The best configuration for MAC

[redcode]

Hi there,

I have this red camera for a while and I want to build a mac so I can use REDCINE and RED alert with no problems. I wondering if anyone can give some advice what will be the best configuration for a MAC so I can work with now problem,, graphic cards, memory, space, etc.?Thank you.

 

[Shawn Booth]

as much ram as possible, really good graphics card, fast hard drives, the kona 3 capture card... that's a start.

 

[Uli Plank]

You'll need as much CPU power as you can get, but GHz is less important than RAM. Our machine has 16 GB RAM and is working really well.

Regards,

Uli

 

[Johann Schulz]

I don't have my Red Cam yet, but I've got to upgrade my Mac ASAP. I'm kind of in the same boat as redcode, I guess. Will the new iMac top of the line do the trick with the RED ONE as it stands today? That's obviously the cheapest alternative, but you're limited to four gigs of ram; and the graphics card...

I just went to the Mac store and pressed the buttons to spend almost USD$8000 on 2 Raid/SATA drives, with the NVidia 8800 GT 512MB graphics card, 8core 3gig processors (2x4), etc, with a 30 inch display. Then I was wondering, can I get by with the 7200rpm serial SATA drives? That knocks off $2000...

Some help from people in the field would be good on this one. What's working and more importantly, what's not enough? That's the main thing. You've got to have enough power and performance to do the job. The next deal is the upgraded numbers coming out with Scarlet and Epic. This makes me appreciate the magic of the RED ONE software combo number crunching so much more!...
Power to the people... at RED!

 

[RedTec]

I don't have my Red Cam yet, but I've got to upgrade my Mac ASAP. I'm kind of in the same boat as redcode, I guess. Will the new iMac top of the line do the trick with the RED ONE as it stands today? That's obviously the cheapest alternative, but you're limited to four gigs of ram; and the graphics card...

I just went to the Mac store and pressed the buttons to spend almost USD$8000 on 2 Raid/SATA drives, with the NVidia 8800 GT 512MB graphics card, 8core 3gig processors (2x4), etc, with a 30 inch display. Then I was wondering, can I get by with the 7200rpm serial SATA drives? That knocks off $2000...

Some help from people in the field would be good on this one. What's working and more importantly, what's not enough? That's the main thing. You've got to have enough power and performance to do the job. The next deal is the upgraded numbers coming out with Scarlet and Epic. This makes me appreciate the magic of the RED ONE software combo number crunching so much more!...
Power to the people... at RED!

Dude, Don't buy RAM/Storage at the Mac Store

Just don't. They overprice RAM and storage. It's ridiculous.
Get Kingston memory or any other certified brand.Get 32 MB cache SATA drives. Seagate or Hitachi for example.

2 drives in RAID 0 internal will get you about 150 MB/s speed.

 

[Johann Schulz]

Yea, you'll notice the $8000 doesn't include any extra RAM! And the internal drives do seem pricey.

All I have now is an old iMac 1GHz G4, 1.25G RAM. I can't even run the latest version of FCExpress!

If I can at least edit Red footage on the newest iMac, I can save the extra $5000 and put it into production equipment/ accessories for my RED One Camera. Make more cash and then upgrade to the latest Mac Pro and Red software (updates galore here!) in about a year. The new-old iMacs then become the script/ production office machines.

Minimum requirements are not much fun to talk about though....

 

[Johann Schulz]

"Minimum requirements!" What a joke! I've just spent a few more "minutes" surfing through the editing Q's and A's here at reduser and I'm speechless.

1. I think I'll just take the next two weeks off work and surf through this jungle until I get the slightest inkling of how post works with RED. I thought I'd be able to make great flicks from the comfort of my bedroom edit studio. NOT! ...(YET!)

2. Obviously, I've got to get some hands-on experience before I get my camera. I saw something about tutorials somewhere. That'll be a start. I'm outta here!

 

[Von Thomas]

From still to digital video

From still to digital video

I have a digital capture service in NYC which handles digital still photo shoots. I am transitioning my business over to digital video capture. I understand the term is data wrangler. The still cameras I've been working with are the latest 30 and 39 mega pixel rigs. The computers I use are Mac Pro's and MacBook Pro's. I typically have these computers outfitted with the fastest everything (video cards, drives), and minimum 8GB ram to 16GB, to handle the large amount of data. When it comes to buying macs, apple store or any reseller is a must, but for ram, I'd suggest places like Crucial and for bare hard drives, a company called Mwave in CA has great prices on good product. Weibitech is also a good place for RAID systems.

If you need info of drives, Barefeats.com is a source. They test mac against mac, drive against drive, everything, so all you need to do is chose which fits your application, they do all the homework.

I'm looking to getting hands on with RED cameras to learn the workflow. If anyone in the NYC area can let me learn with you, it might be beneficial for all. To give you an idea of what I do, here is a link to my site. http://www.digitaltechnyc.com.