iMac experience

[Kim Frank]

I'm planning to buy one of the new quad core iMacs this week and was wondering if someone could share some reallife experience yet.
I'm working with Prores and proxies in Final Cut and After effects.
I want to attach my callibrated monitor. Would that cause any problems?
Are 8 gigs of ram enough to really use each core to maximum when rendering in AE?
Also do I need i7 and what graphics card to take?

 

[Jon B.]

I'm also curious about this one,, looking for something to compliment my laptop for heavier lifting... I know the options if my pockets were deeper.

 

[smithy]

I too am looking at the new quad core. I've heard the HT option is not really an advantage to have so the better buy might be just the i5. And since technologie changes so fast that it might be the better choice afterall. The 27inch comes with the 512mb ati card. If you plan to use heavy coloring, (IE MB Colorisa, Looks, etc) the 512 card is a must. The only drawback I see with the imac's is only 1 firewire800 slot. So daisychaining to a good raid is necessary.


Also..Admin: Can you change my name to Cary Lee from smithy?

 

[Martin Weiss]

Smithy,

To get your name changed, please post on the following thread (only Jason can change names):

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?t=32432

 

[Liam Hall]

Your biggest issue with the new iMacs is the lack of eSATA. If you can live without that these machines look very good indeed.

 

[Brandon Kraemer]

I think the i7 and the better graphics card is well worth the upgrade from the i5. Mac Rumors posted a story about reports that a bunch of the i7s were arriving with cracked displays, just FYI. I'm sure Apple is on top of that situation. I'm disappointed that they are not offering a SSD in this model (or the mini), but you could always drop one in if your feeling adventurous.

It also serves as a monitor you can hook up a lap top or a mini to, which is ingenious.

I usually don't go for what Apple rolls out the first time, but these look very solid and if you can live with the limited high speed data connection options than it might be the computer for you. You can always repurpose it later if you have a use. For the money, it's major bang for the buck. Sorry, no first hand experience.

 

[Bjarki Gudjonsson]

Let me tell you a little story. I got a call the other day about a small spot shot on RED that needed color grading the following day. On the way home from work I picked up a drive with the footage and intended to start work the following morning on my 8-core Mac Pro workstation.

When I came home I thought I'd take a look at the sequences and see if everything was okay. I had just bought a Dual-Core 27" iMac. Not the i7 or even the i5. I use it mostly for photos at home. The footage was 4K. It ran so smooth, I could hardly believe. Turned out that in a couple of hours I had onlined it, sent to Color and done a preliminary grade that I finished the following morning with the client.

I have to admit that the lack of eSATA or having 10-bit uncompressed video out is what holds these machines back at this point, but I was astonished.

I hope this helps!

 

[Kim Frank]

Thank you all for your answers.
Haven't bought one yet.
Bjarki, could you please elaborate what you mean with uncompressed 10 bit video out?
By the way I recently wrote a Treatment for a music video that was going to be shot on Iceland and was very sad I didn't get the job. I would have loved to get your country knowen a bit.

 

[JasonAvalos]

i love that story about color correction! if it runs that smooth you think it will run that fast with FCP? the 512 card does anyone know a cheap place online to pick one up?