifelong PC guy. It took me about 3 days to feel comfortable with it and now my PCs seem like toys. Battery life is 4.5 hours under actual usage conditions (wifi, bluetooth, nice bright screen, etc).

$500 more gets you a 512MB video card and slightly better cpu and disk specs.

[Isaac Babcock]

Is the older Macbook Pro's (2.33ghz w/ATI graphics) still preferred over the "newer" Macbook Pro's w/Nvidia graphics for Redcine/Red Alert? Or has that issue been resolved?

Is there any verdict on the latest round of Macbook Pro's and their performance with Redcine/Red Alert. Is the 512MB video card a significant add on?

I'm leaning toward a closeout 2.33ghz or 2.4ghz model...but I'm asking.

[dVonAllmen]

Video card is mostly for rendering 3D so if you're not doing that or playing videogames, it's not as important as your central processor. Exactly how good of a video card you need, I don't know.

Apple overpays for their RAM and passes the non-savings on to you. Get minimum RAM from Apple and buy extra at crucial.com

[Uli Plank]

It seems that we'll soon see full support for NVidia as well, Matrox for example just released new drivers to make the MXO work with current MBPs. Since it works well under Color now, I think you are safe with a current model. The larger VRAM is important if you want to use Motion.

BTW, get an e-SATa card for the Express slot and a small RAID and you'll love it. Who would have imagined editing cinema quality on a laptop three years ago? Pure Sci-Fi!

Regards,

Uli

[Torrey Loomis]

Mahvo,

Call me or Tyler. We can help you out with this.

Torrey
-----------------------------------------------
Torrey Loomis
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[Andrew Benz]

Isaac, I am curious about this as well. Maybe we will get lucky and have Jeff Kilgroe weigh in on the subject.



Is the older Macbook Pro's (2.33ghz w/ATI graphics) still preferred over the "newer" Macbook Pro's w/Nvidia graphics for Redcine/Red Alert? Or has that issue been resolved?

Is there any verdict on the latest round of Macbook Pro's and their performance with Redcine/Red Alert. Is the 512MB video card a significant add on?

I'm leaning toward a closeout 2.33ghz or 2.4ghz model...but I'm asking.

[Nathan Garofalos]

I have a 2.33 ghz mac book pro with 2 gigs of ram. I'm basically using a dinosaur when I play with hd footage in fcp... But I don't have the new version 6.0.1 or whatever is out. Its the addition before color was added and I still render all the time.